John Shearer: Random Thoughts About White Oak And DuPont Schools And America Band

Amid the good news about the engagement of NFL star Travis Kelce and singing superstar Taylor Swift -- and hopes by most that it will be happier than the Joe DiMaggio-Marilyn Monroe marriage of yesteryear – some less-romantic-but-important news took place locally.

Besides Mayor Tim Kelly’s amended budget and the county’s Plan Hamilton growth plan each passing by only one vote, some more decisive actions regarding the schools have taken place.

One is that historic preservationists have experienced some old school buildings being torn down in quick sequence not seen locally perhaps ever in terms of numbers. The old Tyner High School was torn down a few months ago, the old Elbert Long/CSLA school building was razed in recent weeks, and the former Tyner Middle School and White Oak/Dawn Elementary buildings are in the early stages of demolition.

Of course, the new Tyner Middle High Academy has opened where the Tyner schools were, making the former Tyner buildings’ reuse naught. And even though both White Oak and Elbert Long could have been reused in non-school ways at the time of their closings and with a little rehab investment and sweat equity, they are being torn down for possible future school needs.

As county schools director of communications Adison Lambert told me in an email regarding the White Oak/Dawn complex in echoing previous comments about the Elbert Long building, “The building is a liability issue. We will also retain the land for potential future use.”

Designed by Hunt, Caton and Associates – a successor firm to noted local architect R.H. Hunt – the White Oak building opened in 1959, the year I was born, after a 1958 fire had destroyed the previous White Oak school where the ballfields are across Memorial Drive.

Along with maybe Brainerd High, Dalewood Middle, the current Center for Creative Arts and all the round schools, I always thought the White Oak school was one of the more interesting mid-century public school buildings locally.

It had windows that went around corners like on a Frank Lloyd Wright home, and I thought its location would have made it perfect to be converted into condominiums. And it still has some neat mid-century playground equipment that would make any baby boomer feel nostalgic.

Park lovers likely hope at least the two lands are saved for accessible park space and not closed off to the general public like that handsome collection of soccer fields below the northwest end of the C.B. Robinson Bridge.

The futures of the unique and multi-tiered Alpine Crest Elementary, Rivermont Elementary, and the DuPont Elementary building are in limbo after plans were announced last week for the new North River elementary. Hats off to the county schools for thinking outside the box in joining with the North River Family YMCA for use of the gym facilities and by constructing the new school next to the Y.

Ms. Lambert also said the DuPont school is to be razed to make way for parking and fields and the preservation of the tree-covered park space down by the triangular intersection of Hixson Pike and Access Road. A site plan she passed along shows the school being built behind the current Y and out into the Y field space fronting DuPont Parkway, with parking lots being built into the Y field space along Hixson Pike.

Some field space would return in the south area of where the school sits now, with more parking on the north end of the current school space – although in more perpendicular patterns than the direction of the school today.

Since my Northgate Mall area home is only about five minutes from the school and I like to jog on grass, I have often gone over to DuPont and jogged on weekends or summer afternoons when no one except maybe a basketball player is there. I love the somewhat unique mid-century look the building has with its slight curve in the middle, its multi-paned windows, its window glass and the diamond brick patterns on the large gathering room on the south end.

It was designed by architect James G. Gauntt, and the original part was opened in 1959.

Over the years I have seen raccoons and deer amid this small oasis in a busy area, as well as occasionally homeless people asleep under the school entrance or even in tents on the grounds during the summer. I also enjoy all the trees, although maybe some need an arborist to keep them healthy, and the pretty setting has grabbed my attention more than the hundreds of passing cars surrounding the land do. There is also the slight remnant of the old tee-ball field remaining – a place I played tee-ball back in the mid-1960s.

I know some preservationists or sentimental alumni hope at least part of the DuPont building could be saved as a community center, even if the site plans would have to be redrawn a little.

Of the other schools whose future as schools is coming to an end, Alpine Crest – which I always thought was one of the more unique names for a Chattanooga school -- could possibly be reused for condominiums or as a private school. Preservationists certainly hope it is not razed to make way for dense housing of some sort, although developers would likely love to get their hands on that property.

Rivermont with its visible location on Hixson Pike could also be reused, whether as business offices, condominiums, a church or another private school. Whether all these schools will be reused or whether the demolition companies will get some more work remains to be seen.

Speaking of this mid-century era when these north-of-the-river schools opened, I had recently mentioned about 1960 Girls Preparatory School graduate and finance executive Charlotte Frances Fox leaving more than $8 million in her will to the school. I later became curious about her parents, George Richard and Blanche Fox, and where they had lived when she was in school.

The 1955 city directory when she was in the lower junior high grades said her father was president of the family’s Fox Bros. wholesale grocery firm in the 1200 block of King Street, with W.H. Fox the chairman of the board.

Although Fox Bros. was still in operation in 1960 when she graduated, her father by that time was working for City Insurance Agency, the city directories from the downtown Chattanooga Public Library say.

The family during her time at the school lived at 1606 Carroll Lane, which was just a short walk from GPS on the north side. I went by there this week, and an apparently new or greatly rebuilt home stands there now, and I assume it looks nothing like the home in which the future successful and somewhat pioneering woman from the financial field lived. That is one of the preservation-related issues with many of the homes here near the school and in Riverview farther north, as at least a third to a half have been rebuilt or enlarged significantly.

One music band in the Chattanooga news and which originally gave itself a large-enough name to prevent any future expansions of the nomenclature variety was America. The popular soft pop group primarily from the 1970s and ‘80s appeared at Memorial Auditorium’s Walker Theatre on Aug. 22.

They were one of my favorite groups when I was a teenager at Baylor in the 1970s, but unfortunately my wife, Laura, and I had committed to attending her high school reunion down near Augusta, Ga., so I could not go. I certainly hope it was enjoyable for those who went.

I remember buying about three or so of their different eight-tracks during those years, before realizing a vinyl album might last longer. I think I liked or enjoyed hearing almost every song on them, except maybe “Muskrat Love.” My favorite songs by them include “Ventura Highway,” “Daisy Jane,” “Tin Man,” “Lonely People” and “I Need You.”

I sure wish I could have gone to that concert. I did look online to see if they were also going to be in a place like Knoxville on a day I could go, but their other tour dates about that time were faraway. But I would like to see them almost as much as millions wanted to see Taylor Swift in concert!

Speaking of music from my youth, I also read that this summer is the 50^th anniversary of the release of the self-titled Fleetwood Mac album that featured the hits, “Rhiannon” and “Landslide,” and is also the 50^thanniversary of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” album.

The beautiful-sounding “Landslide” is about my favorite all-time song, and I think I also liked about every song on “Born to Run.” I remember my boyhood friend, Kurt Schmissrauter, and I were being driven somewhere by Kurt’s older brother, Joey, before we could drive, and Joey was playing “Born to Run” in the car.

I think I told him I had not heard of Bruce Springsteen, and he said, “You will.” He also mentioned, I think, that Mr. Springsteen had been on the cover of both Time and Newsweek recently or at that time.

Yes, Mr. Springsteen was an icon in the making.

Speaking of icons in a literally lighter sort of way, this summer also marks the 50^th anniversary of the introduction of Miller Lite beer, apparently the first lighter beer unveiled to a calorie-conscious public. In my late teens, 20s and 30s before I became a teetotaler, I enjoyed a few Miller Lites, maybe even while listening to some of these legendary songs and singers.

And so were many others close to my age. The year 1975 was a year when baby boomers – and the White Oak and DuPont Elementary buildings -- were still young and seemingly invincible and were going to be around a long time!

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net