Women’s Suffrage Museum to be a national landmark
By Mike Steely
Senior Writer
steelym@knoxfocus.com
When the two buildings are combined, the result will become a national landmark for the Women’s Suffrage movement, drawing visitors to downtown Knoxville.
The Suffrage Coalition celebrated last Thursday by announcing that it has raised $2 million for the future museum at 706 South Gay Street and has begun raising another $2.9 million to purchase the adjoining building at 708 S. Gay. Knoxville developer Tim Hill, president of Hatcher-Hill Properties, boosted the goal for the new building with a donation of $500,000.
Local supporters, some dressed in period attire and sashes, included elected officials and well-wishers.
The press conference, held in front of the buildings on South Gay, had many notable speakers, including Knoxville Mayors Indya Kincannon and Madeline Rogero and Mary Kellogg-Joslyn, the executive producer and director of museum development.
The woman most credited with the creation of the future museum, Wanda Sobieski, arrived at the ceremonies in a 1929 Ford Model A Tudor owned by Stephen Wickizer. A large banner was unfurled from the top of the building, showing an artistic rendering of what the museum will eventually look like. When completed, the museum will contain more than 20,000 square feet and become the largest such institution in the United States.
Sobieski is the founder and president of the Suffrage Coalition, and it was noted she has worked for three decades, collecting artifacts, raising funds for two monuments, and striving for a permanent home that will recognize the efforts of the women in the Right to Vote movement.
The new museum is accepting donations to complete the noble project. More information is available online at www.suffragecoalition.org/museum-new.
