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Remember When, Chattanooga? Chatt State was born as city landed state’s first two-year technical school

Archival image / The front page of the Chattanooga News-Free Press is seen on May 10, 1963.
Archival image / The front page of the Chattanooga News-Free Press is seen on May 10, 1963. Archival image / The front page of the Chattanooga News-Free Press is seen on May 10, 1963.


Tennessee Education Commissioner Howard Warf was a popular man in the spring of 1963.

Thirty-six delegations from various counties across the state had visited Warf, trying to make the case that their community should be awarded the state’s first two-year technical school, according to newspaper archives. However, Warf had requested that Chattanooga not waste time by sending representatives to lobby him.

What? Had someone in the Scenic City made a wise crack about Hohenwald, the county seat of his beloved Lewis County, sounding like it should be pronounced “hole in the wall?”