Conceived before the Civil War as a canny real-estate scheme by two very young, wealthy investors, Market Square came to be Knoxville's most public spot, as if every man, woman, and child owned a piece of Market Square themselves. Crowned by its new Market House, opened in 1854, Market Square became the heart of an important trading borderland between North and South, and its citizens were nearly perfectly divided between the Confederacy and the Union during the Civil War. After the war, Market Square was a true melting pot of immigrants. The turn of the century witnessed the majestic rebuilding of Market House, but from these great heights, Market Square would fall to its greatest lows. Beset by suburbanization following World War II, Market House would strike many who beheld it as a sort of sub-architectural freak--and was torn down in 1960. Only in the last decade or so has Market Square been transformed into something resembling its former glory. Through it all, Market Square has served a unique, and vital, purpose in Knoxville. It has always been familiar to the whole community, black and white, rich and poor, old and young, city and country--in so many ways, the most democratic place on earth.