In 1906, the seven-story Pound Building on 11th Street was considered one of the city's first "skyscrapers." In fact, it was the city's tallest building when it was constructed during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt.
Named for its owner, hotel developer and newspaperman Jerome B. Pound, the building was near the current location of Chattanooga City Hall at the corner of 11th and Lindsay streets. The building was leveled in the late 1980s to make way for a plaza and parking garage adjacent to Warehouse Row, a shopping complex featuring repurposed warehouses that opened in 1989.
(READ MORE: Warehouse Row offers a stylish shopping and dining experience)
The photo accompanying this article was taken by local attorney Hugh J. Moore Jr., who donated the image to ChattanoogaHistory.com, a website that curates historical local photographers.
"I took that photo because the building was going to be demolished," Moore wrote in an email. "I don't recall ever going inside."
(READ MORE: See Hugh Moore's photo of the Home Plate Cafeteria)
The Pound Building was originally built to house the Chattanooga News newspaper, among other concerns, and was sometimes referred to as simply the "News Building." Other tenants in the early decades of the 1900s were an advertising company and a military reserve office, according to old newspaper articles.
Pound was one of the city's most prominent citizens at the turn of the 20th century. In addition to the Chattanooga News, Pound, at points, owned the Knoxville Sentinel and the Memphis Morning News. (In 1939, Chattanooga Free Press publisher Roy McDonald bought the Chattanooga News and created the Chattanooga News-Free Press. By then, Pound was no longer the owner.)
In Chattanooga, Pound was well known for being the president and directing leader of the Hotel Patten (built in 1908), which is now the Patten Towers. He also owned other hotel properties in Atlanta; Jacksonville, Florida; and Savannah, Georgia. He was also a major property owner. In his 1952 obituary, The Chattanooga Times reported Pound "owned the tract (of land) in Lookout Valley on which the town of Tiftonia was built."
Pound was born in 1865 in Dooly County, Georgia, according to his obituary. According to his published memoir, his wealth was self-made. At 10 years old, he had a job "reading two hours a night" to a newspaper publisher in Georgia. By age 16, he was running his own newspaper. He started the Chattanooga News here when he was still in his 20s.
Pound was reportedly a friend of famous people and liked to tell a story about the time Babe Ruth was a guest at his house on Lookout Mountain. The baseball great apparently entertained himself by launching golf balls off a cliff.
ChattanoogaHistory.com
Launched by history enthusiast Sam Hall in 2014, ChattanoogaHistory.com is maintained to present historical images in the highest resolution available. If you have photo negatives, glass plate negatives or original nondigital prints taken in the Chattanooga area, contact Sam Hall for information on how they may qualify to be digitized and preserved at no charge.
To read more stories in this series visit ChattanoogaHistory.com or join the "Remember When, Chattanooga?" public group on Facebook.
Remember When, Chattanooga? is published on Saturdays. Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.
Photo by Hugh J. Moore Jr. via ChattanoogaHistory.com / When it was built in 1906, the former Pound Building on 11th Street was the city's tallest building.