Many Chattanooga historic preservationists are hoping a miracle of some sort might ensue to prevent the nearly 100-year-old Medical Arts Building on McCallie Avenue from being demolished.
But back in 1978, First Presbyterian Church, which now owns the building and plans to tear it down to better meet its worship and operational needs, had initially purchased the building through another miracle. At least that is the word that longtime and nationally known former church pastor Ben Haden once used to describe the events that led to its purchase.
Under his ministry, the church was booming and growing and needed additional space, particularly for Sunday school classes. It had eyed the nearby Medical Arts Building at 546 McCallie Ave. but learned a group of about eight psychologists and psychiatrists – including the also-well-known Dr. Ross Campbell -- had just purchased the building for their expanding practice.
Somewhere along the line, though, the mental health professionals became aware of First Presbyterian’s needs and had a change of heart. They realized they could find another suitable office space easier than the church could find nearby property for its ministry. So, in an altruistic move, they sold the property they owned for just a short period to First Presbyterian Church.
“If you ask me, it’s a miracle,” Mr. Haden had said when recounting the events in 1981 when the building was being reopened for church use for the first time.
And the church did make good use of the building for its ministry for decades after greatly remodeling the interior. And that brings us to today and the church’s announcement that it plans to demolish the structure, which it calls the Tower.
The plans were first announced in the local media around Christmas 2024 in Chattanoogan.com before the church leadership asked that any news be held as they went through the full discernment and decision process and more fully informed the congregation. In recent weeks, the news has broken full force as the church has begun publicly sharing its plans, saying that such a large building no longer meets the congregation’s needs and that they plan to build a smaller and more efficient structure.
That has caused varying opinions on both sides, with historic preservationists, including Todd Morgan from Preserve Chattanooga, citing its age and ornate exterior architectural detail under the masterful hand of renowned Chattanooga architect R.H. Hunt as reasons to preserve it.
As a result, the building is being examined publicly like one of the countless patients once treated there.
An examination of its history also shows some conflict, crisis and instability early on, in part due to the Great Depression. The building was formally opened on April 1, 1929, which was a very happy occasion and was definitely not an April Fool’s joke.
The building had been built after local doctors had seen a need for a large building devoted exclusively to the health and dental professions. It was part of a trend around the nation, and architect Hunt and others had visited other doctor-only buildings in cities like Baltimore, Richmond and Washington, D.C., before constructing the Chattanooga one. Knoxville also built a medical arts building that is still standing.
Before then, some local health providers shared space with those in the commercial sector in such places as the James Building on Broad Street.
The land at the time the structure was built was owned by former Chattanoogan and New York Times and Chattanooga Times publisher Adolph Ochs. He had envisioned building a Jewish temple in memory of his parents at this site formerly owned by the Van Dyke family heirs. However, he later found a site farther east on McCallie Avenue on land owned by the Richmond family.
As a result, when plans for the Medical Arts Building were being formulated by such physicians as Dr. Joseph Johnson and Dr. White Patton, he became an investor, for altruistic reasons as much as financial ones. Others involved as officers when the building was built were Dr. S.S. Marchbanks and Dr. J.D.L. McPheeters.
After the building was opened, an open house was held on Saturday, April 20, 1929. Mayor Ed Bass spoke during the ceremonies broadcast on WDOD radio station, and physicians were on hand to greet visitors.
The building had been built in a quality manner for close to $500,000. It featured tin-lined pipes to prevent foreign particles from being circulated and aid the patients’ wellbeing and the structure had compressed air for treatment purposes.
It also had a unique-for-the-time phone system in which patients could call directly into the offices. When a doctor was leaving for the day, he could simply hit a switch, and the calls would go to the building switchboard. The switchboard could then transfer calls to the doctor at home or where he might be for after-hours emergencies.
The 10-story structure also had two high-speed Otis elevators and a second-floor medical library, with medical books donated from families of recently deceased doctors.
Another appeal of the building was that it was quiet and convenient. Although it was five blocks from Market Street, a slight distance away from the heart of 1920s downtown Chattanooga, it was also near several streetcar lines. It also had adequate parking for both patients and doctors in this era when the automobile was getting more universal, with a convenient two-level deck due to the slope back toward Eighth Street.
The original doctors in the building included Dr. George Adler, Dr. E.B. Connell, Dr. White Patton, Dr. L.T. Stem, Dr. John Bradley, Dr. Quigg Fletcher, Dr. E.F. Huckaba, Dr. S.H. Long, Dr. Herman Renner, Dr. W.F. Stone, Dr. C.E. Homan, Dr. A.M. Patterson, Dr. Madison Roberts, Dr. J.C. Brooks, Dr. Winston Caine, Dr. J.L. Cooley, Dr. A. Isbell, Dr. J.L.D. McPheeters, Dr. J.A. Moffitt and Dr. D.W. Williams.
Others included Dr. William Dulaney Anderson, Dr. T. Lyle Davis, Dr. J.B. Haskins, Dr. J. Hamilton Taylor, Dr. T.C. Crowell, Dr. S.S. Marchbanks, Dr. Leo Schumacker, Dr. Charles Thomas, Dr. Lyle West, Dr. A.F. Ebert, Dr. J.L. Hamilton, Dr. Paul Johnson, Dr. Joe W. Johnson, Dr. J.W. Killibrew, Dr. H.D. Long, Dr. W.D. Record, Dr. J.A. Reynolds, Dr. R.C. Robertson, Dr. J.B. Phillips, Dr. W.E. Van Order, and female physiotherapist Miss S. Maguire.
Besides housing numerous doctors, including a few specialists and dentists, the building on the main floor also had other tenants. That included the Chattanooga Surgical Co. operated by Oscar Spruell, the Medical Arts Coffee Shoppe run by Mrs. Winifred Smith, the Medical Arts barber shop of William Rains, and the Medical Arts Pharmacy.
Of course, the real appeal of the building that made it timeless amid the changing doctors and medical treatments was its architectural detail. In a 1979 survey done as the building was successfully being nominated for the National Register of Historic Places among other important R.H. Hunt buildings in Chattanooga, nominator Martha Carver of the local planning commission staff called it a transitional building in style.
“Both the Medical Arts Building and the Chattanooga Bank Building (now being converted into a hotel) were constructed in the late 1920s and reflect Mr. Hunt’s passage from Classical Revival influences into the Art Deco period,” she wrote.
She also called it a fine building, while highlighting such features as its façade and roof treatment of arches and raised projections, its German brass chandeliers with frosted glass and its walnut wood trim and doors.
“While not as outstanding as the U.S. Federal Building, the Medical Arts Building is nevertheless an excellent example of transitional architecture featuring several important geometric elements of the Art Deco style,” she said in summarizing the building.
“Historically, it is important as an example of an effort by Chattanooga’s citizens to modernize their medical facilities. Thus, it is fitting that the traditional decorative elements chosen to accompany the skyscraper design are modernistic rather than the more traditional Neo-Classical motifs which characterize much of Mr. Hunt’s work.”
Whether or when the building would be threatened with demolition might not have been on Ms. Carver’s mind at the time, although even back in the 1970s she knew of the constant threat to historic buildings as America continued to change and develop.
And she was obviously familiar with the Great Depression that hurt American businesses beginning not long after the building was built. In 1936, an announcement was made that the Medical Arts Building was being sold to another medically related group after credit and payment issues arose with the original owners.
Mr. Ochs had unfortunately died in 1935 while back visiting Chattanooga, and his family had taken an altruistic investment step to help the building remain more financially solvent.
A look in a 1950 city directory shows the building still being used for physicians, with several of the original doctors still there and joined by such newer ones as Dr. Douglas Chamberlain, Dr. Gus McCravey, Dr. Walter Boehm, Dr. Stewart Lawwill and Dr. C.H. Barnwell.
Dr. Chamberlain would father three Girls Preparatory School May queens, while Dr. Barnwell’s son-in-law was future Tennessee football coach Johnny Majors.
A 1970 Chattanooga Times article by Myrna McMahan on longtime Medical Arts Building pharmacy and luncheonette employee Ruth Malcom gives some additional insight into the building’s history serving food and goodwill along with serving patients.
Ms. Malcom said University of Chattanooga students would come over there to eat, as would those from the nearby and now-razed Dickinson Junior High School. She also apparently served former First Presbyterian Church pastor Dr. James L. Fowle his lunch there frequently.
A 1975 city directory shows the building still housing offices for medical professionals, but it also had a few vacant suites and such health-related support services as an optical dispensary and offices for speech and hearing services.
Its most prophetic sign for its future use, though, was that it also had a space on the first floor for volunteers for the Changed Lives outreach ministry of minister Ben Haden.
Plans that First Presbyterian was buying the building for future use were announced in a story by John Vass Jr. at the top of the Chattanooga News-Free Press on Aug. 1, 1978.
And despite some brief legal issues of when previous tenants were to vacate the building, it was dedicated on Nov. 22, 1981, after a linking corridor building designed by Ted Franklin’s firm was completed.
Based on the newspaper coverage, it was certainly a joyous moment for the church, as it felt it had a wonderful physical plant to better spread the word of Christ and help members grow in their own faith.
The old Medical Arts Building had been mostly gutted and reconfigured on the interior, although its exterior retained the late 1920s look. In the new configuration, Sunday school classes and other facilities were on the second floor, the senior high youth department was on the third floor, Mr. Haden’s offices were on the fifth floor, and video and radio taping facilities were on the 10th floor.
His Changed Lives non-denominational radio and television ministry not related directly to First Presbyterian Church occupied the eighth and ninth floors. The fourth, sixth and seventh floors were being set aside for future growth.
Some of the decorations in the redone building featured paintings by Mr. Haden’s wife, Charlyne.
Among the members who had taken lead roles in raising the $2.2 million in the building expansion program or in getting the work completed were Charles Chisolm, Scotty Probasco, T.A. Lupton Jr., Harold Weekley, Oscar Hilliard, Jack R. McNutt, Thomas McCallie, Scott Brown Jr., John Ballman, Warren Hardy, Edward W. Blake, John McKinnon, Dr. Frank Eldridge, Dr. Winborn Willingham, Dr. Lawrence Lassiter, Dr. Stephen Sawrie, Ben Mason, Dr. John Boxell, Henry Henegar, David Walley, and Peggy Jones, among others. The general contractor was T.H. Parks Construction Company and Selmon T. Franklin was the architect.
Now, the church is planning another building at the site where all this excitement occurred in 1981. It is collectively enthusiastic, but some in the larger Chattanooga community who have seen this building just as much from the outside are saddened.
Some wish it could be sold and preserved and turned into apartments or a hotel. That is while still wishing the church well and hoping it could somehow have a change in plans and find somewhere else on its property to better meet its planned physical plant needs.
But It is owned by the church, and the members have decided that tearing down the building best helps them meet their current needs.
However, based on the outcry of wishes that it could be preserved, many Chattanoogans feel like they own a little of the old Medical Arts Building, too – at least in their hearts.
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Jcshearer2@comcast.net