John Shearer: A Look At Past Life Of Gateway Building Proposed For School

Have you ever driven by a Chattanooga structure and recalled what it used to be?

It could have been remodeled two or three times and looks nothing like it once did, and it could have gone from a chain restaurant to a seedy bar and then to a real estate office. But you will still likely have a sense of nostalgia about its past life as long as at least the basic frame and footprint of the building are there.

One such building or complex where this has occurred – the old Golden Gateway shopping center -- has been in the news a lot lately.

It is the proposed new location for the Gateway school possibly to be called Chattanooga High and which will apparently include the Center for Creative Arts components as well as a technical and vocational part.

It was listed No. 1 recently on a Hamilton County school board priority list of major new schools or major school construction projects desired. And BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee had put the property up for sale last spring, citing less needed office space in this post-pandemic era of remote working arrangements.

Although the reports I have seen have not been completely clear, or maybe it is all still in the planning stages, historic preservationists hope at least a good part of the old retail complex would be used for the school. Where any needed sports fields would be also is not clear.

Although this property was bought back in 1990 by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Baby Boomers and others who are older will likely always think of the facility as once being home to Zayre department store, Red Food Store, Shoney’s, and WTVC Channel 9.

And adjacent to it in a now-razed building on the side closer to First Baptist Church was the Holiday Inn. It was basically where the solar-panel-covered parking areas are today.

It was an unusual shopping center complex built in that unique period when city planners realized efforts had to be made to keep people connected to town by offering more retail at a time when most of the people and retail stores were fleeing to the suburbs. Or they at least hoped it would be as easily accessible right off the freeway to parts of Chattanooga as other shopping areas of town were.

And today, when so many have moved back to downtown Chattanooga, it is no longer there to offer retail needs. Downtown dwellers of the last 20 years would love a very close major retail chain and grocery store, and that no doubt motivated Food City to build the store currently under construction on the Southside.

The unconnected Cameron Hill Apartments up the hill also were forerunners of the current rediscovered love of living downtown before being replaced by the BlueCross headquarters complex. Opened in 2009 and a seemingly architecturally pleasing complex, that site is inaccessible to or at least unvisited by most of the general Chattanooga populace.

Of course, the shopping center was built after much of Cameron Hill was flattened in the name of urban renewal and freeway construction, which is a whole other story and issue.

Just for fun, I tried to find a little history on the old Golden Gateway Shopping Center since the planned school at the site is in the news.

Finding details on the development plans that were also overseen by city of Chattanooga agencies like the Chattanooga Housing Authority in a style later followed in part by the non-profit River City Company proved challenging. But as far as stores that opened, that was a little easier to uncover.

Apparently Zayre was the first major tenant in the shopper center in this area called the Golden Gateway, not just Gateway as seems to now be more commonly used now, perhaps a shortened term begun by BlueCross. It opened on Oct. 15, 1964, with Zayre president Stanley H. Feldberg on hand. Dozens excitedly waited outside, and customer Geneva Levan of Palmer, Tn., was randomly selected to cut the ribbon and receive a gift certificate. Mayor Ralph Kelley, who said the crowd was among the biggest he had ever seen for a ribbon cutting, was in attendance.

The Feldberg family from Massachusetts had been in the retail store business for years but realized they needed a new concept and saw how popular discount and mill stores did. So, they came up with the discount store concept and opened the first store in 1956.

They were trying to think of a name for the store with an advertising consultant when they heard Max Feldberg, father of Stanley, end a phone conversation with the traditional Yiddish phrase, “Zehr gut,” which means “very good.” They liked that phrase and meaning, but thought Zayre might be a better spelling, so they chose it.

A Zayre at the time was already in Knoxville, but the Chattanooga one was to be the biggest in the chain. It also included a lunch area and sold clothing, hardware, household items, toys, and cosmetics, among other items. It was to be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

A Zayre’s auto center was on the east end of the shopping center nearer the freeway.

On hand to cover the opening events for the Chattanooga Times was reporter William “Billy” Parker, who later became known as a painter and publisher of the Mountain Mirror before his death last April at age 88. Zayre head Mr. Feldberg, meanwhile, died in 2004 at age 79.

I remember going in Zayre regularly, and our family once bought a Murray bicycle there during the early years for my sister, Cathy Morris. It and Kmart were the two big retail chains that went head to head in the late 1960s and ‘70s in Chattanooga along with a few others.

The Red Food Store just down the hill from it but physically connected to it – including by a big escalator that gave off the hint and feel of a modern structure -- opened only about a month later, on Nov. 19, 1964. Described as a “world of food,” the 20,000-square-foot store was said by Red Food President Grady Parham to be the largest grocery store in the area at the time.

It featured a delicatessen with foods from other countries, and sections where pies were baked, meats were roasted, and salads were made. Also inside was a luncheonette. “We have sought to overlook nothing for the convenience of our customers,” Mr. Parham said of the overall store, which had 6,000 items stocked.

As part of the opening ceremonies running for several days, a Ford Mustang was to be given away along with groceries and food items.

At that time and for probably the next 20 or 30 years before its merger with Bi-Lo, Red Food Stores was the most popular grocery chain in the Chattanooga area and reached almost beloved status. However, that site would lose a little luster as Red Food would construct a grocery within a couple of miles of nearly every home in the suburbs.

Among the other Golden Gateway Shopping Center major tenants, WTVC Channel 9 relocated there in 1966 from Signal Mountain and would remain there until moving to its current location near Highways 153 and 58 in early 2000.

Many Chattanoogans also remember eating at the Shoney’s at that center. It opened in the spring of 1968 in space that had previously housed the seemingly forgotten Char Steak House. Shoney’s would remain a popular eating place there until closing in 1997. In its early days, that Shoney’s was even affiliated with the Big Boy concept and featured a famous statue of the happy boy mascot holding a plate out front.

A Holiday Inn was also just away from the complex, as mentioned. Old articles say it opened there in 1966 as the fourth area Holiday Inn, with others already on Brainerd Road, South Market Street, and Ringgold Road by the Interstate.

The Golden Gateway hotel, which was eight stories tall, also had an iconic decoration on the same level of importance in Americana culture as the Big Boy statue. It was the famous arrow-pointing sign, and this hotel had at least one attached to the building on the freeway side. Also at the hotel was a restaurant/gathering area on the top floor to take advantage of some views.

This was almost a decade before the Walden Club opened at the top of what is now the Republic Centre at 633 Chestnut St. About the 1980s, the Holiday Inn restaurant was the scene of a popular Sunday buffet that I enjoyed at least once.

Holiday Inn, which was founded in Memphis in the 1950s by a young Kemmons Wilson, was in the 1960s and into the 1970s seemingly the king of quality but fairly priced roadside motels.

After a Holiday Inn opened when the Convention and Trade Center was finished in 1985, the Golden Gateway one became a Days Inn in 1987. Those living in Chattanooga a few years later will not forget when the building was taken down by a Sunday morning implosion in 1992 as part of redevelopment plans.

Blue Cross by then owned that property and had bought it from the Belz development company in Memphis, according to one article. They were evidently involved in the original construction of the shopping center.

Zayre had closed in 1989 as places like Walmart and Target were starting to become the leader in the discount retail market.

And that Red Food, which by then was catering mostly to the small number of residents living nearby or to downtown workers picking up an item or two, also closed not long after that. Other Red Food Stores by then had long surpassed it in size and offerings.

But for a number of years, all these Golden Gateway businesses held their own before suburban retail pressures became too great.

A few years ago, the complex under the direction of BlueCross received completely new facing and gated parking, and no longer looks like the mid-century modern-style retail complex with plenty of glass it once did. It is also, of course, changing in use, as it is scheduled to go from the scene of shopping and eating and then insuring to learning, studying, and playing.

One constant in the building, though, is that during its 60 years, it has served as a brick-and-glass teacher of business history and urban history.

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net