Lasting legacy: what the World's Fair left behind

May 2, 20007

By GENE PATTERSON
6 News Anchor/Reporter

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- Many people who attended the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville are celebrating with memories, ahead of the city's 25th anniversary celebration on the Fourth of July. But one of the other lasting legacies of the fair is what it left behind.

The next time you spend some wonderful hours at World's Fair Park, you can thank the 1982 fair for the location.

Prior to the Word's Fair, the lower Second Creek area was an eyesore, an underused rail yard surrounded by dilapidated buildings.

The L & N Station at 401 Henley Street, once a jewel of the city, had deteriorated into especially bad shape in the pre-fair years.

But it was transformed from blight to bright with lots of patrons for the fair. The L & N became a great place for fair-goers to eat.

And since 1982, several businesses have been in the L & N building. A catering service is still on one side.

On the other side of the building is the latest tenant, photographer Gary Heatherly. He started his business, ironically selling photos to the Peruvian pavilion during the fair.

"People who weren't here don't realize the excitement that we had and the energy that was here," Heatherly says. 

The L & N is one example of the city's post-fair renewed interest in historic preservation.

That, according to writer and local historian Jack Neely, is the greatest World's Fair legacy. "You see right after the fair this blooming interest, especially in the central part of town. The Old City bloomed right after the fair, after that Market Square, 4th and Gill, Old North Knoxville."

"You can't say it all happened because of the fair but I think the fair was a positive example of preservation," Neely adds. 

He also says you can thank the World's Fair for the city's propensity to throw a party. Before the fair, there were very few public events.  Now, we have many and Neely says it's because the fair changed our habits. Suddenly it made sense to go downtown.

"It reminded people that we live in a city, not some little suburban neighborhoods. We'd forgotten that here was a city called Knoxville here. It's been here all along," Neely says.