Existing comment:
Point Hotel:
Constructed here in the middle of the 1880s was the multi-storied Point Hotel. The top of the structure reached the top of the massive rock formation in front of you, so that hotel guests could obtain the same view as that afforded from the point at Lookout Mountain.
At that time the part of the mountain now known as Point Park was in private possession and visitors were charged admission. The property owners also had a contract with a Chattanooga livery company, and required that anyone wishing entrance to the point ride up the mountain from Chattanooga by this specified company. To make certain that visitors complied, shotgun wielding guards reportedly patrolled a barbed wire fence, which was erected near the present park entrance gate and stone wall.
Both the entrance requirements and the hotel were, however, short lived. In 1898 the point of Lookout Mountain became a part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, and about 1910 the Point Hotel was destroyed. |