Name/Title
Lookout Mountain Hotel, LobbyEntry/Object ID
2020.172.001Description
A postcard with the front showing a photograph of the Lookout Mountain Hotel's lobby in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. The lobby features carpeted flooring, multiple seating vignettes, and heavy square columns.
Inscription on Recto:
"Lobby, Lookout Mountain Hotel
Chattanooga, Tenn."
The Lookout Mountain Hotel was built on top of Jackson Hill in 1928, a few miles south of Lookout Point on the Georgia side of Lookout Mountain.
The newly opened Scenic Highway, which connected Gadsden, Alabama, to Chattanooga, eventuated its construction. Nicknamed “The Castle in the Clouds,” the 200-room hotel included lavish amenities, such as red velvet carpet, heavy gilt floor candelabras, overstuffed loveseats, fainting couches, and the largest ballroom in the South. Adhering to the castle motif, a room named Knights of the Round Table was decorated with a large round table and medieval suits of armor standing guard in each corner.
The hotel struggled through the Great Depression but saw success in the 1940s and ’50s as a summer resort. The Tudor architecture was a perfect backdrop for outdoor activities such as tennis, swimming, and golf. Evening parties featured dancing, music, and hard liquor—which was not available in Hamilton County because of its dry status. Tunnels running under the Lookout Mountain Hotel (rumored to reach as far as Rock City) allegedly stored moonshine and other varieties of homemade hooch for the Chicago Mob during Prohibition.
Hollywood legends Eddie Fisher and Liz Taylor are also rumored to have secretly spent their honeymoon in Room 531 after their 1959 Las Vegas wedding.
Since 1964, the Lookout Mountain Hotel has been home to Covenant College.Subject Person/Organization
Lookout Mountain HotelSubject Place
* Untyped Subject Place
Lookout Mountain, GeorgiaCollection
Lookout Mountain CollectionPostcard Details
Place Published
* Untyped Place Published
Chattanooga, Tennessee*Date Published
circa 1930 - circa 1940Copyright
Type of License
Copyright Not Evaluated
