Chattanooga Spring Festivals

Chattanooga Spring Festival

...the gorgeous pageantry of the Mardi Gras, without its objectionable debauchery.

-The Comet, Johnson City TN - 3/16/1899

The first Spring Festival took place in 1898 - and continued for nearly a decade as an annual celebration filled with parades of horse drawn floats covered with flowers and filled with society’s debutants and matrons of stature.

Every imaginable entertainment for the masses seemed to find its way to the city event.

The higher resolution images available are featured on the zoom page - each from the ‘Midway’ of the festival positioned around the US Customs House. There is also a remarkable view of the limestone outcropping called the “Stone Fort”. By 1906 it was leveled for development in the area.

1898 Commemorative Coin
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1899 At night there will be a magnificent illuminated procession of allegorical floats. On Wednesday will occur the gorgeous flower parade, in which a dozen queens on regal floats, besides hundreds of private vehicles and bicycles will participate.

Walker County Messenger, LaFayette, GA, April 27, 1899

1903 ...Half fare will be granted by all the railroads running into Chattanooga. There will be a drill and fancy riding by a crack cavalry troop, Schryer the aerial cyclist, Lotto the high diver, Pepper's London ghost show; Laughing Parlor, Haunted Swing, eight Lilliputian actors, Indian games, temple of Isis, public wedding, and other first class attractions.

Walker County Messenger, LaFayette, GA, May 14,1903