John Shearer: Random Thoughts About WUTC, James K. Polk, R.H. Hunt In Paris, And Businesses Coming And Going

Once again, the news in recent days has been dominated by the administration of President Donald Trump and the somewhat unprecedented moves that are approved by maybe slightly more than half of the public at best and not approved by close to half.

And how do you stand on Greenland? That island’s cold reception to becoming part of the United States reminds me a little of one or two times when I was younger and asked a girl or two to go out on a second date with me.

One area questioned regarding federal funding this week was public media, including PBS and NPR, the educational and public TV and radio stations. I enjoy both of them and do not notice where they are liberal in the news programming aspect, as some have stated. There might be an occasional show on NPR, like “Wait, Wait..Don’t Tell Me,” where the host might make a few jokes that Democrats might more easily laugh at, but that is all. Or they have a radio show on Sunday morning that might discuss environmental topics of which liberals might have more of an interest.

But I think both stations do a great job at looking at various issues in depth, and I love the catchy music of often only four or five notes played on WTCI Channel 45 during promotions before or after the “NewsHour” show.

I have noticed that WUTC 88.1, the local NPR affiliate, has changed its schedule around more than once over the last couple of years or so. It reminds me of this time of year when you start out wearing a sweater in the morning but have changed to shorts by late afternoon.

I have become used to listening to part of a show on the radio when I am driving around a certain time of week, and the next thing I know, another show or form of music is on at that time. I am glad to know, though, that another syndicated Celtic music program is coming on in the mid-afternoon Sunday. I had liked it when the local “Celtic Harvest” under longtime former staffer Rabbit Smith aired right after noon, often when I was driving home from church and lunch. Later it moved to around 6 p.m. Sunday when I was less likely to hear it.

To show how old I am, I interviewed Rabbit about her interest in Celtic music way back in the 1990s.

A minor item in the news related to some of President Trump’s portraits he displays, which was revealed – yes, in an NPR news report -- is that he now has one hanging of former president James K. Polk of Tennessee. It was perhaps done since he was president at a time when America was an expansionist nation. I wonder if President Polk looks pleasantly plump in that portrait as some thought President Trump did in the portrait of him that had been hanging in the Colorado state capitol and that created controversy.

I understand Polk County just east of Chattanooga was named for President Polk, but when he was governor and before he became president. Polk County, like Hamilton County, has a courthouse designed by the late former Chattanooga architect R.H. Hunt.

When I was out for spring break last week, my wife, Laura, and I drove with our Westie puppy, Gracie, to Paris, Tn., which is in Henry County and has an R.H. Hunt-designed courthouse as well dating to 1898.

That is part of the reason I wanted to visit there along with the fact that since I have been going through some of my parents’ items after we sold my father’s house last September, I learned for the first time that my maternal grandmother’s family lived in Paris for maybe five or 10 years at the turn of the 20^th century. That would have been right when the courthouse was built.

I was unable to find any information on them when we stopped at an archives building that is part of the Rhea Public Library in Paris, although I hope to do more digging online or in other libraries. But that building is located in the old Grove-Henry County High School complex, and I learned that the original high school building still there and used by the Board of Education was designed by R.H. Hunt. I know that because it says so on a state historical marker next to the original building.

Like his courthouse just a few hundred yards away, it has an eye-catching tower in the middle, and the building sits on a hill and is simply gorgeous to see for a lover of historic architecture, even after nearly 120 years. The school was described as one of Tennessee’s first privately endowed public high schools after local medicine company founder E.W. Grove helped fund it. And the school building even has a porch!

I tried to go in the courthouse to get some more information on the government building, but there was a line at the metal detector check-in area, so I did not enter it. But I did notice the interior has basically a hallway inside.

It would have been fun, however, to see the tower. The brick on the outside appears to have been cleaned in recent years.

The First United Methodist Church there that dated to the mid-1920s also looked like an R.H. Hunt-style church built in the Gothic style kind of like the old Central Presbyterian Church on McCallie Avenue that is now used by Richmont Graduate University. But I have not been able to verify the architect.

While we were in the Paris area, Laura and I stayed at the Paris Landing State Park, which has a fairly new lodge similar to what was done recently with the lodge at Fall Creek Falls State Park. It was a pretty setting, and there was enough farm-like greenspace around the lodge during this less-busy time of year for me to enjoy everything about it.

This area is all almost a two-hour drive northwest of Nashville, and I assume many other Chattanoogans are like me in that they have rarely or never been to the Northwest quadrant of the state.

On the way home and a little outside of town, we drove through the simply gorgeous and hilly Fort Donelson Civil War site. I would love to have walked through it and sat and pondered every couple of hundred yards, but we needed to get back, so we did not.

With increasing development, I have come to wonder if such Civil War sites are enjoyed for their pristine and preserved state that can be enjoyed aesthetically as much as for people being able to learn the obviously important role the sites played historically.

Speaking of development and old buildings, two Chattanooga structures have been in the news recently and are evidently threatened more than the two main Paris buildings by R.H. Hunt I saw. That is in addition to Mr. Hunt’s Medical Arts Building in Chattanooga that is now being studied for preservation or demolition by owner First Presbyterian Church.

One is the old mid-20^th century tourist and motor court building at 442 Cherokee Blvd. built when that was a main thoroughfare for travelers before the interstate. The plot in the popular North Shore area is now for sale.

The other threatened structure is the Parkway Towers building by Finley Stadium that an Atlanta developer wants to tear down to make way for some condominiums.

What caught my eye about both stories was that some mention was made calling them both eyesores. As someone who loves most old buildings and sees their potential if they likely have good “bones” and structural framing, I felt a little offended at the use of that word!

I hope to write more detailed stories about both of them in the near future, but I know Preserve Chattanooga has come out in support of the preservation of the Parkway Towers building, which was originally constructed in 1910 as a substation of the Tennessee Electric Power Co.

Speaking of the changing business and structural landscape, I saw where the Big Chicken on Hixson Pike just north of Northgate Mall closed, and the sign was quickly removed. Perhaps with all the chicken restaurants, including with the opening of Raising Cane’s on Highway 153, something had to give.

Maybe we can ask why the chicken diners had to cross the road, although a Big Chicken is still open on Broad Street.

The Big Chicken, which had Shaquille O’Neal as an investor, had renovated the old Steak ‘n’ Shake, which had replaced at the site a razed old American National Bank building.

Sometimes I wonder why restaurants close. I know it had a good crowd initially when it opened a year or so ago, and I ate there once and overall enjoyed it. I think one or two people told me they thought it was a little expensive for a quick chicken restaurant, and the cole slaw was a little spicier than I like.

I like thinking about why restaurants and businesses do not survive, and the factors involved, just as it is with basketball programs at this time when both Tennessee and UTC fans are happy they have the coaches they do have. Maybe they should have put an outdoor goal at the Big Chicken and had Shaq drop by occasionally and shoot some hoops and sign autographs.

It has also been announced in the news that Mast General Store is to be located at the old Big River Grille site in the old trolley barns near the Tennessee Aquarium.

As someone who enjoyed Mast General Store in Knoxville while living there after it opened in 2006, I can tell Chattanoogans that they will love it. It features mainly outdoor and casual clothing, old candies and toys that you had forgotten about, and a spacious shoe and equipment department for outdoor activities. But half of its appeal comes from just walking through it and feeling like you are in a store of old.

In fact, amid all the riverfront development in downtown Chattanooga over the last 25 or so years, I used to tell people the Mast store was one positive feature in Knoxville that downtown Chattanooga did not have. I have also enjoyed visiting the Mast store in Waynesville, N.C., while we are in nearby Lake Junaluska.

For Chattanoogans who miss walking through the old downtown Lovemans, Millers, Sears and JCPenny buildings, you will love the Mast store and feel like you have some of the old downtown back. It is especially nice to walk through during Christmas and holiday season.

And maybe with all the political disagreements over the direction of our country over recent weeks and months, we need a little nostalgia for a different era.

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net