In the 1960s, the Town House Hotel and Restaurant on Georgia Avenue in downtown Chattanooga was an inviting destination for visitors to the city.
Today, this building is known as One Central Plaza, home to a SmartBank branch. But for a swath of the 20th century it was a midtown hotel — first the Hotel Key and later the Town House Hotel.
According to newspaper records, the building at 831 Georgia Ave. was completed in 1931 and opened originally as the Hotel Key. A report in late 1930 noted the Hotel Key, then still under construction, had seven stories and 96 rooms. It was built by developer Z.C. Patten at a cost of $275,000, the equivalent of about $5 million in 2022.
The hotel was reportedly named in memory of Judge David M. Key, the father of two prominent Chattanoogans, Commodore Key and Chancellor Summerfield A. Key.
The Hotel Key was such an important Great Depression-era building that electrical and plumbing contractors who worked on the building purchased newspaper ads to herald its opening. Fowler Brothers, a local furniture store, reportedly furnished the lobby and hotel rooms at a cost of about $20,000.