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Beck Cultural Exchange Center

African-American cultural historyAfrican-American museums in TennesseeMuseums established in 1975Museums in Knoxville, TennesseeSouthern United States museum stubs
Tennessee building and structure stubs

The Beck Cultural Exchange Center is a museum in Knoxville, Tennessee. The museum was established in 1975 to preserve the city's history, but its mission subsequently broadened to tell the story of the history and culture of African-Americans in East Tennessee.The Center's collection includes more than fifty thousand artifacts, and a 2022 expansion into the Delaney Museum, which will honor Beauford Delaney and Joseph Delaney in the artists last home, will allow the center to better showcase those artifacts.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Beck Cultural Exchange Center (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Beck Cultural Exchange Center
Dandridge Avenue Southeast, Knoxville

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N 35.97297 ° E -83.89817 °
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Beck Cultural Exchange Center

Dandridge Avenue Southeast 1927
37915 Knoxville
Tennessee, United States
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beckcenter.net

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Mabry–Hazen House
Mabry–Hazen House

The Mabry–Hazen House is a historic home located on an 8-acre (3.2 ha) site at 1711 Dandridge Avenue in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the crest of Mabry's Hill. Also known as the Evelyn Hazen House or the Joseph Alexander Mabry Jr. House, when constructed in 1858 for Joseph Alexander Mabry II it was named Pine Hill Cottage. The house was in what was then the separate town of East Knoxville. Stylistically, the house exhibits both Italianate and Greek Revival elements. Additions in 1886 increased the size of the first floor. Having operated as a museum since the death of Evelyn Hazen, the house retains its original furniture and family collections, including antique china and crystal with over 2,000 original artifacts on display making it the largest original family collection within America. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. At the outset of the American Civil War, Joseph Mabry II, a wealthy Knoxville merchant and importer, pledged $100,000.00 to outfit an entire regiment of Confederate soldiers. Because of this assistance to the cause, he was given the honorary title of General in the Confederate army. During the course of the war, both Union and Confederate forces occupied the strategic site of his house adjacent to Fort Hill. Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer set up his headquarters in the house in 1861, but it was Union forces who had the greatest impact when they fortified the grounds as part of their Knoxville defenses after later taking control of Knoxville. After Mabry's death in 1882, his daughter Alice Evelyn Mabry and her husband Rush Strong Hazen resided in the house. Their youngest daughter, Evelyn Hazen, later occupied the house alone (except for many pet dogs and cats) for many years until her death in 1987. Her will stipulated that the house had either to become a museum or be razed to the ground. The house opened as a museum in 1992.

East Knoxville

East Knoxville is the section of Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, that lies east of the city's downtown area. It is concentrated along Magnolia Avenue (US-70/US-11), Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard, Dandridge Avenue, and adjacent streets, and includes the neighborhoods of Holston Hills, Parkridge, Chilhowee Park, Morningside, Five Points, and Burlington. East Knoxville is home to Zoo Knoxville, the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum, and Chilhowee Park. "East Knoxville" traditionally refers to the part of Knoxville east of First Creek (this creek is roughly paralleled by the eastern portion of the Downtown Loop, namely Neyland Drive and James White Parkway). A portion of this area was incorporated as the City of East Knoxville in 1855, though it was annexed by Knoxville in 1868. The advent of streetcars and the development of what is now Chilhowee Park led to the establishment of residential areas in East Knoxville in the late 19th century. Two such residential areas, Park City (Parkridge and surrounding neighborhoods) and Mountain View (Morningside), were incorporated as separate cities in 1907, and annexed by Knoxville in 1917.Urban renewal projects in Downtown Knoxville in the 1950s and 1960s displaced numerous African American residents, many of whom relocated to East Knoxville. Most East Knoxville neighborhoods remain mixed neighborhoods. The Beck Cultural Exchange Center, one of the primary repositories of black history and culture in East Tennessee, is located on Dandridge Avenue in East Knoxville. Throughout the late 20th century and early 21st century, the Magnolia Avenue area has been considered a red-light district by residents and the Knoxville Police Department.Recent initiatives to revitalize East Knoxville have focused on improving Magnolia Avenue and Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard, preserving historical buildings, eliminating blight, filling or demolishing vacant buildings, and improving sidewalks.

Colonel John Williams House
Colonel John Williams House

The Colonel John Williams House in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, was built in 1825–1826 by the slaves of Melinda White Williams, wife of Colonel John Williams, while he was away serving as Chargé d'Affaires to Guatemala for President John Quincy Adams. (Melinda White was a daughter of Knoxville's founder, James White.) The home is designed in the Federal style, with a noteworthy pediment with a fanlight at the roofline.Col. Williams was originally from Surry County, North Carolina. He was the fourth son of Colonel Joseph and Rebekah Lanier Williams. He served as Tennessee's Attorney General from 1807 to 1808, was a U.S. Senator representing Tennessee from 1815 to 1823 and was the hero of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814 (Jackson's first military victory.) His Senate career ended in 1823, when General Andrew Jackson won the seat. Colonel Williams also served as a trustee of East Tennessee College (now the University of Tennessee). Colonel Williams died in 1837, and Melinda died eight months later. Both are buried in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery. The house and property were sold to Abner Jackson, co-owner of A.G. Jackson & Company, a dry goods store, in 1855. He owned the house until his death in 1869. Beginning in 1883 it was leased to the state of Tennessee for use as the Colored Deaf and Dumb School. The state purchased the building in 1885, and enlarged it. It was rehabbed by the state in both 1923 and 1948. In the latter it was turned into classrooms for students and was last used in approximately 1982. For many years it was vacant while adjoining buildings were used for the Sertoma Learning Center. After asbestos was found in those other buildings, Sertoma moved to other quarters and the state abandoned the property in 1991. The property was purchased by descendants of the former owners in 1998 and has been restored. The house and some of the original acreage is still owned by the descendants. The other land surrounding the home is owned by The First Tee of Greater Knoxville which operates an 18-hole par 3 golf facility, named Williams Creek Golf Course . In 1842, Williams' son, also known as "Colonel John Williams", built another Federal-style brick house in the vicinity that still stands, the Williams-Richards House at 2225 Riverside Drive.

Knoxville Civic Coliseum
Knoxville Civic Coliseum

General James White Memorial Civic Auditorium and Coliseum (usually shortened to Knoxville Civic Coliseum) is a multi-purpose events facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, owned by the Knoxville city government and managed by ASM. Its components are an auditorium with a maximum seating capacity of 2,500, a multi-purpose arena with a maximum seating capacity of 6,500, an exhibition hall and a reception hall. It was built in 1961. The arena is home to the Knoxville Ice Bears, of the SPHL and the University of Tennessee Ice Vols, of the ACHA. In the past, the arena hosted the Knoxville Speed, of the UHL, the Knoxville Cherokees, of the ECHL and the Knoxville Knights, of the EHL. It was also the home of the Tennessee ThunderCats/Riverhawks professional indoor football franchise. It was the main home arena for Smoky Mountain Wrestling, a regional wrestling promotion, run by pro wrestling Hall of Famer Jim Cornette from 1992 to 1995. Performances hosted in the facility have included circuses, plays and musicals, symphony orchestra concerts, popular music concerts, and comedians. On March 18, 1982, the venue was notable to be the site of Randy Rhoads' final show, before his death in a plane crash the very next day.The Coliseum hosted the final concert of George Jones on April 6, 2013. Jones checked into Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville on April 18, dying there on the morning of April 26. Chicago broke the record (at that time) for the fastest sellout to a concert at the Coliseum for their August 26, 1971, performance.