Signal Plaza Shopping Center opened its doors for the first time in 1966
Today’s residents of Signal Mountain might not recognize this particular cluster of retail stores in the Signal Plaza Shopping Center.
This photo was taken in March 1966, weeks after the ribbon cutting for Signal Mountain Plaza, 1210 Taft Highway. None of the businesses in the old, black-and-white photo remain today.
Instead of a supermarket and a dime store, today this property is occupied by a Regions Bank branch, Accents gift store, All Creatures Great and Small gift shop, the Southern Star take-out restaurant and El Metate Mexican restaurant.
But back in the day, it was a grocery shopping hub, home to the M&J Super Market, part of a former regional chain with stores
across the Chattanooga area. M&J, which stands for Mulkey and Jackson, opened three stores here in 1965-66 alone, including this
Signal Mountain location along with stores in Brainerd Village and Highland Plaza in Hixson, according to newspaper archives.
In the 1970s, M&J Super Markets were sold to another local grocery group, Pruett’s Food Town, a family business that continues
to operatetoday as Pruett’s Signal Mountain Market on a nearby property.
The M&J Super Market on Signal Mountain, pictured here, opened in January 1966. Joel Smith was the manager, according to a report in the Chattanooga News-Free Press, and William Ragland was the president.
In 1966, the Signal Mountain supermarket was heralded in a news report for having “a complete delicatessen
department offering barbecue, salads, meats and homemade pies and cakes.”
When Signal Plaza opened in 1966, the six original stores were M&J Super Market, the Drug Shop, the Prissy Hen, the Town Shop, Rolf’s Coiffures and the U.S. 5&10 Cent Store.
U.S. 5&10 was part of a vast American network of so-called dime stores, also