A McCallie Avenue building that gained a lot of local attention when it opened in the early 1950s before standing quietly for decades has recently garnered some national attention in a big way.
As was announced back in the summer, the State Office Building was recently named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
This marked the first time since the national organization began keeping its yearly – and now well-known -- list in 1988 that a Chattanooga structure or place has been listed.
In naming the building, which was originally called the Interstate Life and Accident Insurance Co. Building, the National Trust cited its Art Moderne style of architecture. Also praised was the building’s ruby granite and gray/white limestone on the exterior, and three bronze frieze panels over the McCallie Avenue entrance.
The listing came about because of the building’s uncertainty as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga makes plans to take possession of it this fall.
UTC officials have even said demolition is a possibility as they begin to look more thoroughly at everything from the structure’s condition to the school’s overall needs on limited campus space.
“We probably won’t know a long-term plan for the building for several years,” said Chuck Cantrell, UTC’s associate vice chancellor for communication and marketing. “We are going to move some offices and programs into it beginning this fall and evaluate it as we use it for a while.”
One UTC employee, school art and architecture professor Dr. Gavin Townsend, thinks the building should be saved.
“It would be a shame to lose such a distinguished and solid structure,” he said. “It is sheathed in some delicious stone. It would be hard to match the quality of the stonework and craftsmanship today. So I do hope the building can be converted into a useful, noble and enduring structure for the university.”
He calls the building an excellent example of Mid-Century Modernism, adding that it also tempered with some quiet examples of classicism, such as the projecting and attached rectangular columns, or pilasters, running up the building.
While Dr. Townsend and the National Trust see the building’s architectural richness, a visit to the Chattanooga Public Library points out an equally comparable wealth of business and social history. And much of it deals with the local Joseph W. Johnson family.
The Interstate company began in 1909 at a time when Volunteer State and Provident (now Unum Group) – which also have their buildings still standing -- were already in the insurance business.
One man connected from the early years with Interstate was Dr. Joseph W. Johnson Sr., a medical doctor who soon became head of the firm. From Alabama, he attended Howard College (now Samford University) and decided Chattanooga might be a good place to practice medicine after his school team played a game here during the very early years of college football.
Several of his teammates were injured, and he saw how much they had to pay for their treatments, he once recalled.
Educated medically at Tulane and trained in Vienna, Austria, Dr. Johnson first worked in several private practices, at Erlanger hospital and was even one of the organizers at Volunteer Life. Apparently, medical doctors were involved in helping start and lead insurance companies in those days.
In 1911 he became medical director and a member of the board of directors of Interstate. Ten years later, he gained controlling interest of the firm. By the time of his death, Interstate was operating in seven states – Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Arkansas.
He was quite a hands-on president, as he reportedly knew all the actuarial or insurance-related figures without having to look them up.
Known as “Dr. Joe” to all his employees, his obituary said he also brought smiles whenever he visited the firm’s various departments.
He was able to smile himself just two weeks before his Aug, 6, 1950, death, when some family members had him taken by ambulance from his home at 1013 East Brow Road on Lookout Mountain down to the new building. Put in a wheelchair, he was able to tour all parts of the nearly completed structure.
He reportedly told the family members and others gathered with him that this structure he could also see being constructed from his home on the mountain would be his monument.
He had also taken part in the building’s groundbreaking ceremonies in 1949, sitting in the cab of the steam shovel, while other employees stood around in blue jeans and coveralls.
Dr. Johnson was married to Mrs. Nell Evans Johnson, who was the daughter of former Chattanooga mayor and consul to Britain Henry (“H.”) Clay Evans.
Their three sons, H. Clay Evans Johnson, Dr. Joseph Johnson and David F.S. Johnson, also played key roles in the Interstate company’s development in the mid- and late 20thcentury. The younger Dr. Joseph Johnson was also a psychiatrist who pushed for the construction of the Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute, while H. Clay Evans Johnson, who became president of Interstate, was a key person in getting Memorial Hospital built. David Johnson was head of the Chattanooga Safety Council.
The Interstate firm began in a single room of the now-razed Temple Court building at the northeast corner of Cherry and Seventh streets. In 1922, the company moved to McCallie Avenue to the spacious former home of Moses Clift, a Civil War veteran, attorney, and coal company entrepreneur.
Part of the home was to be preserved and used when the new Interstate building was built in front of it, a newspaper article at the time said.
The architect for the new McCallie Avenue building was the Nashville firm of Hart, Freeland and Roberts, who were also involved with the Parthenon in the state capital. Mark K. Wilson Co., meanwhile, was the general contractor.
The three friezes on the front were done by Vanderbilt University fine arts professor Puryear Mims, who was known for capturing faces and wanted to depict the sturdiness of the mountain people in the area.
Various historical sources credit the building’s marble as being from such places as Wyoming (the black/gray variety), Vermont and Tennessee, and the granite from Minnesota.
When it was built, the seven-story building had several unusual features – a cafeteria on the third floor, an employee penthouse lounge and outside decks for recreation on the roof, a bowling alley in the basement, and a large, two-story auditorium in the rear.
The latter was to be used by the company and the local medical society, as the first two floors of the building were to be leased out to doctors and dentists.
Plans also called for the possibility of a 10-to-12-story tower in the rear if needed in the future.
The site where the building was built was known as Fort Erwin during the Civil War, and two cannon that had sat in front of the Clift home building were to also be in front of the new building.
Although the elder Dr. Johnson’s obituary said the building was to be completed in October 1950, it was officially dedicated in April 1951 before ably serving the company for a number of years. In 1973, plans were unveiled for a new addition that would face Houston Street and give the Interstate building more of an L shape.
The plans for this addition were drawn by Selmon T. Franklin Associates of Chattanooga, with William Martin serving as project architect.
According to some information provided by Mary Helms at the Chattanooga Public Library, a 1975 newspaper article said construction on the new addition was to be completed later that year.
The construction of the wing came at about the same time as Interstate was hit with some serious financial problems, due primarily to a Nashville-based trucking subsidiary. As a result, in 1976, Interstate merged with Gulf Life in Florida, and the local offices were moved to Jacksonville beginning in 1980.
After that the state of Tennessee soon began using the building, so it went from a structure focusing on doing business in multiple states to one dealing with the affairs of only Tennessee.
A remodeling overseen by architect Harrison Gill was carried out in the early 1990s.
A recent tour of the building given by Marty Oliver of Jones Lang LaSalle – which has contracted with the state to manage and maintain the building – showed a few changes no doubt since the building was dedicated in 1951.
But a few eye-catching features from the mid-20th century still remain. Besides some interior marble and interesting metal stair rails, the aesthetically pleasing details include a nice fountain and vintage clock in the McCallie Avenue entrance lobby, and some interesting elevator doors on the different floors. Also, some handsome wood paneling can be found in some of the sixth-floor offices and boardrooms, and some wood crown molding adorns a few other areas.
And yes, the outdoor sun decks remain, offering a great view of a city that has changed greatly around the building over the last 63 years.
Although the building has an uncertain future, all its architectural detail hints of a structure that has had quite a past.
Jcshearer2@comcast.net