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Boomsday

Culture of Knoxville, TennesseeFestivals in TennesseeTourist attractions in Knoxville, Tennessee
Boomsday 2008 Pro 1 (Medium)
Boomsday 2008 Pro 1 (Medium)

Boomsday was an annual fireworks celebration that took place on Labor Day weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was the largest Labor Day firework show in the United States, and was considered a top attraction in the region. The event was held on Volunteer Landing and accompanied by live music and festivities.Boomsday's firework display attracted over 325,000 spectators every year. Fireworks were set off from the Henley Street Bridge (to a lesser extent Baptist Hospital and the Gay Street Bridge) and spectators could view the show from the riverfront, hillsides, or on boats from the Tennessee River. In 2006, Boomsday was expanded to a three-day event lasting through Labor Day weekend, causing Knoxville to lose money, and the city reverted to the one-day event in 2007. The fireworks display was choreographed to music with one such selection being Madonna's Lucky Star in which all the bursts were star shaped. The Tennessee Volunteer's fight song with the bursts being the team's colors bursting in front of Neyland Stadium was always a perennial crowd pleaser. Other musical selections included Smoke on the Water from Deep Purple, the theme from Jaws, and Born to Be Wild from Steppenwolf, just to name a few. The "waterfall" on the Henley Street Bridge marked the second half of the show. In July 2015, organizers announced that 2015 would be the final Boomsday, stating that the city loses approximately $100,000 per year hosting the event.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Boomsday (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Boomsday
Henley Street, Knoxville Fort Sanders

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 35.957 ° E -83.918 °
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Henley Street Bridge

Henley Street
37902 Knoxville, Fort Sanders
Tennessee, United States
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Knoxville City-County Building
Knoxville City-County Building

The Knoxville City-County Building is a building at 400 Main Street in Knoxville, Tennessee that houses the offices of the city government of Knoxville and the county government of Knox County, Tennessee. It also houses the Knox County Jail. The building stands ten stories, and contains 534,000 square feet (49,600 m2) of office space. At the time it was built it was said to be the largest office building in Tennessee.The building was completed in 1980, 50 years after a combined city-county government building was first proposed. Businessman Jim Haslam is considered responsible for the success of the initiative to build it. The cost of the building was $26 million, much of it funded by municipal bond issues (the bonds were paid off in 2001). The building was designed by Knoxville architect Bruce McCarty and his firm, McCarty Bullock Holsaple.Almost immediately after opening, the jail struggled with overcrowding issues. In 1986, a class action lawsuit was filed in federal court, claiming the jail was too crowded, and three years later, a judge ruled the facility unconstitutional. When the county failed to resolve the issue, the judge ruled the county in contempt of court, forcing the county to build a new facility, which opened in October 1994.The building was plagued with security concerns due to bomb threats during the mid-1990s. Two mail bombs were delivered to Knox County District Attorney Randy Nichols in March 1994 and May 1994, respectively, forcing the building's evacuation. The building was again evacuated in November 1995, following a bomb threat.

William Blount Mansion
William Blount Mansion

The Blount Mansion, also known as William Blount Mansion, located at 200 West Hill Avenue in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, was the home of the only territorial governor of the Southwest Territory, William Blount (1749–1800). Blount, a Founding Father of the United States, a signer of the United States Constitution, and a U.S. Senator from Tennessee, lived on the property with his family and ten African-American slaves. The mansion served as the de facto capitol of the Southwest Territory. In 1796, much of the Tennessee Constitution was drafted in Governor Blount's office at the mansion. Tennessee state historian John Trotwood Moore once called Blount Mansion "the most important historical spot in Tennessee."The house is a wood-frame home sheathed in wood siding, built with materials brought from North Carolina in an era when most homes in Tennessee were log cabins. The two-story central portion of the home is the oldest section. The one-story west wing is believed to have been constructed next; archaeologists suspect the west wing was originally an outbuilding, which was then moved and attached to the main house, and there is some evidence the west wing was originally the servants' quarters. The one-story east wing was the final section to be constructed, perhaps as late as 1820. Blount's office, from which he governed and conducted his business affairs, was built along with the house and is a one-story, free-standing building and had a modest front porch. By 1925, the house had deteriorated, and a local developer, B.H. Sprankle, intended to demolish it and replace it with a parking lot to serve the new Andrew Johnson Hotel, then under construction. The Blount Mansion Association was chartered the following year, and after a massive publicity campaign by Mary Boyce Temple and the Bonnie Kate Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the East Tennessee Historical Society, the Association raised enough money to purchase the house in 1930. The Blount Mansion Association has since maintained the house as a museum, and has made numerous renovations to restore the house and property to its late 18th-century appearance. In the 1960s, the mansion was designated a National Historic Landmark.