To celebrate my favorite holiday in Knoxville, I'm sharing with you 5 creepy or downright scary places that exist to this day in Knoxville as well as the stories and history behind the locations.
Lakeshore Park:
If you have been in Knoxville long enough, you probably have heard of the famous Lakeshore Mental Asylum, which was originally named East Tennessee Hospital for the Insane when it was first built in 1886. According to the park's website, the park itself has an extensive history, going through several owners in the past, including local Cherokee tribes and Captain William Lyon. However, the official Lakeshore Park wasn't established until the 1990s.
While Lakeshore Park's website describes the formerly existing institute to have given “127 years of extraordinary service to its patients and the community,” rumor is that, like other mental institutions in the 1800s, patients were mistreated.
In the 1920s, the building burned down, leaving behind only ruins. While a new building, the Lakeshore Mental Health Institute, was built in 1977 and closed in 2013, visitors claimed to see figures wandering the building, hear screaming and shouting and music from a music box playing.
Bijou Theatre:
While the Bijou Theatre is still a popular spot in Knoxville for concerts and theatrical performances, what many people might not know is the theatre's wide diversity in the past, originally existing as the Lamar House. Once a Civil War hospital, it is believed that several ghosts haunt the property, including Colonel William Sanders of the Union Army.
With the theatre also existing as a 1960s adult film house, the rumors include that ghosts of actors and prostitutes haunt the property as well, sometimes even floating across the stage.
Whether or not the stories are true, Knoxville has celebrated the possible hauntings of the theatre, holding events like “The Haunted Bijou Theatre” when the band The Civil Wars came in 2011.
Halls High School:
One of the most famous tales of Knoxville includes a high school couple and a mysterious murder in the 1970s. According to the story, while the couple was arguing, the girl's boyfriend pushed her down the stairs, running away when he saw the blood of the scene he caused. Rumored to have come back to see if she was alive or dead, the boyfriend found that she had disappeared.
The girl was considered missing for several months. After a year, the ex-boyfriend was stabbed to death on his way home from a party, with no weapon or person found responsible. After his mysterious death, many believed that the girl had come back, dead or alive, to take her revenge.
Though the ex-boyfriend died, strange occurrences were reported to be happening on the stairwell. The stairwell was soon closed off by the school and used as a storage area.
According to Haunted Rooms, the custodial staff reported hearing the dead couples' arguing and someone falling down the stairs at night.
Copper Ridge Road:
As the location of the famous Copper Ridge Baptist Church, the road is said to be filled with either mysterious hauntings or miraculous healing.
Over the years, over 50,000 people have claimed to see light in the shape of a cross outside the window, ghosts of religious figures in photographs, and angels. In the 1990s, people traveled from all over the world to visit the church in order to see if the legends were true and even to get their illnesses miraculously cured.
While the church no longer exists, blogs like Ghosts of Copper Ridge Road and Church keep investigating to see what truly happens there.
While these places have a historical creepiness around them, even places like The Strip late at night can give you the chills as you walk through. Whether or not you believe in the supernatural, there are just some places in Knoxville better left alone.
Gay Street Bridge:
During the day, crossing the Gay St. Bridge is comparable to a walk in the park. But after the sun sets, things get a little spookier for this Knoxville landmark – all thanks to a disturbing death that happened many years ago. Folks say it all began when a man was wrongfully accused of murder in the 1900s. As a punishment for his crime, he was hanged from the third lamppost on Gay Street Bridge. As the noose was placed around his neck, the man yelled that if he was truly innocent, there would forever be a sign that innocent blood was shed at the bridge. We’re sure it sounded like baloney at the time…but when the light on the post he was hanged did not work for years following his death, many people said it was the curse at work.
If these 5 places aren't enough to pique your interest in the dark side of Knoxville, check out last week's video where I tell you about the Body Farm....or check out last year's video where I share the best and safest places to trick or treat in Knoxville.
Otherwise, that's it for tonight's video. Thank you so much for stopping by and I'll see you soon.