Knox Heritage, Inc.

Make a difference. Become a Knox Heritage Member Today!

Join now using our secure, online donation page.

Historic preservation often makes headlines and even appears on your television screen. Unfortunately, the image is sometimes historic downtown buildings engulfed by flames or bulldozers rolling over homes built almost a century ago.

The recent McClung Warehouses fire downtown shows how quickly our history can disappear, taking along with it the opportunity for new investment and reuse. These incidents bring preservation to the forefront and galvanize support for preserving the places that make our community unique – the places that make it feel like home.

But preservation isn’t just about saving downtown buildings and sprawling mansions. It is about preserving neighborhoods - the places most of us call home. This type of preservation is going on every day in our community and its pace is quickening. It is transforming old neighborhoods, turning downtown into a vibrant gathering place again, and contributing to everyone in our community by improving our local tax base.

It is happening one house at a time and Knox Heritage is helping lead the way by saving some of the most endangered homes. We are breathing new life into time-worn beauties that will welcome new owners and help turn around neighborhoods where generations created their own family history.

Right now we are working in the Parkridge neighborhood east of downtown and we need your help to make this latest transformation a reality.

When we first saw the two homes on Washington Avenue, it was pretty hard to comprehend how beautiful they must have been when they were built more than 100 years ago. Both homes are now vacant and boarded up. They sit as shells of their former selves, deteriorating and dirty. Designed by local Victorian-era architect George Barber, the houses are major eyesores for neighbors working to bring back the beauty of their historic neighborhood.

But Knox Heritage is about to change all that.

With the help of a grant from HGTV’s Restore America, Knox Heritage is restoring both of these homes to their original beauty and preparing to welcome new neighbors to join the community.

With your help, we can help these homes and others become the beautiful landmarks they were intended to be. Your gift of $100, $250, $500 or more will help us continue to perform the breathtaking transformations these homes and their neighborhood so desperately need.

This is the most exciting project Knox Heritage has undertaken in its 32-year history. Won’t you be part of it with us?

The state of preservation in Knox County is never certain, but your support can make sure there is a constant voice for our heritage and history.

Knox Heritage is the only organization in the region that works every day to protect our treasured structures and places. Without Knox Heritage, many of our important buildings, along with the history and charm of the area, would have been demolished.

Knox Heritage is dedicated to preserving and protecting historically and architecturally significant places in Knoxville and Knox County. Recent accomplishments include:

Successfully working with Mayor Haslam and Regal Cinemas to preserve historic buildings on the 500 block of Gay Street while building a new movie theater around them and encouraging more investment downtown.
Establishing the J. Allen Smith Endangered Properties Fund as a tool to rescue endangered historic properties and get them into the hands of responsible owners.
Providing expertise to local government leaders and citizens on numerous preservation issues.
Providing support to the Nine Counties Preservation Alliance so our entire region can benefit from preserving its heritage.
Bringing attention to our most endangered historic places through the annual “Fragile 15” list and working to find solutions for all of those places.
Purchasing and restoring blighted properties in historic neighborhoods and linking them with new home owners.

With your help Knox Heritage can continue to protect the architectural reminders of our rich legacy for future generations and promote preservation as an effective redevelopment tool that can bring real financial resources to the table.

When you join Knox Heritage, your membership fee goes directly to preserving our community’s strong heritage. Specifically, you’ll help fund:

The preservation of our historic structures and the revitalization of our historic neighborhoods.
Our Vintage Homes program, which creates jobs and increases home ownership through the restoration of endangered homes in historic neighborhoods.
Ongoing educational efforts of local leaders and developers about the economic benefits of and need for historic preservation.
Technical assistance for historic home owners, developers and neighborhoods associations.
Advocacy efforts with government entities to promote policies and funding strategies that support historic preservation.

Make a difference. Become a member today.

Join NOW using our secure, online donation page or download and print the membership form and mail it along with your check or credit card information.

Please join today and help us speak out for the future of our past.

Membership benefits include:

Standard benefits are access to our online discussion group; Preservation Network meetings; discounts on our architectural salvage; invitation to hear noted historic preservation speakers; invitation to our Annual Meeting and Preservation Awards ceremony; Knox Heritage Quarterly newsletters; free or discounted tickets to Knox Heritage Special Events (excluding Summer Suppers); discounts at participating Preservation Partners businesses; and access to our professional staff for assistance and information.

Friend ($25) and Supporter ($40)
Members receive all standard benefits, plus a listing in our newsletter, Knox Heritage Quarterly, upon joining and renewal (one listing annually).
Patron Members ($100)
receive all of our standard benefits, plus an invitation to attend the annual Patron’s Reception.
Sustainer Members ($250)
receive all of our standard and Patron benefits, plus a behind the scenes tour, and a copy of the book “Tradition Innovation and Romantic Images”, by William Ross McNabb.
Benefactor Members ($500)
receive all of our standard, Patron, and Sustainer benefits, plus free admission for two to any of our ticketed Preservation Week events and two gift memberships at the Supporter level to share with friends and family.
1791 Heritage Society Members ($1000)
receive all of the benefits listed above, plus an invitation to attend the Annual 1791 Heritage Society Dinner in the fall; an invitation to a special reception for 1791 Heritage Society members in the spring; free admission for two to all Knox Heritage events (excluding Summer Suppers and Weekend in the Attic); four gift memberships at the Supporter level to share; and your name will be listed in every issue of the Knox Heritage Quarterly newsletter.