Corner of Dodds and Main was once a vibrant district
In 1962, the intersection of Main Street and Dodds Avenue was part of a busy commercial district in Ridgedale, a section of the city at the base of Missionary Ridge.
This photo from the EPB archives is part of a collection of images from the power company on display at Chatta noogaHistory.com, a website devoted to vintage photos of Chattanooga and curated by local history buff Sam Hall.
Several businesses are visible in the EPB photo including Woodall’s Upholstering, a branch of Hamilton National Bank and an American service station.
The bank is shown in the former Ridgedale Masonic Lodge 660 building, which now houses space for artists. The three-story, 13,500-foot building was built in 1924, according to news reports.
Signs along Dodds Avenue visible in the photo also mark the mid-century era.
A campaign sign for attorney Ray Brock Jr. touts his 1962 run for the Democratic party’s nomination for a Tennessee state Senate seat. He was ultimately defeated in the primary by Ward Crutchfield, then a state representative, who won by 2,980 votes. Crutchfield ran unopposed in the general election in a year when all of the members of the Hamilton County delegation to the Tennessee state legislature were Democrats.
Also visible in the photo is a sign for the Rossville Federal Credit Union. The sign noted the interest on savings accounts was then 4.25% per year, a rate that seems generous by today’s standards.
The billboard of a man in frontier garb is a promotion for the former Pioneer Bank chain which merged first with First American Bank in 1998, then became AmSouth Bank (1999) and later Regions (2006).
A van in traffic is from “Chow Now Drive-In,” which it notes is “home to the Plentyburger.” Newspaper ads from the period note Chow Now locations on Ringgold Road, Highway 58 and in Daisy, Tennessee. The classified ads were often seeking “neat, attractive curb girls” and/ or “experienced grill men.”
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