YES, THERE REALLY IS AN ‘UNDERGROUND GAY ST.’

If you’ve ever heard rumors of an old “underground” city here in Knoxville, we’re here to tell you the rumors are true – at least in the 100 block of Gay Street.

Downtown Knoxville was built on a high bluff. To accommodate increasing railroad traffic, the city had to build bridges over the rail yards, local historian Jack Neely recounts. The result was a wild, roller-coaster-esque slope downward along Gay Street and then upward along a bridge – a “death dip” that was fixed more than 100 years ago by building a viaduct to raise Gay Street one level.

“I gather the buildings were shielded by concrete-block retaining

You could argue that Bush’s Beans did not get its start in Knoxville. But we maintain it belongs on this list because of the proximity of Chestnut Hill, as well as the fact that the Bush Brothers & Co. headquarters moved to Knoxville in 1991.

In 1908, A.J. Bush opened a modest little cannery in Chestnut Hill and started what Bush’s Beans now calls a “beautiful bean odyssey.” In 1969, Bush’s introduced the signature product that defined its success at the start of the 21st century: baked beans.

“We stumbled across a new way to prepare our beans that would change our world forever,” the company says on its website. “Simmering navy beans in a secret family recipe, our baked beans would get world-famous when A.J. Bush’s great-grandson Jay Bush – and his ol’ pal Duke – uttered those five inimitable words: ‘Roll that beautiful bean footage.’”

In 2021, the company collaborated with multiplatinum recording artist Josh Groban to produce an epic three-minute-long ballad to beans − otherwise known as my newest obsession that I am forwarding to everyone I know.

Know Your Knox answers your burning questions about life in Knoxville. Want your question answered? Email knowyourknox@knoxnews.com. walls,” Neely has told Knox News. “They filled in the middle, so the street’s on solid fill. The empty spaces are mainly under the sidewalks.”

Those spaces aren’t accessible to curious members of the general public, although Knox News’ own Ryan Wilusz has gotten a tour and reported on how that now-underground stretch looked back in 2019.

You can still spot evidence of that underground area from the current street-level, however, such as the pavement lights along the Gay Street sidewalk, which are illuminated from the tunnel directly below. Or look down from Gay Street next to Sterchi Lofts to see a courtyard and and signs of the underground floors of buildings.