Naming Ceremony Oct. 22 for Happy Holler

October 20, 2011 - There will be a ceremony at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 22 celebrating the honorary naming of the section of North Central Street between Pearl and Scott Avenues as "Happy Holler" in recognition of the area's role in Knoxville's history. The event will take place during the Sixth Annual Happy Hollarpalooza Street Fair.

City Council approved the honorary street name during a meeting earlier this year.

The naming ceremony will occur near the intersection of North Central and Anderson Streets, the heart of Happy Hollow.

Mayor Daniel Brown and others will take part in the brief ceremony

Happy Hollow was located at the center of a thriving manufacturing and textile industry in Knoxville in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At one point the "Holler" featured bars on all four corners of the North Central and Anderson intersection and had a reputation as a rough and colorful part of town.

It was also, however, surrounded by neighborhoods where the people who worked in the mills and factories made their homes. The area around Happy Hollow featured a furniture store, three grocery stores, a movie theater, barbershops, a funeral home, drug stores and a public watering trough.

The area declined as the mills and factories began to close and move away in the mid-20th century and the era ended for good with the closing of Brookside Mills in 1956.

In recent years North Central and the surrounding neighborhoods has seen something of a revival with homeowners renovating many of the Victorian Homes in the area and the establishment of several new businesses in what had been empty or underused buildings.

The City of Knoxville created a Downtown North Redevelopment Area in 2007 to encourage continued economic development in the area and has been engaged in several infrastructure and streetscape improvement projects in the area leading north out of downtown Knoxville.

Happy Hollerpalooza is set for noon until 5 p.m., Saturday, along Central from Baxter Avenue to Scott Avenue. It features children's events, games, live music, crafts, food and a vintage motorcycle show among many other offerings.

The City of Knoxville and other organizations will host an Unwanted Medications Collection Event from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., Saturday, July 23 at the Food City in Northgate Plaza.

The event also includes a mercury thermometer exchange giving residents a chance to exchange old mercury thermometers for safe models, while supplies last.

The Food City is located at 4216 Broadway just south of Interstate 640.

This medication collection event - sponsored by the Knoxville Medication Collection Program - offers residents an opportunity to turn in unwanted and out dated prescriptions, over the counter medicines and used mercury thermometers.

Members of the group will collect and properly dispose of the unwanted medicines and thermometers and also recycle the empty plastic containers for the medicines if they are left with the organizers.

In addition a free digital thermometer will be given in exchange for every mercury thermometer turned in while supplies last.

The event is sponsored by: The Knoxville Police Department, City and County Solid Waste Offices, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, UT Academy of Student Pharmacists, Hallsdale-Powell Utility District, the Metropolitan Drug Commission, AmeriChoice by UnitedHealthcare, KUB, WBIR CH-10, Food City and the Knox County Health Department

Other collection events taking place on the 23rd will be in Anderson County and Scott County. More information on the locations of those events can be found at www.medicationcollection.org.

The event is part of an ongoing, nationwide effort to reduce the amount of drugs and over the counter products including drugs, fragrances, sunscreen products and nutritional supplements that are entering water systems from either being flushed or poured down drains.

In Knoxville old medicines can also be brought to the Knoxville Police Department, located at 800 Howard Baker Jr. Avenue, after the event where they can be deposited in a secure collection container located near the information desk for disposal.