Last updated The Chattanooga State Office Building pictured on Jan. 17, 2015
The Chattanooga State Office Building is a historic building at 540 McCallie Avenue in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the United States.[1][2][3]
The six-story building was built in 1950 at a cost of $1.75million to be the headquarters for the Interstate Life Insurance Company.[1][2] Designed in the Art Moderne style, the exterior has ruby granite on the bottom, gray-white limestone on the top, and a bronzefrieze near the McCallie Avenue doorway.[1][2][3] The frieze, created by a Tennessee sculptor,[3] is "intended to represent the sturdy mountain character of Southeast Tennesseans."[1][2] The building's interior once contained a penthouse lounge, an auditorium, and basement bowling alley as recreational areas for employees.[1] The National Trust for Historic Preservation describes the building as an emblem of 1950s innovation, representing "a Mad Men-era workplace."[2] In 1973, plans for the addition of a 65,000-square-foot wing were announced; this increased the building space by 72 percent.[2]
By 1980, the insurance company offered to sell the building to the State of Tennessee for $8million.[2] In 1981, the state acquired the building (as well as 6.17 acres and a 5,100-square-foot warehouse) for 5.85million.[1][2] The building was then used for state government offices until December 2013, when the state "decommissioned" the building (along with the nearby James R. Mapp Building and three other buildings) and transferred the building to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC).[1][2][4] Nearly 400 state employees vacated the building that year.[3]
UTC plans to demolish the building and construct a new, $59million dormitory on the site.[1][2] Preservationists oppose the project and have urged the university to renovate the original building instead.[1][2] To renovate the existing building would cost an estimated $8.49million, mostly to replace outdated heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.[3] In 2014, the National Trust for Historic Preservation added the building to its annual "America's Most Endangered Places" list.[1][2]
In October 2015, UTC received approval to move ahead with repairs to the Mapp Building and Chattanooga State Office Building.[5]
Chattanooga is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. It is located along the Tennessee River, and borders Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee's fourth-largest city and one of the two principal cities of East Tennessee, along with Knoxville. It anchors the Chattanooga metropolitan area, Tennessee's fourth-largest metropolitan statistical area, as well as a larger three-state area that includes Southeast Tennessee, Northwest Georgia, and Northeast Alabama.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is one of four universities and two other affiliated institutions in the University of Tennessee System.
Baylor School, commonly called Baylor, is a private, coeducational college-preparatory school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Founded in 1893, the school currently sits atop a 690-acre campus and enrolls students in grades 6-12, including boarding students in grades 9-12. These students are served by Baylor's 148-member faculty, over two-thirds of whom hold advanced degrees, including nearly 40 adults who live on campus and serve as dorm parents. Baylor has had a student win the Siemens Award for Advanced Placement in math and science and a teacher received the National Siemens Award for Exemplary Teaching.
WUTC 88.1 is a public radio station in Chattanooga, Tennessee in the United States - serving Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley.
The Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is a former railroad station once owned and operated by the Southern Railway. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the station is currently operated as a hotel, and is a member of Historic Hotels of America, part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Engel Stadium is a stadium in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The stadium was built in 1930 and holds 12,000 people. It was the home of the Chattanooga Lookouts until 1999 when they moved to their current stadium, AT&T Field. The former Tennessee Temple University held its home games at Engel after the Lookouts left. Engel Stadium was named for longtime President of the Chattanooga Lookouts, Joe Engel.
Fort Wood Historic District is a historic neighborhood in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is bounded roughly by Palmetto Street, McCallie Avenue, East 4th Street, and O'Neal Street, just east of the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The McCallie School is a boys college-preparatory school located on Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. The school was founded in 1905 and now has 322 boarding students in grades 9–12 and 657 day students in grades 6–12.
W. Max Finley Stadium is the home stadium for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team and Chattanooga FC (NISA), a professional Division 3 soccer team. The stadium also hosts various high school sports and musical concerts. It is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. The stadium, which opened in 1997, has a current capacity of 20,412, and hosted the NCAA Division I National Championship Game from its opening season through 2009, after which the game moved to Pizza Hut Park in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas. The stadium will host the TSSAA Football Championships in 2021 and 2022.
Haletown is an unincorporated community in Marion County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Chattanooga, TN–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Haletown is probably best known as the former location of Hales Bar Dam, a major hydroelectric project completed in 1913 by the former Tennessee Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and as a prominent location along the Tennessee River at Nickajack Lake.
America's 11 Most Endangered Places or America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places is a list of places in the United States that the National Trust for Historic Preservation considers the most endangered. It aims to inspire Americans to preserve examples of architectural and cultural heritage that could be "relegated to the dustbins of history" without intervention.
Indiana Landmarks is America's largest private statewide historic preservation organization. Founded in 1960 as Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana by a volunteer group of civic and business leaders led by Indianapolis pharmaceutical executive Eli Lilly, the organization is a private non-governmental organization with nearly 6,000 members and an endowment of over $40-million. The organization simplified its name to Indiana Landmarks in 2010.
The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium is a historic performance hall in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Built between 1922 and 1924 by John Parks at a cost of $700,000 and designed by noted architect R. H. Hunt, who also designed Chattanooga's lavish Tivoli Theatre, the theater honors area veterans of World War I.
The New York Life Building is the headquarters of the New York Life Insurance Company at 51 Madison Avenue in the Rose Hill and NoMad neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. The building, designed by Cass Gilbert, abuts Madison Square Park and occupies an entire city block bounded by Madison Avenue, Park Avenue South, and 26th and 27th Streets.
The Threefoot Building is a historic office building located in downtown Meridian, Mississippi named after the Threefoot family who owned an operated a business in downtown Meridian during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Designed by Claude H. Lindsley and completed in 1929 in the Art Deco style, the 16-story building is still the tallest in the city. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 18, 1979, under the Meridian Multiple Property Submission of buildings contributing to the historic nature of the city's downtown. In 2008 the Threefoot was recognized by the state as a Mississippi Landmark.
The Cranston Street Armory is an historic building in the Broadway–Armory Historic District of Providence, Rhode Island. It was built in 1907 at a cost of $650,000.00. The building was occupied by the Rhode Island National Guard from its opening until 1996. Since then, parts of the building have been used as film studios, and some of its offices occupied by the Rhode Island State Fire Marshal. The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the Armory as one of "America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places" in its annual list for 1997. Its distinctive yellow bricks, crenellated turrets, and decorative stonework mark it as a historically significant building and neighborhood icon.
Highland Park is a neighborhood in the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It originally was a small city developed between the late 19th century and the mid-20th century. It is located two miles east of downtown Chattanooga, and bounded by Willow and Holtzclaw streets on the east and west, and McCallie and Main streets on the north and south. It was incorporated in 1905. Later, when it was incorporated into the City of Chattanooga in 1929, it grew to become a popular middle-class suburb with access to multiple train lines. As employment and much downtown property value in Chattanooga declined throughout the 1970s, Highland Park did as well, but it has had significant recent success due to its proximity to the downtown, its vibrant neighborhood association, and many newly renovated historic houses.
The Tivoli Theatre, also known as the Tivoli and the "Jewel of the South", is a historic theatre in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that opened on March 19, 1921. Built between 1919 and 1921 at a cost of $750,000, designed by famed Chicago-based architectural firm Rapp and Rapp and well-known Chattanooga architect Reuben H. Hunt, and constructed by the John Parks Company, the theatre was one of the first air-conditioned public buildings in the United States. The theatre was named Tivoli after Tivoli, Italy, has cream tiles and beige terra-cotta bricks, has a large red, black, and white marquee with 1,000 chaser lights, and has a large black neon sign that displays TIVOLI with still more chaser lights.
The Chattanooga Public Library of Chattanooga, Tennessee, is a municipal public library overseen by the city government. As of 1928 it ran the Hamilton County public library. In 2013 it opened a makerspace. The current building on Broad Street used to show signage as the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library, having opened in 1976.
The Read House Hotel is a historic hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee, founded in 1872. The 141-room main building dates to 1926, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for Hamilton County. The 100-room rear wing was added in 1962, originally as a motel.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
