World Famous Newspaper Publisher Had Mansion On The Side Of Cameron Hill

A world famous newspaper publisher had a mansion on Cameron Hill.

Adolph Ochs was not yet 20 when he came down from Knoxville in May 1887 and founded a newspaper he called the Daily Dispatch. The next year the enterprising young man published a Chattanooga city directory and he acquired the struggling Chattanooga Daily Times that had been in operation since 1869.

He brought with him his whole family. The parents, Julius and Bertha Levy Ochs, were natives of Bavaria who came to America in 1844. Julius Ochs was highly educated and he spoke several languages fluently. He was a profound Talmudic scholar. His father, Lazarus Ochs, was an expert diamond appraiser and he traveled extensively practicing this occupation. Julius Ochs married Bertha Levy In 1855 after they had renewed their former acquaintance at a reception in Nashville. The couple had met several years earlier at Natchez. Later, a yellow fever epidemic swept that section of the South and it was reported that Bertha Levy was one of the victims. Julius Ochs, who was fighting the fever at Vicksburg, read the report of Miss Levy's death so he was startled to see her in Nashville. She explained that she had become so ill with the fever that it appeared certain she would die, but that she had rallied and recovered.

The Ochs couple was living in Cincinnati when Adolph was born in 1858. The family soon moved to Knoxville, where Adolph began delivering papers and worked as a "printer's devil." Also moving to Chattanooga was George Washington Ochs, a younger brother. He was a Times reporter and then city editor. The youngest brother, Milton Ochs, also joined the newspaper staff.

All of the Ochs family first boarded on Georgia Avenue in the triangular block bounded by High Street and East Fourth Street. They then boarded for a short time at the northwest corner of High Street at Fifth. Julius Ochs helped establish Erlanger Hospital and organized a humane society. He was also rabbi of a growing congregation. He served as treasurer of the Chattanooga Times.

It was in 1883 when Adolph Ochs married Iphigenia Miriam Wise of Cincinnati. Their only child, Iphigene, was born in 1892.

The ingenious Adolph Ochs had strengthened the Times to an extent that by 1882 he was able to buy a large tract at 415 W. Fifth Street. There he built a Georgian style home with a circular driveway. A columned portico on the front side overlooked the extensive grounds. The two-story home had 12 rooms - enough for all the Ochs family. The whole compound was surrounded by a high brick fence. A driveway from Poplar Street offered access to a parking area. There was a two-story garage with an apartment with several rooms upstairs. The interior of the Ochs home was paneled.

The public-spirited Ochs threw himself into boosting Chattanooga, including making a proposal that the old James Hall become a handsome theater. He was a principal in the "Over the River Company" that grandly envisioned three bridges across the Tennessee River at Chattanooga as well as new industries across the river from town. Ochs and his brother, Milton, were also the leading forces in preserving thousands of acres on the sides of Lookout Mountain. He built the six-story Dome Building on Georgia Avenue as the new headquarters for The Times, which was in a small brick building when he acquired it. After his success at the New York Times, Ochs was honored to have a postal stamp bearing his image.

Adolph Ochs built the Ochs Memorial Temple at Oak and Lindsay streets in memory of his parents. The $300,000 memorial edifice was built in 1928.

Ochs had remained active in Chattanooga civic affairs, though in 1896 he had bought the New York Times. He followed the same successful pattern he had used with the Chattanooga paper to make it a publishing and financial success.

Harry Clay Adler, brother in law of Adolph Ochs, joined the Chattanooga Times on April 1, 1890, and he moved into the Ochs mansion. Adler was general manager and treasurer of the Chattanooga Times from 1901 to 1932. Afterward, he was board chairman for the newspaper. At one time he was head of the Southern Division of the Associated Press.

A native of Philadelphia, he was born at the close of the Civil War. He was considered the "father" of Chattanooga's commission form of government, while waging a campaign against entrenched politicians.

When the new dial telephone system was installed in Chattanooga, Ada Ochs Adler had the honor of receiving the first call at the Cameron Hill home. Mayor Ed Bass placed the call on May 18, 1929.

Adler and his wife, Ada Ochs, had a son, Major General Julius Ochs Adler.

Harry Clay Adler died in March 1940 at the age of 74. The funeral was held in the Julius and Bertha Ochs Memorial Temple. After her husband's death, Ada left the big house on the side of Cameron Hill and relocated to New York City. She was an invalid after the death of her husband. Ada Ochs Adler died on Feb. 6, 1956, at age 89 at her residence in the Pierre Hotel in New York City.

The Ochs mansion was acquired by architect Selmon T. Franklin in 1945. The residence had been vacant for five years following the death of Harry Adler. A considerable portion of the furnishings was also included. Franklin converted the Cameron Hill landmark into his architectural office for a number of years. The Franklin family lived upstairs.

In the "Urban Renewal" of the late 1950s, the Adolph Ochs mansion was among the most costly casualties. Due to the widespread fame of its builder, it would have been one of the city's most important historical landmarks.