Social Life.— The people of Knoxville are most hospitable. Strangers are made to feel at home in short order. Knoxville is truly a °home city.° Knoxville has an efficient Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. There are several men's clubs of different kinds, including the Cherokee Country Clubiversity Club, Cumberland Cl Club, Irving Cub, Elks' Home, Eagles' Home and a number of others. Among the women's clubs and societies are included the Lyceum and Art Museum, Nicholson Art League, Newman Circle, Ossoh Circle, United Daughters of the Confederacy and Daughters of the American Revolution. There are 35 secret orders in Knoxville and suburbs. There are five posts of the G. A. R. and U. C. V. Camps, one Sons of Veterans and one Society of the Sons of the Revolution. Knoxville has eight hospitals and sanitariums; also two training schools for nurses. There are 106 white and 29 colored churches, with 15 different denominations, in the city and suburbs.
Home and Knoxville has well-constructed and well-kept apartment houses. Many new dwellings, quite a few being of the bungalow type, are constantly being erected. Rents are reasonable in Knoxville. Convenient car service to all of the outlying suburbs makes living within 15 to 20 minutes ride from the city both a convenience and a pleasure. All suburbs are growing rapidly. There are several parks in and around the city. The most prominent of these is beautiful Chilhowee Park, the site of the National Con servation Exposition. Two artificial lakes only serve to accentuate the attractiveness of this popular park. What nature has failed to supply to beautify the place, Knoxville's enterprise has abundantly supplied. The city government has well in hand plans for additional parks and playgrounds. Eight theatres and moving pic ture houses furnish varied entertainments both afternoon and evening. Knoxville has two bands and orchestras.
School There are splendidly equipped city schools, county schools, private schools, parochial schools, the State Deaf and Dumb School and the State University. There are two Catholic and one German-Lutheran parochial schools, three private schools and five high schools. Manual training and domestic science are taught in the several high schools. A part-time school curriculum obtains in the Knoxville High School. Graduates of Knox ville High School are admitted to West Point without test, upon recommendation of the prin cipal or superintendent of the high school. The public school student enrollment is 13,000. The State enforces a compulsory school law. Approximately 80 per cent of the scholastic population can read and write. The Summer School of the South for teachers is also held in Knoxville, under the auspices of the State University. The Summer School has an annual attendance of more than 2,000 teachers from all over the country, and is the oldest Summer School in the South. The University of Ten
nessee is a coeducational institution. The loca tion of the State Experiment Station here makes it possible to conduct agricultural exten sion courses on a large scale. The University of Tennessee taught a larger number of indi viduals during its last session than any other university in the South. The number taught reached nearly 3,500, while the agricultural ex tension course enrolled 2,400. It is one of the 10 Southern colleges whose bachelor degrees are accepted by the University of Berlin.
Named in honor of General Knox of Revolutionary fame, the first Secre tary of War, Knoxville was founded in 1792 by Gen. James White, who had been an officer in the American army in the War for Independ ence. In the valley of East Tennessee, where Knoxville is located, civilization was first planted west of the Alleghany Mountains. The pioneers faced the red men and an un broken forest as they pushed forward with axe and rifle to plant the church and the schoolhouse and law and order. The city, therefore, has been for long years the centre of a region of country embracing eastern Kentucky, southwest Vir ginia, western North Carolina and North Georgia, and the commercial metropolis of this section. Some of its wholesale houses go back to the days when transportation was by wagon and goods delivered over almost impassable roads.
During the Civil War of 1861 to 1865 the city was alternately taken and retaken by the respective armies and suffered greatly. It be gan to grow actively in 1880, and since that time it has taken its place abreast of other Southern cities that date their growth from about that period. Being an old city it has a population which is essentially conservative, many of whom date their ancestry back to the original founders of more than a century ago. It has always been a university town, the University of Tennessee, located here, having been founded in the year 1807.
Climate and Knoxville is one of the healthiest cities in the United States. It is 1,000 feet above sea-level. An equable climate causes few extremes in heat or cold. The average mean temperature for a period of 33 years is 57 degrees. The average tempera ture for the three hottest months of the year June, July and August, is less than 75 degrees, while for the three coldest months, December, January and February, it is 31.4 degrees. Sud den changes in temperature are comparatively rare. The growth of population is shown in the following census statistics: (1880) 9,693; (1890) 22,535; (1900) 32,637; (1910) 36,346. The city directory (1918) gives Knoxville a population of 96,000, 20 per cent of which is colored.