The Last 1982 World's Fair Ticket Booth: What is Worth Preserving in Knoxville?
- Jared Hagemann
- Feb 10
- 3 min read
Hidden away in a Knoxville city owned parking lot on Poplar St & Cumberland Avenue lies a small piece of 1982 World's Fair history that perseveres in plain site of the hundreds who walk and drive by it everyday.
Exposed to the unforgiving elements, protected by a lone security camera, lies the last remaining ticket booth from the fair.
Most recently used as a shelter for parking attendants seeking reprieve from the harsh sun and rain, it sits filled with trash and broken folding chairs, its air conditioning unit long disconnected.
Despite the current neglected state, it once sat proud at the entrance of the 1982 World's Fair, greeting guests before their Energy Expo adventure began.
It's a bit of a mystery how this ticket booth ended up in the Poplar St parking lot, and talking to multiple people with the City of Knoxville and the PBA (who operate the parking lot and World's Fair Park), no one I've spoken to is completely certain (if you know, tell us in the comments!)
At some point, the booth was moved to its current location. During the fair, the Poplar St parking lot was the location of the Federal Express pavilion.
Architectural plans for the Fair site show ticket booths at each gate, but it isn't clear which of these gates had ticket booths, other than Blue (East) and Red (Southwest), which we have photos of (see above).
In November 1982 and January 1983, Furrow Auction Company auctioned off many of the items from the Fair, including several ticket booths.
At least one ticket booth, the Energy Express, and several pavilion structures were sold to an Illinois congressman who planned to open a theme park, but that's a story for another time.
Of course, as interesting as that is, none of this explains how our ticket booth ended up where it is now.
During the development of the Knoxville Convention Center, initial plans for the Poplar St parking lot were for a parking garage, but in 2000, cost overruns forced the indefinite suspension of plans for that garage.
It is at some point here that the Poplar St parking lot was redeveloped to basically what it is today, and our ticket booth was moved into its current location.
(Anecdotally, a Facebook user said that the booth was used for security on the World's Fair site post Fair but I have not been able to confirm this)
So, not much of a satisfying investigative story, it seems likely that it was moved just to serve a purpose, to provide shelter for parking attendants just as it had once provided shelter for ticket booth attendants during the Fair.
Is our booth worth preserving, though? These were never meant to be permanent, long term structures, and does the fact this one continues to stand strong make it worthy of preservation or is it just a curiosity?
There are lots of old things around town, including old things from the World's Fair that are not recognized or preserved, like the docks built for the TVA (The Valley Adventure) riverside attractions.
Knox Heritage offers assistance to historical structures, but that consideration doesn't begin until a structure is at least 50 years old. While our booth is approaching that age, it's anyone's guess as to if it will survive that long, and even then if it is something worthy of preservation.
As it stands, our little booth will continue to sit in plain sight, its history fading to time just as the structure fades in the elements.
What do you think, should the last ticket booth be preserved or restored? Let us know in the comments.
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