South Pittsburg Historical Society Presents: A Walk Through Time, a Haunted Expedition

The Birth of South Pittsburg

Tennessee became a state in 1796. Marion County was chartered in 1817 – created from former Cherokee lands. The 1838 “Trail of Tears” forcibly removed these indigenous people to Oklahoma with one of the land removal routes running through this area. During the Civil War, both Confederate and Union troops were here either advancing and/or retreating from the numerous battles that were fought in Bridgeport, Alabama, Chattanooga and middle Tennessee.

By 1867, the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad had constructed a branch line from the main rail line in Bridgeport through what would later become South Pittsburg and on up the Sequatchie Valley. Since outside interests connected to mines for coal and iron ore were developing the county, the railroad was a future investment to haul the coal and ore to production areas also under development in Marion County. In 1873, James Bowron, a representative for a group of British investors in American land speculation, selected this rich mineral area as a potential new city site for the future iron industry. The Southern States Coal, Iron and Land Company purchased 1,000 acres and began the arduous construction of two blast furnaces here.

The new city was named South Pittsburg with the hope that it would be the “Pittsburgh of the South” and emulate the successful manufacturing city in Pennsylvania. The land was surveyed and laid out with residential building lots for both future manufacturing executives and workers, commercial lots, and public institutions, i.e. churches and schools. While the north/south streets were named in numerical order, the avenues ran east/west and eventually were renamed after trees in alphabetical order. Another feature of this planned development was that alleys existed between the avenues so public services be (and continue to be) delivered to properties from the rear.

With the untimely deaths of four major Southern States Coal, Iron and Land Company investors, the company was sold to the Tennessee Coal Iron & Railroad Company in 1885. The development of the new city had begun with not only street and alley construction but new homes and public institutions as well. When a Nashville group led by banker William M. Duncan purchased this property in 1886, development of the new city began in earnest. The South Pittsburg City Company incorporated in November 1887 and remapped the city into the city we know today.

The blast furnaces of South Pittsburg could not compete with the massive furnaces built in Birmingham, Alabama where purer veins of iron ore were discovered. The furnaces were abandoned. Other industries remained in South Pittsburg including Perry Stove Works (i.e. United States Stove Company) and Blacklock Foundry (i.e. Lodge Cast Iron).

In 1906, the Dixie Portland Cement Company was founded on lands between the city limits of South Pittsburg and the Tennessee/ Alabama state line. A company town developed around the cement company plant was known as Richard City – named after Richard Hardy – the company president and future Mayor of Chattanooga. This company town provided employee housing which was built from cement as well as cement roads and fencing. The 1924 Richard Hardy Memorial School was built for the children of Dixie Portland Cement Company workers. South Pittsburg annexed this company town community in 1985.

In 1921, McReynolds High School was built to provide high school education for the entire Black population of Marion County. Partial funding was provided by the Rosenwald Foundation marking this separate but equal education for the black population. The school was destroyed by fire in 1965, but it was at the time of desegregation. The consolidation school plan had been to abandon McReynolds and transfer the students to South Pittsburg High School “on the hill”.

In 1939, local citizens founded the Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative which still provides electrical and internet services to Marion, Bledsoe, Grundy, and Sequatchie Counties. With rural electrification, the city and all of Marion County had the opportunity to continue to grow and expand. In 1953, a local radio station WEPG went “on air” and remains on air today.

South Pittsburg established a Municipal Hospital in 1959. Later sold, the new corporate owners eventually closed the hospital in 1995 as all health care services were in a new hospital facility on I-24.

The 1960s brought urban renewal funds to South Pittsburg when the city embraced the federal opportunity to provide better housing for its citizens who needed more affordable housing. Public housing was constructed throughout the city. Two public parks, Loyd Park and Moore Park, were developed to enhance the city’s large residential neighborhoods with open recreational spaces.

Cedar Avenue was part of the 1922 Lee highway route of US 72 from Chattanooga to Memphis. Over time there was a steady increase in truck traffic through the downtown commercial district. In the 1990s, the state constructed the bypass which relieved congestion of the downtown area.

In 1995, the ever-resilient residents of South Pittsburg concerned about the negative economic impact of the nearby shopping centers on businesses in our downtown, began looking at ways to encourage people to come to downtown South Pittsburg. After meetings and much community input, the National Cornbread Festival was founded in 1996. The festival, first held in 1997, is held each April in the heart of our city to celebrate our small southern town heritage and way of life.

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