Built to Last

Eighth annual Vestival brings awareness to historic Candoro Marble building

The Candoro Marble Company building sits at the corner of Maryville Pike and Candora Avenue in the South Knoxville community of Vestal, in the midst of thriving industrial companies and across the street from Custom Marble & Design. If you’re cruising down Maryville Pike, the building may appear small and modest from the road. Drive down the narrow, tree-lined road leading up to the front door, however, and the striking building begins to impress. Walk around inside, and you’re likely to be humbled by the design and craftsmanship that went into this marble structure.

Designed by renowned local architect and built in 1922, the building formerly served as the office and showroom for the Candoro Marble Company, once the largest marble importer in the United States. The company also cut and finished Tennessee pink marble extracted from the abundant quarries in South Knoxville, at a time when the beautiful, durable building material was shipped all over the country. Such was the volume of marble issuing from the city, Knoxville was referred to as “Marble City” in some quarters.

It’s a chapter of local history that could have been lost along with the industry, had the South Knoxville Arts and Heritage Center not fought for its preservation a few years ago, in the process creating a hub for the arts in the Vestal area.

“Marble from Candoro was used in Grand Central Station, the New York Public Library and the National Gallery of Art — the largest marble building in the world,” says David Tandy, president of the center and head of the Department of Classics at the University of Tennessee. “The last big job was completed in the mid-’70s. Then the building was deserted, until Bruce Bennett at Custom Marble & Design rented it for storage.”

By the end of the century, the structure had fallen into grave disrepair, with the roof porous and prone to copious leaking. Aside from the storage, it otherwise sat largely forgotten, until 2000, when University of Tennessee student Trudy Monaco took an interest in it after completing an art class on marble.

She, along with a group of volunteer South Knox residents, formed the nonprofit South Knoxville Arts and Heritage Center, “to promote art in the Vestal community, and to stabilize and repair the marble building,” according to current vice president Becky Wade.

“A group of anonymous benefactors bought the building and gave it to the board to save,” Tandy explains.

The board began the long and continuing process of repairing the building, in the meantime offering its use to the Vestal community.
“We have weekly art classes there, and it’s also been used by community groups, political groups, and some wedding receptions have been held there,” Tandy says. The walls of the largest room in the building are covered with pieces from the art classes, drawings and watercolors of still-lifes and models.

The center is most well-known for its annual Vestival event, which will see its eighth incarnation May 10. The all-day festival occurs each year the Saturday before Mother’s Day, and will feature live music, contests, arts and crafts vendors and a Mother’s Day brunch.

It was designed to bring awareness to and celebrate the Vestal community, partially comprised of residents brought to the neighborhood to work in the marble factory and on the railroads that transported the material. The area has been increasingly economically depressed since the industry withered in the latter half of the century, along with the once thriving lumber industry there.

The area has definitely seen more prosperous days, most notably during the marble boom, and the center’s supporters see the restoration of the Candoro building as one way of bringing attention and revenue to the community. They’re especially excited about the conversion of part of the building into a marble museum.

“We started the museum two years ago, in two or three rooms, but we’re going to expand,” says Charlie Richmond, charter member of the center. “In fact, we’re changing the name of the organization to the Candoro Arts and Heritage  Center, to reach beyond South Knoxville.”