Gay Street's Secret Underground City

[@LaBricoleuse]

No idea how it might have changed now, but when I was at UTK in the 1990s, there was an after-hours dance club that you entered by going underneath Gay Street, called the Boiler Room. It was the basement level of a larger club called the Underground which you also entered from down there but went upstairs into what seemed like a street-level space. Thank you for this great video!

[@dirtysouthhc2936]

Yes they changed it to club Egypt after that because no one had been shot at club Egypt 😂 the 90s in Knoxville were amazing

[@veronicawhitton8800]

​@@dirtysouthhc2936 I never heard of Club Egypt, thats interesting. I know it was Fiction, the Boiler Room and the Underground until around 2001 then switched to NV. Was Egypt before those clubs?

[@trinityugave2me]

Hi! My fiancé sold you your new glasses today and told me about your KZbin channel! I went to school at The Aveda Institute on Gay St and this is really amazing information! We’re going to follow your journey! 🤗

[@nightsongphoenix4499]

This was SO good! I love how you included so many maps. Have you ever considered covering any of the TVA's many rerouting of rivers? I can never find maps of how the river paths were before the dams, except for literally *one* really old, incomplete map. I'm fascinated with all the drowned towns and well, anything forgotten underneath other things (which is why I found this).

[@feeltheWrush]

Very well done. I recently read about the illegal streetcars built by two rival businessmen. I have always thought that Gay Street was unusually flat for based on Knoxville's topography. This leveling project was not only amazing, but you also solved the case of the 'mysterious' topography for me. Thank you!

[@dirtysouthhc2936]

It was built because of the shoddy structure integrity of the original streets and traffic . We found two online articles that covered everything was mauled up. They raised up everything in the old city as well if you look at the front of the Sullivan's building formerly known as Patrick Sullivan's that is technically the second floor at street level

[@CognizantCheddar]

I'm confused -- are you saying that alley you walked back and forth through is part of the old underground level? I remember walking through that alley to get to Able Trade last summer. Seemed like it was just a normal alley.

[@jodywooten5511]

Cool info, you made it very interesting 👍

[@charleneallison3975]

Thanks for your research. I have one correction. Jacks’s last name is NEEly not Nelly

[@nickroberts-xf7oq]

.... and archives is pronounced "ar-kives" not "ar-cCHives" 😅

[@carm1549]

This is awesome! Now I want to hear more about those illegal streetcar routes you mentioned.

[@HowtoBuildtheWorld]

I am glad you enjoyed the video :) That may be an interesting topic

[@thecomorbiditycurator8018]

I just found your channel, so I don't know anything about you. But in the spirit of being helpful in case English is not your first language....Jack's last name is said with a long E because it has 3 adjacent e's and only one l. Also, the ch in "archives" is pronounced with a hard c, which sounds like a K. It would make more sense to be pronounced the way you said it, but English makes little sense 🤷‍♀️ I wish people had helped me out more when I was learning another language.

[@TennesseeTrio]

I’ve always wanted to go down there!

[@rockym9981]

Wow! Now I want to visit.

[@bansheezs]

There is access to the underground near old town.

[@fullofgracehomestead]

I remember the ol’ timers talking about the underground city.

[@BantiarnaMacRaghnaill]

I love Jack.

[@TreeZtan96]

How do you get down there?

[@bryanbowen4193]

Through the front doors of the busineses. You just go downstairs. Maple hall bowling alley is on the original level. There is some access from side streets. The original front entrances are closed off so it's not really like an underground city. Gay street originally was built on the natural topography so some sections are below ground while some are not.

[@nickroberts-xf7oq]

How were the streetcars "illegal" ? 🤔

[@dirtysouthhc2936]

You can see down there through all the still grates all down gay Street. They really freak some dogs out and they will not walk over them haha.

[@susiehoward8064]

Gay Street was actually raised up as a result of a great fire that burnt the majority of the stores downtown rather than tear everything down and start over the decision was made to raise the street up higher.

[@supercool2999]

I wouldn't really call it an underground city

[@M60gunner1971]

Biggest construction project of the city for many years and almost no mention of it in local history...that's so weak but doesn't surprise me East Tennessee is a hive of general sh*tbaggery.

[@HOLLYHOUSE11]

They have done this on purpose. The same thing happened in all the major cities. Look into "second empire architecture." It will freak you out if you do a true deep dive. It was a whole great reset way back then. There is a reason the newspapers didnt talk about it and intentionally led people away from it, and there is a reason that you cant find it when they did.

[@itsalwayssomething6303]

Very cool and informative video!