Back in 1990, I was a cub reporter at the late, great Knoxville Journal. At the end of August that year, I broke a story about the coming demise of a block of buildings on the Cumberland Avenue Strip which included the original location of the Longbranch Saloon and Mynatt’s Shoe Shop.
The furniture is rustic and dented, the air is smoky, the curtains need cleaning and the only thing on the menu is beer … A place with an atmosphere all its own among the bars along the Cumberland Avenue Strip, the Longbranch Saloon may soon become a memory to its bevy of devoted patrons and hot shot pool players.”
Though the saloon found safe harbor on the other side of Cumberland for two decades, the reality is the destruction of one of the oldest buildings on The Strip 30 years ago (for a bank) was just a harbinger of things to come. For late Boomers and Generation X, The Strip isn’t even a shadow of the youthful wonderland it used to be. The high school kids don’t even cruise The Strip any more, it’s become completely un-cruisable.
A friend recently referred to Cumberland as a “thoroughly sanitized concrete canyon.” I know this reads a lot like “old woman shakes fist and yells at clouds,” but change is one thing, total annihilation is another. The raising of one multi-use apartment complex after another has sucked the life out of what was once the eclectic, vibrant anchor of the greater Fort Sanders neighborhood. There just doesn’t seem to be any room left for anything that isn’t a corporate chain.
And now it’s really going to be “Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday” as the building that housed the original Ruby Tuesday as well as Stefano’s will be met with the wrecking ball soon. I was at the Sunspot back in December, and as I was trying to find a place to park I spied the crumpled remnants of what was once The Old College Inn (O.C.I.).
Raising the drinking age to 21 back in 1984 no doubt influenced the long-term change of character for Cumberland Avenue. In the immediate aftermath, it didn’t have much effect, because, let’s be honest here, no one took it too seriously until penalties for serving under-age got stiffer. Back in the ’70s, the UT campus and The Strip were proclaimed “the streaking capital of the world” by none other than Walter Cronkite. Indeed, things were a bit rowdy.
Bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the B-52s and R.E.M. played small clubs along The Strip before they got famous. On the cusp of their breakthrough 1986 album, Life’s Rich Pageant, R.E.M. showed up unannounced one night at The Library/University Club to run through a set ahead of the album’s release and its accompanying tour. Across the street, the original Vic & Bill’s (which had previously been The Place) was known for regularly showcasing various punk bands. Henry Rollins and Black Flag showed up on a fairly annual basis in the ’80s until the building burned and Vic & Bill’s moved above The Carousel deeper into Fort Sanders.
Other than those already mentioned, the list of gone but not forgotten includes, Gabby’s/Ivy’s, Hobo’s, Antonio’s, Vatican Pizza, Geronimo’s, Regas on 17th/Charlie’s Old Place, Quarters, The Last Lap, Electric Wizard, China King, Yosemite Sam’s, Sam and Andy’s holy triumvirate Deli/Roman Room/Tennessean, the Torch, Hawkeye’s Corner, Arnold’s, the Tap Room, Spicy’s and Flamingo’s. And I’m sure I’m missing a lot.
It’s time to retire calling it The Strip. It’s just Cumberland Avenue, now.
Beth Kinnane is the community news editor for KnoxTNToday.com