Tennessee's Dixie Highway: Springfield to Chattanooga

The late-19th- and early-20th-century vision of the New South relied upon economic growth and access. The development of the Dixie Highway from 1914 to 1927--with its eastern and western branches running from Ontario, Canada, south to Miami, Florida--would help facilitate this dream attracting industry, tourists, and even new residents. Images of America: Tennessee's Dixie Highway: Springfield to Chattanooga tells the story of people, places, politics, and organizations behind the construction of the road from Springfield, Tennessee, to Chattanooga. This section is particularly important, as it was roughly the halfway point of the route and contained the headquarters of the Dixie Highway Association in Chattanooga. It also included the seemingly insurmountable Monteagle Mountain in Marion County--the very last portion of the national north-south highway to be completed.

The images were collected from several sources including the Chattanooga–Hamilton County Bicentennial Library, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Albert Gore Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University, and personal collections of the author and her road-enthusiast friends. The author, Leslie N. Sharp, became enamored with the Dixie Highway while a graduate student in the early 1990s. Currently she is assistant dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture, where she teaches historic preservation and continues to explore the impact of technology on people and places.