Signal Mountain Road - Mid 1950s

Just across the river, north of downtown lies the primary approach to Signal Mountain via Signal Mountain Road. Shown here in the mid-1950s, a new manufacturing plant was opened in early 1952 by North American Royalties (then Wheland/Gordon Street Inc.) to make 90 mm guns and other munitions for the Korean War. The building was sold to Lockheed in 1966, and aircraft parts and armament components for airplanes such as the C-130 and the C-141 began being manufactured there.¹

Koehring-Lorain began operations there as a crane assembly plant in 1972.

In 1985, Komatsu paid $3.5 million for the idled crane-manufacturing plant of Koehring Lorain. At the time, it was the 33d major Japanese investment in Tennessee but the first for Chattanooga.²

Across the road, a massive car salvage yard was active for many years. A friend and I spent a Saturday morning in 1980 searching for a compatible vehicle to take rear seatbelts from so my 1973 Plymouth Duster would gain them. Wal-Mart and an adjacent shopping plaza ‘beautified’ this land in 2006. Once farm land - Baylor School’s property now extends to adjacent Wal-Mart.

SOURCES: 1. 10/17/2001 Article at Chattanoogan.com - by John Shearer