520 Arcadia Ave.
520 Arcadia Ave.
Martin “Marty” Phillips in front of Arcadia house
Lynn and Ricky with their mother at Cameron Hill
Many ornate pieces from the fine houses on Cameron Hill ended up in a homes away from their origin, and at least one temporarily became part of a farm.
Lynn Phillips Durham, who lives in a senior neighborhood in Nashville, soon after she was born went to live far up Cameron Hill.
It was a house on Arcadia Avenue that had been occupied for a number of years by the family of Morris Feld, who was the proprietor of the Model Store. The Felds previously lived at 16 E. 4th St. and then on the side of Cameron Hill at 207 W. 6th St. Before that the end house on Arcadia had been occupied by Benjamin H. Cox Jr., a traveling salesman. It was first occupied in 1913 by Henry R. Biedermann, who was in the piano business. Later, Martin J. Burelbach, who was scout executive for the Boy Scouts of America, lived there as well.
Ms. Durham said, "My paternal grandparents, Louie and Freida Phillips, lived at the end of Arcadia Drive. The house was on a dead end street and next to the many concrete steps with metal banisters that went up and down Cameron Hill.
"My grandfather, who was a clerk at the Postal Transportation Service, covered the red brick on the front porch with masonry brick that really added a lot to the look of the house.
"There was a two-bedroom apartment attached by the basement of the main house that could be seen as one started down those long steps to the side of the house. My grandfather’s brother, Abe Phillips, moved in there with his family for several years.
"When my father, Martin "Marty" Phillips, came back from the service, he and my mother and “baby me” moved into the main house at 520 Arcadia. My paternal grandparents, Louie and Freida, moved into that apartment under the main house (520 1/2 Arcadia). Uncle Abe and Aunt Bertha moved into a house in North Chattanooga."
She said, "
The view from the room my Daddy built onto the back of the house was unbelievable at night as the walls of that room were mostly thick glass. It was as if we were looking out at a gigantic Christmas tree."
She noted, "My grandparents could come and go into the main house through the basement. The basement door opened into the main house at the first floor’s hallway that led to my parents’ bedroom and also into the kitchen. The fact that they would come into the house unannounced was a sore spot with my mother."
The Phillips family did suffer a tragedy while they were living on Cameron Hill. Her handsome baby brother, Richard Ivan "Ricky" Phillips, was bitten by a cat that had rabies and died when he was just 18 months old from the experimental shots they gave him and Lynn (21 shots in the stomach).
Lynn recalls, "I hid under my bed when we had to go get those shots. Daddy had to pull me out. They are reported to have been extremely painful to grown men."
That cat was a pet of one of the families that also lived on Arcadia.
Lynn says, "When my father got wind of Cameron Hill being torn down, he arranged a sizable buy-out and moved our family on to 44 acres where he took the red bricks from the house on Cameron Hill to build a stable that could hold over a dozen horses. They called that place 'Red Acres' where they hired a riding instructor who gave riding lessons and took people out into the park on trail rides. The TV personality, Bob Brandy, kept his horse at our stable.
"
Red Acres was located at the edge of Chickamauga Park on Old Ringgold Road. There was a trailer park on the left that my parents also ran. The stable was on the right. Both are gone now.
The two story colonial-style house is still there. Many changes have been made inside as well as outside of the house.
"My two younger sisters developed a strong love of horses during that time. Terre Phillips grew up with horses and has had her own stable in Ringgold, Georgia, (Peavine Creek Stables), for many years. Dayle Phillips Haywood and her husband have a miniature donkey farm with over 30 donkeys (Half Ass Acres in Chapel Hill, Tn.)
"As for me, I'm afraid of horses!"
Lynn Phillips Durham also said, "It makes my baby sister, Dayle Phillips Haworth, and me sad that we can't go back there and see the house we used to live in, the dead end we used to play on and all of those many stairs to the right of our house."