Chattanooga History Museum Timeline
In 2000, the city donated an adjacent building to the downtown museum and in 2006 the name changed to the Chattanooga History Center. Daryl Black was hired to be a curator. In 2008, the museum sold off its properties and moved into a temporary location on Lindsay Street. In 2009, the board promoted Black. He was an academic, a former history professor and adjunct instructor. He taught at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Aside from his curating experience, he had not been employed by a museum before.
After raising more than $10 million over the past 10 years, the Chattanooga History Center apparently is out of money before it ever opened in the building at 2 W. Aquarium Way it has occupied since 2006.
The downtown center was to be a revolutionary interactive museum – “a world-class destination,” in the words of former director Daryl Black.
But River City Co. CEO Kim White told the Times Free Press this week that museum officers informed her in late December they did not have money to continue making payments on the building’s approximately $1.8 million mortgage. White had suggested the center move to a smaller, more affordable downtown building. But the officers told White they could not afford a smaller venue without a financial partner’s help. No partner materialized.
“They told me they would talk with the [downtown Chattanooga] Public Library about moving onto a floor of that building,” White said Monday. “They notified their donors and me two days ago that they would be leaving.”