Southern Terminal, Knoxville, Tennessee
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Southern Terminal and Warehouse Historic District
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Southern Terminal and tracks, viewed from Gay Street Viaduct
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| Location | Parts of Jackson Avenue, North and South Central Street, Gay Street, State Street, Vine Avenue and Depot Avenue Knoxville, Tennessee |
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| Coordinates | 35°58′10″N 83°55′12″W / 35.96944°N 83.92000°WCoordinates: 35°58′10″N 83°55′12″W / 35.96944°N 83.92000°W |
| Area | approximately 33 acres (13 ha) |
| Built | 1870–1935 |
| Architect | Frank Pierce Milburn; Et al. |
| Architectural style | Chicago, Classical Revival, Romanesque Revival, Renaissance Revival, Italianate, Vernacular Commercial |
| NRHP Reference # | 85002909 |
| Added to NRHP | November 18, 1985 |
The Southern Terminal is a former railway complex located at 306 West Depot Avenue in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. The complex, which includes a passenger terminal and express depot adjacent to a large railyard, was built in 1903 by the Southern Railway. Both the terminal and depot were designed by noted train station architect Frank Pierce Milburn (1868–1926). In 1985, the terminal complex, along with several dozen warehouses and storefronts in the adjacent Old City and vicinity, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Southern Terminal and Warehouse Historic District.
During the 1850s, the arrival of the railroad— namely the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad and its predecessor lines— transformed Knoxville from a small river town of just over 2,000 residents to one of the southeast's major wholesaling centers. Wholesaling firms built dozens of large warehouses along Jackson Avenue and adjacent streets, where smalltown merchants from across East Tennessee would purchase goods and supplies to resell at rural general stores. In 1894, the ETV&G was absorbed by the Southern Railway, which in turn became part of the Norfolk Southern Railway in 1982.
The Southern Terminal complex and the adjacent railyard lie at the north end of Knoxville's downtown area, occupying a natural declivity about 15 feet (4.6 m) below the adjacent street levels. The tracks run in a southwest-to-northeast direction, roughly parallel to Jackson Avenue on the south and Depot Avenue on the north. The railyard, which consists of eleven parallel tracks at its widest point, stretches from Broadway on the southwest to Central Street on the northeast. Gay Street crosses the railyard via the Gay Street Viaduct.
The terminal station and express depot sit on the north side of the tracks, at the intersection of Gay Street and Depot Avenue. Several large early-20th-century warehouses rise between Jackson Avenue and the south side of the tracks, with the buildings' loading docks facing the tracks and storefronts facing Jackson Avenue. The Old City, a neighborhood that developed along with the railroad in the latter half of the 19th century, is concentrated around the intersection of Central Street and Jackson Avenue.
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