When construction crews began remodeling the former Hamilton County annex building across from the courthouse, they noticed an unusual boxed-in area along one of the walls on the second floor.
Peeling back the wooden frames in the former county office, workers discovered a 10-foot high brick fireplace built over an elk edged into the tile floor. A floor below, workers also uncovered a tiled swimming pool – one of the first such pools in Chattanooga.
“It’s unbelievable in some of these old buildings what you see emerge,” said Thomas Clark, the project manager for Lamp Post Properties, which is now renovating the Mayfield Annex and the former Cooper’s Office Supply building a block away on Cherry Street. “You don’t always know what you will find and that can be a challenge, but there is a unique opportunity for all these buildings.”
The signature decorations in the Mayfield Annex date back to the building’s original use as the downtown Elk’s club, where more than a century ago members could swim in a basement swimming pool, smoke in a first floor cigar room, eat lunch in the second floor dining room or dance in the third floor ballroom.
Clark and his work crews are re-purposing the century-old buildings in downtown Chattanooga for new office, retail and restaurant use. Lamp Post Properties, the real estate arm of the venture capitalists backing nearly a dozen startup companies, bought the former Cooper Office Supply office in the 700 block of Cherry Street two years ago and acquired the Mayfield Annex at East Seventh and Walnut Streets last year to add to its portfolio in Chattanooga’s Innovation District downtown.