The stately Lookout Inn provided lodging for many celebrities. Click to enlarge.
The 100th anniversary of a memorable and tragic local event – the destruction by fire of the lavish Lookout Inn on Lookout Mountain – was recently observed.
The somber event had occurred on Nov. 17, 1908, when an afternoon blaze ripped through the structure, creating tense moments for those on the mountain and the hundreds of people watching from downtown Chattanooga.
In fact, not since the Civil War had such panic gripped the mountain. "The cries of firefighters as they cheered, directed and advised their fellow workers sounded as though they might be sentinels on duty passing a battle cry along the line," wrote a reporter covering the event.
Only through a heroic battlefield-like effort from volunteers and firefighters was the blaze kept from spreading across more of the mountain. It did, however, also destroy the surrounding summer cottages of James I. Carter, C.A. Lyerly, Carl White and Coca-Cola bottler B.F. Thomas.
Eighteen years before, the inn had enjoyed a much more joyful – but equally dramatic – opening. Built across from the current Incline Railway station at the top of the mountain, the structure was opened on June 2, 1890, and christened with a lavish ball on June 16.
The four-story structure – which was designed by noted Chattanooga architect Samuel M. Patton and was named in a contest – was 120 yards long and featured an observation deck in one of its towers.
It was constructed by the same businessmen who had built the Broad Gauge Railroad up the mountain a few months before. The head of the group was Col. Richard Watkins, a Civil War veteran. He enjoyed watching construction so closely that he was reportedly knocked unconscious when he was hit by a piece of wood.
Lookout Mountain during this time was still primarily a summer resort area and had only a minimal number of year-round homes.
After the hotel opened, numerous celebrities visited it, including President Theodore Roosevelt, railroad baron Jay Gould, explorer Henry Stanley and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant.
Apparently, not enough regular people came, however, as it soon began experiencing financial problems. This was despite the fact that some Chattanoogans rented rooms for the summer, which was apparently the only time of the year the building was open. Sam Read of the Read House later began operating the hotel.
His operation apparently did not help much, but that would not matter, as the financial panic was about to be replaced by panic of a more fearful kind.
A short time before the fire, the inn was bought by a group headed by Chattanoogan John Shamotulski and George Jung, who was the secretary/treasurer of the Moerlein Brewing Co. of Cincinnati.
They were apparently making plans to sell the structure when the blaze occurred, reportedly as a result of an exposed telephone wire in the southern wing.
Some people at the Incline station had observed the fire just after it started, and the 17 hotel guests were able to get out safely.
The next day's paper summed up the tragedy with a headline saying that a fire had swept the inn literally from the face of the Earth.
"No more spectacular sight has been witnessed here than that of the flames on the side of Lookout Mountain last night," it said. "From the city, it was truly a grand spectacle."
Jcshearer2@comcast.net