East Terrace is shown in the center of this section of drawing which appeared in the 1887 Chattanooga Times.
Home of J.W. Adams at 903 East Terrace
The Sunset Home later occupied the Adams mansion
Dwight Preston Montague
Montague home at 949 East Terrace
Henry Clay Evans, Chattanooga businessman and nationally-known political figure
H. Clay Evans home at 1103 East Terrace
Loomis and Hart saw mill, lumber, and furniture advertisement from 1881 Chattanooga Weekly Commericial
Home of Julius F. Loomis at 1121 East Terrace
Hiram S. Chamberlain residence at 1137 East Terrace
Woman with a buggy, possibly one of the daughters of H.S. Chamberlain
This latest installment in the recurring series “Historic Highways” takes us to a street which cannot be found on a current map of Chattanooga. East Terrace was located on the southern end of Cameron Hill until the early 1960’s, when the bulldozers commissioned by the West Side Urban Renewal project erased it from the map.
Having an address on East Terrace in the years between the end of the Civil War and urban renewal were many interesting Chattanoogans. Through the assistance of materials filed at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library, let’s take a walking tour of some of the homes on East Terrace just before the start of urban renewal.
THE WALKING TOUR BEGINS
If you plotted East Terrace on today’s map of Chattanooga, it would be between Gateway Avenue and Boynton Drive, near the Towers Apartments on West Martin.Luther King Boulevard.
As we walk west on Ninth Street (the previous name of M.L. King Boulevard) to reach East Terrace, we notice that it’s a lot steeper than we know it in 2006. One of the reasons given for the West Side Urban Renewal was that the streets were too steep and narrow for cars to negotiate, and that the terrain needed to be “contoured.” In fact, there were full-page ads for the urban renewal project in the 1950’s which showed Fords and Chevy’s struggling to make it up streets such as Ninth and Sixth streets.
Near the crest of the hill, Ninth Street dead-ends at East Terrace. Later, as part of the West Side plan, there was a cut made in the hill to extend Ninth Street to the river. East Terrace begins at Sixth Street, proceeds south, and then wraps around the hill at West Thirteenth Street. At that point, the street becomes West Terrace.
903 EAST TERRACE
As we reach East Terrace, we see a two-story stone-veneered house with arched windows. This was once the home of the Adams family. No, not that one from the 1960’s TV show – they spelled their name “Addams” for their cartoonist creator, Charles Addams. The patriarch of this family was John Wesley Adams..
John Wesley (“J.W.”) Adams was the architect and developer of post-Civil War Chattanooga. Born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio in 1848, Adams showed a great aptitude for mechanics. His father was a contractor, and while growing up, Adams assisted him in carpentry work.
In 1871, J.W. Adams moved to Chattanooga to fulfill a building contract for J.C. Stanton, who among other ventures built the Stanton House hotel. Stanton went broke, leaving Adams to find other work. He became an architect, advertising in the Chattanooga Weekly Commericial in 1878: “Plans, specifications, and estimates furnished promptly and with accuracy.”
The obituary of John Wesley Adams later read that he was “a man of deep and constant purpose in life.” I found this to be true based on the number of buildings which he built. Adams was a prolific architect, designing the Adams Block at East Eighth and Cherry streets and the sanctuary of the Methodist church at McCallie at Georgia. The Hamilton County Jail was another of his projects. He often used native stones in his buildings, and through the Stone Fort Land Company, led the effort to quarry the stone outcropping near Eleventh and Market streets.
He also used his talents to design a house on East Terrace for himself, and other business leaders of the day. The lady of the Adams home was Julia Adams, mother of two sons. Julia’s obituary noted that she was “one of the most highly respected ladies in Chattanooga.” From their home on East Terrace above the city, J.W. and Julia Adams were able to view the rapid development of Chattanooga, and the many buildings which J.W. had designed and built.
Among the first items on Mr. Adams’ to-do list was probably to plant some trees. During the Civil War, soldiers had cut all of the trees on the hill where East Terrace was located. By the time of the West Side Urban Renewal, those trees had grown into giant specimens of great beauty and shade – only to be cut down again. “To every thing, there is a season, turn, turn, turn.”
Julia Adams passed in 1904 in Gainesville, Florida where she had hoped that a warmer climate would improve her health. After J.W. Adams’ passing in 1918, his son, George, continued to reside in the home in which he had grown up. George Adams was the president of Mills and Lupton Supply Company, and was active in various private electric utilities.
By 1940, the former single-family house had been divided into apartments, a trend which other houses on East Terrace would eventually experience. J. Frank Bell, a 47-year employee at Southern Railway where he was bag master, was the landlord.
In the late 1940’s, the house became the Sunset Home for the Aged. Lillian A. Schultz and her husband, J.C. Wilfred Schultz, were proprietors. We can imagine the residents of the Sunset Home enjoying the beautiful surroundings and views from East Terrace on a spring day. A staff person from the Sunset Home might have driven some of them up to Boynton Park and its flowering cherry trees at the northern point of Cameron Hill.
The house again became an apartment building in the 1950’s. Among its tenants was the Spiritual Chapel of Truth, led by the Rev. Bertha L. Stone, who also rented an apartment in the building with her husband, Lewis M. Stone.
949 EAST TERRACE
We’ve walked south on East Terrace, and are now in front of the home at the corner of Leonard Street. This was once the home of Dwight Preston Montague, his wife, the former Genevieve Allan, and three daughters.
Born in 1853 at Chester, Ohio, Dwight Montague came to Chattanooga in 1877. He and others had recognized the potential of the mineral resources, labor supply, and transportation available in Chattanooga. He was an officer of the Roane Iron Company, which operated a foundry on the west side of Cameron Hill along the river.
From his home on East Terrace, D.P. Montague could see the smoke rising from the Roane foundry. He later became involved in the Chattanooga Sewer Pipe Works, Montague Brick Company, Hamilton National Bank, and Soddy Coal Mine.
Genevieve Montague helped to found the Pine Breeze sanatorium. She was also active in support efforts during the Spanish-American War and World War I, helping to establish recreation and health facilities at Fort Oglethorpe for the soldiers. When she passed away in 1941, twenty years after the death of her husband, her funeral was held at the family’s home on East Terrace.
After the death of Mrs. Montague, her daughter and son-in-law, Richard H. and Mildred Kimball lived in the family home.. Richard Huntington Kimball had joined the Volunteer State Life Insurance Company in Chattanooga in 1922 after leaving the U.S. Army. He was president of Volunteer from 1934 to 1939. Mr. Kimball was re-called from retirement to head the reception center at Fort Oglethorpe in 1941, but passed away the following year. Mrs. Kimball continued to live on East Terrace until the mid-1950’s.
In the late 1950’s, the top floor of the Montague home was listed as vacant, while William Kimble resided in the lower level. He was a maintenance worker at the Hamilton County Mental Health Association, which had moved into a former home at 941 East Terrace. Mr. Kimble had also been a caretaker at the Montague estate.
1103 EAST TERRACE
We’re now at the address of the home of a nationally-famous Chattanoogan, H. Clay Evans, his wife, Adelaide Parthenia, and children Henry Clay Jr., Nelle, and Anita. I’m intrigued about this family already, because I’ve finally found someone else with my grandmother’s name – Parthenia.
H. Clay Evans was born in Juniata County, Pennsylvania in 1943. He joined the Company A, Forty-first Wisconsin, as a private at the start of the Civil War. In 1864, he was stationed in Chattanooga, to which he returned in 1870.
Evans began a career in manufacturing with the Wasson Car Works, later known as the Chattanooga Car and Foundry Company. He then joined the Roane Iron Company, where he rose through the ranks to become general manager.
A career in public service called H.C. Evans away from business pursuits. The first served on the city school board, then joined the city council and was twice elected mayor. Active in the Republican Party, he was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1888. In 1893, President Harrison named him to be the first assistant postmaster-general.
Though defeated in the race for Tennessee governor in 1894, Evans won enough national attention to be considered, though not selected, as running mate for William McKinley in 1896. The McKinleys were friends with the Evans family, and stayed at the Evans mansion while President McKinley was in town. McKinley selected him as commissioner of pensions in 1897, and Teddy Roosevelt appointed him consul-general for Great Britain in 1902.
Back home in Chattanooga, Adelaide Parthenia Durand Evans was often observed driving her own buggy – “a familiar and welcome sight” as her 1922 obituary later read. In 1919, H. Clay and Parthenia observed their fiftieth wedding anniversary “in an elaborate way” at their East Terrace home, as his obituary read two years later. The H. Clay Evans Elementary School on the side of Cameron Hill was named for Mr. Evans.
One of the Evans’ daughters, Nelle, and her husband, Dr. Joseph W. Johnson, lived in the family home until the 1930’s. Dr. Johnson was a physician in the Medical Arts Building on McCallie Avenue, and was also president of Interstate Life and Accident Insurance Company.
Robert E. Moore, also an official with Interstate, was the last occupant of the Evans’ home to be listed in the city directory. The address disappears beginning with the 1938 edition. I was unable to find whether the Evans home burned or was torn down.
1121 EAST TERRACE
Our next stop is the home of Julius F. Loomis, who moved to Chattanooga in 1865.
In 1866, J.F. Loomis and F.J. Bennett began a saw mill business at the foot of Cameron Hill along the Tennessee River. John Hart bought out Mr. Bennett’s interest in 1875, and in 1875, the company became known as Loomis and Hart.
Loomis and Hart was located on fifteen acres at the northern end of Pine and Cedar streets, which was an appropriate address for a lumber-based business. The firm employed 150 men and had an annual business of $250,000. They made finished lumber and furniture.
Mr. Loomis passed away in 1924, but had already left East Terrace before that year. By 1910, Richard A. Clifford, the son of Hiram S. Chamberlain, whom we’ll meet at the next stop, was living in the former Loomis home. Clifford was a native of England, and had moved to the U.S. at age twenty. He became the secretary of the Chattanooga Wagon Company and of the Peerless Woolen Mills. His wife was Louise Chamberlain, the daughter of Hiram S. Chamberlain.
Richard Clifford passed away in 1942. His daughter, Charlotte, and son-in-law, John C. Grant, lived in the family home until it was taken by urban renewal in the late 1950’s. John Grant was president of Grant-Patten Milk.
1137 EAST TERRACE
Our last stop is at the home of Hiram Sanborn Chamberlain and his wife, the former Amelia Isabella Morrow, and their six children.
H. S. Chamberlain was born in 1835 in Franklin, Ohio. After the start of the Civil War, he joined the service, and worked his way through the ranks to become captain and quartermaster in General Burnside’s army. After the war ended, he took over a rolling mills operation at Knoxville, and then in 1871, became vice-president and general manager of the Roane Iron Company.
Mr. Chamberlain maintained an active civic life in Chattanooga. He served as president of the Associated Charities of Chattanooga for several years, and was president of the trustees of the University of Chattanooga.
Amelia Chamberlain was a student of history, and was active in the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Following the passing of Hiram and Amelia Chamberlain, both in 1916, their son, Morrow and his wife, May Douglas Chamberlain, lived in the family home. Morrow Chamberlain was president of Knoxville Iron and of the Citico Furnace. He passed away in late 1959, shortly after the Chamberlain home was torn down for urban renewal.
THE ELEGANT GHOSTS OF EAST TERRACE
Beginning the Depression years of the 1930’s, several studies had shown that Chattanooga’s West Side had deteriorated into urban blight. Several houses, particularly at the lower elevations, provided only modest, bare-minimum housing even when they were first built. As the century progressed, federal funds became available for large-scale urban renewal to be carried out by wholesale clearing of real estate through the government’s power of eminent domain.
The 1946 “Comprehensive Plan of Development for Chattanooga and Hamilton County” said, “The Cameron Hill section… ,formerly classed among the best residential areas, have now given way largely to business and multi-family uses.” East Terrace was contained within the map of the blighted area being studied.
By the 1950’s, the West Side Urban Renewal project was gathering momentum. Plans for a new freeway and bridge, coupled with clearing of land for sale and redevelopment, were put together. The bulldozers, wrecking equipment, and dump trucks were soon started for the first of many cubic yards of dirt and demolition to be removed.
The Chattanooga Times of July 20, 1959 had the best report that I’ve ever seen of what the West Side Urban Renewal wrought. It was titled "The Elegant Ghosts of East Terrace." One paragraph read, “In driveways that once clattered to sounds of carriages bringing the great ladies of the city to receptions, there is today the dull sound of falling bricks and crumbling walls.”
The report went on to give detailed accounts of the histories of several of the homes of East Terrace. There were numerous photos of the stone retaining walls along East Terrace, and of the Victorian homes and gardens there. A somewhat humorous photograph was taken of the many lavatories and other plumbing fixtures piled for salvage. Well, if your project involves tearing down thousands of houses, you will be removing many plumbing fixtures. In fact, there was a great salvage operation and sale of the architectural features of these once fine homes.
I regret that more wasn’t written about the later occupants of the homes that we toured. I was able to trace the path that some of the West Side residents took after their home was felled. For instance, the Spiritual Chapel of Truth relocated to 4212 Fagan Street in Alton Park, and is today the address of the ALB Full Gospel Church. William Kimble moved to East Sixteenth Street. The residents of East Terrace were among the large numbers of West Side residents who had to find new homes as a result of urban renewal.
East Terrace today exists only on old maps, directories, and photographs. One has to wonder how a real walking or carriage tour of East Terrace would have fit into the renaissance of downtown Chatanooga. Hindsight is always with 20/20 vision.
Much of the information about the first residents of East Terrace came from Moore’s History of Tennessee, a multi-volume set available at the downtown library. As always, I’m thankful for the knowledgeable, helpful staff and abundant historic documents available at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library.
If you have memories or other information about East Terrace, its homes and its residents, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.
Much of the information about the first residents of East Terrace came from Moore’s History of Tennessee, a multi-volume set available at the downtown library.