Join us Sunday, October 27th @ 2pm for a reading with local journalist and historian Jack Neely for the new book The Old City: A Short History.
About the Book
The Old City’s history is a story of intersections. Near the spot where Jackson and Central cross, Knoxville’s rail-based economy boomed. Saloons and “resorts” (aka brothels) flourished while reformers fought poverty and plague. Immigrants built lasting legacies. Black businesses thrived. Music of all sorts-folk, jazz, country, rock ‘n’ roll- has always played and important role.
Jack Neely, the award-winning Knoxville journalist and historian, takes readers on a tour through time of this area we know today as the Old City, from the arrival of the iron horse to the arrival of nationally known bands for Rhythm N' Blooms. The arc of the Old City's history, composed of so many individual and communal stories, provides a unique glimpse into personal lives, economics, architecture, and social mores over the last two centuries--and stirs up excitement for the Old City's next chapter, the one that's not yet written.
About the Author
Jack is a journalist who has been writing about his hometown’s character and heritage for many years. After graduating from the University of Tennessee, where he studied American history, Neely was an Egyptian museum tour guide at the 1982 World’s Fair; later, he was a criminal-defense investigator, and an assistant editor for a national fiction magazine. Since his column, “Secret History,” debuted in 1992, he’s been known mainly as a Knoxville journalist with a particular interest in the city’s unique culture and heritage. Jack continued his work on Knoxville in his weekly column, “The Scruffy Citizen” for The Knoxville Mercury (2015-2017). He has written several books about Knoxville and its history, most recently The Tennessee Theatre: A Grand Entertainment Palace (2015); Knoxville, Tennessee: Green by Nature (2014); Market Square: A History of the Most Democratic Place on Earth (2nd ed., 2011) and Knoxville, Tennessee: This Obscure Prismatic City (2009).