Interstate Glass House Restaurant was at WDEF site. Click to enlarge.
“Make-overs” aren’t just for people, as buildings are frequently remodeled by their new owners in order to serve a different purpose. For instance, two former Hixson service stations were converted to Gilman Paint and Big Ridge Cleaners. An old theater in Riverview was embedded into a new retail center, and the walls of the Las Magaritas restaurant include some of the masonry from the theater’s balcony. In downtown, new brick veneer and first-level parking changed the F. W. Woolworth’s into the First Volunteer Bank. The WDEF studios at 3304 South Broad Street, though, were built brand-new from the ground up, right? Wrong. The front part of the building is the old Interstate Glass House Restaurant.
Don’t let the name deceive you; the Interstate Glass House restaurants were around for several years before the Interstate Highway System. This was a chain of eateries based in Chicago, where their flagship store was at Lincoln and Touhy (“Too-hee,” I’m told, by a former Chicagoan). There were other locations in Michigan City, Indiana; Henderson, Kentucky; Walterboro, South Carolina; Morrisville, Pennsylvania; and South Hill, Virginia. The motto was “Good Food and Service.”
The Glass House opened in Chattanooga in 1940. According to fire insurance maps and city directories, this appears to have been the first commercial development on the east side of the 3300 block of Broad Street. There was no other information at the library on the restaurant, so I checked with my uncle, Jack Jolley, who grew up in St. Elmo but now lives out of state.
I only had to mention that I had learned that part of WDEF’s building was a former restaurant when my uncle said, “Oh, yes, the old Glass House. That brings back memories.” He said that he carried newspapers as a boy, and recalled going into the Glass House to cure a hunger pang. “I want you to know that this poor boy couldn’t afford their prices – 35 cents for a hamburger!” The cost of a meal, plus the manager’s rejection of his offer to leave some newspapers to sell, caused him never to return to the Glass House.
My uncle fondly recalled some of the other businesses that were part of South Broad, such as Turner’s Service Station, Kay’s Ice Cream, and the A & P Grocery. There were a few entrepreneurs, such as the Point View Guide Service, who would chauffeur tourists in their own cars up and around Lookout Mountain. He also mentioned that during World War II, trains carrying hungry soldiers would be stopped on South Broad waiting for tracks to clear. My uncle started a take-out food delivery service with the military, bringing meals from the Silver Kettle restaurant to the train.
The war halted a lot of the tourist trade which the Interstate Glass House had hoped to capture. The name of the business disappears from the city directory during the war years, only to reappear in 1945 as the abbreviated “Glass House.” The post-WWII years saw an increase in tourist travel, but also an increase in competition from new South Broad restaurants such as Pop’s Pig House BBQ, the Old South, and the Mount Vernon. The Glass House gained a neighbor when the Double Cola Company built a new facility next door.
In 1957, Carter Parham, WDEF president, announced that his TV and radio station would move from studios in the Volunteer State Life Insurance Building to a something-old, something-new $400,000 building on South Broad. The Glass House became WDEF’s offices, and the station’s call letters appear to have been mounted to the frame of the old restaurant sign. A new two-story building was appended to the Glass House, and housed two television studios, two radio studios, and control rooms. WDEF dedicated their new home on Dec. 10, 1958, with a video/audio simulcast of the Chattanooga Symphony. Listeners were encouraged to have their AM floor radio and television both tuned to WDEF. This was an early attempt at stereophonic sound that paved the way for today’s digital home entertainment systems.
Here’s a sampling of WDEF’s programming during the week that they moved into the former Glass House. How many of these were your favorites?
Sunday – Lassie, Ed Sullivan, Jack Benny
weekdays – Captain Kangaroo, Luther’s Cartoons, Secret Storm, As the World Turns
Monday – Father Knows Best
Tuesday – Red Skelton, Highway Patrol, To Tell the Truth
Wednesday – I’ve Got a Secret
Thursday – December Bride, Zane Grey
Friday – Jackie Gleason, Phil Silvers
Saturday – Gunsmoke, Perry Mason
If you have memories of the Interstate Glass House Restaurant, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@signaldata.net.