John Shearer: Remembering When Chattanooga Choo-Choo Opened 50 Years Ago

This spring marks the golden anniversary of a unique Chattanooga attraction that has capitalized on music pop culture and the city’s rail and architecture history to bring a little gold to the city and developers through dollars and positive attention.

The Chattanooga Choo-Choo hotel, dining and entertainment complex opened 50 years ago this spring through two events -- the restaurant facility on April 11 and the Hilton hotel on May 30 in what was apparently the grander opening.

Were you old enough to remember those events, or were you there?

I was a seventh grader at the Baylor School then but for some reason did not really start frequenting the Chattanooga Choo-Choo much until a few years later. I was already quite familiar with the old station, though. At about the age of 5 in the summer of 1965, my parents and I boarded a train from the handsome old station to go to the New York World’s Fair, a trip I still remember parts of well.

And I think my sister, Cathy Morris, went with her Bright School classmates to Washington, D.C., one summer later in the 1960s – and I remember we were late dropping her off there early one morning, and everyone was waiting on us.

And then after the station opened as the Choo-Choo, we used to have our Baylor School football banquets within the big domed passenger waiting room.

The facility has morphed slightly over the years through ownership changes and needs of both travelers and locals, but it and its facilities have remained a go-to destination.

As a result, it seems to be one of the great Chattanooga stories of modern times for two reasons. The first is that a threatened building that many would consider one of the most important commercial structures in Chattanooga’s architectural history was being saved, particularly when the Union Station/Depot across from the Read House was soon to be razed, despite some protests.

Also, the Choo-Choo in the 1970s was a key piece of the puzzle in keeping people – both locals and out-of-towners -- interested in spending time downtown after work hours in the era of urban flight. It and several other places and businesses laid the difficult groundwork for the collectively greater interest in downtown Chattanooga that came later and continues to grow, some might say.

With the anniversary, I decided to check out some of the old newspaper clippings on file at the Chattanooga Public Library downtown about its 1973 opening.

The first article they had was a brief item from the Chattanooga News-Free Press from Feb. 12, 1972. In the first paragraph, it said, “A group of businessmen has been working on plans for a multi-million-dollar restaurant-motel complex on the site of Southern Railway’s Terminal Station on Market Street.”

It went on to say a more-detailed announcement would be coming soon, but that a major hotel chain was expected to be involved, and that main dining quarters would be housed in the old station.

And then came this item in the fifth and last paragraph, “Expected to be used in the development’s promotion is the term, ‘Chattanooga Choo-Choo,’ and other facilities to be included in the complex are renovated railroad passenger cars.

The News-Free Press had likely heard talk around town about that time regarding the planned attraction when word traveled fast in Chattanooga circles well before the advent of social media, and they wanted to get at least a small item out to scoop the other media members. That story, by the way, ran on Page 1, despite its short length.

And then on April 30, 1973, after the official ground-breaking ceremonies, the Chattanooga Times ran a non-byline story, too, quoting officials about how grand indeed the project was going to be.

Mayor Robert Kirk Walker was quoted as saying boldly to new development chairman B.A. “Allen” Casey Jr., “The unusual Chattanooga Choo-Choo project is one of the greatest physical developments in Chattanooga history.”

He later added, “The beautiful complex will be a magnificent catalyst for the private development of downtown Chattanooga.”

Chester Frost, who was the county judge, a position that later morphed into county mayor, praised the fact a Hilton Inn was to operate there and added, “This development truly is for the individual, young and old alike. It brings to this area a long-needed center where the dramatic story of our railroad history can be told and enjoyed.”

Edward Cooper Jr. of the Greater Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce also praised the development in his remarks concluding the article, saying, “The announcement of the Chattanooga Choo-Choo is truly one of those rare events in the economic development of our area that merits the highest of accolades.”

So, it was obviously a major event in the beginning of downtown revitalization of the last 50 years, and perhaps a forgotten one when briefer historical summaries of modern downtown usually start with the planning and opening of the Tennessee Aquarium.

As details began to come forward, Chattanoogans learned that the 24-acre family vacation complex would include the already-mentioned Hilton Motor Inn as well as train car rooms renovated in the Victorian style. Also part of it were restaurant facilities, early 1900s-styled shops, a working model railroad and pictorial railroad museum, and an old-time town hall theater.

Also, the Terminal Station -- which had seen its last passenger train pull out of the station bound for Washington, D.C., during the late night of Aug. 11, 1970 -- would be restored to its original splendor.

The station had opened on Dec. 1, 1909. It had evidently been completed a few months before, but delays in opening had apparently come about due to legal issues regarding right of way rail lines through certain parts of town.

The station had been designed by Donn Barber, who had drawn the basic plans for a railroad station in a big city in a competition he won at the Beaux Arts School in Paris about 1900. The plans were also submitted to the president of the Southern Railway in 1904, and he liked them.

He told Mr. Barber the exterior plans were perfect, according to one article, but he asked him to redo the interior to look like the expanded Park National Bank in Manhattan, for which Mr. Barber had also drawn plans. The financial building featured a center dome and large arches, too.

It was evidently a look everyone liked and still likes, as the station perhaps gave the feeling of Chattanooga being an even bigger and grander city than it was. When the Chattanooga airport terminal was rebuilt in the early 1990s from its mid-century-modern look, its dome was inspired by the Terminal Station dome, according to the architect at the time.

The Terminal Station, which features an 85-foot-high dome, was constructed after the Stanton House and 51 homes surrounding it were torn down. Wells Brothers Construction of New York was the general contractor for the construction that followed.

As work continued on the second redevelopment of the old Terminal Station into the Chattanooga Choo-Choo throughout much of 1972 and early 1973, a flurry of newspaper stories documented the work, including that Harlan Mills was named as president after being involved in restaurant and food management. Also, the facility would have a store called the Depot that would be like an old country store, perhaps like is replicated through the Cracker Barrel gift shops today.

Officials also said that Baylor School dining hall director of one year Tom Pettigrew was to head the Choo-Choo dining operations. A former baseball standout, he was glad to be working at the Choo-Choo, since his hero growing up in North Carolina was former Tar Heel football standout Charlie “Choo-Choo” Justice, he told one reporter. He was being assisted by native Chattanoogan Gary Johnson.

Also, a Pullman sleeping car used by the late President Franklin Roosevelt was to be one of the cars on exhibition when the Chattanooga Choo-Choo opened.

And by February 1973, a new $50,000 “Choo-Choo” sign had been installed atop the station and was visible from miles around. It had been constructed by Federal Sign and Signal Co. of Burr Ridge, Il., and was designed with lights to give the impression of a locomotive moving and smoke billowing.

The first opening of the Chattanooga Choo-Choo came on April 11, 1973, but Mr. Casey and development vice president Frank Worthington on March 29 had hosted the Chattanooga Rotary Club for a luncheon and tour.

Club members learned that the dining facilities were to accommodate some 1,300 people when completed, the motor inn was to have 103 rooms, and some 48 train cars would provide 96 rooms. Also featured were to be a gas-lighted garden where some of the old train tracks were.

When the dining facilities opened, diners could choose between the 400-seat Golden Dome dining area in the former main station waiting area, the Palm Terrace Room patterned after the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, the Fountain Room and the Director’s Room.

Mr. Casey said that, to give a train station feel to the experience, customers would make their meal selection, purchase their meal ticket, and then be seated. At that time a waitress was to get a stub from the ticket and return to the kitchen.

Also included in the new development was the Station House, which was to feature live nightly entertainment and dancing. Disco dancing anyone?

Escorting people around the sprawling complex was to be a streetcar driven by streetcar and train enthusiast David Steinberg.

When the Hilton facility and the entire new part of the complex designed by architect Klaus Nentwig were declared open on May 30, the motel was the first in the country with electronic room-locking devices.

On hand for the opening ceremonies was Hilton official Barron Hilton, the son of hotel chain founder Conrad Hilton. Barron Hilton, who lived until 2019, was also known for being an early owner of the Chargers pro football team. And these days he is also known as the grandfather of a woman named Paris Hilton, the now-famous socialite.

Whether Paris has ever come to the Chattanooga Choo-Choo is not known, but in the years since 1973, many have.

And the complex has slowly evolved over the years since its opening. After its initial heyday of the 1970s into the 1980s, it faced financial problems before a group that included future Mayor Jon Kinsey purchased the property. Some of the properties and buildings have changed, and the hotel aspect is being updated along with some Pullman cars under current leader Adam Kinsey, son of the former mayor. A number of old trains have also been removed.

The old dome room is now in the hands of Preserve Chattanooga, and several restaurants and bars have also moved into the other areas of the old train station, including to the once-quiet Station Street side. Issues of noise and violence have unfortunately taken place around night spots there, an example of a problem being partly a result of too many people.

But when the Chattanooga Choo-Choo opened in 1973 with only one entrance and exit, it boldly moved into an area where no one really was, at least commercially or entertainment wise.

Mr. Casey, who died in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, had helped come up with the idea to save the old station from demolition. He then spearheaded the plans with the support of about two dozen other businessmen to open a hotel, restaurant and entertainment complex there before he turned 40.

He named it as an ode to the old Glenn Miller song from 1941 about a fictitious passenger train route that travels from New York to Chattanooga.

And in the years since, Chattanoogans have tried to explain to outsiders the somewhat confusing connection between the Glenn Miller song and the tourist, dining and entertainment attraction. The Chattanooga Choo-Choo itself has tried to draw a tighter connection with a longtime plaque there about a real train that was nicknamed the Chattanooga Choo-Choo after train service from Cincinnati to Chattanooga was opened in 1880.

Regardless, Chattanoogans and tourists alike have for 50 years enjoyed a mostly fun “certain party at the station,” just as the old big band song says!

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jcshearer2@comcast.net