Highland Plaza was a beacon for youngsters
Scores of children descended on Highland Plaza shopping center on the weekend before Thanksgiving in 1965.
The accompanying 59-year-old photo, taken from the archives of the Chattanooga News-Free Press and preserved by ChattanoogaHistory.com, shows the children searching hay bales for coupons redeemable for free prizes at stores in the area.
An article in The Chattanooga Times on Nov. 21, 1965, noted that one child, 9-yearold Mary Jo Roberson, won two turkeys donated by an A&P supermarket, and little Mary Jo promised to give one of them to sick children at Erlanger hospital.
The straw-in-a-haystack event was staged as a fundraiser to provide medicine for children in area hospitals, a drive called “Operation Medicine Chest.” While the children pawed through hay bales to find drinking straws stuffed with the coupons for free gifts donated by the Highland Plaza merchants association, their parents made donations to the medicine fund.
Highland Plaza, which opened in 1958 on Hixson Pike, is said to be Chattanooga’s first suburban shopping center. Visible in this photo are Woolworth’s, W. T. Grant Co. and Kroger stores.
Among the original tenants of Highland Plaza, which is at the intersection of Hixson Pike and Ashland
Terrace, were Miller Brothers department store, J.C. Penney, Woolworth’s, W.T. Grant Co, Miles Shoes, Gordon’s Jewelers, Miller Jones Shoes and Kroger.
J.C. Penny later moved to Northgate Mall when it opened in 1972. Woolworth’s and Grants were two general merchandise stores often associated with downtown shopping districts in the first half of the 20th century. Kroger supermarkets were a part of the grocery store landscape here until leaving the market in the late 1980s, when the Red Food Store chain was dominant in the region.
To read previous articles in this series, visit ChattanoogaHistory.com or join the “Remember When, Chattanooga?” public group on Facebook.