Name/Title
Lookout Inn Private Mailing CardEntry/Object ID
2020.184.001Description
An early Private Mailing Card with the front showing an illustration of the Lookout Inn and drive.The front is a vignette design that allows for people to write beside the illustration on the front.
Private Mailing Cards were a precursor to postcards, authorized by Congress's act, May 19, 1898.
The Lookout Inn opened in 1890 and was situated just above the top station of the existing Incline No. 2 on the eastern face of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. The steam-powered incline was built as a direct route to the hotel and a connection to the Chattanooga & Lookout Mountain Railway.
Open year-round, Lookout Inn was 365 feet long and four stories tall. It had two five-story towers, a huge network of wide porches and verandas, 450 rooms that could accommodate over 500 guests, and was built for $150,000-which is more than $3 million today. The fine-dining hall was 114 feet in length and finished in quarter sawn oak. There were billiards rooms, reading nooks, lounges, and smoking rooms. An 1895 advertisement for the hotel boasted a “liberal plan,” the “finest climate in America” and the “most enchanted scenery the sun ever shone upon.” Modern sanitation systems, drainage, and the abundance of water were all selling features to prospective guests. It was also marketed as “Tennessee’s great health and pleasure resort,” seemingly to appeal to the nation’s popular health craze.
Its large ballroom often hosted soldiers in training for the Spanish-American War posted in Fort Oglethorpe. A visiting Prince Henry of Prussia pronounced it the ideal spot he had visited and the scenery more breathtaking than that of the Swiss Alps.
Thought to be fireproof, the inn was engulfed in a blaze on November 17, 1908, with the flames and smoke to be seen from downtown Chattanooga. At the time, only a few handfuls of guests were staying in the hotel. Luckily, they all escaped from harm.
On the day of the fire, Lookout Inn was under contract for $135,000, with the deal expected to close the same day. The owners had the hotel insured for only $20,000.
A defective flue was blamed for the disaster.Subject Person/Organization
Lookout InnSubject Place
* Untyped Subject Place
Lookout Mountain, TennesseeCollection
Lookout Mountain CollectionPostcard Details
Date Published
circa 1898 - circa 1901Copyright
Type of License
No Copyright - United States
