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Remember When, Chattanooga? The Standard-Coosa-Thatcher textile mill was a major employer

Contributed photo from ChattanoogaHistory.com / This mid-century photo shows a worker in the spinning department at the Standard-Coosa-Thatcher textile mill in Chattanooga.
Contributed photo from ChattanoogaHistory.com / This mid-century photo shows a worker in the spinning department at the Standard-Coosa-Thatcher textile mill in Chattanooga. Contributed photo from ChattanoogaHistory.com / This mid-century photo shows a worker in the spinning department at the Standard-Coosa-Thatcher textile mill in Chattanooga.

By Mark Kennedy 3 min read

This mid-20th century photo of a worker at the former Standard-Coosa-Thatcher textile mill recalls a time when the plant at the foot of Missionary Ridge was one of Chattanooga’s major employers.

Although the identity of this worker is not known to us, she is one of the thousands who called the Standard-Coosa-Thatcher mill their work home.

This photo is one of a number of images salvaged from a dumpster at the plant. The negatives, found bound in notebooks, date from 1947-1949.

Jonathan Coulter Trundle, an associate professor of photography at Middle Tennessee State University, digitized this image along with others. Today, this photo is part of a collection of images of the Standard-Coosa-Thatcher textile mill at the ChattanoogaHistory.com website curated by Chattanooga history buff Sam Hall.

“Trundle digitized many via a dedicated Nikon film scanner,” Hall said, “allowing us to see remarkable details of this workplace and community that supported many families for decades.”