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| "Behind her in silent gradeur towered the huge outline of Lookout Mountain, shrouded at summit in gray mist; while centre and base showed dense masses of foliage, dim and purplish in the distance--a stern monk of the Cumberland brotherhood.--Augusta Evans Wilson, St. Elmo |
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This photo was taken looking up W 43rd Street to the streetcar on St. Elmo Avenue with Lookout Mountain beyond. The home to the left of the streetcar is 4301 St. Elmo Ave, as beautiful today as it was then.
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Old Chattanooga had a network of streetcars that included the independent community of St. Elmo. Passengers could make the incline connection at the foot of the mountain and ride to the top to visit the grand Point Hotel and Lookout Inn, the view from Point Park, and the amazing city of stones that later became Rock City. There have been several incline trains used by tourists and residents, but today's Incline Railway is the steepest. |
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St. Elmo was named for an 1866 novel written by Augusta Jane Evans (Wilson). The opening scene is set in at the foot of Lookout Mountain where the community of Kirklin existed at that time. Kirklin was renamed St. Elmo when Confederate Colonel A.M. Johnson and his wife Thankful Whiteside Johnson suveyed a large farm tract for building lots in 1886. Read the novel that named St. Elmo! Click on book cover to order. |
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