The mystery of the City Hall cornerstone

By Jennifer Crutchfield

Photo courtesy of the office of Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield

The mystery about history is why more people don’t realize how much fun it is! Chattanooga’s history is as bloody and exciting and full of intrigue, assassinations, treasures and chases as any movie on the big screen.

In fact, our City Hall is the site of a terrific mystery—one that was solved! During our city’s early history, the laying of the cornerstone of a building was a celebrated event. At the construction of each major civic structure, Masonic temples led processions of people toward the building site, the cornerstone representing the ideals of the Knights Templar and the construction mirroring the hopes and dreams of a city moving toward a new era of growth.

The cornerstone of Chattanooga’s City Hall was laid with great fanfare in 1908, during a time when the downtown area was expanding and the growth of manufacturing fueled hopes for Chattanooga’s future as the “Dynamo of Dixie.” In 2007, when the municipal building was renovated, a history-minded staffer, Matt Lea, found a newspaper article describing that cornerstone, a time capsule that nobody remembered. The search for the cornerstone, and the artifacts that were discovered there, were part of an adventure on par with any story of lost treasure.

The two-year renovation of City Hall revealed a number of surprises. Designed by R.H. Hunt, Chattanooga’s iconic architect, this building originally featured intricate detail work, including plaster ceiling medallions and fine cornice moldings that were among the treasures unearthed as drop ceilings came down and floors were leveled.

In February 2007, an empty space around some crumbling bricks alerted Matt Lea to the fact that the search for the elusive time capsule was drawing to a close. A large crowd gathered as word of the exciting find spread.

Mary Helms, head librarian of the Local History and Genealogy Department of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library, has said it’s the goal municipal leaders “to keep … historic city memories for future generations to view and enjoy.” Today’s City Hall reflects that mission. The beautiful building, which is open to its citizens and their families, features display cases on the first floor housing a model train and historic costumes. But the real treasures at City Hall are upstairs, on the third floor, where visitors can see commonplace things found during the renovation: bottles, medicine containers, flasks, a wallet, buttons, things that fell out of pockets—intriguing glimpses into Chattanooga as it was a century ago.

And then there is the treasure of the City Hall cornerstone. W.R. Crabtree was the mayor of Chattanooga in 1908, when that cornerstone was laid; it’s likely that his fingerprints were among those on the burnished copper box discovered almost 100 years later. Imagine the excitement as the historic time capsule was opened, revealing images and words—and even air—from our city’s past! Among its contents were a poster picturing the buildings designed by R.H. Hunt and a pass to the Oxley Zoo—Chattanooga’s first such attraction, open for just a few years in what is now East Lake. The autographed business cards of councilmen and city leaders were found amid the folds of newspapers that were the history grail, tangible issues of papers that had been available only on microfilm until the cornerstone was opened. The Chamber of Commerce roster was in the box, along with the 1907 Chattanooga General Council, the 1908 city directory, and pamphlets describing the booster efforts that would come to fruition with the city’s new moniker, “Dynamo of Dixie.”

In an effort to preserve these “articles of intrinsic value,” Mayor Ron Littlefield, placed the time capsule and its contents on display for all of Chattanooga’s citizens and guests to see and enjoy. Every year as they tour City Hall, hundreds of school children see these artifacts from Chattanooga’s founding fathers.

At the mayor’s request, a new copper time capsule was fashioned by city employee James Ray and was returned to City Hall’s cornerstone, packed full of things that some day—perhaps in another hundred years?—will intrigue a new generation of Chattanoogans.