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Chattanooga museum is history after River City takes back building

The Chattanooga History Center at 2 W. Aquarium Way has been reclaimed by the River City Co., which held the mortgage on the 2-story building for the past decade while the museum tried to raise funds to open the downtown attraction. The words of Robert Penn Warren remain on the wall of the ill-faded museum site.
The Chattanooga History Center at 2 W. Aquarium Way has been reclaimed by the River City Co., which held the mortgage on the 2-story building for the past decade while the museum tried to raise funds to open the downtown attraction. The words of Robert Penn Warren remain on the wall of the ill-faded museum site. The Chattanooga History Center at 2 W. Aquarium Way has been reclaimed by the River City Co., which held the mortgage on the 2-story building for the past decade while the museum tried to raise funds to open the downtown attraction. The words of Robert Penn Warren remain on the wall of the ill-faded museum site.

By Dave Flessner 4 min read

photo The Chattanooga History Center at 2 W. Aquarium Way has been reclaimed by the River City Co., which held the mortgage on the 2-story building for the past decade while the museum tried to raise funds to open the downtown attraction. The words of Robert Penn Warren remain on the wall of the ill-faded museum site.
photo The Chattanooga History Center at 2 W. Aquarium Way has been reclaimed by the River City Co., which held the mortgage on the 2-story building for the past decade while the museum tried to raise funds to open the downtown attraction. The words of Robert Penn Warren remain on the wall of the ill-faded museum site.

A decade after landing near the Tennessee Aquarium with hopes of building a state-of-the-art, interactive attraction, the Chattanooga History Center has given up its downtown site before the museum ever opened.

The downtown development agency River City Co. took back the two-story building on Aquarium Way last week and helped the history center pay down about $800,000 of debt as part of a $2.5 million deal for the facility, River City Co. President Kim White said.

“We’re actively marketing the property and have brought several parties through the complex already,” White said. “We feel like it’s such an important asset for downtown Chattanooga that we wanted to make sure it stays in friendly hands and we take our time to make sure we get the right kind of development for this high-profile space.”

River City, which owns the structure originally built in 1993 as a Visitors Center for the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau, helped finance the history museum’s attempt to buy and renovate part of the 23,000-square-foot facility in 2006. Although the museum raised and spent millions of dollars on the facility, it failed to raise enough money to finish the original concept and the museum never opened other than for special events and courses.

The Chattanooga History Center is now studying the possibility of housing its exhibits and regional artifacts in a much smaller space in the Chattanooga Public Library, if an agreement with the library can be worked out.