Standard Knitting Mill Employee Reunion is Saturday

By Mike Steely

Senior Writer

steelym@knoxfocus.com

By the time Standard Knitting Mill closed in 1989, more than 4,000 people had worked there. The empty, circa 1945 building on Washington Avenue is the only structure remaining of the company that once produced over one million garments a week and earned Knoxville the title, “Underwear Capital of the World.”

The more than 400,000-square-foot building was purchased in 2019 by WRS Inc., a South Carolina investment firm that plans to develop it into apartments, retail stores and a restaurant. The building remains abandoned and partially destroyed.

But Standard Knitting Mill is still remembered fondly by many employees who worked for Knoxville’s largest employer at one time.

A reunion potluck of finger foods and drinks for past mill employees is planned for Saturday, August 5 at 1 p.m. at the John T. O’Connor Senior Center, 611 Winona Street.

Reunion organizer and former employee Wilma White told The Focus that fewer and fewer former employees attend the reunions but is hopeful for a larger attendance this year.

“We normally have snacks and fellowship with each other,” White said.

The historic landmark still stands just east of Knoxville’s Old City.