John Shearer: An Architectural And Historical Look At Threatened Dalewood And Soddy Daisy Middle Schools

As we continue an ongoing look at the history and architecture of some of the schools scheduled to be closed, moved, or vacated as part of a Hamilton County Schools consolidation plan, the Dalewood and Soddy Daisy middle school buildings are among those to be vacated.

As was announced in August as part of the $200 million plan, Dalewood would leave its facility and move to the nearby Brainerd High campus to create a grades 6-12 campus. Soddy Daisy Middle, meanwhile, would move to where Soddy Daisy High and Daisy Elementary are to create a kindergarten-12^th grade campus.

While the plans regarding Dalewood have not created any substantial protest at least in the media, the Soddy Daisy Middle plan has been more publicly vetted. Outspoken county schools board member Rhonda Thurman from that district, for example, has said in a letter to the editor opinion piece that she preferred a new middle school on the current campus or on the old Soddy Daisy High campus of the 1970s era and earlier.

Both schools in different parts of the community have different histories from each other as Chattanooga and Hamilton County have constantly evolved and changed around them, but they do have one similarity in common other than being middle schools. Like some of the other schools eyed for closing, they both feature that mid-century style of architecture from that era of great growth in the schools due to all the Baby Boomer children born after World War II.

Soddy Daisy Middle School opened as Soddy Daisy Junior High for grades 7-9 on Nov. 1, 1960. It threw open its doors after a night of likely trick or treating, and the residents no doubt thought they were getting a treat in the new school. It had opened just weeks after another county junior high – Red Bank – also opened at what is now Red Bank High off Morrison Springs Road.

The architect for Soddy Daisy Junior High/Middle School was Selmon T. Franklin, while the contractor was O.B. Davis Construction Co., who built it for $900,000 in 1960 money.

When it opened, the school alleviated some crowding at a number of area schools. The new students had been attending the seventh and eighth grades at Mowbray, Falling Water, Daisy, Soddy, and John Allen elementaries, and the ninth grade at Soddy Daisy High. The faculty members teaching these students at these schools were also to move to Soddy Daisy Junior High with them.

The new principal was to be Roy C. Smith, who had been the principal at Daisy Elementary. The new Soddy Daisy Junior High coaches were Buck Johnson from Soddy Elementary, who also would enjoy a career as a Chattanooga Times sports writer, and Teddy Millsaps from Daisy Elementary.

The school was not officially dedicated until Sunday, March 5, 1961, when some 700 people – including schools Supt. Sam McConnell, County Judge Chester Frost, future Judge Bob Summitt, and local Methodist pastors -- gathered at the facility.

Visitors were able to inspect the facility after the formal program, and the newspaper article described the school as a “handsome new structure.”

Mr. Smith would go on to serve as principal of the school into the 1970s, and a portrait of him done as a gift by the school’s PTSO was unveiled there in 1973.

Sadly for the school, most of the rest of the newspaper clippings on file at the Chattanooga Public Library downtown after that are about students misbehaving or conflicts with a principal or two.

I had actually visited the Soddy Daisy Middle School grounds two or three years back as part of a greenway series I was doing, and I was impressed with how spacious the grounds were with fields in the back. I wrote that it could be even better utilized as a community greenway space on weekends or during the summer than it was at the time.

I went back to try and get a few pictures last Saturday morning, Sept. 30, and no one else was there. The school is located off Turner Street in more the Daisy area north of Soddy, and maybe a couple hundred yards off the old Dayton Pike. It is not visible from the main street. From downtown Chattanooga, you can get off U.S. 27 at the Sequoyah Access Road exit and go north a short distance on the pike.

Although the eastern-rising sun moving in a southerly direction was directly in the face of someone looking at the front of the school when I arrived, I still tried to get a few pictures under the shadows of the building or from the side to accompany this story.

Although I love the mid-century style of architecture on some of the local schools, this was not my favorite, in part because it appeared to have a few quirky additions over the years, perhaps for better accessibility in at least one place.

It did have some classrooms that had numerous windows, which I love. When it comes to school classrooms, I like to be able to look outside, and school buildings from that era in Chattanooga definitely focused on that detail.

On the north end is an interesting wing with windows along the very top and other unique places. The V-shaped covered entrance at the front of the school definitely shouted out at me architecturally, “I am from the early 1960s.”

Although more artistic than architectural, about the most eye-catching parts of the school were the two or three school signs. One referred to the school teams as the Twins, a reference to the twin communities of Soddy and Daisy.

While many middle schools carry the same nickname as the high school by the same name, that is not the case here at this school that was opened when Soddy-Daisy was still rural and small townish and had not become the heavily suburban community it is today.

I also love how the softball/baseball field sits in front of the school at an elevated spot with an old-fashioned concrete block grandstand, and a few trees and woods dot the area in front of the school and parking lot. I had planned to get in my daily jog around the big field behind the school after taking or while taking some pictures, but I saw the gate to the back was closed with a sign saying “for official use only.” So, especially after what had happened to me the weekend before at Dalewood, I decided to take my jog a few miles south at the Poe’s Tavern park site, which had grass like I like but was much less inspiring than the giant field behind Soddy Daisy Middle School would have been.

As mentioned, I had actually dropped by Dalewood the previous Saturday afternoon for a photo shoot/jog on what was a beautifully blue September afternoon. No one was there off this end of Shallowford Road near Moore Road, including on the track that is sometimes used by the community, so I parked my car in a side lot and began walking up near the front of the building and taking a few pictures.

Unlike at Soddy-Daisy Middle School, the sun was perfectly at my back, so I quickly took a few pictures of the tan brick and such unusual features as the covered waiting area with a zig-zag roofline right out of the early 1960s, and an A-framed structure in the middle of the campus. It resembled many churches from that era, and it must have been the school’s auditorium or public gathering area.

I snapped a few photos from the front, but the next sight I see is of a police car pulling into the entrance of the school. The officer was apparently just pulling into the school grounds to take a break or to fill out a form, so I continued my jog I had just started while taking just a few more pictures, although perhaps a little more subtly now.

I took one of the newer wing on the north end closest to the Brainerd Levee trailhead, as well as interesting ones of the old scoreboard on the field with the track, and the old goalpost and concession stand on the practice field nearer my car.

These older reminders fascinated me, as did the Dalewood building frozen in the 1960s architecturally. That is because in some ways Brainerd High and Dalewood High will always live in the late 1960s or early 1970s, when Brainerd fascinated this then-young Hixson resident as the top suburb in Chattanooga.

Of course, the community around Dalewood has become less affluent in the decades since, and that sadly is often reflected in the academic accomplishments of the students, despite the hardworking faculty there and many hardworking youngsters.

When Dalewood was being planned six decades ago, it was actually with the students from more financially comfortable neighborhood families with stronger educational backgrounds in mind.

Dalewood when it was being planned was considered quite innovative on even a national scale due to its plan to let students in each grade somehow work at their own level and speed under individualized instruction. The goal was to go beyond what a typical student might learn in a grade. This was reflected in the somewhat looser design of the school with four pods or wings around a central area. Somehow that design was to allow for more instructional flexibility.

The original principal was apparently Jim Henry, who was appointed by city schools Supt. Dr. Bennie Carmichael. John T. Seyfarth was evidently an early principal as well, and the school also had the also-innovative concept of a four-person administration team in the early days.

The Dalewood school building was designed by Butler and Wilhoite, the same firm that also designed the also-threatened Hixson Elementary building. Howard J. Butler was interviewed in at least one national publication regarding his unique design to encompass the unique educational format that apparently lasted only a few years.

The roughly 20-acre Dalewood property had been purchased from Mrs. Mary M. Hughes in early 1962, and early discussions in the newspaper called it a North Brainerd junior high. However, before it would open for the 1963-64 school year, a citizens and patrons committee had come up with the name of Dalewood. The exact reason for the name was not given in the story, but it seemed to fit the former pastoral property.

Raines Brothers had initially been selected as the general contractor for the original Dalewood school building after submitting the best bid, but one article was not clear if that firm ended up constructing it after some other issues arose.

Today, Dalewood Middle School sits sturdily and stoically as a reminder of that golden mid-century era of school and commercial architecture, even if its plumbing, wiring, and ventilation systems might need a once over and are what people think of first regarding schools these days.

Students, school board members and parents generally do not appreciate historic architecture like those at Preserve Chattanooga or maybe other groups do, and new school facilities are generally the push in those communities.

But one fact for sure is that both the current Dalewood and Soddy Daisy middle schools have told stories of two mostly different school communities over the last 60 years, but tales perhaps as interesting and rich as many of the books the students have read within their brick walls.

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To see a previous story about some other Hamilton County school facilities scheduled to possibly close, read here.

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2023/9/1/474176/John-Shearer-An-Architectural-Look.aspx

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net