How do you get into The Vault?
We have not confirmed it. The Vault is in the directory because it calls itself a speakeasy, and that is the whole of what we can stand behind about its door.
The drinks at The Vault
The current drinks list is published on the venue’s own site — see the menu.
Beyond what the venue publishes we have not verified a list, so what follows is the period rather than the bar: Sazerac, Vieux Carré, and Scofflaw are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
The building
Documented — The Vault occupies the Holston National Bank, a property listed on the National Register of Historic Places under reference number 79002446. The listing is a federal record maintained by the National Park Service, and the nomination document is the primary source for the building’s architectural and social history.
National Register reference 79002446 · NPS nomination document
Where The Vault sits
The Vault is in Knoxville, Tennessee, in Knox County, in the Deep South of the United States.
Our directory currently lists two speakeasies and hidden bars in Knoxville — too few for a city guide of its own yet, so they sit on the Tennessee page until there are more.
Measured from the map pins, the closest of those to The Vault are The Fort, about 1.2 km away.
Tennessee holds 24 listed venues in this directory. See them all on our Tennessee speakeasy guide.
Prohibition in Tennessee
Tennessee did not wait for the federal government. Statewide prohibition took effect here in 1909, eleven years before the Eighteenth Amendment came into force nationally on 17 January 1920. By the time the Volstead Act was being enforced across the country, Tennessee already had an established illegal trade and the habits that went with it.
More on the period in our history of Prohibition in Tennessee.
What the newspapers recorded in Tennessee
Searching the Library of Congress run of Tennessee newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from Tennessee:
- The Chattanooga news, February 18, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Fayette falcon, February 20, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Chattanooga news, March 30, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Chattanooga news, March 30, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
Hours published by the venue:
- Sunday to Thursday, 5pm to 11pm
- Friday to Saturday, 4pm to 1am
Hours as published on the venue’s own site, retrieved 9 October 2026.
You can reach The Vault by phone on (865) 544-8564, through its own website, and on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
The address is 531 S Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For The Vault we hold street address, telephone number, official website, social accounts, opening hours, a published drinks list, an online booking link, and a listed-building record, which is an unusually complete record for this category.
It is in the directory because its own name names a vault, the description in the source data describes it as a speakeasy, and the map tags on the record mark it a cocktail bar.
Two independent open datasets, OpenStreetMap and Overture Maps, both carry this venue at this location. Agreement between them is the strongest existence check we can make without visiting.
The source data classifies the premises as a bar.