Chattanoogans who remember the 1960s might recognize this shopping center at the intersection of Brainerd and Germantown roads.
The property sits at a busy gateway to the densely populated Brainerd and East Ridge suburbs.
With three retail stores, the shopping center showcased well-known brands: Kroger, F.W. Woolworth Co. and Eckerd Drugs. All three later left the market or were purchased by other companies.
According to property records, the shopping center in the accompanying photo was developed in the early 1950s, and it occupies 3.26 acres with 31,000 square feet of shopping space. On this block today are an Auto Zone, a Dollar Tree store and an Advance Financial location.
The anchor retailer in 1965 was one of five Kroger supermarkets in the Chattanooga area then. The other Kroger locations in the mid-1960s were at 125 N. Market St., 3801 Ringgold Road, 3961 Hixson Pike and 5796 Brainerd Road.
Newspaper advertisements of the day reflect mid-century prices. At Kroger in 1965, a 75-count box of Glad sandwich bags cost 29 cents, and a dozen ears of corn sold for 67 cents. Meanwhile, a 3-ounce can of potted meat was priced at 10 cents, and a pound of Fleetwood Coffee was just 69 cents.
Also prominent in Kroger advertisements in the 1960s were Top Value Stamps, which customers pasted into books that could be exchanged for housewares and gifts. One contest that year featured a giveaway of "1,000 filled books of Top Value Stamps," which the ads said constituted a "nest egg."
Seven Kroger stores in the Chattanooga area were sold to the locally-based Red Food supermarket chain in 1989.
The F.W. Woolworth Co. store in this photo remained until 1969, when it was sold to the locally-operated Redford's 5 & 10 variety store chain, according to newspaper files.
In 1965, Eckerd drug stores in the Chattanooga area included this location along with others on Market Street, Highway 58 and Eastgate. There were also Eckerd Drugs locations in Dalton, Cleveland and Fort Oglethorpe.
In 1965, Eckerd's sold Ultra Brite toothpaste for 47 cents a tube, Jergens body lotion for 87 cents a bottle and Vitalis hair tonic for $1.19 a bottle.
The Eckerd's chain, owned by JC Penney, was sold to CVS in 2004.
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