Market Street and Georgia Avenue
Introduction
Central Chattanooga is a legacy of Ross’s Landing days
when the founding fathers platted the area, laid out wide streets
and assigned names to each. From the river to Ninth Street (now
M.L. King Boulevard), they chose numbers; from Cameron Hill to
Georgia Avenue, they used the names of native trees—walnut,
pine, cherry and chestnut. The central thoroughfare was named
Market Street and more commonly called "the road." In
the first years, activity centered at the river; with the railroad
decade of the 1850’s, it gravitated to the southern limits
of the town, but only a rare structure survives from this era.
A major division of the Union Army, entrapped in Chattanooga
in 1863, turned the community into a beseiged base, which was
denuded of trees and scarred with field works and gun employments.
Following victories at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge,
the federal army turned Chattanooga into a giant forward supply
base. Ungainly warehouses, hastily built sutler’s stands
(military shops for supplies) and damaged streets became the visible
traces of war. The city’s second generation bequeathed few
permanent buildings to the future.
Time’s deterioration, scarce capital, destructive fires
and damaging floods delayed the rebuilding of the community until
the later years of the 19th and early years of the 20th centuries,
from which time the city’s older prominent buildings date.
The tour contains many buildings from this latter time period.
Historically, much of the commercial development occurred west
of Georgia Avenue and south of Tenth Street. Thus, the area north
of Tenth and east of Georgia Avenue was residential in nature.
By the 1880’s an elite residential area had developed north
of McCallie Avenue and east of Georgia Avenue. Scattered homes
from this period can be seen on the tour.
Chattanooga Choo-Choo and Market & Main Streets Historic
District
1400 Market Street. The Chattanooga Choo-Choo is a monumental
Beaux Arts Classicism terminal built by Southern Railway between
1906 and 1909 when the city was a major rail center. The architect
was Donn Barber of New York, whose design won the Ecole de Beaux
Arts in Paris design award in 1900. Surrounding the Choo-Choo
is what remains of a once-thriving railroad commercial center
consisting of four old hotels—the Terminal, the St. George,
the Grand and the St. John’s hotel, as well as many other
turn-of-the-century buildings which display a richness not found
in newer areas.
Southern Freight Depot
1206 Market Street. An impressive example of the freight depot,
this building was probably constructed in the 1870’s. Southern
Railway purchased the depot in the 1890’s during an expansion
program which included the construction of a nearby office building.
The building was renovated in 1986 to accommodate specialty shop
and restaurants.
Warehouse Row District
1118-1148 Market Street. Constructed primarily between 1906
and 1912, this two-block historic district is the only remaining
example in Chattanooga of row warehouses, once the common standard
of warehouse design. Possessing a strong sense of unity and monumentality
due to mass and scale, decorate elements were minimized which
added to this unified appearance. In 1989, the complex was converted
to high-end factory outlets and offices.
Park Plaza (Pickle Barrel)
1012 Market Street. Constructed in 1893 as administrative offices
for Southern Railway, this building was known as the Southern
Express Company Building for many years, until it was converted
to a hotel and renamed the Plaza Hotel. Currently housing the
Pickle Barrel restaurant, the building’s triangular shape
is accentuated by traditional features of Victorian commercial
architecture, such as cast iron columns, stone lintels, decorative
brickwork and a bracketed and projecting cornice.
Patten Towers
1 East 11th Street. Designed by Walter T. Downing of Atlanta,
the $2 million Hotel Patten was considered one of the most elegant
hotels in the South when it opened in 1908. Reflective of early
trends in skeleton frame skyscrapers of the Chicago School. Made
popular in the late 19th century by architects such as Louis Sullivan,
the building had three visual divisions: a base consisting of
two floors, a shaft of identical floors with a row of projecting
bays creating a vertical emphasis, and an elaborate cornice producing
a distinct point of visual termination. The building is currently
used as housing for the elderly. Unfortunately the cornice was
removed in 1991.
Old Post Office
East 11th Street. This impressive Romanesque building was constructed
between 1981 and 1893. Probably the most striking example of Richardsonian
Romanesque architecture in Chattanooga, it exhibits typical features
of the style, such as massive proportions, contrasting rough and
smooth stone surfaces, an arched entrance area and Gothic stone
carvings. The building was rehabilitated into offices by the Tennessee
Valley Authority in the early 1980s.
Chattanooga Municipal Building (City Hall)
East 11th Street. Constructed in 1908, the Chattanooga Municipal
Building was deigned by R.H. Hunt, who may well have been the
most significant architect in Chattanooga’s history.
Bessie Smith Hall
200 M.L. King Boulevard. This building, formerly the Chattanooga
Times Warehouse, is the future home of the Bessie Smith Hall.
The hall will capitalize on the area’s rich jazz and blues
musical tradition by focusing on education, culture and entertainment.
M.L. King Historic District
The M.L. King Boulevard Historic District is a five-block area
significant to African American commercial and social history.
It contains a collection of two- to three-story brick commercial
buildings constructed from the 1890’s to the 1930’s.
Walden Hospital
Corner of 8th and Douglas streets. A hospital exclusively for
Chattanooga’s African-American residents was begun in this
building about 1915. The hospital was operated by Dr. Emma Wheeler,
a graduate of Meharry Medical College. At that time, this respected
Nashville school was one of the few African-American medical schools
in the country.
The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium
399 McCallie Avenue. The Memorial Auditorium, designed by R.H.
Hunt, was constructed in 1922-‘24 to provide Chattanooga
with a large auditorium to meet the needs of a growing city.
Hamilton County Court House
An elaborate Neoclassical design of the Corinthian Order, the
Hamilton County Court House was designed by R.H. Hunt in 1912.
Built of Tennessee limestone, the façade is dominated by
its projecting portico. Classical motifs are repeated on the largely
unaltered interior, including guttae panels, dentils and egg-and-dart
molding. A lavish display of marble and scagliola highlight the
interior which also retains its original terrazzo floors. The
most striking feature of the interior is its three-story stained-glass
domed vault.
Fireman’s Fountain
The Fireman’s Fountain was dedicated June 9, 1988 as a
tribute to the first Chattanooga firemen who died in the line
of duty. A citizen’s committee raised the money for the project
and a fountain was purchased from the J.L. Mott Iron Company of
New York City, one of the nation’s largest manufacturers
of architectural iron work of that period. The fountain memorial
was selected to symbolize the readiness of firemen to protect
property and lives from the "ravages of direful fire."
Fountain Square District
Focused on the Fireman’s Fountain, the buildings in this
historic district were constructed between 1900 and 1928. Representing
various architectural revivals popular during this period, the
buildings exhibit tile, terra cotta, Spanish elements and Classical
Revival features.
McConnell House
517 East 5th Street. An excellent example of the Second Empire
style, the McConnell House exhibits typical features of this style,
such as a tower, classical moldings and details, like the quoin
treatment along the building’s corners, an elaborate bracketed
and dentiled cornice and arched and pedimented windows. The most
outstanding feature of this style is the mansard roof, here covered
with slate in a fish-scale pattern.
Gaskill House
427 East 5th Street. Constructed around 1883, the Gaskill House
is a charming mixture of Italianate and Eastlake architectural
features.
Brabson-Loveman House
407 East 5th Street. Located on a commanding site, the Brabson-Loveman
House remains one of the most outstanding landmarks in the city.
The structure originally on this site was built by Congressman
Reese Brabson in 1857-‘58. Used as an officer’s hospital
and later headquarters during the Civil War, as well as a hospital
during the 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic, this early Chattanooga
mansion was destroyed by fire in 1881. Later rebuilt, the home
became the property of the D.B. Loveman family who added the striking
three-sided portico, featuring an Ionic colonade, in the early
20th century.
Title Guaranty-Elks Building (Court House Annex)
In this block of commercial buildings, notice the 1925 Beaux
Arts Title Guaranty Building with its two-story arched entrance
area. Adjacent to this building is the old Title Guaranty Building
constructed in 1893, which is connected to the 1906 benevolent
Protective Order of Elks Building. These latter two buildings
provide office space for county employees.
Flat Iron Building
Constructed in 1911 as a four-story apartment building with
stores on the ground floor, the Flatiron Building is noted for
its triangular shape and interesting brickwork. It was named after
its shape—flat iron.
Dome Building
Corner of 8th and Georgia Avenue. This richly ornamented Italian
Renaissance office building was designed by D’Lemos and Cordes
of New York and constructed in 1891 to house the office of The
Chattanooga Times, a newspaper owned by Adolph S. Ochs, and
was thus originally known as the Ochs or Times Building. Ochs
later purchased The New York Times, which became one of
the most respected and well recognized newpapers in the country.
The architectural design of the building produces a vertical
emphasis through the use of vertical lines and by the design elements
which became progressively more elaborate as one nears the domed
cupola, the single most distinctive feature of the building.
Old Carnegia Library
Georgia Avenue. Designed by R.H. Hunt, this Neoclassical library
was one of the many public buildings built across the country
in the early 20th century through the generosity of industrialist
and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. From its opening in 1905
until it closed in 1940, it served as Chattanooga’s public
library. Notice the symmetrical arrangement, the pedimented portico,
two-story arched entrance way and the parapet.
Patten Parkway District
The City Market served as a catalyst for other development
in this historic district, such as this row of Victorian commercial
structures built in 1888 by a Cincinnati investment firm. Notice
the staggered arrangement of the buildings which creates a unified
appearance due to the identical decorative treatments. As a commercial
area, Patten Parkway was the home of the world’s first Coca-Cola
bottling plant which opened in 1899.
War Memorial Park
Chattanooga’s first farmer’s market was built on
this site in 1887-’88. By 1894, the City Market had proved
to be financially infeasible, and the city then used the brick
structure as a municipal building until 1908 when a new municipal
building was constructed. From 1908 until the early 1940’s,
the building was again used as a city market, this time more successfully.
In 1943, it was demolished, and the site was dedicated as a park
to Hamilton County’s servicemen.
Volunteer Life Insurance Company Complex
Built in 1916, in the then popular Neoclassical style, this
office building was constructed for use by the Volunteer Life
Company, but today, is part of Chubb Life Insurance Group. Also
in this block is the 1927 Volunteer Garage. The floor plan is
based on the D’Humy staggered ramp system, now a standard
feature of many modern parking garages.
Federal Building (Post Office)
The last major design of R.H. Hunt, the U.S. Post Office and
Courthouse was constructed in 1932. The most outstanding example
of Art Deco architecture in Chattanooga, the exterior features
many typical Art Deco designs, such as the staggered appearance,
inset windows with grillwork, foliated and geometric motifs, and
the repeated use of the eagle (a feature often used during the
Depression to symbolize the country’s security and stability).
The largely unaltered interior features a barrel vaulted ceiling,
aluminum grills and furnishings and marble and terrazzo flooring.
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