April Fools in Knoxville a century ago was put on rain delay. Well, for baseball fans it was, anyway. Stories in The Knoxville Journal from April 1 touted the coming match between the Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds, scheduled for April 11, 1924, at Caswell Park.
It was a thing pro baseball teams used to do on the regular. They didn’t just travel to play away games; both teams would travel to play in cities that didn’t have their own major league teams. It was during the time when passenger trains were the primary means of long-distance travel for pretty much everyone. So, baseball teams went on tour to play exhibition games. Back then, opening day was April 15.
Both teams arrived downtown on Thursday, April 10, with the Reds settling in at The Farragut Hotel and the Tigers ensconced at the Hotel Atkin. The Atkin sat at the corner of Gay Street and Depot Avenue, across from the Southern Railway passenger terminal.
Ty Cobb (Photo credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame)
Holding court that morning before the game was none other than legendary Hall of Famer Ty Cobb. Cobb spent 22 years with the Tigers, from 1905 – 1926. The last six of those years he was both player and manager of the team.
The Atkin was built by Knoxville businessman Clay Brown Atkin. He was born in 1864, studied at Vanderbilt, and returned to Knoxville to eventually take over his father’s furniture and mantel business on Gay Street. The store shared a block with Staub’s Theatre, where First Horizon Plaza sits now. Some of Atkin’s mantels are no doubt still hanging out in some older homes around town.
Atkin had varied business interests and built his hotel between 1910-13 on what is now known as Regas Square. It was finished enough to open in time for the Appalachian Exposition at Chilhowee Park. President William Howard Taft stayed at the hotel during a visit in November 1911. Atkin also built the Colonial Hotel, purchased and added to what is now known as the Burwell Building, and he was head of the Auditorium Company that purchased the Lamar House and converted its ballroom into what we now know as the Bijou Theatre. The Tennessee Theatre and Oakwood neighborhood also owe their existence to him. His stately downtown home sat on the same block as First Baptist Church, the current edition of which was built in 1924.
But on that Friday in 1924, Atkin had Ty Cobb and the rest of the Tigers staying at his fine hotel just north of downtown. Featuring 200 rooms over half of which had their own bathroom, the hotel took up half a city block. The teams headed out to Caswell, even started their warmups. But a steady, cold drizzle began to fall and the game was cancelled.
There was no joy in Knoxville; Mother Nature rained them out.
Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.
Sources: The Knoxville Journal digital archives, Tennessee Encyclopedia, McClung Digital Collection – Knox County Library
