Southern Terminal, Knoxville, Tennessee

Southern Terminal and Warehouse Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
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
Coordinates	35°58′10″N 83°55′12″W / 35.96944°N 83.92000°W / 35.96944; -83.92000
Area	approximately 33 acres (13 ha)[2]
Built	1870–1935[2]
Architect	Frank Pierce Milburn; Et al.
Architectural style	Chicago, Classical Revival, Romanesque Revival, Renaissance Revival, Italianate, Vernacular Commercial
NRHP reference No.	85002909[1]
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.^[2]

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.^[2] In 1894, the ETV&G was absorbed by the Southern Railway,^[3] which in turn became part of the Norfolk Southern Railway in 1982.