8:17 am - Eighth and Cherry Streets
SOURCE: The source image is in the public domain. All metadata may be used with attribution under the
CC-BY License CHATTANOOGAHISTORY.COM
This image captures the daily lives of Chattanoogans prior to automobile dominance. The streets are filled with pedestrians, horse-drawn buggys, and bicycles. Each person appears well-dressed and is wearing a hat. The view is up 8th at Cherry Street looking east toward the Times (Dome) Building. Signs visible in photograph include Young Women's Christian Association, Acme Baths and Barber Shop, Stag Hotel, and many others.
Photo by Will H Stokes.
...(about $5,500 in current dollars) to acquire the Chattanooga Times. He was just 20 years old. In 1891 Ochs built an Italian Renaissance style building to house the Chattanooga Times. At the time the six-story building, the tallest in town, was known as the Ochs Building. Over 10,000 people attended the dedication ceremony in December 1892 and admired the tallest building in town. The striking dome is gilded in gold. When the Chattanooga Times moved to a different building in 1947, the building was renamed the Dome Building.
SOURCE: ochscenter.org
Daily bathing is a more recent luxury as we have easy access to clean, hot water. But only 100-125 years ago, many middle-class and poor didn't have convenient bathing facilities in homes. Overcrowding in cities and disease outbreaks lead to a push for personal cleanliness as a necessity for public health, social acceptability and a symbol of middle-class good character. The bath services on 8th Street were likely targeted to professional and other working class people as a much easier and better way to stay ‘fresh’. As plumbing and hot water found its way into homes early in the 20th century, the appeal & need for public bathing quickly diminished.
