Everyone knows the rolling hills and beautiful mountains that define the landscape of East Tennessee, but if you look hard enough you can find places right out of the middle ages across the region.
Dark skies swirl over thick castle walls. It's an intimidating visual for any would-be intruders, but the fortress in Bristol only stands to deter any rivals of the Tennessee High School Vikings.
Bristol Municipal Stadium was built in 1934 and completed in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration; it's built from limestone from local quarries.
"They did a lot of work in the community. There were camps for the unemployed, and it provided a source of work for those people; it kept them in the community and helped them give something back to the community," said Ed DePew, who oversees maintenance for Bristol Tennessee City Schools.
He has seen a number of upgrades at the stone castle, the most recent the installation of a synthetic playing field.
"There are some challenges because some of it goes places that are hard to get to but it's an amazingly durable place; it was built well and designed well and it just serves its function well," he said.
Jim Butcher has spent his life in the shadow of the castle. He's a THS graduate, former coach, teacher, principal, and now serves as a school board member. He's helping with the Stone Castle Rejuvenation Project.
"We want this place to be here for another 60 years, another 100 years is what our goal is," said Butcher.
They're offering bricks on their legacy wall as a way to offer people in the community a chance to give back to the renovation effort. He says it hasn't been a hard sell.
"So many people have been involved here we can almost think of no one in our immediate area that hasn't played in this place, seen something here, or had children or grandchildren that have been here," explained Butcher. "People don't forget being here when they travel from other places-- teams that come in here, they may do well, and they may do poorly. They don't forget the experience of being in this place. It's unique."
Unique is definitely the word for a Knoxville firefighter's home in Alcoa, known as Millennium Manor.
"William Andrew Nicholson-- he thought Armageddon was coming soon from his bible interpretation, so he built this place to survive Armageddon and go on to live 1,000 years after that. So that's how it got the name Millennium Manor," said Dean Fontaine, who moved into the home in 1994.
Fontaine does most of the work himself to save money.
"The problems are that nothing that works for normal houses works in this one, so the wiring is a problem and I have to come up with creative solutions for everything in this place," he said.
Every Memorial Day, the home is open for public tours. The last one brought in 1,600 people. It's that support Fontaine says helps to power him through his labor of love.
"You get a lot of positive comments that helps fuel me and keep me going. When you fix up your kitchen do you ever have 1,600 people come by and say 'that looks great, good job'? No! So, that's kind of a rush," he said.
A place locals have just recently discovered is Knoxville's Williamswood Castle. It was built 25 years ago near Ijams Nature Preserve as a home, but now serves as an event space that transports visitors back in time.
"It's great. It's nostalgia every time I come here. It's like going to your childhood home, because for me it is going to your childhood home," said Tyler William Roy.
Williamswood was built by Roy's grandmother about 25 years ago to remember the loss of her son by giving back to the community.
"She bought this Girl Scout camp here and it was just a tiny Cracker Jack box, the room that we're standing in was the only thing here and it was really Spartan; it was just cinder blocks. And she had a vision, she had a plan-- build a castle out here in the middle of Knoxville right next to Ijams," said Roy.
Today the castle serves an event space offering unique way to celebrate weddings, birthdays, and parties.
"This is the uniqueness of this castle that it's open to events like that, that can't be hosted anywhere else we have a Scottish hunting lodge castle in east Tennessee," explained Maja Djorcev Roy
