Dr. John Farr stands in front of stately Red Bank home. Click to enlarge.
photo by John Shearer
The Paalzow/Farr home and estate above the Bi-Lo Shopping Center off Dayton Boulevard looks like it should be in Riverview, on Missionary Ridge or Lookout Mountain, or even next to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.
It looks nothing like the rest of mostly middle class Red Bank. But there it handsomely sits, like a castle on top of an English hill.
Dr. John Farr, a former Red Bank High wrestling coach and Chattanooga State history instructor, lives in the home with his wife, Delores. It was formerly owned by his grandfather, John Paalzow, and Dr. Farr’s parents. Mr. Paalzow had been a colleague of early 20th century entrepreneur C.E. James, who some have called Chattanooga’s first millionaire.
The home, which has been significantly upgraded over the years, was actually built in the early 1920s by two plumber brothers named Hunt. Before that, a farmhouse that later burned was located on the property and was resided in by a German immigrant named Thuler, who had a vineyard on the property.
When the Hunts bought the land and built a home, they lived in it together with their wives, Dr. Farr said. Unfortunately, one of the wives died in an upstairs room in the home. The widower Hunt man continued to live in the home after that, but his brother and brother’s wife moved to Nashville. The widower brother eventually moved to Nashville as well, and John Paalzow bought it in 1930.
During the early 1930s, Mr. Paalzow and his wife extensively remodeled the home. This included bricking the building, and adding a portico, columns and an attached kitchen and second-floor bedroom.
A number of interesting furnishings were also put in the home, and many remain today. In the den area are a couple of pieces of furniture that had been handcrafted in Italy. The living room features a grand piano, the origin of which has long been in dispute. “Grandmother said it came from the Signal Mountain Hotel and mother said it came from an aunt,” Dr. Farr said.
The dining room suite was bought for Mr. Paalzow by one of the Fowler furniture store brothers on a buying trip in Louisiana. It now features a scratch made by a relative after being given a diamond ring. According to Dr. Farr, she was simply testing the ring to make sure it was indeed a diamond. Needless to say, the family members were not that happy.
Upstairs is a desk Mr. Paalzow had in the James Building, while in the basement is a bowling lane and an old billiards table acquired from an African-American church and recreation building on M.L. King Boulevard.
Also part of the home today are Dr. Farr’s numerous memories of being in the home when his grandparents lived there. “For a young kid growing up, this was the cat’s meow,” he said. “I was able to be a part of it when it was going on and it became part of my heritage.”
His grandparents had an old Philco radio, and he remembers being in the home as a small child and hearing the news that Germany had bombed Poland at the start of World War II and later that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. He also remembers building a snowman on the grounds with his grandparents and mother during the horrible winter of 1940, and using his grandfather’s large collection of books to help do school reports while attending Baylor School.
He said his grandfather also had a large number of animals on the expansive acreage. “During the war he had about 50-75 head of sheep and before that he had about 40 head of cattle,” he said. “And he always had about 100 chickens and he had a turkey house and there were ducks and geese.”
The son of a German Bavarian, who had come to the United States after being politically opposed to the German leader, Bismarck, Mr. Paalzow served his teen-age years on a sailing ship and then became an engineer/surveyor in the gold mines of Idaho and Montana. A native of Hickory, N.C., and also a resident of Philadelphia, he came to the Chattanooga area to work on the Hales Bar Dam, which opened in 1913 as the area’s first dam.
“He became friends with (dam backers) C.E. James, States Rights Finley, and Jo Conn Guild,” said Dr. Farr, whose amicable and unpretentious manner makes one feel at ease in the big home. “When the dam was finished, James talked him into staying and gave him a job managing the Signal Mountain Hotel.”
Mr. Paalzow, whose parents both lived past 100, accepted the job, but after he had returned to Philadelphia to get married. He later ran the James Building.
In 1925, Mr. James died without a will, and his money was all tied up in investments in various projects. As a result, he had basically no money in the bank. “Granddaddy paid for the funeral and mausoleum at Forest Hills Cemetery,” Dr. Farr said. “Granddaddy and the James’ family were very close.”
The James Building was going to be put up for auction. But with the help of Mr. Guild and Mr. Finley, Mr. Paalzow was able to get a loan from New York Life to buy the building. Mr. Paalzow died in 1950, and the Paalzow descendants owned the historic downtown Chattanooga building until 1979.
Dr. Farr said his grandfather was a wiry man, who had a mustache and smoked three to four packs of Home Run Turkish blend cigarettes a day. He also had a distinguishing personality.
“He was the kind of guy who said, ‘I want this done.’ Whoever was supposed to do it and didn’t would catch grief. But he was always nice to the help. He would give them a half day off on Wednesday and Saturday and all day on Sunday. That was his way of showing appreciation. He was from the old school, very polite and had a strong personal bearing.”
Dr. Farr’s parents later moved into the home and eventually sold some of the land along Dayton Boulevard to Red Food Store along with Dr. Farr’s uncle, Jack Paalzow, who built a home on some of the old family land just north of the Farr home.
Dr. Farr has lived in the home since 1987 and did some extensive restoration work on the home in the last couple of years. As a result, he has continued to enjoy it.
“It is an interesting old place and I have enjoyed trying to keep it up,” he said. “But it is more than I can handle.”