521 Pine when it was the Stoneleigh Apartments
photo by From the Pat St. Charles, Jr., Collection scanned by Sam Hall, Chattanoogahistory.com
Smith home was the one with the windows circled by stone
Charles Edward Smith
Charles Smith did the ornate stonework on the First National Bank building at Eighth and Broad
The Dome Building includes Charles Smith's trademark circular stone handiwork
photo by The
Cragmiles Mausoleum and church in Cleveland
Details of the Gothic mausoleum that was the handiwork of a young Charles Smith
A tall stone house with distinctive windows circled by stone on the left front and the sides was a landmark on the side of historic Cameron Hill.
The home of marble and stone dealer Charles Edward Smith at 521 Pine St. was among those toppled by Urban Renewal.
Smith was born in Germany and as a youth made his way to America. He trained in the stone works of Muldoon Marble Co. at Louisville, Ky. When a wealthy Cleveland, Tn., family wanted to build a handsome white marble Gothic mausoleum in honor of their daughter, the young Smith was sent to oversee its construction. Nina Cragmiles was seven years old when she went on a buggy ride on Oct. 18, 1871. The horse spooked at a railroad crossing and she was struck by a train and killed. The Cragmiles family also built a church at the site, St. Luke's Episcopal. There is an urban legend that the white marble "bleeds" out of sadness for the loss of Nina.
Smith met and married a Cleveland girl, Annie A. Hartdegan, so he did not return to Louisville. The couple lived at Cleveland until moving to Chattanooga in 1881. He started a marble and stone business on Market Street at the site where D.B. Loveman's Department Store was later built. His first job was to place stepping stones across muddy Market Street so pedestrians could make their way across to the jewelry store of the Fischer brothers.
Smith did the stonework on many of the city's leading buildings, including the First National Bank building and the Dome Building. He did many of the monuments at Chickamauga Battlefield, including all of those honoring the Ohio soldiers. This included the towering Ohio Monument at Missionary Ridge.
Charles Smith built his handsome stone home at the end of Pine near Sixth Street in 1890. The Smiths lived there until they moved to a house on Oak Street about 1902.
Daniel H. Debardalaben was the next occupant of the stone house. Frank L. Miller, vice president of Miller Brothers department store, lived there in the 1920s. Later it was in use as the Eagles Home. As the final days of Cameron Hill approached, it was converted to the Stoneleigh Apartments.