I was bummed, as were many, to see the news last week that the last Mayo Garden Centers would be shutting down, with closing sales to begin this coming Friday. Knoxville will be saying goodbye to a family-owned business that was closing in on 150 years. I’ve missed the one that used to be in Fountain City forever.
Markets change, family circumstances change, fond farewells are said, and life moves along. It got me thinking of other businesses that have left the area I call west Sequoyah/east Bearden. Just two years ago, Long’s Drug Store (just a hop, skip and jump from Mayo’s) closed up shop.
Back behind the strip mall where Long’s used to be, at 4705 Old Kingston Pike, sits the building where Andrew Morton’s Fine Gifts used to be. I wasn’t in there often, but when I was, I was spellbound. From my childhood until 21 years ago, it was a mainstay of west Knoxville. I have a lovely set of Wedgwood china my mother purchased for me from there. In the 1980s and into the 90s, the downstairs of the building housed a wonderful, low-lit piano bar called Ivory’s, which I dearly miss.
The gift shop was owned by Benjamin Andrew Morton III, who passed away at the age of 92 two years ago. His grandfather, Ben Andrew Morton, was Knoxville’s mayor 100 years ago. He served three terms from 1924 – 1927. Back then, Knoxvillians didn’t elect their mayor. They voted for their respective city council reps who then, each year, voted amongst themselves for which one would be the mayor. And then they appointed a city manager, Louis Brownlow (have yet to determine if related to the Fightin’ Parson).
Ben grew up on a farm in Blount County. His own father, a doctor, was from Cades Cove. Doc Morton was renowned for travelling on horseback through the Cove to deliver babies. For a time, young Ben went to Harrison Chilhowee Academy. As an adult, he tried to get work with one of the streetcar lines, and when that didn’t work out, he went to work as an assistant bookkeeper. He eventually became president of H.T. Hackney, the wholesale grocery chain, and his entrepreneurial interests expanded into car dealerships and banking.
During his and Brownlow’s tenure, city government was moved from the old City Hall on Market Square to the former home of the Tennessee School for the Deaf, which had moved to Island Home in South Knoxville. City government remained there until 1980, when operations moved to the newly constructed City County Building on Main Street. The building is now the home of Lincoln Memorial University’s Duncan School of Law. The Morton/ Brownlow years also saw the completion of the water plant on Riverside Drive.
But Ben’s lasting legacy lies about 60 miles southeast of Knoxville. He was at the forefront of the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In the 1930s, the former mayor travelled to Cades Cove to convince the residents there to sell their homesteads for the creation of the park. It no doubt helped that the request was coming from Doc Morton’s son. The Ben Morton Overlook on U.S. 441/ Newfound Gap Road is named for him.
Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.
Sources: The Mayors of Knoxville by Dr. Jack Neely, The Knoxville Journal digital archives, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
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