The Highland Park neighborhood began in 1889 as Chattanooga’s answer to downtown’s flooding problem. Established as a suburban neighborhood for the city’s upper-middle class residents, it was appropriately named for the higher elevation of land in which the neighborhood was settled. Large, lavish Victorian homes and smaller Arts and Crafts bungalows with huge front porches beautified the area as well as other popular house designs from the era. It soon became the place to live in Chattanooga and up until the 1940s, the houses got bigger and property values increased.
The neighborhood saw a steady decline beginning in the 1950s as the downtown area expanded and residents began moving to other areas of town to escape urban living. Highland Park, no longer considered a suburb, was swallowed up in Chattanooga’s continuing downtown development. Instead of quiet suburban living, downtown was becoming strictly a place for growing businesses and entertainment venues. The beautifully detailed architecture of Highland Park’s homes fell under neglect, and as its citizens migrated further away, crime and prostitution began to take over.
By the 1980s and early 1990s, Highland Park was considered by many a place to avoid. As the once vibrant neighborhood continued to rot, many of the houses were bulldozed to make way for cheap duplexes made exclusively for quick and easy business ventures. Any original houses left standing were often converted to low-grade apartments used for selling drugs and other illegal activities.
In the late 1990s, a gradual rebirth began. A few concerned people noticed the extremely decayed condition in which Highland Park had become. Seeing past this, they saw what this neighborhood used to be — a place of beauty and warmth filled with such character and craftsmanship that at one time earned it the nickname “The Jewel of Chattanooga." They also saw what it could be — a place of continuous growth, of constant revitalization, where the old homes of the neighborhood’s glory days are restored to their full beauty, one by one.
Today, Highland Park’s popularity has grown, making it one of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods, quickly becoming once again “The Jewel of Chattanooga."
Comments (0)
Comments are closed.