Preserving and Protecting an Icon
Preserve Chattanooga, the historic preservation organization, has sold its portion of the Terminal Station complex on Market Street after protecting it with preservation façade easements. The historic preservation nonprofit received the domed former passenger lobby space as a gift in 2018 from Choo Choo Partners LP led by its partners Jon Kinsey, Frank Fowler, Ben Probasco and Fred Skillern. The space continued to be used as a hotel lobby until 2022. In February of 2024, Preserve Chattanooga agreed to sell the centerpiece of the complex to NorthPond Partners LLC, a real estate investment and management company based in Chicago, Illinois. NorthPond had previously purchased the north and south wings of the building along with the Glenn Miller Gardens from Choo Choo Partners LP and has been actively engaged with site improvements.
Under its ownership, Preserve Chattanooga invested over $230,000 on stabilizing and improving the structure. Work completed includes a new roof, various repairs, and preservation studies. A recent grant from the State of Tennessee was used to custom build new front doors that replicated the original design. As part of the sale agreement, NorthPond Partners donated a preservation easement to Preserve Chattanooga that protects both the interior dome and the exterior facade from demolition or inappropriate architectural changes.
Read more about the transaction on our News Section.
A Brief History
The Terminal Station feels like the very heart of Chattanooga for a reason. Since 1909, the 82-foot-high central dome has greeted first time visitors to the city and been a place of homecoming for locals returning from their journeys. It was meant to be a beautiful, shared space from the very beginning.
Designed by architect Donn Barber in the Beaux Arts style, the Terminal Station was a strong statement to Chattanooga’s emerging prominence as an important railroad crossroads. It was the first train station in the South to open a pathway to the North by connecting with Cincinnati. Eventually, the Terminal Station was serving some fifty passenger trains per day plus some freight and package service.
The president of the Southern Railway System, William Finley, wanted the architecture of Chattanooga’s new terminal to be inspired by the National Park Bank of New York. Chattanooga’s high dome-like skylight was the main emulation of the National Park Bank. The Terminal Station entrance featured the largest arched window system in the world at the time. It’s hard to walk through the Terminal, even today, and not begin to hum “pardon me boys, it’s the Chattanooga Choo Choo.” There’s simply no other space like it in Chattanooga.
The last train departed in 1970 and the Station was closed to the public. It reopened as a hotel complex in 1973 and a new era began. Today, the wings of the Terminal Station are home to popular restaurants and attractions and the central dome space is one of Chattanooga’s most popular photo spots.
Read more about the Terminal’s history in Images of Rail: Chattanooga’s Terminal Station.
That Famous Song
Written for Sun Valley Serenade, a 1941 movie starring Sonja Henie, Milton Burle, and Joan Davis, the “Chattanooga Choo Choo” became the number 1 song across America. The Glenn Miller Orchestra performed the song in the film which featured their vocalists Tex Beneke and Paula Kelly as well as the starlet Dorothy Dandridge who sings and dances with the tap-dancing brothers Harold and Fayard Nicholas.
The train that inspired the song was a wood-burning steam locomotive owned by the Cincinnati Southern Railway that traveled from Cincinnati to Chattanooga. A newspaper reporter nicknamed it the "Chattanooga Choo Choo." The lyrics of the song tell the story of a man traveling south on a coal-burning train from Pennsylvania Station in New York through Baltimore and arriving in Chattanooga, where he will meet up with his girlfriend. It's a jubilant song with every aspect of the train ride a delight - even the whistle sounds like a song.
The first ever "gold record" was awarded to Miller for this song which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1996.
World War II created a surge of passenger traffic. Notice the USO lounge on the right and two of the original four chandeliers that once adorned the waiting room ceiling. (Photo courtesy of David Steinberg)
Imagine running into Elvis Presley (above) or President’s Woodrow Wilson or Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Terminal Station. Many famous people have passed through its halls over the years.
This photo from the 1960’s shows the “modernization” of the terminal which included adding a drop ceiling to improve energy efficiency, effectively hiding the grand dome and skylight from view.
The National Park Bank in New York City inspired the design for Chattanooga's new terminal.
A vintage postcard of Chattanooga's impressive new terminal.
