Boxes stacked on the sidewalk outside Uncle Herman’s Chattanooga Shoe Store in this 1950 photo suggest the downtown shop was a busy place in the middle of the 20th century.
Indeed, for much of its run from late 1920s until the early 1980s, the shoe store in the 800 block of Market Street revolutionized off-price retailing, often featuring imperfect shoes bought at a discount from factories alongside regularly-priced footwear for the whole family.
This photo from October 1950 was taken by Chattanooga Free Press photographer Delmont Wilson. The image appears on the website ChattanoogaHistory.com curated by history enthusiast Sam Hall.
The Uncle Herman’s Chattanooga Shoe Store building, at 820 Market St., was dramatically renovated in 1956. Newspaper reports at the time called it an “extreme remodeling,” and some may remember the resulting checkerboard facade which was made using black stucco. The cost of the redo was reported at $30,000.
Inside the store, a balcony area was reserved for off-price shoes while the ground floor was for “the children’s department and higher grade shoes,” according to a newspaper report at the time of the remodel.