East Tennessee is full of many historic sites, and today we’re going to dive into the third-oldest building in Knoxville, Tennessee, and what is considered to be the most haunted, The Bijou Theatre.
The theater has had thousands of people visit since its doors opened in 1909. The hotel began its journey in 1809, when Thomas Humes, the developer, bought the property in hopes of creating an extravagant hotel, tavern and multiple storefronts. Construction officially began in 1815, but Thomas Humes sadly passed before the hotel would be completed. After his death, the hotel still came to be with over a dozen rooms, a bar, a ballroom and a dining room.
Once the hotel was open to the public, the name changed multiple times, as well as ownership and management. In just a little over 10 years, the hotel was owned by seven different people. The first name the Bijou hotel went by was the Lamar Hotel, and at least five U.S. presidents visited during the first few decades after its opening.
After being open to the public for almost 50 years, the hotel became a safe space during the Civil War, where it served as a hospital for both sides. Although there were hundreds of deaths in this building, the most notable one is General William P Sanders, who passed in a bridal suite of the hotel in 1863. Now, to commemorate his story, a plaque is outside the main entrance of the theater.
After the war ended, the hotel fell into financial hardship and was bought out by other larger hotels within the industry. In 1908, it was purchased by a larger company, and the ballroom that had been open for almost 100 years was turned into a theater. This theater showed many different motion pictures to both white people and African Americans at once, which, for the time, due to segregation, was very uncommon.
Although the theater was first meant to be a place for wholesome entertainment, it soon turned into an adult movie house where prostitutes called home. This didn’t last long, though in 1969 the hotel was deemed a public health hazard and went out of business. Although the hotel was no longer open, the theater was and only closed in 1975 due to unpaid taxes. After this, the entire building was meant to be demolished, but was saved by the National Historic Record due to it being added to the list of historical places and the Knoxville Heritage Group for raising the funds to keep it standing.
After only two years of being shut down, the theater reopened but needed many renovations that were luckily finished in 1985. For almost 30 years, the theater was operating and open to the public until it was shut down once again in 2004. This didn’t last long, as the mayor at the time was able to reopen and restore the building in 2005 due to federal funding. Since then, the hotel has been open and very successful.
With all of the history out of the way, it’s time to get into the reported haunting at the Theater.
The fourth floor, which served as a brothel, is reportedly the most haunted. Many people who work and visit say that there are constant flickering lights, doors swinging open and closed, even though they’re supposed to be locked. Along with this, it is reported that General Sanders wanders on the third-floor balcony of the theater that hasn’t been opened to the public for decades. Many people report seeing a man in uniform with brass buttons. Most people who witness the General wandering around make the joke that he must just love the music and comes to watch the shows.
The most common experience to have in the hotel is to have an article of clothing feel like it’s being tucked. There have been reports of this throughout the entire hotel, such as in the second-floor women’s restroom and in the fourth-floor basement. Along with this, many people hear voices and even footsteps throughout the entire hotel. The most common experience that is reported is a voice repeatedly saying “Get out.”
Many ghost hunters have inspected the hotel and believe that there are over 20 spirits that haunt the building. The Bijou Theater is just over an hour away from Johnson City. Would you make the drive to go see for yourself how haunted the building really is?
