Yellow tape cordons off the main first-floor hallway in the Joel W. Solomon Federal Building where water damage has cause the ceiling to break above the post office boxes.VIDEO
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TIMELINE• 1933: Construction of new building to house all federal offices in Chattanooga, including the main post office and the U.S. courthouse.• 1938: American Institute of Architects recognizes courthouse as one of the 150 finest U.S. buildings in the previous 20 years.• 1960: Civil rights lawsuit, Mapp et al. vs. the City of Chattanooga Board of Education, filed in court, leading to desegregation of city public schools in 1962.• 1964: Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa convicted of jury tampering.• 1980: The U.S. Post Office and Courthouse is added to the National Register of Historic Places.• 1981 The U.S. General Services Administration assumes ownership of the building and renames it in honor of Joel “Jay” W. Solomon, a Chattanooga native and GSA administrator from 1977 to 1979.THE BUILDING• Architect: Reuben Harrison Hunt (1862-1937). The federal building was one of his last major works.• Initial cost: $493,000 (equivalent to $8.5 million in 2012)• Construction: 1932-1933• Design: Art Moderne style typical of government buildings in the 1930s. The five-story building has a steel structure, clad in white marble. Penthouses are set on projecting towers at the northwest and southwest corners.• Tenants: Two U.S district courts and two magistrate judges plus court clerks; federal probation and parole service office; downtown post office; U.S Secret Service; Frank Wilson law library; and offices for U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann
U.S. District Court Chief Deputy Clerk John Medearis looks to the ceiling of the third floor courtroom where there was previous water damage inside the Joel W. Solomon Federal Building.With its terrazzo floor displaying geometric patterns beneath metallic, cone-shaped lights, the first-floor lobby of Chattanooga’s federal building resembles the main floor of the majestic Empire State building in New York City.
But these days, the lobby of the Joel W. Solomon Federal Building in Chattanooga also looks like a crime scene, with ribbons of yellow tape strung across the lobby to prevent visitors from walking beneath a giant hole in the water-damaged ceiling.
“Unfortunately, these kinds of problems are all too common,” said U.S. District Court Judge Harry S. “Sandy” Mattice, whose office is down the hall from the latest water leak. “This is a beautiful old building, but it is an old building.”