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Reliving, Reviving History: 99-year-old American Legion Hall being restored and rejuvenated in South Pittsburg
Catherine Brown sits on a chair inside the lobby of American Legion Post 62 in South Pittsburg, a huge smile on her face. The smile has been there for about the last hour.
All around the 86-year-old is a beehive of activity with volunteers cleaning bathrooms, sweeping floors and checking out the decorations, including the glitter ball hanging from the hand-hewn rafters, sparkling and ready for the seventh- and eighth-grade dance taking place later that evening.
Just a few months ago, the idea that anyone would consider holding anything but a demolition party in the 99-year-old building was unthinkable. A year and half ago, the roof leaked so badly, a main hallway near the kitchen was collapsing, ceilings were falling and the only inhabitants who felt safe in the place were the termites. And they were nervous.
The building suffered a good deal of damage in the flash flood of 2013 and has been in decline since. But on a recent Friday, Brown couldn't stop smiling and she couldn't stop talking about the building, which has been a part of her history since before she was born.
"My father [Bert Cook] helped build this place," she says. "He sold them the land, too. And I attended first grade in this room."
She is also a member of the South Pittsburg High School class of 1948, which made the first donation to the current renovation project back in 2014 as part of a $50 challenge to all of the school's alumni. Like just about everyone who has lived in South Pittsburg or Marion County for any length of time, Brown has attended any number of events in the building over the years.
History
Chattanooga architect W.H. Sears, taking his cue from the 1922 discovery of King Tut's tomb, a world-wide sensation at the time, designed an Egyptian-style edifice with large columns welcoming visitors.
In addition to being a place for veterans to meet, it has hosted weddings, family gatherings, funeral services, boys and girls club meetings, dances, athletic team gatherings and, on more than one occasion, served as classroom space.
To date, about $70,000 has been raised and spent to repair the building - and that doesn't include the many volunteer hours.
The exterior work is mostly done and the main floor is 80 percent finished, with things like kitchen countertops to be added and some fixtures yet to be installed in the bathrooms. Those jobs should be completed in the coming weeks.
The work is being done with three goals in mind. The first is to maintain the building's history and its integrity. Opened in 1927, it cost $20,000 to build. It was one of the few new, stand-alone veteran halls in the country since most were placed in pre-existing, unused spaces.
The second goal is to make it a place Marion County veterans want to visit, according to newly elected Post 62 Commander Luis Maldonado.
"We want them to come and feel welcome," he says.
To that end, the plan is to turn the entire basement space into a gathering space for the veterans. There is no timetable for the basement work to be completed since no funds have been raised to date, which leads to the third goal - to make Post 62 a self-sustaining operation through rentals.
The two front office spaces have been outfitted with new bathrooms featuring showers so they can be used as dressing rooms for weddings, plays and concerts. Kathie Tierney, former editor of the South Pittsburg Hustler newspaper has been tabbed as the new promotions director.
For all involved, the renovation project has been about much more than replacing some rotting wood. It's been about preserving history for a brighter future.
Preservation
As executive director of Cornerstones, an organization dedicated to preserving "the architectural heritage and urban fabric" of buildings in Chattanooga, Ann Gray is no stranger to saving old buildings, though it's unlikely she's been as connected to any of the others as she has to American Legion Post 62.
"I took aerobics classes in this building," says the longtime Marion County resident.
South Pittsburg Vice Mayor and City Councilman Jimmy Wigfall says that, dating back to his childhood, he has attended more than his fair share of events in the building.
"Oh yeah, I've spent lots of time in here," he says. "This has been a place for the community for many years. Everybody in the community has been here for something."
Wigfall, Gray and Brown, along with several other longtime South Pittsburg residents, have been involved in the current renovation project, but the man being given most of the credit for the work is a guy who'd never set foot inside the place until a couple of years ago.
In fact, retired Master Sgt. Trevor Shattuck had no ties to South Pittsburg until a chance visit to the city while he and his wife, Linsay, took a travel detour while visiting friends in Nashville years ago. But the connections go back even further.
While taking a test to qualify for advancement in the Air Force, Shattuck and his fellow test-takers were given one question to break a scoring tie: "Everyone knows Chuck Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier. Who was the second?"
"I knew it was Capt. (James) Fitz-Gerald," Shattuck says, "and I was the only one who knew it."
He got the promotion and, while visiting South Pittsburg years later, Shattuck came across a Tennessee historic marker featuring South Pittsburg native son USAF Capt. James Fitz-Gerald Jr. The marker sits in front of American Legion Post 62.
Even though he had no way of knowing just how deeply the marker and the building would become connected to his life at the time, "I got chills and felt this immediate connection to this place," Shattuck says.
The Shattucks bought some property in the area a couple of years ago and one day he picked up the local newspaper and saw a story in which Wigfall said American Legion Post 62 building needed a new roof or it would need to come down. Shattuck, an Air Force civil engineer accustomed to building and rebuilding the seemingly impossible, made a call to Wigfall and visited the site in May 2015.
After seeing the structure, Shattuck told Wigfall the building needed much more than a roof. The water had done serious structural damage but, he said, he had some buddies who might be able to help. He reached out to some of the guys at Dobbins Air Force Reserve in Marietta, Ga., and for the last several months between 10 to 14 have given up their vacation and weekend days to volunteer their time and expertise at the Legion hall.
"These are trainers, some of them, so we've had HVAC guys, electricians, plumbers, you name it here," Shattuck says.
Since the renovation began, South Pittsburg seems to have rediscovered some of its history. In addition to the building work, volunteers have been working to clean up the cemetery nearby where several soldiers who fought in the Civil War and both World Wars are buried.
To say Shattuck is committed to the project would be akin to saying the South Pittsburg High School Pirates - who've won six state titles and finished runner-up six other times - know a little bit about football. When he wasn't swinging a hammer or painting, Shattuck was speaking to any individual, civic group or business that would have him, looking for donations of any kind.
"I haven't left a place yet empty-handed," he says. "The building is getting its relevance back."
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6354.