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Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium

1924 establishments in TennesseeBuildings and structures in Chattanooga, TennesseeEconomy of Chattanooga, TennesseeNational Register of Historic Places in Chattanooga, TennesseeTheatres completed in 1924
Theatres in TennesseeTheatres on the National Register of Historic Places in TennesseeTourist attractions in Chattanooga, Tennessee
SoldiersAndSailorsMemorialAuditoriuminChattanooga
SoldiersAndSailorsMemorialAuditoriuminChattanooga

The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium is a historic performance hall in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Built between 1922 and 1924 by John Parks (John Parks Company, General Contractors) at a cost of $700,000 and designed by noted architect R. H. Hunt, who also designed Chattanooga's lavish Tivoli Theatre, the theater honors area veterans of World War I. The building, located at 399 McCallie Avenue is about halfway between downtown and the UT Chattanooga campus. It occupies half of the city block bounded by McCallie Avenue, Lindsay Street, Oak Street and Georgia Avenue. The building contains two theaters; the lower one seats 3,866 and the upper one seats 1,012. There is also a small trade show convention hall in the basement that measures 9,600 square feet (890 m2). By the early 1960s, Memorial Auditorium had fallen into disrepair. The building was closed in 1965, and reopened after renovations the following year. It closed again in 1988 for further restoration and modernization. The repairs cost over $7 million, and Memorial Auditorium reopened in 1991. In 1975, the auditorium's board of directors found themselves before the United States Supreme Court, as they had been sued by the producers of the musical Hair who were denied permission to stage their show because of its nudity. See the case at [1]. The case was known as Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad 420 U.S. 546. Justice Harry Blackmun, writing for the court, held that the prohibition on staging the musical was an illegal prior restraint. Also in 1975, Kiss made its first headline-act performance here on September 10 for their then-released Alive! album.. For over 85 years, the venue has hosted religious festivals, political rallies, debutante galas, opera, musicals and concerts. It continues to be an important cultural attraction for the city, and a key part of its history. In July 2007, the auditorium's historic concert pipe organ, dating to the building's construction, was rededicated after restoration by the Chattanooga Music Club over a period of 21 years. Efforts are now underway to insure the instrument's continued use and preservation. Starting in February 2012, renovation began on the smaller community theater located upstairs. It had been closed for over a year primarily due to handicap accessibility issues. All of the seating will be replaced with pews, a concession stand will be added, bathrooms will be overhauled, and finally, accessibility will be improved with adding an elevator to reach the floor where the theater is housed. Completion of the work is expected sometime during 2013. Architect Bob Franklin is leading the design.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium
Memorial Street, Chattanooga

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N 35.04795 ° E -85.30566 °
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Memorial Auditorium

Memorial Street
37403 Chattanooga
Tennessee, United States
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Saints Peter and Paul Basilica
Saints Peter and Paul Basilica

Saints Peter and Paul Basilica is a historic Roman Catholic church at 214 E. 8th Street in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is one of the oldest continuing parishes in the Diocese of Knoxville. Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Chattanooga was founded in January 1852. The small but growing Catholic community in Chattanooga would conduct Mass in numerous buildings through the parish's early years. One former building included a nearly completed stone church demolished by the occupying Union Army during the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. The Army of the Cumberland under the command of Major General William Rosecrans used the stone from the church to construct fortifications and culverts in support of the Union Army. Under the leadership of Father William Walsh, an Irish priest, ground was broken on the current site on February 1, 1888. The current building was dedicated June 29, 1890. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church and Buildings. Stained-glass windows in the basilica, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, depict significant events in the lives of the parish's patron saints. The life of Saint Peter is depicted in the east side windows and the life of Saint Paul in the west side. The basilica's walls are also adorned with 14 polychrome Stations of the Cross, whose scenes depict the suffering, death, and burial of Jesus Christ. The Kilgen organ in the church was built in 1936. Saints Peter and Paul was raised to a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI and inaugurated by Bishop Richard Stika of the Diocese of Knoxville on October 22, 2011. Monsignor George E. Schmidt, Jr., who became the pastor in 1986, is among more than 30 sons of the parish that have gone onto the priesthood.

Chattanooga State Office Building

The Chattanooga State Office Building is a historic building at 540 McCallie Avenue in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the United States.The six-story building was built in 1950 at a cost of $1.75 million to be the headquarters for the Interstate Life Insurance Company. Designed in the Art Moderne style, the exterior has ruby granite on the bottom, gray-white limestone on the top, and a bronze frieze near the McCallie Avenue doorway. The frieze, created by a Tennessee sculptor, is "intended to represent the sturdy mountain character of Southeast Tennesseans." The building's interior once contained a penthouse lounge, an auditorium, and basement bowling alley as recreational areas for employees. The National Trust for Historic Preservation describes the building as an emblem of 1950s innovation, representing "a Mad Men-era workplace." In 1973, plans for the addition of a 65,000-square-foot wing were announced; this increased the building space by 72 percent.By 1980, the insurance company offered to sell the building to the State of Tennessee for $8 million. In 1981, the state acquired the building (as well as 6.17 acres and a 5,100-square-foot warehouse) for 5.85 million. The building was then used for state government offices until December 2013, when the state "decommissioned" the building (along with the nearby James R. Mapp Building and three other buildings) and transferred the building to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). Nearly 400 state employees vacated the building that year.UTC plans to demolish the building and construct a new, $59 million dormitory on the site. Preservationists oppose the project and have urged the university to renovate the original building instead. To renovate the existing building would cost an estimated $8.49 million, mostly to replace outdated heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. In 2014, the National Trust for Historic Preservation added the building to its annual "America's Most Endangered Places" list.In October 2015, UTC received approval to move ahead with repairs to the Mapp Building and Chattanooga State Office Building.

Chattanooga campaign
Chattanooga campaign

The Chattanooga campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in October and November 1863, during the American Civil War. Following the defeat of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans's Union Army of the Cumberland at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg besieged Rosecrans and his men by occupying key high terrain around Chattanooga, Tennessee. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was given command of Union forces in the West, now consolidated under the Division of the Mississippi. Significant reinforcements also began to arrive with him in Chattanooga from Mississippi and the Eastern Theater. On October 18, Grant removed Rosecrans from command of the Army of the Cumberland and replaced him with Major General George Henry Thomas. After the opening of a supply line (the "Cracker Line") to feed the starving men and animals in Chattanooga, a force under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker fought off a Confederate counterattack at the Battle of Wauhatchie on October 28–29, 1863. On November 23, the Army of the Cumberland advanced from the fortifications around Chattanooga to seize the strategic high ground at Orchard Knob while elements of the Union Army of the Tennessee under Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman maneuvered to launch a surprise attack against Bragg's right flank on Missionary Ridge. On November 24, Sherman's men crossed the Tennessee River in the morning and then advanced to occupy high ground at the northern end of Missionary Ridge in the afternoon. The same day, a mixed force of almost three divisions under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker defeated the Confederates in the Battle of Lookout Mountain. The next day they began a movement toward Bragg's left flank at Rossville. On November 25, Sherman's attack on Bragg's right flank made little progress. Hoping to distract Bragg's attention, Grant ordered Thomas's army to advance in the center and take the Confederate positions at the base of Missionary Ridge. The untenability of these newly captured entrenchments caused Thomas's men to surge to the top of Missionary Ridge, routing the Army of Tennessee, which retreated to Dalton, Georgia, successfully fighting off the Union pursuit at the Battle of Ringgold Gap. Bragg's defeat eliminated the last significant Confederate control of Tennessee and opened the door to an invasion of the Deep South, leading to Sherman's Atlanta campaign of 1864.