Carl Arnold Has Many Memories Of Interstate Building

Much of the attention regarding the Chattanooga State Office Building on McCallie Avenue has been on its future.

The reason is that UTC is taking over ownership of the building and is pondering whether to preserve it or tear it down in the coming months or even years.

But for Carl Arnold, his thoughts when he sees or thinks about the building are usually more about the past.

Mr. Arnold, who is now 97 years old, worked from 1946-84 at the old Interstate Life and Accident Insurance Co., which built the building in the early 1950s and occupied it until the state began using it in the early 1980s.

“It was a great company,” Mr. Arnold recalled recently over the telephone after seeing a recent story on the building in chattanoogan.com. “(Company leader) Clay Johnson had a lot to do with it.”

He recalled that Mr. Johnson was an “alpha male” type, who was a natural leader in running the company.  Mr. Johnson was also in a number of civic organizations and was honored for his service work over the years, including when he received the Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga’s Distinguished Service Award.

“Clay was personality plus,” he said. “I don’t think that I heard anybody say they left the company and enjoyed working any place better than Interstate.”

Of Mr. Johnson’s other two brothers who were also in leadership positions with Interstate, Dr. Joe Johnson was a doctor who served as medical director, while David Johnson was director of sales.

Mr. Arnold, who retired as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Interstate, recalled that David Johnson had a real showman’s personality and believes he once brought the noted orchestra leader Guy Lombardo to play at a family wedding.

While the three elder Johnsons are all deceased, Mr. Arnold said a few other company officials besides him are also still in the area, including Morton Kent and Tom Caldwell.

Regarding the Interstate building, Mr. Arnold believes it was the first major building constructed in Chattanooga since the Great Depression.

“It is a beautiful building,” he said. “I remember we went out to the Midwest to look at an insurance company building built on the same pattern.”

While the Interstate company continued its successful operation for a number of years after constructing the building, the business eventually became an aggressive holding company, and that created some problems, he remembered.

“They went out and bought all kinds of companies,” Mr. Arnold recalled.

One was a Nashville trucking company called GTS, which was run by Bill and Tommy Wilson and had been around since the 1930s. Mr. Arnold said the firm wanted to be the biggest trucking company in the country and asked for a lot of money to reach that goal. As a result, the Interstate company found itself having to borrow money to meet their wishes.

“Interstate was a very conservative money-making company, and the trucking company ate our lunch,” he said.

Even though the separate Interstate insurance firm was sound and still doing well, the entire holding company ended up selling out to Gulf Life after company head E. Grant Fitts aggressively approached them about buying it. The negotiations took several months.

Gulf Life ended up becoming part of American General, which became AIG.

As a result of what ended up happening to Interstate, some valuable business lessons were learned during that time, he said.

“Hindsight told us we should have stayed with something we knew well,” said Mr. Arnold, whose 99-year-old wife, Elysie Cheek Arnold, died in April.

But his hindsight regarding the building is that the company made a sound decision in constructing what was considered a real office showplace for the mid-20^th century.

“They did a pretty good job on it,” he said.

And he certainly hopes preservation can come for this building that was recently placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of 11 most endangered properties.

“The beautiful Interstate office building is a historically significant landmark,” he said. “Its design is such that it can be re-purposed in a variety of future uses.

“It is a symbol of the confidence ‘the greatest generation’ had in the new Chattanooga and reflects the positive image of  ‘the Scenic City of the South,’ a description often used by Clay Johnson.

“McCallie Avenue and Chattanooga would never be the same without the Interstate building.”

To see the earlier story and slide show on the building and Interstate company, click here: http://www.chattanoogan.com/2014/9/7/283812/Future-Of-Historic-Interstate-Insurance.aspx

Jcshearer2@comcast.net