Keeping Knoxville Beautiful: A History of Orchids
This year marks the 44th annual Orchids Beautification Awards! Community members will come together at the Mill and Mine on February 16th to celebrate the community projects, architecture (both old and new), artwork, and individuals that have created a cleaner, greener, more beautiful Knoxville.
Winners at the Orchids and Onions Luncheon 1996 with former KKB Executive Director, Gail Davis (middle).
To celebrate, Keep Knoxville Beautiful would like to reflect on the history of the Orchids Beautification Awards and how it has grown from a project started by a group of architects to the fixture it has become in Knoxville today.
BEGINNINGS
When Keep Knoxville Beautiful was founded in 1978 (then known as the Greater Knoxville Beautification Board), there was a significant push to beautify Knoxville in preparation for the 1982 World’s Fair. The hope was that by celebrating beautiful projects, others would be inspired to create even more beautiful places.
According to a 1996 Orchids and Onions Luncheon program: “In 1979, the East Tennessee chapter of the American Society of Architects created an awards project to present at their national convention. This project was entered in competition with other cities and was widely recognized and praised by their fellow architects. The project was adopted by the Greater Beautification Board.”
But it wasn’t just beautiful projects that the Greater Knoxville Beautification Board wanted to highlight. They also wanted to “prod” powerful developers who had properties that needed improvement, hoping that they would then be motivated to transform their properties into spaces that all Knoxville residents could be proud of. Thus, the Orchids and Onions ceremony was born.
According to former KKB Executive Director Tom Salter, originally, the event was kept small with the Beautification Board deciding the nominees and allowing judges to pick the winners. Over time, the awards grew and nominations were accepted from community members, which is still done today.
Mary Lou Horner distributing onions with the assistance of her litter-detecting umbrella at the Orchids and Onions Luncheon 1996.
From a Greater Knoxville Beautification Board newsletter from 1988, honored properties included Church Street United Methodist Church for architectural design, Knoxville Fire Department’s Fire Hall #5 in Mechanicsville for historic preservation, and 606 W. Main Office Building for recycled building. The onions included a vacant lot at the corner of Homberg Drive and Kingston Pike. The newsletter describes the onion distribution thus: “Aunty Litter (alias Mary Lou Horner) stole the show with hilarious attempts to give away onions while poking all litterbugs in site with her black ‘litter-detecting’ umbrella.”
The Orchids and Onions Luncheon 1988, which was hosted at the Radisson Hotel Knoxville with 200 attendees, also honored individuals such as Charles R. Daniel Jr., who designed the Greater Knoxville Beautification Board’s logo, and Knoxville Municipal Court Judge John R. Rosson, who developed the environmental court so that cases could be handled in a timely manner.
According to Mr. Salter, the onions aspect was always delicately done with a lot of behind the scenes work trying to determine the recipients. The onions were slowly phased out, with the last onions given out in 2011 to properties such as the railway trestle at Love’s Creek and Rutledge Pike.
ORCHIDS TODAY
Winners at the Orchids Beautification Awards 2020 with former KKB Executive Director Alanna McKissack (second from right) and former KKB Board President Jessica Rodocker (far right).
In 2023, we honor our Orchids legacy with an award named on behalf of two individuals who made not only Orchids a success, but were integral to the creation, growth, and success of Keep Knoxville Beautiful – Mary Lou Horner and Felicia Hoehne. The Mary Lou Horner Award honors a previous Orchid winner who continues to maintains excellence, while The Felicia Award honors an individual who exemplifies KKB’s mission to inspire and empower Knox County communities to improve their quality of life through beautification and environmental stewardship.
In 2023, Orchid awards are given out to honor and celebrate the places in Knoxville that make our city unique and spectacular. You can check out the full list of nominees here, and the winners will be posted below after the ceremony. To see the past Orchids winners from 1979 to this year, then click here.
Congratulations to all the winners and nominees for the Orchids Beautification Awards 2023. We hope this wonderful recognition of communities, individuals, and placemakers will continue for many more years to come!
Orchids 2023 Winners
Felicia Award: Monte Stanley
Community Project: Lakemoor Legacy Park and Garden
Green Organization: KnoxFill
New Architecture: East Tennessee Children’s Hospital The Chiller, First Creek at Austin Phase One, UT Zeanah Engineering Complex
Outdoor Space: Wild Yards Garden at Seven Islands
Public Art: Maker Exchange, Love is the Answer
Redesign/Reuse: Dogan Gaither Flats, Golden Roast, PetWell Clinic
Regreening: Everly Brothers Park
Knox County Bright Spot: Bill Haslam Center for Math and Science at Pellissippi State
City of Knoxville Bright Spot: Maker Exchange
Mary Lou Horner Award: Three Rivers Market
Volunteers of the Year: Maddey Puckett, Katie Melvin, Shelby Williams
Adopt-A-Road Group of the Year: Hardin Valley Team Up to Clean Up