Cooper: What Is Now Chattanooga State

Students walk between classes at Chattanooga State Community College.
Students walk between classes at Chattanooga State Community College.

Fifty years ago today, what was then called Chattanooga State Technical Institute - now Chattanooga State Community College - opened downtown.

It was not the beginning that once was anticipated when the school, then referred to as Chattanooga State Technical School, was authorized by the state legislature in 1963.

Indeed, the state board of education in the fall of 1964 ordered that the school be opened in the fall of 1965, even if it meant it would open in temporary quarters.

The holdup was the need for additional site preparation work at Moccasin Bend. Yes, Moccasin Bend.

The site that had been selected for the school, donated by the city and county, had been required to be raised 12 feet - with dirt from the Tennessee River at the foot of the bend, which was being dredged for the construction of a section of Interstate 24 on the opposite bank - so it would be above the flood plain for the Chattanooga area. But the planned building could not be supported by the fill that had been put in place, so 200 concrete pillars would need to be sunk 17-18 feet deep to provide a proper foundation.

It was expected the pillars would add another $140,000-$150,000 to the project and bring its cost to more than $1 million.

When bids for work on the building were delayed until December 1964, and a year of construction was forecast, it was determined the school would take over the present Chattanooga Technical Institute, which was being operated by the city school board at Fourth and Chestnut streets under a contract with the state.

The new, two-year technical school opened, as ordered, with 350 students in the fall of 1965 in order to, according to Times Free Press archives, "train technicians in half a dozen fields." Tuition was $120 a year for Tennessee residents and students from Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties in Georgia and Jackson County in Alabama.

Just under a year later, work on what was by then described as the "$2 million" Chattanooga State Technical Institute on Moccasin Bend still hadn't started because the cost of construction was "preposterous" and more than what state officials felt was economical. Meanwhile, some educators had raised opposition to the site as too remote and inconvenient for an educational facility designed primarily for working people, many of whom would attend on a part-time basis.

But a new plan was taking shape.

Acting on a suggestion by T.A. Lupton, president of Stone Fort Land Co., 35-year-old industrialist J. Frank Harrison donated a 75-acre tract of land on Amnicola Highway for the school.

"I am interested in manufacturing in this area," said Harrison, "and I realize full well the necessity for adequate training for our present and future generations of young people, especially for those people who will not or do not have the opportunity to continue their education to a full academic degree."

He added, presaging what is still said by local manufacturers 50 years later, that his company (Dorsey Corp.) "is constantly faced with the problem of finding young talent that has been properly trained, especially in the technical fields."

No figures were given at the time as to the value of the land being donated, which was technically given to the city and county and then deeded to the state, but it was assumed to be worth more than $200,000. In 2015 dollars, that gift would be worth more than $1.5 million.

Ground was broken for the new building in April 1966, where it was mentioned that then-Chattanooga Mayor Ralph Kelley had made the original proposal for the school when he was in the state legislature in 1959. The school, which was dedicated in June 1967 and already had more than 800 admission requests for a capacity of 800, would be renamed Chattanooga State Technical Community College in 1973 and Chattanooga State Community College in 2009.

Today, as the school turns 50, it has an enrollment of more than 11,500 students, more than the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. When Harrison made his gift that provided space for the then-fledgling school, a Chattanooga Times article described it as "a natural act for a man of means with a keen interest in education, a deep love for his community and sincere desire to play his part in its brighter economic future."

In 2015, such a gift from a private citizen, business or foundation for wider public use is included in what is often referred to as the Chattanooga Way. Fortunately for the area, it hasn't gone out of style.

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