John Shearer: Examining Old R.H. Hunt-Designed Hixson School Auditorium And Pondering Potential Uses

Despite the fact a few old desks, cabinets and even sinks were blocking some open areas in the old auditorium that had once been part of Hixson High and Middle School, the memories were still clear and unobstructed for alumni Bill and Jim Smith.

 

“It just brought back a lot of memories culminating with our graduation from that auditorium,” said Bill Smith, a member of the Hixson Class of 1952, after viewing the room and getting back into the open and air-conditioned part of the Hixson Community Center connected to it. 

 

“I especially enjoyed looking down that aisle that we walked through together.

There were only 24 of us, and 11 of us are still alive.”

 

Younger brother Jim, who graduated from Hixson in 1956, some 10 years before the current high school opened by Middle Valley Road, also enjoyed getting to see a place he had not visited in a while. “It did bring back a lot of memories, some I don’t want to describe,” he said with a laugh. “It was mainly mischief.”  

 

Ever since I had moved back fulltime to Chattanooga in 2017 and had begun jogging several times a month on average on the big grassy area where the older part of the historic Hixson school once stood, I had always wondered if an old auditorium was still there.

 

The walls of the building off School Drive on what was the original Hixson campus were still standing, but I was never sure until this week if any semblance of an auditorium or theater remained on the inside.

 

I had written a story in 2012 on the fact the older part of the school was to be torn down that year and mentioned that some of the newer part of what was the former Hixson Middle School was to be preserved and used probably as a community center.

 

During my research for that story, I realized that the older part to be torn down was designed by R.H. Hunt – probably the most accomplished and prolific Chattanooga architect of the late 1800s and first few decades of the 20^th century. And his firm’s design work included the auditorium wing.

 

The R.H. Hunt sections were built in a slight art deco style in 1937 by Mark Wilson Co. as part of a Works Progress Administration-sponsored project during the New Deal. 

 

As one positive of the razing at the time for those interested in historic preservation, the auditorium was saved, leaving behind at least a small part of Mr. Hunt’s handiwork. At the time, then-Chattanooga parks and recreation official Larry Zehnder said in an interview for my story that he hoped the building could indeed be saved, fixed up and used perhaps for community gatherings.

 

According to some information passed on by assistant city engineer Dennis Malone, the renovation began on the newer part of the old Hixson Middle School in 2014 to convert it into a community center. This had come after the city purchased the campus from Hamilton County Schools in 2010, he said. But the plan but did not include restoring the theater/auditorium. As the work continued into 2015, some structures from 1988 were also torn down before the center opened in 2016.

 

I had been meaning to write a story on the old auditorium, if it were still there in any form, for several years, and finally got around to contacting city of Chattanooga officials recently and asked if I could see its interior.

 

They were kind to honor my request, so I met Napierra Alexander, a public relations coordinator with the city of Chattanooga’s Department of Community Development, at the center. I also invited the Smiths, retired educators who are my cousins, to see it as well.

 

As we arrived at the Community Center lobby and waited to get inside, Bill and Jim were full of memories of the entire school/community center plant. They discussed where the original school building was at the location of the new gym, an old house-like structure where a nurse would give shots, and even the old outhouse-like bathrooms on the property.

 

Bill also noted a former plaque to some World War II soldiers from the school by the auditorium as well as the older trees located in front of the old part of the school. Today, they are still there and lined up with their long and outreached branches like young students lined up for calisthenics.

 

When we got ready to get into the auditorium, its interior was much less conspicuous than the trees or even its exterior. In fact, it was closed off for safety reasons and because it is not used other than for informal storage. 

 

It was almost like a locked bank vault, and only through some persistence from Ms. Alexander and one or two other amicable Hixson Community Center staff members were they able to find the key from a supervisor and we were able to get inside.

 

While waiting for the key, Bill Smith and I traveled briefly upstairs to an unused and post-World War II section of the community center/former school. Here, time appeared to be standing still. Science lab counters, linoleum floors, intercom speakers and vintage fluorescent light fixtures could be found in one room, taking a visitor right back to 1965 or ’75. I definitely thought I was back in school during that era.

 

Bill even remembered where his old room as a teacher decades ago was – the second on the left down some short steps.

 

I learned later that this hall, which also featured lockers, is still used some by the Chattanooga Police Department for SWAT and hostage training, despite the feeling that I thought we were magically uncovering the past.

 

After coming back down the steps and learning a key was found, we joined Jim and his wife, Shirley, and the center officials and were about to go even further back in time. After slowly moving down a hall past some folded-up ping pong tables, a box of books and other items, we finally made it into the old auditorium.

 

There it sat, the room I had waited to see since 2017! Despite a little dust that had collected and a slightly sunken floor in one small area and some imperfect ceiling tiles, it looked overall in good shape for a historic structure. At least a historic preservationist might say that, if not a school principal having to make use of it this fall for school.

 

The Smiths said the chairs had been changed, with more of a 1960s or 70s’ look rather than the original 1937 one. 

 

Names of teachers signifying class seating assignments were still taped on seat arm rails, and a sign for where parents and guests could sit was also visible. The HMS curtain for Hixson Middle School was also still hanging by the elevated stage. The whole room almost looked as if school officials quickly moved over to the new middle school in 2009 almost without packing everything up, and the space had been frozen in time ever since.

 

While most of the significant architectural detail representative of Mr. Hunt’s abilities is more on the outside than the interior of the auditorium, the inside does have some nice clean features and likely has good acoustics. It is a smaller auditorium of maybe 350-400 seats and was built when Hixson was still mostly rural, not heavily suburban.

 

It, of course, needs plenty of cleaning up and restoring. And while it has hardly had any people in it in years, it has had plenty of other items that are stored there, as mentioned.

 

The rest of the Community Center other than the visited upper classrooms is a sharp contrast with bright and clean floors and vibrant and steady use for a variety of activities. The first day of early voting was even taking place in another frequented part of the center on the day we were there.

 

After the Smiths had taken a good look at the auditorium and reminisced, Bill added that it had been used for chapel programs for students, and that the school would occasionally show films there to make some money for various projects.

 

“School principals have to be very inventive to keep enough money to operate a school,” Bill joked. He understands because he enjoyed a long career as a teacher and principal in Hamilton County that began when a principal selling World Books told the Marine veteran when he stopped by his house that he was needing a seventh-grade teacher at Ganns Middle Valley.

 

Jim Smith, who was inspired to get into education as well in Walker County, Ga., due to such Hixson teachers as Agnes Swafford, Tony Matusek, Othella Watts and a Mr. McCabe, remembered school plays as well taking place in the auditorium.

 

One he remembers was “Papa Was a Preacher,” in which this son of former Chattanooga Baptist minister the Rev. Bill Smith Sr. played the lead role, he recalled with a smile. 

 

“And we had band concerts in there,” continued Jim, who also had the Walker County planetarium named in his honor. “There was just a lot of activities going on for the school when they needed to have a schoolwide meeting about something.”

 

This week’s meeting there and examination of the room might make a historic preservationist or fan of R.H. Hunt hope for a future of use for this relic of the past, or at least ponder any potential use.

 

So, what is its future? Ms. Alexander said she checked with city officials and there are currently no plans to either renovate the building or tear it down in the immediate future. 

 

While renovating the building and putting it back to use would likely take the work of some interested Hixson residents or alumni or some related group, the ideas for its possible uses are probably endless.

 

Community theaters or fine arts centers are popular in different sections of Chattanooga and elsewhere, so that could be a possibility if it is preserved. It might also be a good place for community meetings – whether political debates for Hixson office seekers, or town hall meetings about zoning matters related to the area.

 

Or it could be used for music concerts or recitals, family movies, weddings or special events, or as a space on the weekend for a church without a physical home. 

 

It would of course have to be fixed up to some degree and made sure it is still stable, and that would take money. That could come from the city if it decided to fix it up or maybe grants or community contributions.

 

While no group that I know of has come forward with any push for it to be reopened, among those who hope it is preserved and used in some way are the Smiths.

 

“I’d like to see it used again as an auditorium for the community and refurbished,” said Jim Smith. “It’s a good building, a good, solid building.”

 

Added Bill Smith, “It would help bring the (Hixson) community together as the community used to be. Now we’re part of a mega city, but Hixson still has community pride. My pickup truck still has a ‘Go Wildcats’ sticker on it.”

 

While its future remains uncertain, its past as a rich part of the educational history of Hixson is apparently as solid as its unique red and black brick walls.

 

As Ms. Alexander, who grew up in Atlanta and worked at Channel 9 before working for the city, said after examining the room and hearing the Smiths, “I feel like I just got a history lesson.”

 

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net