Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville is the third-largest city in the state of Tennessee, in the United States of America. The largest city in the state is Nashville, followed by Memphis. Knoxville is the county seat of Knox County. In 2020, it had a population of 190,740.^[14]

Knoxville
City
Skyline of Downtown Knoxville The Tennessee Amphitheater Market Square Commercial Historic District The Sunsphere at the World's Fair Park Clock tower on Gay Street A statue in the Old Gray Cemetery Ayres Hall at UT Knoxville Neyland Stadium
Flag
Nickname(s):  Marble City,[1] Heart of the Valley,[2] Queen City of the Mountains,[3] K-Town,[4] Scruffy City,[5] Gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains,[6] Knox Vegas.[7]
Location of Knoxville in Knox County, Tennessee.
Knoxville Location in Tennessee Show map of Tennessee Knoxville Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 35.9617°N 83.9232°W / 35.9617; -83.9232
Country	United States
State	Tennessee
County	Knox
Settled	1786
Founded	1791
Incorporated	1815
Founded by	James White
Named for	Henry Knox
Government [8][9]
• Type	Mayor–council
• Mayor	Indya Kincannon (D)[a]
• City Council	Council Members Tommy Smith (1st Dist.; also Vice Mayor) Andrew Roberto (2nd Dist.) Seema Singh (3rd Dist.) Lauren Rider (4th Dist.) Charles Thomas (5th Dist.) Gwen McKenzie (6th Dist.) Lynn Fugate (at-large seat A) Debbie Helsley (at-large seat B) Amelia Parker (at-large seat C)
Area [11]
• City	104.25 sq mi (270.01 km2)
• Land	98.73 sq mi (255.72 km2)
• Water	5.52 sq mi (14.30 km2)  5.4%
Elevation [12]	886 ft (270 m)
Population  (2020)
• City	190,740
• Rank	US: 135th
• Density	1,931.90/sq mi (745.91/km2)
• Urban	597,257 (US: 72nd)
• Urban density	1,382.8/sq mi (533.9/km2)
• Metro	868,546 (US: 64th)
• CSA	1,096,961 (US: 50th)
Demonym	Knoxvillian
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Zip code	37901-37902, 37909, 37912, 37914-37920-37924, 37927-37934, 37938-37940, 37950, 37995-37998
Area code	865
FIPS code[13]	47-40000
GNIS feature ID	1648562[12]
Website	www.knoxvilletn.gov

The city has been often called "The Streaking Capital of the World" and "The Underwear Capital of the World".^[15]

Knoxville was founded in 1786 and is the second oldest of Tennessee's four major cities, after Nashville which was founded in 1779. After Tennessee's admission into the Union in 1796, Knoxville was the state's first capital. In 1819, the capital was moved to Murfreesboro, prior to Nashville becoming the current capital. The city was named in honor of the first Secretary of War, Henry Knox.

Knoxville's economy is largely fueled by the regional location of the main campus of the University of Tennessee, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other Department of Energy facilities in nearby Oak Ridge, the National Transportation Research Center, and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Modern Knoxville

Research laboratory at U.T. in the early 1940s

Knoxville's textile and manufacturing industries were hurt by foreign competition in the 1950s and 1960s. After the building of the Interstate Highway system in the 1960s, the railroad—which had been largely responsible for Knoxville's industrial growth—began to decline. Suburban shopping malls in the 1970s took retail revenues away from Knoxville's Downtown area. So, the city sought to recover the massive loss of revenue by trying to annex neighboring communities in Knox County. People fought these annexation attempts. Several efforts to combine all of the Knoxville and Knox County governments failed. But the city and county school boards merged on 1 July 1987.^[16]

Knoxville tried to improve its downtown. The 1982 World's Fair—the most successful of these projects—became one of the most popular world's fairs in U.S. history with 11 million visitors. The fair's energy theme was selected due to Knoxville being the headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority and for the city's proximity to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Sunsphere, a 266-foot (81 m) steel truss structure topped with a gold-colored glass sphere, was built for the fair and remains one of Knoxville's most prominent buildings,^[17] along with the adjacent amphitheater which underwent a renovation that was completed in 2008.

Ever since, Knoxville's downtown has been developing, with the opening of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Knoxville Convention Center, redevelopment of Market Square, a new visitors center, a regional history museum, a Regal Cinemas theater, several restaurants and bars, and many new and redeveloped condominiums. Since 2000 Knoxville has successfully brought business back to the downtown area. The arts in particular have begun to flourish, there are multiple venues for outdoor concerts. The Tennessee and Bijou Theaters were renovated.

The Sterchi Lofts building, formerly Sterchi Brothers Furniture store, the most prominent building on Knoxville's "100 Block"

Sister cities

Knoxville has seven sister cities as designated by Sister Cities International:

• Chelm, Poland
• Chengdu, China
• Kaohsiung, Taiwan (Sister Cities International officially recognizes Taiwan as a division of China^[18])
• Larissa, Greece
• Muroran, Japan
• Neuquen, Argentina
• Yesan County, South Korea

Notes

1. All city elections and political offices in Tennessee are nonpartisan.^[10]