A little brick building tucked away in the back parking lot of the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel complex may be saved from the wrecking ball and used by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, a tourist railroad.
One thing's certain: the building's sparked a debate over historic preservation.
The terminal tower is a two-story structure built in 1908 that was slated for demolition to make way for Bluebird Row Apartments, a $45 million luxury apartment complex to be built by Birmingham, Ala.-based LIV Development LLC, which paid the Choo Choo's owners $5.25 million for the 7-acre parcel of land.
But railroad buffs and historic preservationists rallied to save the building.
And on Friday afternoon, the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (TVRM) announced on its Facebook page that it hoped to save the terminal tower by moving the building to the museum's working railroad at 4119 Cromwell Road.
"TVRM is working diligently with LIV Development to preserve Terminal Tower by relocating it to TVRM," reads the Facebook post. "Further announcements regarding this important railroad preservation project will be made soon."
The Terminal Tower is seen at the Chattanooga Choo Choo on Friday, June 30, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn.Neither TVRM President Tim Andrews nor LIV Development's Michael Ramsey could be reached for further comment.
"That is awesome," said Justin Strickland, the author of "Chattanooga's Terminal Station," an Arcadia Publishing local history book. "That's great to hear."
"It can be used as an educational tool at the museum," Strickland said. "It's great that TVRM and LIV are listening to people. I feel relief."
Meanwhile, the idea of moving the terminal tower - which was the control tower from which trains were switched between tracks - doesn't sit well with longtime Chattanooga preservationist Andrew Smith, an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the professor in residence for Cornerstones, a Chattanooga nonprofit historic preservation organization.
"To serious preservationists, it's just as bad as tearing it down," said Smith, whose preservationist efforts date back to 1975 when he and Garnet Chapin, who was instrumental in saving the Walnut Street Bridge, first joined forces to save a historic house in the Fort Wood neighborhood.
The terminal tower contributed to the Choo Choo being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Smith said.
If the building goes, the Choo Choo could come off the list, he said.
"De-certification of the Choo Choo is a possibility," Smith said. "I'll do it. I'll go down there, do the work and write it up myself."
The idea the Choo Choo could lose its historic designation was dismissed by Jon Kinsey, a developer and former Chattanooga mayor who's one of the main owners of theChoo Choo Hotel complex,
"I think I have a sense when a historic building can be reused and when it can't," Kinsey said. "It's absurd to think that we would be removed from the National Register because of that building."
Kinsey said he's been involved in saving the historic street trolley car barns on Broad Street that now hold Big River Grille, a condominium on Williams Street that was built in 1923, and the 1907 building on West Main Street that's home to the Feed Table & Tavern restaurant.
"I understand significant historic buildings, and that [terminal tower] is not one," Kinsey said.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or on Twitter @meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.