Kolodkins Lived Many Years At 631 W. 6th Street Near The Top Of Cameron Hill

The Kolodkins lived many years in a fine two-story home near where W. Sixth Street reached the top of Cameron Hill.

The house at 631 W. 6th was first the home of the Rev. Edward A. Berry, pastor of the Central Congregational Church. The next year, the choice spot belonged to Henry T. Pope, manager of The National Company of St. Louis.

Richard M. George, who was supervisor of the mail carriers in Chattanooga, acquired the large home in the early 1900s.

He lived there until it became the George Apartments in the late 1920s.

Mathis (Max) Kolodkin was originally from Shatsk, Belarus. He was born there in 1869. Max moved to Chattanooga from Milledgeville, Ga., about 1911. He had come to the U.S. before his wife, Hannah, and some of the children came over. Max died in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic.

However, Hannah and many of the children stayed on in Chattanooga. The children were Alexander M. (born 1894), Anna (born 1896), Phillip (born 1897), Charles (born 1902), Harris (born 1904), Leah (born 1909), Molly (born 1912) and Louis (born 1913).

In 1915, the Kolodkins were living on Cameron Hill at 613 Poplar St., including Alex, Anna who was a clerk at Miller Brothers, and Annie, who was a grocer at 525 9th St. Phillip Max was clerking for Annie. Later, he was a conductor for Chattanooga Railway & Light Company. Still later he lived on Forrest Avenue in North Chattanooga and worked for The Hub Store. Charles G. was a clerk for the Southern Railway.

Hannah T. Kolodkin, widow of Max, in 1930 had moved to 603 W. Sixth. She was with her son, Harris M., who was a Southern Railway clerk, son Louis and daughters Mollie and Leah, a saleslady at D.B. Loveman's. 

Alexander married Sarah Baron. Their son, Milton A., was a 1940 graduate of Chattanooga High School. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, then his master's degree in history from Columbia University before moving away from Chattanooga.

Anna married Joe Bush, Phillip married Ella Sacks. Charles married Frieda Neidesh. Harris married Ann Estroff. Molly married David Slabosky and they lived in Nashville for many years. Leah Kolodkin lived until 2005 when she was 96. Molly Kolodkin Slabosky lived to be 100 years old. Louis, who was unmarried, died in 1974. Anna Kolodkin Bush lived until 1993 when she was 97. 

The house at 603 W. Sixth was eventually torn down to make way for the Cameron Hill Baptist Church.

The Kolodkins then lived many years at 631 W. Sixth at the old home of Richard M. George. Hannah was on the second floor with her son Harris. Anna and Joe Bush also occupied one of the four apartments.

Their next-door neighbor, in an ornate, two-story frame home at 629 W. Sixth was Mrs. Mildred H. Nix. She rented out the upstairs to W.G. Dunn. The house at 629 W. Sixth was built about 1890 by Jesse L. Haver, who was an engineer. William Frank Hall bought the house around the turn of the century and lived there until the 1920s when it was converted to three apartments. 

Alex Slabosky, a grandson of Hannah Kolodkin, remembers visiting 631 W. Sixth St. in the 1950s.

He said, "The house contained four apartments. My aunt and uncle, Anna and Joe Bush, had a large apartment on the first level and my grandmother, Hannah Kolodkin, who was a widow, and her son Harris lived in an apartment on the second level. The entrance to a third apartment was to the left side of the house by the large magnolia tree. I don't remember where the fourth apartment was. Both levels had large porches that wrapped around two sides of the building."