Terminal Station (Chattanooga)

Last updated
Terminal Station
Inter-city rail
Terminal StationChattanooga.jpg
Location 1400 Market St., Chattanooga, Tennessee
Line(s) CS, CNO&TP, SOU, AGS
History
Opened 1909
Closed 1970
Rebuilt 1973, 1989
Terminal Station
USA Tennessee location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location 1400 Market St., Chattanooga, Tennessee
Coordinates 35°2′13″N85°18′25″W / 35.03694°N 85.30694°W / 35.03694; -85.30694 Coordinates: 35°2′13″N85°18′25″W / 35.03694°N 85.30694°W / 35.03694; -85.30694
Built 1908
Architect Barber, Don
Architectural style Beaux-Arts
NRHP reference # 73001778 [1]
Added to NRHP February 20, 1973

Terminal Station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is a former railroad station, and now hotel, which was once owned and operated by the Southern Railway, and is currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The station is currently operated under the name The Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel and is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. [2]

Chattanooga, Tennessee City in Tennessee, United States

Chattanooga is a city located in southeastern Tennessee along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia. With an estimated population of 179,139 in 2017, it is the fourth-largest city in Tennessee and one of the two principal cities of East Tennessee, along with Knoxville. Served by multiple railroads and Interstate highways, Chattanooga is a transit hub. Chattanooga lies 118 miles (190 km) northwest of Atlanta, Georgia, 112 miles (180 km) southwest of Knoxville, Tennessee, 134 miles (216 km) southeast of Nashville, Tennessee, 102 miles (164 km) east-northeast of Huntsville, Alabama, and 147 miles (237 km) northeast of Birmingham, Alabama.

Southern Railway (U.S.) railway company in the United States, active 1894–1990

The Southern Railway is a name of a class 1 railroad that was based in the Southern United States. The railroad is the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

Contents

History

The station was opened in 1909 and was the largest station in Chattanooga's history. The Terminal Station was the first train station in the south to help open a pathway to connect the north from the south, mostly to connect the city of Cincinnati, to Chattanooga. The original Chattanooga Union Station, built in 1858, (demolished in 1973) and a second station, built in 1882, were too small to handle the rapid expansion in the railroad network serving Chattanooga. [3] Chattanooga was becoming a main port and hub for supplies and people to come through, so it was decided that a station should be built to be bigger than previously planned. The construction on the second station, or Terminal Station, began in 1906 at the cost of $1.5 million. Terminal Station was initially envisioned to be a train station that would deliver supplies and small packages, and then it was decided that it would also serve passenger trains. The Terminal Train Station eventually started to serve, on average, fifty passenger trains per day, and even greeted presidents such as Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt. [4] However, this does not include the traffic and materials that were also coming in due to the non-passenger trains.

Cincinnati City in Ohio

Cincinnati is a major city in the United States state of Ohio and is the government seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line with Kentucky. The city drives the Cincinnati–Middletown–Wilmington combined statistical area, which had a population of 2,172,191 in the 2010 census making it Ohio's largest metropolitan area. With a population of 301,301, Cincinnati is the third-largest city in Ohio and 65th in the United States. Its metropolitan area is the fastest growing economic power in the Midwestern United States based on increase of economic output and it is the 28th-biggest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. Cincinnati is also within a half day's drive of sixty percent of the United States populace.

Woodrow Wilson 28th President of the United States

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was an American statesman and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of Princeton University and as the 34th governor of New Jersey before winning the 1912 presidential election. As president, he oversaw the passage of progressive legislative policies unparalleled until the New Deal in 1933. He also led the United States during World War I, establishing an activist foreign policy known as "Wilsonianism."

Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd President of the United States

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A Democrat, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which realigned American politics into the Fifth Party System and defined American liberalism throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II. He is often rated by scholars as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

American railroad passenger traffic declined after World War II, and even more so in the 1950s and 1960s, due to competition from better cars and interstate systems, along with airplanes becoming a more popular way to travel and send things. Packages and land shipping became easier to send and the train track locations became outdated. Terminal Station hosted its last passenger train to visit and serve the station, the Southern Railway's Birmingham Special , from New York City to Birmingham, and this train left Terminal Station in 1970, which is the same year the doors of Terminal Station finally closed to the public. In the years before, as the passenger traffic did decline, most of the platforms started to become storage before the station eventually got changed into a hotel and one by one, each track ultimately became obsolete. [5]

<i>Birmingham Special</i>

The Birmingham Special was a passenger train operated by the Southern Railway, Norfolk and Western Railway, and Pennsylvania Railroad in the southeastern United States. The train began service in 1909 and continued, with alterations, after Amtrak assumed control of most long-haul intercity passenger rail in the United States on May 1, 1971. The Birmingham Special is the namesake of the famed Glenn Miller big band tune "Chattanooga Choo Choo."

New York City Largest city in the United States

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States and thus also in the state of New York. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

In April, 1973, after near absolute destruction, Terminal Station was reopened by a group of business people, who were inspired by the "Chattanooga Choo Choo" song and its enduring popularity. They renamed Terminal Station to "Chattanooga Choo Choo Hilton and Entertainment Complex". Investors poured more than four million dollars into the Terminal Station renovation project. [6] In the year 1989, another group of business people invested another four million dollars to refurbish and renovate the hotel and to bring in and hire new management and staff. The 1989 update resulted in the hotel's current moniker: The Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel. [4]

Chattanooga Choo Choo Glenn Miller Orchestra song

"Chattanooga Choo Choo" is a 1941 song written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren. It was originally recorded as a big band/swing tune by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra and featured in the 1941 movie Sun Valley Serenade. It was the first song to receive a gold record, presented by RCA Victor in 1942, for sales of 1.2 million copies.

Architecture and Pop-Culture

The Beaux-Arts-style station designed by Donn Barber was one of the grandest buildings in Chattanooga, featuring an arched main entrance. The building also has an 82-foot (25 m) high ceiling dome with a skylight in the center section. The station included a main waiting room, bathrooms, ticket offices, and other services ready to help potential passengers. The original Terminal Station was merely one story in height, so the aforementioned dome and skylight made this area look gargantuan in juxtaposition to other similar buildings, while the arched main entrance was said to be the "largest arch in the world." [7] Lighting was provided by large brass chandeliers. [3] Terminal Station had fourteen train tracks, that could serve seven different passenger platforms. [8] The then president of the Southern Railway System, William Finley, wanted the architecture to follow the example of and imitate the looks of the National Park Bank of New York, and the high dome-like skylight was the main emulation of the National Park Bank.

Beaux-Arts architecture expresses the academic neoclassical architectural style

Beaux-Artsarchitecture was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporated Gothic and Renaissance elements, and used modern materials, such as iron and glass. It was an important style in France until the end of the 19th century. It also had a strong influence on architecture in the United States, because of the many prominent American architects who studied at the Beaux-Arts, including Henry Hobson Richardson, John Galen Howard, Daniel Burnham, and Louis Sullivan.

Donn Barber American architect

Donn BarberFAIA was an American architect.

Chandelier decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture

A chandelier is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use incandescent light bulbs, though some modern designs also use fluorescent lamps and recently LEDs.

The train tracks have mostly been removed to accommodate the growth of the city. The modern Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel is adorned with a bright neon miniature sign version of the trains that once visited. The hotel is surrounded and fenced in by rose gardens and includes an additional area for educational historic trolley rides as well as an ice skating rink. It also features the "Dinner in the Diner" restaurant.

The 1941 Glenn Miller song "Chattanooga Choo Choo" told the story of a train trip from Track 29 at Pennsylvania Station in New York City through Baltimore, North and South Carolina, and finishing the trip, or terminating at Terminal Station. [9]

Glenn Miller American big band musician, arranger, composer, and bandleader

Alton Glenn Miller was an American big-band trombonist, arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was the best-selling recording artist from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best-known big bands. Miller's recordings include "In the Mood", "Moonlight Serenade", "Pennsylvania 6-5000", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "A String of Pearls", "At Last", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "American Patrol", "Tuxedo Junction", "Elmer's Tune", and "Little Brown Jug". In just four years Glenn Miller scored 16 number-one records and 69 top ten hits—more than Elvis Presley and the Beatles did in their careers. While he was traveling to entertain U.S. troops in France during World War II, Miller's aircraft disappeared in bad weather over the English Channel.

Pennsylvania Station (New York City) train station in New York City

Pennsylvania Station, also known as New York Penn Station or Penn Station, is the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest in the Western Hemisphere, serving more than 630,000 passengers per weekday as of 2018. Penn Station is in Midtown Manhattan, close to Herald Square, the Empire State Building, Koreatown, and Macy's Herald Square. Entirely underground, the station is located in Midtown South beneath Madison Square Garden, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues and between 31st and 33rd Streets, with additional exits to nearby streets.

Baltimore Largest city in Maryland

Baltimore is an independent city in the state of Maryland within the United States. Baltimore was established by the Constitution of Maryland as an independent city in 1729. With a population of 611,648 in 2017, Baltimore is the largest such independent city in the United States. As of 2017, the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be just under 2.808 million, making it the 20th largest metropolitan area in the country. Baltimore is located about 40 miles (60 km) northeast of Washington, D.C., making it a principal city in the Washington-Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA), the fourth-largest CSA in the nation, with a calculated 2017 population of 9,764,315.

Representative old steam locomotive on display at Terminal Station. Chattanooga ChooChoo Locomotive.jpg
Representative old steam locomotive on display at Terminal Station.

Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel

In the year 1973, local businessmen bought the Terminal Station three years after it closed down, renamed it the Chattanooga Choo Choo after the Glenn Miller song, and began rehabilitating the building into a hotel. Today,[ when? ] the 24-acre (97,000 m2) complex is a convention center, hotel and resort with restaurants and shops. Hotel guests can stay in half of a restored passenger railway car. Dining at the complex includes the Gardens restaurant in the Terminal Station itself (enclosed passenger loading platform), The Station House (which is housed in a former baggage storage, but on original building plans is designated as "Mail Sorting Facility") and the "Dinner in the Diner" which is the complex's fine dining venue, housed in a restored 1938 Class A dining car. Some parts of the complex are connected by a heritage streetcar line, operated by a 1924-built ex-New Orleans Perley Thomas trolley car. Hotel guests and customers can reserve a completely refurbished and restored authentic sleeper car, some of which are salvaged from the same trains that used to run through Terminal Station. [10]

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The Stanton House was a luxurious hotel which existed in the golden era of passenger trains in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was built in 1871 and named after its founder, John C. Stanton, president of the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad. The Stanton House was advertised as the "most elegant hotel in the south" at five stories tall with 100 guest rooms. The hotel became a large attraction for wealthy railroad passengers and even hosted president Rutherford B. Hayes. The hotel boasted restaurants, a barber shop, observatory, billiard rooms and a large dining hall which could seat up to 200 guests. The Stanton House was demolished in 1906 for Chattanooga's new terminal station to be built.

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "The Chattanooga Choo Choo, St. Louis, a Historic Hotels of America member". Historic Hotels of America. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Chattanooga, Tennessee: Train Town - Reading 3". National Park Service . Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  4. 1 2 "Chattanooga Choo Choo - Terminal Station". www.tennesseerivervalleygeotourism.org. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
  5. ↑ Strickland, Justin (2009). Chattanooga's Terminal Station. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. p. 93.
  6. ↑ Crutchfield, Jennifer (2010). Chattanooga Landmarks: Exploring the History of the Scenic City. Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press. ISBN   978-1-61423-231-5.
  7. ↑ "Chattanooga, Tennessee: Train Town--Reading 3". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
  8. ↑ Walker, Alan. Railroads of Chattanooga. Great Britain: Arcadia Publishing. p. 63. ISBN   0-7385-1539-6.
  9. ↑ "Chattanooga, Tennessee: Train Town". National Park Service . Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  10. ↑ "Chattanooga Choo Choo". www.chattanoogafun.com. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
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