Just as Mayor Ron Littlefield was mentioning a plan to swap downtown parking for the former Narrowbridge restaurant in his State of the City address, fire investigators said someone was inside the now-closed restaurant trying to set the place ablaze.
Fire investigators need the public’s help in tracking down who might be responsible, said Bruce Garner, Chattanooga Fire Department spokesman.
Tim Hennen, a Chattanooga restaurateur and the Narrowbridge’s former owner, said the building had been abandoned since 1995.
He said the building and the roughly 7 acres of land on which it sits were transferred to the city’s ownership just before the first of the year. The city is giving Mr. Hennen parking near the downtown Hennen’s Restaurant in exchange for the building and the land, which adjoins the East Brainerd Heritage Park.
“It was a beautiful setting, but it just wasn’t viable as a business,” Mr. Hennen said.
Richard Beeland, the mayor’s spokesman, said the city will demolish the 60-year-old building and turn its land into a botanical garden until a another use is found. A date for the demolition has not been set, he said.
The building, which park occupants said was unlocked and accessible to anyone, had been vandalized. The exterior had graffiti and windows were broken out.
“It was a hazard, just like it proved last night,” Mr. Beeland said. “It needed to be demolished.”
Mr. Garner said firefighters noted structural problems with the building’s brick chimney.
The city renovated a nearby house on park property a few years ago, and it now rents as a banquet hall.
Chattanooga firefighters worked to extinguish the Thursday evening two-alarm fire for about an hour and a half, Mr. Garner said. The blaze damaged two rooms, traveling up walls, into the attic and burning through the roof, Mr. Garner said.
There were no occupants and no power to the structure at the time. Fire commanders labeled the blaze suspicious and called in fire investigators, Mr. Garner said.
Two teenage girls nearby said they saw five other girls inside playing with matches and lighting small fires. Fire investigators are asking anyone with information to call (423) 643-5603.
MAKE THE CALL
If you have information about the fire that damaged the Narrowbridge restaurant, call Chattanooga Fire Department investigators at (423) 643-5603.
Adam Crisp covers education issues for the Times Free Press. He joined the paper's staff in 2007 and initially covered crime, public safety, courts and general assignment topics. Prior to Chattanooga, Crisp was a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News and has been a reporter and editor at community newspapers in southeast Georgia. In college, he led his student paper to a first-place general excellence award from the Georgia College Press Association. He earned ...
