ROAMING KNOXVILLE'S BEAUTIFUL MARKET SQUARE (Cheri)

A couple of years ago Mark and I stayed at a hotel near Market Square in Knoxville, Tennessee.

We hadn't planned to - only made the reservation after we were flooded out of our AirBNB - and didn't have time to walk through the surrounding area.  We put it on our "Come Back" list, and this year we did.

What a beautiful area!  This elegant lounge was a few steps from our parking spot:

There are murals all over.

Here is a detail shot that we sent to Mark's aircraft-enthusiast family:

A couple more murals:

(Yes, that's faux architectural detail, painted above an outdoor seating area.)

The sun was so bright that day, but I still have to include this as-good-as-I-could-get picture of the Dolly Parton mural, since Knoxville is so close to her hometown:

We looked down this long alley:

and Mark saw this muralist in action!

Knoxville is a river city, and the Market Square architecture reminded us a lot of the pictures we have seen of New Orleans.  Unfortunately we didn't get a lot of pictures of the buildings themselves, but we did get a lot of the signage and artwork on the buildings.

(I don't know what the history is, but "Scruffy City" is one of Knoxville's nicknames.)

This is one of the wraps on some sort of utility box:

and these are embedded in the pillars surrounding the Visitors Center:

This wasn't public art, but I love the style and it portrays the area immediately outside the doughnut shop where it was hung:

We love "ghost signs," and found these relics of former businesses:

and then there was this wall, on which you can even see the remnants of between-floors stairways:

There was a lot of water in the small area:

I was intrigued by this tribute to the New York Times' Adolph Ochs, who got his start at 11 years of age, as a "printer's devil" in Knoxville:

and by this little embedded acknowledgement of some past donation:

I had taken this picture to remember where we were parked:

but I would not have needed to.  I don't know where else you can find three ice cream shops in one block!

The Phoenix Pharmacy and Fountain:

the local branch of Kilwin's:

and one of the small local chain of Cruze Farm Dairy shops:

I chose Cruze Farms.