Thursday, January 27, 2022

Photos of Chattanooga streetcars

Here's a streetcar on Market Street between 6th and 7th Streets in the 1940s in downtown Chattanooga.  When I was a very little girl, I rode those streetcars and buses (there's a bus behind the streetcar, followed by another streetcar, I think).  That first step up onto the streetcar was a real doozy for a child like me, kind of like an adult stepping up onto a table!  It helped that an adult was always with me to pull me up by one arm as I took that step.  Look at the woman in the street beside the streetcar for a comparison.  I think you can click to enlarge the photos.

This streetcar is on Georgia Avenue, near the courthouse.

I think that's the Electric Power Board building on the left, with J. C. Penney's in the middle behind the streetcar.  Oh, wait!  Now I see the Penney's sign on the corner of the white building.

Hmm, this could be Broad Street, a block over from Market Street.  It does seem to be wider.  But where?  I'm not sure if we're facing north or south.  Or maybe it's Market Street with no cars parked on either side.

Here are the 1913 Chattanooga streetcar routes.  Downtown is south of the Tennessee River.  The route at top left goes up Signal Mountain and the one at bottom left goes to Lookout Mountain, with the Incline Railway being the straight line up the side of the mountain.  Rossville is just south of where the route crosses over into Georgia on the right, with Chickamauga National Park (the battlefield) at bottom right, south of Fort Oglethorpe.  I see Dodds Avenue intersecting just above the state line, with Main Street (and East Main Street) passing near National Cemetery and meeting Dodds Avenue.

I have no idea where this is.  I wonder if the building with a flag is a school.

2 comments:

Judith Delaney said...

The line up Signal Mountain ended at the hotel which later was the Alexian Brothers home. Mother told me people came from Chattanooga for the dances at the hotel. The tracks were still on part of Signal Mountain Boulevard when I was younger-much younger.
I don't remember streetcars but guessing I wasn't taken into to town very often as a young child.

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Yes, the line up Signal Mountain went to the Signal Mountain Inn, later Alexian Brothers. I didn't go to town often, but I do remember that step up, even if I don't remember the streetcar ride itself. I didn't live on Signal Mountain until I was an adult. When we were in high school together, I lived on East 26th Street, near East Lake. Where did you live?