The story I planned for today changed when social media erupted last night with photos and videos of an inferno on the campus of Knoxville College in Mechanicsville. The images are maddening, frightening and heartbreaking.

Elnathan Hall, which has served as an administration building, women’s dormitory, and classroom facility, has gone up in smoke. Built in 1898, it was one of the oldest remaining structures on the campus. Late last night, once the flames were under control, the Knoxville Fire Department posted video of a backhoe taking down parts of the building that remained standing.

There was a fire in a different building just 6 days ago. KFD is familiar with putting out fires on the campus that has sat mostly unused and in disrepair for a decade, plagued by funding and accreditation issues. Several of the buildings have been condemned by the city and boarded up. The number of fires dealt with in that time are more than can be counted on both hands twice. As the campus is not fenced off, it has been a magnet for Knoxville’s burgeoning homeless population, and many of those fires were said to be caused by folks burning trash to stay warm.

Of course, last night’s destruction is under investigation and the cause is not yet known. And I didn’t write that to dunk on homeless people, it’s just the facts. But Knoxville College is on the ropes, has been on the ropes, and what it needs to return to glory is money and a lot of it.

Panoramic view of Knoxville College, year unknown (Photo credit: McClung Digital Collection, Knox County Library).

Elnathan Hall was one of eight buildings on the campus included in the Knoxville College Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The campus is on Knox Heritage’s list, the “Fragile Fifteen,” and is now one structure down.

The school is the alma mater of the late, great Dr. Robert Booker, who was president of the KC chapter of the NAACP as well as student body president. He was on the great lawn in May 1960 when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made his only speaking appearance in Knoxville, an event that barely raised a blip from the two major local newspapers at the time (see story here).

Founded in 1875 by the United Presbyterian Church of North America, the college is staring down its 150th anniversary. When first opened, it was not an exclusively Black college until segregation was enforced by our state legislature in 1901 thanks to the disaster of Plessy v. Ferguson. It thrived for decades until the 1970s, and the post-segregation era that brought steadily decreasing enrollment.

If you have access to Knox County Library online, I recommend spending some time in the school’s archives. Every issue of the college newspaper, The Aurora, as well as the annuals are available online.

The future of Knoxville College is hanging in the balance, and whether it’s able to continue as an institution of higher learning or not, there is a proud history there that’s worthy of being preserved. The loss of Elnathan Hall is just a damned unnecessary shame.

Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.

Sources: Knox County Library: Calvin C. McClung Historical Collection, Knoxville, Fire Department, KnoxvilleCollege.edu