Southern Terminal (Knoxville, Tennessee)

The Southern Terminal complex and the adjacent railyard lie at the north end of Knoxville's downtown area, occupying a natural declivity about below the adjacent street levels. The tracks run in a southwest-to-northeast direction, roughly parallel to Jackson Avenue on the south and Depot Avenue on the north. The railyard, which consists of eleven parallel tracks at its widest point, stretches from Broadway on the southwest to Central Street on the northeast. Gay Street crosses the railyard via the Gay Street Viaduct. The terminal station and express depot sit on the north side of the tracks, at the intersection of Gay Street and Depot Avenue. Several large early-20th-century warehouses rise between Jackson Avenue and the south side of the tracks, with the buildings' loading docks facing the tracks and storefronts facing Jackson Avenue. The Old City, a neighborhood that developed along with the railroad in the latter half of the 19th century, is concentrated around the intersection of Central Street and Jackson Avenue. ==History==

Early railroad development Mountain barriers were an impediment to economic development in East Tennessee throughout the first half of the 19th century, and as early as the 1830s, Knoxville's leaders considered the railroad a solution to this isolation. Among the earliest proposals was the Hiwassee Railroad, conceived by several Athens, Tennessee-based businessmen, which would connect Knoxville with the Charleston and Hamburg line in Dalton, Georgia, and provide a link to the Atlantic Coast. After struggling with finances for nearly a decade, the Hiwassee was rechartered as the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, and construction began in 1847. The first train rolled into Knoxville on June 22, 1855. The company built a roundhouse and machine shops where the Southern Terminal complex now stands. By 1858, another rail line, the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, had been completed, connecting Knoxville with Bristol. The railroad also brought heavy industry to the city, such as the Knoxville Iron Company, Knoxville Woolen Mills, and Brookside Mills. The railroad aided the rise the Tennessee marble industry, with eleven quarries in operation in Knox County alone by 1882. The Southern Railway In 1894, financier J. P. Morgan and several investors purchased the ETV&G and the Richmond and Danville Railroad, and consolidated the two into the Southern Railway. In 1925, Southern built the vast John Sevier railyard east of Knoxville, which is still used today by Norfolk Southern as a classification yard. In 1902, Southern hired architect Frank Pierce Milburn (1868–1926) to design a series of new train stations across the South, including the new terminal in Knoxville. The new Knoxville terminal opened to the public in 1903 and the similar express depot opened in 1907. On January 20, 1953, the last Southern Railway steam-powered passenger train arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee. At its height, the Southern Terminal was servicing 26 passenger trains daily. That train was the last regularly scheduled passenger train at the terminal on August 12, 1970. ==Southern Terminal and Warehouse Historic District==

The Southern Terminal and Warehouse Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 for its late-19th- and early-20th-century commercial architecture and its role in Knoxville's railroad-based commerce and wholesaling industry. The district includes the Southern Terminal complex, all of West Jackson Avenue, the 100 blocks of East Jackson, North and South Central, and South Gay, parts of State Street and Vine Avenue, and the former White Lily plant on Depot. Several buildings in the district, namely Sullivan's Saloon (100 E. Jackson) and the warehouse buildings at 121–123, 122–124, 125–127, and 129-131 West Jackson, were previously listed on the Register in the 1970s as the Jackson Avenue Warehouse District. Other non-extant listings include an 1870s-era freight depot once located at 406 West Jackson (now a parking lot), and several warehouse buildings on West Jackson's 500-block. In 2004, the Southern Terminal district was extended to include the Southeastern Glass Building at 100 North Broadway. Southern Passenger Terminal and Express Depot The passenger terminal station and express depot, both designed in the same vernacular style with Classical Revival influence, were completed in 1903 and 1907, respectively, The building was sold early in 2014 and as of August 2014 was undergoing a significant exterior and interior renovation. Other notable buildings • 200 East Jackson, a two-story Vernacular Commercial warehouse building, constructed circa 1910. • 120-122 West Jackson, a five-story vernacular brick warehouse building constructed circa 1900. • JFG Flats (200 West Jackson), a six-story concrete building constructed in 1920, Another two alarm blaze engulfed additional portions of the McClung Warehouses on 1 February 2014 and the City of Knoxville was forced to demolish one of the remaining structures. • The Emporium Building (102-106 South Gay), a three-story Renaissance Revival warehouse constructed in 1898 by the Sterchi Brothers Company, a regional furniture wholesaler. • Sterchi Lofts (114-116 South Gay), a ten-story warehouse and office building constructed in 1925 and designed by architect R. F. Graf. The building was used as a warehouse until the late 20th century by the furniture company, Sterchi Brothers, and now houses downtown residential lofts. • Commerce Building (120-126 South Gay), a four-story Italianate building constructed in the early 1890s. ==See also==