If you like older buildings in Chattanooga and elsewhere, chances are you are going to worry as much about their future as a lover of open space in Ooltewah does about disappearing farmland.
With numerous development pressures and other needs for various properties, only a handful of structures around town are considered by most people to be untouchable. As a result, the future of another non-protected building resurfaced amid news that federal officials are looking at another option for a site for a new federal courthouse, if it is not built at some place like where the TVA Complex is.
This new possibility includes the block surrounded by Georgia Avenue, Vine Street, Lindsay Street, and East Fifth Street. Due to its proximity to the heart of downtown and the fact it is mostly vacant of anything but some parking lots and greenspace trim, it might seem a good location.
In fact, only one building is within the tract, and it is one I have always noticed with its interesting front depicting some time likely right before or after World War II. It is the structure at 518 Georgia Ave. that in recent years has been the location of a variety of businesses, from law offices to other agencies and maybe even a political headquarters.
Almost by chance and with the help of the staff at the Local History and Genealogy Department at the Chattanooga Public Library, I learned that it was built beginning in 1941. Not only that, but it was constructed to house the Carpenters Local Union, was designed by the architectural firm of Franklin and Delaney and was constructed by D.F. Brandon.
Selmon T. Franklin was the grandfather of current Franklin Architects firm head Bob Franklin and lived at the time on Vance Road.
The article said the Carpenters Local Union’s meeting hall was to be on the second floor, and the first floor would be used for some kind of store or office. By the time it opened, the hall was being used, and E.F. McIntyre had a saw-filing operation, which fit in with the carpenters’ theme of the building.
By the 1950s, Commonwealth Life Insurance was there for a few years, and many tenants have come and gone since then.
I am not sure if the building will be torn down if a courthouse is constructed there, but it seems as if building around it would be hard. Its front does seem to nicely capture a certain era of Chattanooga’s history of yesteryear, so that might be one push for its preservation among the more historically inclined.
Regardless, it has had a great run so far housing seemingly countless worthwhile Chattanooga operations in a sturdy and eye-pleasing way.
Speaking of sturdy buildings, how many historic preservationists and countless others took pride in seeing the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris this weekend following its amazing restoration and rebuild in places after its seemingly devastating 2019 fire?
Its roof and many other features were lost, but somehow it was rebuilt better and more beautiful than ever. Usually when you see a church in a city like Chattanooga lose its roof and other features to a fire, it is almost immediately torn down.
But somehow the Notre Dame Cathedral rose up from the ashes and, in a tribute to the desire and willpower of the human spirit, returns prettier than ever.
Regarding human spirit and historic architecture, I managed to get up Thanksgiving morning and brave the cold weather to run in the four-mile Fitness Central Turkey Trot through the older Brainerd Hills neighborhood on the east side of Lee Highway. OK, so it was not quite like completing Army Ranger training and I probably looked more like a cow than a turkey moving, but I felt like I had accomplished something!
After race director Bill Brock – the son of the late former U.S. Sen. Bill Brock – gave us a good pre-race pep talk befitting a political convention – we were off and running at 9 a.m.
That, of course, was when I asked myself what I was doing out there. But I survived it in my 65-year-old, 205-pound body and was able to enjoy my meals the rest of the day without guilt, even if they were certainly not without calories.
I always enjoy running there through the mid-century residential neighborhood and past the edge of the Brown Acres Golf Course, and several residents were there to urge us on and add to the feeling of community. One of them was City Council member Carol Berz, who was handing out water.
This neighborhood in many ways seems a microcosm of Chattanooga. Most of the houses are nice and appealing and I would probably enjoy living in them, but you do see one or two streets where the charm needs a little improving. Another contrast came when I also saw one family out passing the football in a friendly manner, while a short distance away, one sign by a fence said, “No trespassing.”
The neighborhood also has a park (Benham Williams) named after two streets, and we passed it. I also wondered more about the origins of the streets named apparently after such familiar Chattanoogans of yesteryear as Bass (former Mayor Ed Bass?) and Guild (former industrialist and businessman Jo Conn Guild?)
It was a nice jaunt and luckily had been shortened not to include the usual steep hill climb in the middle, and I was glad I took part. Who cares if I needed a double nap on top of Thanksgiving lunch that afternoon and don’t remember a good part of one of the NFL games.
I, of course, watched plenty of other football that weekend that brought my nerves on edge, including the crazy eight-overtime win by my alma mater of Georgia over a scrappy and upset-minded Georgia Tech team that Friday night. I am still trying to figure out how the Dawgs came back and won.
I thought I had seen all the exciting football I would experience amid teams I care about, but it was just beginning. I went out to watch my high school alma mater of Baylor School play in the state championship against rival McCallie last Thursday night amid a temperature of only in the high 20s.
As 1978 Baylor classmate Steve Smalling and I were sitting there at Finley Stadium watching, shivering, and talking with a friendly head coach of a Nashville area team that had enjoyed a successful season, Baylor appeared to have its way with a 21-0 lead in the second quarter.
I was envisioning maybe a blowout and going home where it was warm before the game ended.
Unfortunately, though, McCallie – which obviously has a lot of pride and pretty good players – had other plans. The Blue Tornado slowly came back and pretty much dominated the second half with their hard-to-tackle back, Keylan Syam, and won by a score of 27-21.
I could not believe it. I have seen every Baylor-McCallie game in person since and including 1986 and several before that when I was in school, and I deduced that was the most disappointed I have ever been as a Baylor fan and alumnus after a game against McCallie. That is taking into account that Baylor had won easily in the regular season, was favored in the second game (I thought), and went out to such an easy early lead. As a result, losing was the last thought on my mind in the second quarter.
Now I know how Georgia Tech felt the week before!
But hats off to McCallie, which some longtime followers of that school might say was by far their most exciting win ever over their rival in terms of the way they came back, and the character they showed in combating challenging odds.
Of course, football and other sports usually imitate life in that we have happy moments and not-so-great ones. As I was to find out, however, I would experience these extremes within 48 hours.
I had a chance to attend the Georgia-Texas SEC championship game due to a kind gift from a friend, and another Baylor alumnus, Jimmy Cooley, and I headed down to the Mercedez-Benz Dome in Atlanta on Saturday to watch it.
Like a coach meticulously planning every moment, I stopped at a newer and smaller Varsity restaurant at exit 283 around Cartersville for my pre-game training meal of one chili dog, some onion rings (which were made hot and fresh for me without asking), a peach fried pie, and a Coca-Cola. I was ready to go cheer on my college team!
We were able to arrive easily at a MARTA train stop off Hamilton Holmes Drive where I-285 and I-20 come together and then got to the game with ease.
Trying to put the disappointment as a football fan of what happened to my high school team two days earlier behind me, I was simply hoping for better results and trying to remain positive despite the emotional ache I still felt. I was also trying to remind myself that football is just a game, not life.
Once the game started, Texas, obviously trying to avenge the earlier season loss to the Bulldogs in the same mindset as McCallie against Baylor, looked sharp. In fact, Georgia was lucky to be behind by only three points at halftime. Also compounding the outlook was that Bulldog quarterback Carson Beck was injured on the last play of the half and would not be able to play much in the second half.
The odds seemed stacked, but fans were hoping backup quarterback Gunner Stockton was ready for the occasion. My college friend Dave Williams, a closer observer of Georgia football than I and with whom I had visited at halftime, had tipped me off that, unlike Carson Beck, Mr. Stockton could both run and throw.
He did both of those in leading Georgia down the field for an opening touchdown to start the second half and inspired the Bulldog fans in a seemingly storybook manner.
And the special teams inspired as well with a fake punt on fourth down later in the game. The defense also rose up and did just enough to keep Texas from winning, and overtime resulted.
In the first possession of overtime, Georgia was able to limit Texas to a field goal. And then, quarterback Stockton, who only made one rookie mistake in the second half by throwing an interception while apparently trying to throw the ball out of bounds, was able to barely pick up a first down despite having to put his body in harm’s way while getting his helmet knocked off. The run seemed to take almost as much courage as landing at D-Day, or at least I was enthusiastically imagining that.
With normal quarterback Beck coming in for one play to hand the ball off despite having an injured arm, Georgia scored on the next play for a 22-19 OT win. I could not believe it, and there I was just above that same endzone where the touchdown occurred jumping up and down and yelling. The crowd of mostly Georgia fans was going crazy walking out, and I have not seen this much collective sports excitement in a while on the college level in person. The 2022 Tennessee-Alabama game, when the Crimson Tide winning streak ended, was likely similar, although fans could not get on the field in Atlanta.
Maybe because I was trying to shake off the frustration of the McCallie loss, I can’t remember the last time I was so happy after a Georgia win, either. That might have been in part because they were seemingly improbably SEC champions, despite all the recent success they have had under coach Kirby Smart.
I must add, though, that I admired the way the Texas fans seemed to handle themselves. And I also liked seeing the sporty Texas band uniforms up close for the first time.
Yes, it was a week to remember, from the ringing of the historic chapel bell at the University of Georgia after a victory as is tradition and likely occurred a few miles away, to the ringing of the famed Notre Dame bells celebrating the completion of work.
And maybe McCallie should have rung or played their bells at their pretty old mid-century chapel along McCallie Avenue, too, after Thursday’s amazing win, if they did not!
May we all get to hear bells ringing this holiday season in some form and for some positive reason!
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