Teal Thibaud of the Glass House Collective, left, and Brenna Kelly from the Southeast Conservation cross North Crest Road near the Sherman Reservation on the north end of Missionary Ridge, part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Battlefield on Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Glass House Collective helped obtain a grant to make a trail through the woods seen on the left on Trust for Public Land property connecting the Sherman Reservation with the Pennsylvania Reservation at the foot of Missionary Ridge, and will include a pedestrian crossing at this location. When Carrington Montague went to Sherman’s Reservation with a ranger from the National Park Service on the 125th anniversary of the battle of Missionary Ridge in 1988, he remembers the ranger strapping on a gun.
The ranger wasn’t arming himself for a reenactment of the battle; he was being cautious at a site that – whether merited or not – had developed a reputation for attracting drugs and prostitution.
Now, years after that reputation led to installation of gates blocking vehicles from the crest of Sherman’s Reservation, the historic parcel is set for a revitalization project. Local leaders hope the work will elevate the site’s standing on the area’s list of Civil War attractions and embed it within the identity of the neighborhood.
The Glass House Collective, a group founded to bring new life to Glass Street, recently secured two grants totaling $50,000 to build a trail connecting Glass Street to the base of Sherman’s Reservation, which is the fourth-largest parcel in the National Park Service’s local system.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Montague said. “The more you get people out, the more they’ll learn, the healthier they’ll be. It’s just good public policy.”