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{"id":850,"date":"2008-05-18T10:56:29","date_gmt":"2008-05-18T10:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourbigclan.com\/?p=850"},"modified":"2022-10-10T03:10:12","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T07:10:12","slug":"chattanooga-original-cedar-hill-school-site-had-direct-view-of-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/chattanooga-original-cedar-hill-school-site-had-direct-view-of-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"Chattanooga: Original Cedar Hill School site had direct view of mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nThursday, May 15, 2008<\/p>\n

By: Clint Cooper<\/p>\n

\nThe 17 stairs bisect an impressive rock wall on 13th Avenue and
\nextend up to what is now a massive empty lot on the west side of
\nMissionary Ridge.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe terraced lot with a nearly unimpaired view of Lookout
\nMountain was once the home of Cedar Hill School, which served
\npupils from the early part of the 1900s through the early
\n1960s.\n<\/p>\n

\n“It was a brick school — kind of forbidding
\nlooking,” said North Chattanooga resident Richard Mullis, who
\nattended from 1936 to 1942. “There was not a lot of upkeep,
\nbut it was an OK school — probably not on par with Normal
\nPark (then a newer and popular school in North
\nChattanooga).”\n<\/p>\n

\nA new Cedar Hill Elementary School was built on the west side of
\nRossville Boulevard in the mid-1950s and served students for
\nseveral more decades before becoming a Head Start center. In fact,
\nthe old and new Cedar Hills co-existed in the Chattanooga City
\nSchools system for several years.
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nThe original two-story school, Mr. Mullis said, housed grades
\none through eight until East Lake Junior High was built in the
\nearly 1930s.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhen he attended Cedar Hill, the first grade was segregated from
\nthe rest of the school in a four-room frame house with front and
\nback porches behind the larger building, closer to 14th Avenue.\n<\/p>\n

\n“I guess it was overcrowded,” said Mr. Mullis, whose
\nmother also attended the school.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe basement of the building contained two “great, big
\nboilers,” he said, and the man who maintained them kept the
\nplace “immaculate.”\n<\/p>\n

\nJerry Parker of Murfreesboro, who attended Cedar Hill from 1949
\nthrough 1955, said there were classrooms in one part of the
\nbasement when he attended and the frame house behind the school was
\ngone.\n<\/p>\n

\nHe said the school population was not that big by then and
\ncontained probably two classrooms per grade.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe building had fire escapes, Mr. Mullis said, that teachers
\ntold the students were condemned “to keep us from playing on
\nthem.”\n<\/p>\n

\nHe said the play areas around the building were rock and were
\nresponsible for “a lot of damage to knees, elbows and
\nheads.”\n<\/p>\n

\n“It wasn’t a bad time,” Mr. Mullis, 78, said.
\n“We just didn’t know any different.”\n<\/p>\n

\nFor first and second grades, teachers would sit at the lunch
\ntable with their pupils.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Lunch was almost like a family meal,” said Mr.
\nParker, 65, “with the teachers seated at the head of the
\ntable.”\n<\/p>\n

\nIn the post-World War II Cold War era, atomic bomb drills were a
\nregular occurrence.\n<\/p>\n

\n“An alarm would sound,” he said, “and the
\nteachers would direct us to the basement. We would kneel on the
\nfloor with our arms over our heads.”\n<\/p>\n

\nAmong the yearly activities was a spring Flower Day, Mr. Mullis
\nsaid. Each child would bring flowers, which were in turn
\ndistributed to the local hospitals.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Everybody would cut their mother’s iris patch
\nup,” he said.\n<\/p>\n

\nMr. Parker said there was an annual fall festival in October and
\nongoing Savings Bond drives.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn the drives, during which students pasted stamps in a booklet
\non their way to a bond, the success of each class was measured by
\nhow far an airplane suspended on a string from the class drew close
\nto the principal’s office, he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n“The Cedar Hill Elementary School that I attended was
\nwell-managed and staffed by teachers who cared for their
\nstudents,” said Mr. Parker. “Those were good
\ndays.”\n<\/p>\n

Staff Photo by Meghan Brown — Richard Mullis, 78, reminisces about the
\nsix years he attended the former Cedar Hill Elementary School in East
\nLake during a visit to the property where the school once stood.<\/p>\n

timesfreepress.com<\/p>\n

http:\/\/timesfreepress.com\/news\/2008\/may\/15\/chattanooga-original-cedar-hill-school-site-had-di\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"