Trigg-Smartt Building (NRHP #86001383) - Downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee

The Trigg-Smartt Building is located at the southwest corner of Broad Street & 7th Avenue in Downtown Chattanooga and is an architecturally and historically significant structure of the city's 1880 boom period. The building was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) under criteria A,B, and C because of its association with the 1880's boom period of Chattanooga, its association with prominent businessmen James N. Trigg, James P. Smartt, and John O. Fowler, and its architectural style. It is a Victorian Commercial style building with strong Richardsonian Romanesque influences.

The Trigg-Smartt Building is the only surviving building in the area from the commercial boom of the 1880's and one of the few remaining examples of that phenomenon remaining in the city. Built to house two prominent wholesale concerns, the building is perhaps the oldest wholesale block remaining in downtown Chattanooga. The building is associated with three prominent business leaders of Chattanooga. Trigg, Smartt, and Fowler all owned large commercial properties and were very involved in the business community. In 1888, James N. Trigg was elected President of the Board of Trade of Chattanooga and James P. Smartt was elected to its Executive Committee. The building displays an elaborate cut stone facade which Is one of the finest examples of its type in the city's commercial district; and modernization's have not significantly altered the building.

The property at Broad Street & 7th Avenue was purchased in early 1888 by James N. Trigg, Charles A. Lyerly, James Polk Smartt, and John P. Richardson. While Lyerly and Richardson limited their involvement to the purchase and development of the property, James Trigg and James Smartt planned to locate their rapidly growing wholesale businesses there. Trigg housed his newly formed Trigg Dobbs & Company wholesale grocery business there and Smartt Brothers and Company moved its wholesale shoes and boots business into the building. When Trigg, Smartt, Lyerly, and Richardson bought the property, the City of Chattanooga was In the midst of an extraordinary economic boom. In 1886, a total of $1,076,347 was spent in building construction. And in 1887, real estate transactions — including 1,500 new residences — amounted to $13,264,555. In addition, twenty-five new business charters were incorporated. The year of 1887 had proven the most prosperous of the entire boom period. Population growth naturally paralleled this economic surge: in 1883 the population was 20,666; in 1885 it was 25,101; and in 1887 the population had jumped to 36,903.

James N. Trigg came to Chattanooga in 1869 from Wythe County, Virginia. From then until 1874, he worked as a bookkeeper for the Discount and Deposit Bank. In 1874, he and William J. Dobbs began work for W.W. Jackson wholesale groceries and, a few years later, Trigg purchased a half interest in the Jackson Company. The new firm of Jackson Trigg & Company prospered until January 1888 when Jackson retired. In that year Jackson Trigg & Company was dissolved and Trigg Dobbs & Company formed.

In 1875, J.P. Smartt began his wholesale and retail shoe business in Nashville with two partners. In 1878, he moved to Chattanooga and went into business with W.G. Oehmig. In 1884, the Smartt and Oehmig firm was succeeded by Smartt Brothers and Company with his brother, George Madison Smartt, becoming a member of the firm. (James Smartt was also director of the Chattanooga Savings Bank and of the Third National Bank. He was, in addition, historian of the Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park Commission.) Smartt Brothers and Company handled a general line of shoes, boots, and rubbers from leading manufacturers. By the early 1900's their business covered Tennessee, Kentucky, Northern Alabama, and Northern Georgia.

Prospering in the 1887 boom year, Jackson Trigg & Company increased sales by 50-75%, according to J.N. Trigg. Smartt Brothers similarly increased business by approximately 33%. By 1891, J.P. Smartt and J.N. Trigg were listed in the Chattanooga Times as having a worth of over $100,000 and were, therefore, some of the richest men in the city.

Until 1911, the Trigg-Smartt Building was owned and occupied primarily by Trigg Dobbs & Company and by Smartt Brothers and Company. In that year, James Trigg apparently sold his interest to Smartt and vacated the building, leaving Smartt Brothers as the sole tenant. The company remained there another two years, until 1913, at which time James P. Smartt died and the business left the building. Both Trigg Dobbs & Company and Smartt Brothers remained in business in the Chattanooga area well into the 1920's.

Until Smartt Brothers and Company vacated the building in 1913, the building functioned primarily as a wholesale block. In 1889, Trigg Dobbs and Company, and Smartt Brothers and Company were the building's only occupants. By 1900, a manufacturers' grocery specialist, as it was called, became a tenant and remained there until 1909. Archer Paper Company located there for one year in 1905, and Chattanooga Hardware Company was there from 1910-1911. From 1913-1918, the building housed a variety of tenants. Included were Grandview Coal and Timber Company, several real estate and civil engineering offices, a typewriter business, a public stenographer's office, a bond office, a manicurist, Interstate Life & Accident Company, and Clay Manufacturing Company. Betts Engineering and Interstate Life & Accident Company occupied the building during this period longer than any of the other businesses during this period. In 1918, an up-and-coming furniture company, Sterchi Brothers Furniture Company, bought and occupied the building. J. Calvin Sterchi & his son-in-law, John O. Fowler, established the business in 1911. In 1919, the business became known as Sterchi Brothers and Fowler. Ten years later, in 1929, John O. Fowler formed his own company with his two brothers, Frank & Ben, and moved the new business to the 600 block of Broad Street. Sterchi Brothers and Fowler remained in the Trigg-Smartt Building until 1939.

In 1939, John O. Fowler, his brothers, and two sons moved Fowler Brothers Company into the Trigg-Smartt Building where he had begun his furniture business in 1919. Extensive renovation by the prominent local architectural firm of Crutchfield & Law accompanied the 1939 move at a cost of $38,000. Polished pink granite adorned the entire storefront facades along Broad Street & 7th Avenue, and the interior was modernized to reflect a rapidly growing business. The preceding year, in 1938, in fact, John Fowler reported that sales amounted to more than five times what they had been when business began. In that year alone, he reported more than a 33% sales increase. By now, Fowler Brothers Furniture Company had become the largest furniture business in the state of Tennessee and one of the largest in the Southeast.

In March 1985, Fowler Brothers announced that it would close its Downtown Chattanooga store. Shortly afterward on June 26, 1986, the Trigg-Smartt Building was added to the NRHP for the criteria referenced above. All of the information above was found on the original documents submitted for listing consideration and can be viewed here:
npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail/1753bb6a-5708-4a51-a11...

Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6.

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Taken in: United States / Tennessee / Chattanooga (show map)

Taken on: September 6, 2023

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Trigg-Smartt Building

NRHP #86001383

architecturally and historically significant structure

James N. Trigg

James P. Smartt

John O. Fowler

Victorian Commercial style building

Richardsonian Romanesque influences

Victorian Commercial design

Victorian Commercial architecture

Victorian Commercial

Charles A. Lyerly

John P. Richardson

Trigg Dobbs & Company

Smartt Brothers and Company

George Madison Smartt

Sterchi Brothers Furniture Company

J. Calvin Sterchi

Fowler Brothers Company

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Camera: Nikon D7200, f/5.6, 20mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D7200
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	20mm
ISO:	200
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)
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