Collegedale mobile home community Grindstone Estates firmly planted

By Yolanda Putman

Staff Writer

A former family farm in Collegedale that has been a mobile home community for more than three decades is a stable, friendly place to live, residents said.

"Fifteen years we've been here -- that should tell you something," said 73-year-old Grindstone Estates resident Verba Champ. "I'm well satisfied here. We're in a nice community."

Mrs. Champ and her husband, James, 77, are among 230 households in the neighborhood with manicured lawns spread across rolling hills at the foot of Grindstone Mountain. The 292 mobile home lots are equally divided into an adult section for households with no children and a family section for those with children.

Leola Wickwire, a resident of nine years, said Grindstone is "the best (neighborhood) I've lived in."

"It's a wonderful community," said the 91-year-old former Boulder, Colo., resident. "People are so friendly. I go walking and people always have something nice to say."

The neighborhood includes several Hamilton County schoolteachers and people who are retired but still work part time, said Karen Chastain, who oversees the management office. Rental of a mobile home lot costs about $224 a month and includes cable television fees, she said.

Edgmon Road, one of the main streets that leads to Grindstone Estates, is lined with subdivisions where prices for many houses start at about $200,000, Mrs. Chastain said. Though the well-kept houses around it help maintain the standards of the mobile home park, the park came before many of the subdivisions, she said.

The neighborhood was established in 1975, said Mrs. Chastain, who is the daughter-in-law of community founders Andrew and Shirley Chastain. The land was once the Chastain Family Poultry Farm, supplying eggs to families in Chattanooga and throughout Bradley County, but the farm burned in a fire, Mrs. Chastain said. The family had to find a different use for the land and they were approached by officials from Collegedale to start the neighborhood, Mrs. Chastain said.

Though most residents said they don't know how the community got its name, Mrs. Chastain said the standard answer is that the mobile home park is at the bottom of Grindstone Mountain.

The more interesting tale, she said, is that the mountain once was home to a Civil War veteran whose nose had been shot off during a battle. He came to live in the mountain for seclusion and eventually went to work making grindstones. He would put on a fake nose when people came to trade with him, she said. The people called the man, and eventually the mountain, Grindstone.

E-mail Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com