In the late summer of 1975, Chattanooga was abuzz about a new city park.
For several years, city leaders had been planning a green space across Georgia Avenue from the Joel W. Solomon Federal Building, home of the downtown post office and federal court offices.
When this photo was published in the Chattanooga News-Free Press on Sept. 3, 1975, the 1.1-acre property was in the design phase and was known generically as the downtown park.
When it opened in December 1976, it would bear the name of the family of Chattanooga philanthropist Burkett Miller, one of the leading proponents of the park.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Miller Park was an urban oasis of trees and fountains that some say helped spark the downtown renaissance that continues more than 40 years later.