This Theater is located at 604 Gay Street in Knoxville.  It was built in 1928.  It was located in the Burwell Building (1908).  The Burwell Building was originally the Knoxville Banking and Trust Company.  This was a 10 story building.  In 1917, Clay Brown Atkin purchased the bank building and renamed it the Burwell Building.  It was 166 feet in height.      The Tennessee Theater opened in 1928. It was designed by architects Graven and Mayger.  It had 2,000 seats.  The style was Spanish Moorish.   Lavish features such as crystal chandeliers, italian terazzo tiling in the lobby were present. The builder was  George Fuller.        Initially, the theater showed 2 silent features per week.  It also hosted live performers ie singers and dancers.  It showed movies until 1977.      Over the years the Tennessee changed ownership multiple times.  It first closed in 1977.  It closed intermittently in the 1970’s.  In 2005, it underwent a multimillion dollar restoration project     Seen in movie Banking on Christmas