Basement of the Home Plate Building
photo by John Wilson
Compartment in the Home Plate Building basement (once the main floor)
photo by John Wilson
Steps to the Home Plate Building basement
photo by John Wilson
Attorney Bill Speek at door at the Home Plate Building basement
photo by John Wilson
Old electric box at the Home Plate Building
photo by John Wilson
Wooden locker at the Home Plate Building basement
photo by John Wilson
Small storage units at the Home Plate Building
photo by John Wilson
Window at the Home Plate Building once looked out to alley
photo by John Wilson
Home Plate Building at Seventh and Cherry
photo by John Wilson
Looking down Seventh from Cherry
photo by John Wilson
Arched doorway at former ground floor of the McConnell Block
photo by John Wilson
Looking toward stone wall along Seventh that was built when road was raised
photo by John Wilson
McConnell Block basement (once the ground floor)
photo by John Wilson
Old doorway
photo by John Wilson
Windows on the once-ground floor of the McConnell Block
photo by John Wilson
Fine wall of the McConnell Block was put below ground by large amount of fill
photo by John Wilson
Flue was made in Chattanooga by Price-Evans Foundry
photo by John Wilson
Section along Seventh Street
photo by John Wilson
Brick foundation pillars
photo by John Wilson
Showing old alley between Home Plate Building and the McConnell Block with finished brick on the McConnell
photo by John Wilson
Steps at the McConnell Block
photo by John Wilson
The McConnell Block was once a three-story building
photo by John Wilson
The Central Block had part of its lower section submerged by fill
photo by John Wilson
Top of a former first-floor window at the Central Block
photo by John Wilson
Matt McGauley on Seventh Street
photo by John Wilson
Top of an old window on alley at rear of Seventh Street buildings
photo by Shelley King Jr. (mr_taddpo67@hotmail.com)
Some of the best remaining features of "Underground Chattanooga"can still be found along East Seventh Street between Market and Cherry streets.
Underground Chattanooga was created when a large amount of fill was added to some low-lying downtown streets after several disastrous floods.
A damaging flood in 1886 apparently led to raising the level of Seventh Street.
That brought feet of new fill along East Seventh by the then-new Central Block at the corner of Market and Seventh, the new McConnell Block along Seventh and a one-story building at the corner of Seventh and Cherry (Home Plate building).
What had been the first floor of the McConnell Block and of the Home Plate building was now underground.
Matt McGauley, whose family owns the McConnell Block and the Home Plate Building, said at the time of the fill a stone wall was built about four feet from the walls of the buildings that were being covered. It was erected along Seventh Street as well as along Cherry.
In the McConnell Block basement he points out an alley that once separated it and the Home Plate Building.
Finished brick is along the wall of the McConnell Block, showing that it was not meant for a basement.
There are doors and windows that would not be needed in a basement.
Attorney Bill Speek, whose law firm has moved into the Home Plate Building, said that when a new power supply was being put in from Cherry Street that the EPB crew ran into the stone wall that was built out from the submerged building.
He pointed out the old electric circuit that was in use until recently.
Still in the Home Plate Building basement (the original first floor) are some interesting compartments that appear to have once been used for sleeping and hanging clothes. Mr. McGauley said he believes the building was once in use as a budget hotel.
Walking along Seventh Street by the Central Block, the tops of arches of windows can be seen, indicating that the windows themselves were covered with fill.