Chattanooga Underground

Explore the history of Chattanooga as Jamal Williams and Kay Blevins go beneath the streets of downtown to find Chattanooga Underground in this three part series.

Hinting at what is often called underground Chattanooga, you can readily spot these architectural oddities downtown. What appears to be archways of windows…buried deep below a sidewalk… These are just one of many examples of why Chattanooga residents like Dr. Nicholas Honercamp believe these streets were raised.

“I think Chattanooga changed vertically and came up higher,” says Dr. Honercamp.

But why and when? Through our research we learned the flood of 1867 was the largest in the city’s recorded history.

The devastating effects of the heavy rain caused structural damage to downtown Chattanooga, destroying the military bridge. Many residents in the surrounding area died in the flood. Though not as severe as 1867, Chattanooga experienced heavy flooding throughout it’s early history.

So were flood victims tired of the destruction? Did they decide to raise what many consider downtown Chattanooga an entire floor with dirt or foundry silt? The historical data is spotty.

Nicely says, “When you look at old images of the central block, there is no image illustrated or photograph showing the central block losing a story.”

Dr. Honercamp says, “There is no specific documentation about this happening and that has driven people crazy.”

Local historians have spent years exploring downtown Chattanooga buildings looking for tangible evidence to prove the fact underground Chattanooga does exist.

David Moon says, “The Underground itself is just part of Chattanooga history even if its proven to be or somewhere in the middle that it is an important story to tell.”

David Moon spends countless hours going through old photographs like this and is skeptical Chattanooga streets were raised one full floor.

Others believe underground Chattanooga begins on 6th and 7th Streets and goes all the way to what was one time the railroad on Broad Street.

Honercamp says, “It seems almost impossible to have raised, but cities do that all the time, look at New York City.”

Many cities around the United States did raise their buildings in the 1800’s but with different methods. Honercamp, like other historians, believe Chattanooga residents used dirt near the downtown courthouse on Georgia Avenue to raise the streets.

While the project would have been a major undertaking, could it be possible? Visually, it’s compelling.

“Dirt can go down a lot easier then it can go up,” says Honercamp.

Some would argue those window arches are coal chutes. But would a business owner really need that many coal chutes to heat this building?

Honercamp says, “It seems like an excessive amount of coal chutes. Why put in an window that you are never gonna use; it just doesn’t make any sense.”

But that is not the only piece missing in this massive puzzle. Questions of underground arches… windows? Tunnels and stone to walls leave us digging deeper into underground Chattanooga.

Some if not most of the buildings on these heavily traveled streets are more than 130 years old but what is behind these walls may tell a different kind of structural story. Did these buildings always have basements? Or was this old stone and brick at one time a grand entrance? With front doors, and windows throughout?

Jamal Williams and Kay Blevins suit up and dig deeper to find out.

Welcome to some of the oldest, mysterious, and historic basements in downtown Chattanooga. We will show you what exactly is under East 7th, Market, Broad and Cherry Streets. And while it wasn’t always pretty or easy, it’s an adventure we won’t soon forget.

“So we are in downtown Chattanooga, right underneath Broad Street and this wall right here some even believe this might have been the entrance into underground Chattanooga.”

We begin with Broad Street and a place very well known in the Scenic City, the historic Tivoli Theatre. Just a few steps down in an adjacent building we learn more about a bizarre basement. Down these stairs, in a room used for tornado shelter.

Some of the old buildings have archways like this one in their basements that may have been windows prior to the city being raised.

“This appears to be an old window front,” says Jason McGlohon. He is a structural engineer. He has been through many of these old buildings most consider underground Chattanooga. He also works in new construction and claims every time he starts a new job in downtown Chattanooga, crews spend hours digging out foundry silt.

Jason says, “There would be no reason to put a window underground, with the street level being up here, unless the street level was down here lower.”

Throughout our research we stumbled upon many of these arches. Jason believes these were windows at one time.

Kay asks, “So you think this could have been the first floor possibly?”

“I believe at one time several of these buildings that were built like this, this was the first floor,” Jason answers.

Several buildings with basements in downtown Chattanooga, all reportedly look similar. From Broad, we head to East 7th Street where many of the same arches sit below Cadence Coffee.

Local historian Mori Nicely has also been in the basement of Cadence Coffee House. He says, “You would find this fine exterior style brick with windows and doors in it and then a wall on the other side. Until I walked in the Cadence Coffee basement I had become suspicious because when you start looking through the documentary evidence you have come up with a dead end.”

Our investigation continues down Market Street to the Miller Brothers building. Constructed in 1898, the building served as a department store until 1985; now home to office space.

Through a small door in the basement, more arches exist with another stone wall. Could they be coal chutes from the past or windows?

Just a few blocks down the road on Market Street is the Sports Barn and Big River Grill. Both have basements they consider underground Chattanooga. Historians believe what actually lies underneath the Sports Barn and Big River is actually “old car barns” that at one time housed horses with underground stables, deliberately constructed underground.

Through double basement doors though, you can see rusted poles, an electrical box, and a gate. Stepping into this part of hidden Chattanooga also shows a metal sheet right underneath Third Street with hanging chains. We have been told at one time someone could get all the way to Ross’s Landing underneath these busy streets, but why? That is still a mystery.

Back up Market Street our journey takes us to Cherry Street. This building was home to Cooper’s office space for decades. Underneath these old wooden floors you can see a glimpse into Chattanooga’s past. This basement is full of sealed off archways.

We have seen the visual evidence of underground Chattanooga. We have even been told a few stories.

Dr. Honercamp says, “A utility crew was digging a big trench right down on Market Street some place back about 20 or 30 years ago and they came across a tree that had been cut off, so the trunk was still there and the roots were into the ground 10 feet down.”

These eerie stories also lead us to believe underground Chattanooga does exist but how could a community using dirt or foundry silt raise an entire city one full floor?

“You think you would find newspaper records, if we did this massive buildup of the city streets you would see newspaper records. You would see city council records a plan to do this,” said Nicely.

Over the last fifty years historians have dug through records trying to kick up some dust and solve the underground Chattanooga mystery.

Jason McGlohon points to a pillar, “This line of mortar that comes down here it comes through in a distinct line….which makes me think that at one time there was a window of some sort here.”

We have gone through historic images, sandborn maps and spent countless hours in the Chattanooga Public Library. All with one purpose… validating Chattanooga underground.

Historian Mori Nicely said, “The sandborn maps never change…there’s nothing that says this is our big project. There’s never that smoking gun, a diary somewhere that says it, here we go.”

But is there? In the 1800’s there were a number of newspapers available for Chattanooga residents including the Daily American Union. Right after the 1867 flood in Chattanooga, an article was written in the Union claiming city officials including then Mayor Carr and the city engineer suggesting every street in Chattanooga be raised to sufficient feet above the flood level, hoping to stop the city from ever having devastating destruction again.

Through article after article we read more and more about these conversations. But no one big event where at one time all Chattanooga streets were raised.

Nicely adds, “The idea that Chattanooga that suddenly the streets rose up just really probably is not accurate at all. It was probably more spotty than that the reasons for it we always say it was because of flooding and it may have been because of flooding some of it anyway and it may have been because of uneven streets.”

David Moon said, “It is pretty well established at least in my opinion, if you look at the photographs of downtown that at the very least Market Street stayed the same grade from the Civil War up until now.”

But did it? We did go through city council records. This is documentation from April 20th, 1875 discussing an ordinance raising and establishing a grade of Market and other streets. On March 10th, 1875 an article is written in “The Daily Times” concerning a citizen meeting.

A few days later on March 14th, Chattanooga Mayor James recommends Market Street be graded to the height of other downtown streets. We learned the ordinance raising the grade of Market Street above the high water mark passed on the second reading. Could that be the documentation proving we really have an underground Chattanooga? You be the judge.

Local historian and Picanooga developer David Moon believes grading was done in the city but not enough to raise the city one full floor.

He said, “There was some grading to do there, Broad also had railroad tracks that went from the river to the depot so it was a muddy mess not at least well traveled at least by the visitors coming into Union Depot.”

This is a map of the city of Chattanooga in 1886 from the Library of Congress. Notice the train tracks and depot on Broad Street and the building with a 12 is the historic Read House.

On April 10th, 1886 The Daily Times published an article claiming that something needs to be done to level out the grading of Chattanooga streets, claiming the streets were in the most unattractive shape, confusing builders because they can not tell at which level to build their first floor.

By digging up all these old maps and documents we have found that downtown Chattanooga has history and a past under these heavily traveled streets, good or bad, every brick and piece of rubble has a story. But were these basements at one time the first floor? We may never be exactly know.

Dr. Honercamp said, “We have to firmly establish that it happened and the problem for the pro and con side is that there is not much documentation on anything that happened after 1880.”

We have been told the Hamilton County Courthouse caught fire in 1910 destroying many documents that might have pointed us in the right direction. As time marches on, more progress is being made in our historic city… progress that also can destroy images from the past.