All the assets of the 109-year-old W.C. Teas Co. on McCallie Avenue were auctioned off Thursday, bringing in about $185,000 for the Herbert "Buddy" Haile Jr. family that closed the company two years ago.
"Everybody up front for the real estate! Auction time, let's go, let's go," auctioneer Henry Glascock shouted at the absolute auction.
The prime piece of property -- with buildings at 1200, 1212 and 1214 McCallie Ave. -- went for $145,000 to William Buck, a carpenter who plans to renovate and rent out the historic McCallie Avenue landmark.
"It's an important piece of Chattanooga history, and I'm honored to be a part of it," said Mr. Buck, who said he has a background in historic renovation.
The auction continued as auctioneers working in shifts sold concrete saws, a bucket truck and everything from PVC pipe to computer monitors throughout the morning to the gathered crowd of about 35 attendees.
Everything has a price at an absolute auction, where all items must go and no bid is too low, said John Dixon, owner of auction company John Dixon & Associates.
"The Haile family is liquidating everything," Mr. Dixon said. "We've got a good crowd, and we're getting reasonable prices for both sides."
Mid-century studio lights from the WRCB-TV Channel 3 station were stacked next to movie theater seats from an aborted attempt to turn the 1214 McCallie Ave. building into a cinema. At one time, the building also served as home to the television station.
Upstairs rooms formerly used as offices for a furniture company looked as if they hadn't been touched in 50 years. An unopened Coke with an antiquated bottle design sat in an unused reception area.
W.C. Teas shut its doors in August 2008, when 79-year-old Herbert "Buddy" Haile Jr. decided to take the action.
"It should have been done 10 years ago, but I really enjoyed working here, and I really got an education about running a business," he said.
Mr. Haile said that in his company's prime, it did all or most of the electrical work for Eastgate Mall, the Tennessee Aquarium, the Gold building of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee downtown, several UTC buildings and Provident's (now Unum's) downtown Chattanooga headquarters.
A Notre Dame graduate and Navy man, Mr. Haile had the business thrust into his lap when his father, Herbert Haile Sr., suffered a heart attack in 1962.
"At the time we sold radios, A/C, TVs, appliances -- we handled it all," Mr. Haile said.
But he decided to focus on contract work in 1964, he said, employing up to 50 electricians at one time.
"Every electrician in the last 100 years in this area has worked with Teas," he said.
Mr. Haile still maintains a museum filled with mementos from the last century. They include a piece of the trans-Atlantic cable from 1858, a telephone book from 1927, speakers from 1913 and a 1937 candy machine that still works.
"W.C. Teas has been a part of this community forever, in an area that used to be the center of town," he said.
Mr. Haile plans to set up a woodworking workshop down the street on McCallie and enjoy the rest of his life with his hobbies and his family.
Including the buildings and a vacant lot that sold for a combined $160,000, the auction gathered about $185,000 for the Haile family, said auctioneer Jimmy McGinness.