The parks plan unveiled by Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly Tuesday likely will be thought of by some the same way the city’s 1911 plan by renowned landscape architect John Nolen was.
It is too expensive, too ambitious, too unrealistic. The Chattanooga Daily Times ran several articles at the time in which local citizens mocked the plan.
But you know what? Many aspects of the plan Nolen created came to pass over the next 112 years, perhaps not in the exact way he foresaw them but in very similar ways.
Doubt us?
› Olympia Playfield: Nolen in his preliminary report to the city said “this will be the principal recreation center and playground for games and sports. The ground is level and well adapted for the purposes and centrally located. There appears to be no other area that would answer so well.”