Brainerd Beacon's office. Click to enlarge.
Archived in many drawers of microfilm at The Public Library are the pages of time from Chattanooga’s newspapers. The Chattanooga Times and News-Free Press take up the majority of the space. There are also the shorter-lived publications such as the Chattanooga News, Post, and Star.
Copies of community newspapers can also be found in the archives. One is The Brainerd Beacon, which chronicled the suburban growth east of Missionary Ridge during the 1950’s. Reading the pages of the Beacon, one finds the beginnings of many landmarks that are still around today.
The inaugural edition of The Brainerd Beacon was delivered on Thursday, December 9, 1954. The front page carried the headline, “Weekly Publication Added to Growing Brainerd Family, “ and noted that “Brainerd, growing by leaps and bounds during the last five years, now has its own weekly newspaper, The Brainerd Beacon.”
Powering the Beacon were brothers Herman and Wolf Lebovitz. Each of the brothers had graduated from Chattanooga (City) High School and the University of Chattanooga. Earlier in 1954, they had opened the Management Service Bureau, which provided media services for businesses.
Herman Lebovitz had previously been the public relations manager for the Independent Theater chain. Wolf Lebovitz had worked at the Chattanooga Times since 1945 as a general assignment and sports writer and photographer. One of his photos from a 1950 local football game was featured as the Life Magazine Picture of the Week.
The Lebovitz brothers offered their new Brainerd Beacon free to “every family in Brainerd and 597 families served by the East Ridge post office,” according to their first front page. The paper soon changed to a paid subscription basis in February, 1955 but was just $1.75 per year.
The periodical set a minimum service area of 7,500 families. Each resident was offered the opportunity to serve as a correspondent, in order that the Beacon would provide complete community news coverage.
New businesses were springing up in Brainerd as fast as new rock-and-roll artists of the era. In the first few weeks, the Beacon told of the opening of a self-service laundry, the Kleen-o-Matic, at 3300 Brainerd Road. An early customer of Col. Harland Sanders and his still-secret fried chicken recipe and cooking method was the new Carl’s Drive-in.
The Brainerd-Germantown Shopping Center, which included a Rogers Supermarket (soon occupied by Kroger), Woolworth’s 5-and-10 cent store, and Eckerd’s Drugs, held its opening. The American National Bank (now Suntrust Bank) opened on December 17, 1954.
The Brainerd Beacon also covered entertainment news. Now-classic films of the 1950’s were screened at theaters in Brainerd, and advertised in the newspaper. “The Caine Mutiny,” starring Humphrey Bogart, Van Heflin, and Fred MacMurray (later, the father on “My Three Sons”) was shown at the Brainerd Theater. “Turning Point” and “Magnficient Obsession” were playing at the Skyway Drive-in Theater. “I Love Lucy” was starting its fifth season on television on October 4, 1955, and the Beacon listed this show and many others in its TV program schedules.
Infrastructure improvements in Brainerd were recorded in the columns of the Beacon. On Monday, January 3, 1955, a second tube was added to the Missionary Ridge tunnel. The city commission was studying the flooding problem in Brainerd, though it would not be until the 1970’s that the levee was completed.
Brainerd Road was to be widened as part of a project that also included widening Ninth Street to downtown. A new high school was being planned for Brainerd to serve the growing population. To alert citizens in case of an enemy attack, a siren was placed atop the Belvoir Pharmacy.
Activities of groups and clubs in Brainerd received extensive coverage in words and photographs. Knothole League championships and Brownies rising to become Girl Scouts were celebrated. At Christmas, the decorating contests of subdivisions were told while the holiday bells tolled. The class photo of the 1957 class of Brainerd Jr. High School was printed in the newspaper.
As Brainerd changed from rural to suburban in nature, some landmarks disappeared. In order to build Brainerd Village, an antebellum home was razed. The Sterchi farm near Lee Highway and East Brainerd Road was claimed for commercial and residential development. Even a landmark of suburbia, the Skyway Drive-in, was torn down in order to build Eastgate Mall and Holiday Bowl.
After just a few years at the helm of the Beacon, the Lebovitz brothers left the newspaper business. The June 15, 1957 Chattanooga Times reported that Herman Lebovitz left to take a position as zone manager with Investors Diversified Services, Inc. in Nashville. He later returned to school in his mid-30’s to become a social worker, and was active in religious organizations. Wolf Lebovitz returned to the staff of The Chattanooga Times in August, 1956.
The Beacon continued under Roy D. Bowen as editor. The paper was renamed The Brainerd Sun-Beacon. The last edition on file at The Public Library is December 22, 1958.
If you have memories of The Brainerd Beacon, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.
Office building today. Click to enlarge.