by John Shearer
posted January 13, 2008
An end of an era has come for Red Bank in recent days with the razing of several landmark commercial buildings near the intersection of Dayton Boulevard and Ashland Terrace.
Red Bank Baptist Church, which is located nearby, had acquired the buildings from the longtime owners, the Tom L. Morton Jr. family.
The street-fronting buildings, which looked similar in style to some of those recently restored in the Frazier Avenue and Cherokee Boulevard areas, had housed in recent years Roy Cox television and appliance store, the Red Bank Athletic Shop and the Computer Man.
According to church staff member Bill Harvey, the church had contracted with workers to remove the asbestos from the buildings before demolition.
The site will initially be used for parking but will be available should the church ever need to expand its facilities, he added.
“We bought it because it became available,” he said. “We don’t have a plan right now.”
The Red Bank Athletic Shop, at 4022 Dayton Blvd., moved a short distance south into another historic Red Bank commercial building. The Computer Man, at 4020 Dayton Blvd., closed shortly before the transfer of property, while Roy Cox, which was at 4024 and 4026 Dayton Blvd., has not opened up in another location.
The demolition has resulted in numerous nostalgic and sentimental reminiscences by those who worked or lived in Red Bank for a long time.
My father, Dr. C. Wayne Shearer, had his optometric office in the part of the Computer man building starting in the mid-1950s, sharing the building with jeweler Fred Shaw. Just this week, he noticed that the light green color he had painted his examination room a half century ago had become visible again on the outside of the church’s Family Life Center following the demolition.
According to some old Chattanooga city directories, the red brick buildings were constructed shortly after World War II ended. The tenants in 1946-47 were Cobb’s Dry Goods store at 4024 (where Roy Cox later was), Roper’s Food Market and Hall’s Meat Market at 4026 (also where Cox was), and the Bright and Godbey Hardware at 4028, a building at the corner by Ashland Terrace and torn down a number of years before the others.
By 1948, Morton Drug Co, headed by pharmacist T.L Morton Sr., the father of the recent block owner, was at 4022 Dayton Blvd., where the Red Bank Athletic Shop had been.
The 1950 city directory said that the Bright and Godbey Hardware Co. was back in the 4028 building, while the Economy Food Market was at 4026 where the other grocery had been. A new tenant in the block was the Fox Theatre and Shaw Jewelers at 4020.
By 1959, Dr. Shearer had been using for about four years part of the building at 4020. The McWhorter Drug Co. was located at 4022, Cobb’s Dry Goods Co. was still at 4024, as was the Economy Food Market at 4026. Cotter Hardware, meanwhile, was now the hardware store at the corner.
At that time, Dr. Shearer’s office number was 7-8952. When he retired in 1997 approximately 40 years later after relocating his office to 306 Ashland Terrace and 3928 Dayton Blvd., one of his office numbers was 877-8952.
By 1965, Woodrow “Red” Pafford, a retired military veteran, and his wife, Willene, were running Pafford’s Barber and Beauty Shop in the former Dr. Shearer office and Shaw Jewelers building. The other tenants were the same as in 1959, except Hudson Hardware was now in the north corner building.
By 1970, Dean Clothing Co. had moved into the Cobb’s building at 4024, while the 4026 building also had a new tenant – a gentleman named Roy Cox. The Red Bank Dress Shop was also occupying the former hardware store at 4028.
In 1980, the Spartan Barber and Beauty Shop was at 4020, the Red Bank Athletic Shop was at 4022, Personallyours and National Services stationary shop was at 4024 and Roy Cox was at 4026.
Its most recent appearance was already taking shape nearly 30 years ago.
Roy Cox and Red Bank Athletic Shop had managed to stay successful without being near a mall or new shopping center.
Longtime Red Bank resident Nancy Watkins remembers going into Cobb’s Dry Goods and buying clothes. She also recalls the other businesses in the block.
“McWhorter’s used to have a soda fountain where they served Cokes and milkshakes,” she said.
One time she was at a doctor’s office in Red Bank with her late husband, Rhea. He was suffering from hypoglycemia, and she had been asked to buy him a milkshake quickly. Although she normally traded at Red Bank Pharmacy a short distance south, McWhorter’s was the closest business, so she bought one there, she recalled.
A gold-leafed window sign related to the building’s days as a drug store and soda fountain was still on the front glass of the Red Bank Athletic Shop building until the structure’s razing.
Dr. Shearer remembers when the Fox Theatre closed and construction workers were incorporating the building into the expanding Red Food Store on the other side. For a number of days, he and Mr. Shaw heard loud banging on the other side of the wall while working, he said.
The expanded Red Food Store was later converted into Red Bank Baptist’s Family Life Center.
The stores in the recently razed buildings were part of a larger Red Bank commercial center that included such other Red Bank institutions as Red Bank Hardware, Redford’s, and, as mentioned, Red Bank Pharmacy, all of which were farther south. And Summers Chevrolet and later Adcox-Kirby Chevrolet were just across the street.
For two or three decades after World War II, the area of Dayton Boulevard near Ashland Terrace and Morrison Springs Road was a real commercial hub north of town.
Now that block is only a hub for memories, although quite pleasant ones.
Jcshearer2@comcast.net
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