This aerial view of the North Chattanooga area in 1960 recalls a time when landmarks there included the Hamilton National Bank, the Town & Country Restaurant and one of the city’s original Ace Hardware stores.
The photo, taken by newspaper photographer John Goforth, is part of an archive of mid-20th century photos from the Chattanooga News-Free Press curated by ChattanoogaHistory.com.
The photo shows the convergence of Market Street (north of the Tennessee River), Frazier Avenue, Cherokee Boulevard and Manufacturer’s Road. It’s a location where part of the city’s industrial base, represented by plant buildings in the upper left corner of the photo, intersected with a commercial district alongside single-family homes.
Today, this area is commonly called the North Shore and is home to the Coolidge and Renaissance public parks, numerous new apartment and condominium complexes, and retail shops that cater to residents and pedestrians from the adjacent tourist district south of the river.
Near the center of this 1960 photo are two banks, American National Bank and Hamilton National Bank, which bracketed Cherokee Boulevard at the time. The banks formed a gateway into the North Market Street business district that included the landmark Town & Country Restaurant and the vibrant Town & Country Shopping Center.