The Read House Hotel
A sixteen-story Art Deco hotel tower that has dominated Broad Street in downtown Chattanooga since 1926, the Read House is the city’s most significant surviving commercial architecture of the interwar period — designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Holabird & Roche, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and operating continuously as a luxury hotel for nearly a century.
At a glance
The Read House at 827 Broad Street opened in 1926 on the site of a succession of earlier hotels that had carried the Read family name since the 1840s. The current sixteen-story building, designed in the Art Deco manner by the Chicago architectural firm Holabird & Roche, was built to serve the commercial and tourist traffic of Chattanooga in the 1920s — a city whose position at the convergence of several rail lines, combined with its proximity to the Civil War battlefield sites at Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain, had made it a significant destination. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and continues to operate as the Read House, now as part of the Curio Collection by Hilton.
Key facts
- Address: 827 Broad Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402
- Opened: 1926
- Architects: Holabird & Roche
- Style: Art Deco
- Floors: 16
- NRHP: Yes (listed December 23, 1976)
- Current operator: Curio Collection by Hilton
History
The name “Read House” has been associated with Chattanooga hospitality since Samuel Read opened a hotel near this location in the mid-19th century to serve travellers passing through the city on the Western and Atlantic Railroad. The original hotel passed through various owners and configurations through the Civil War years, the Reconstruction period, and the late 19th century; it was a landmark of Chattanooga’s commercial life throughout these decades.
The construction of the current building in 1926 reflected the prosperity of Chattanooga in the mid-1920s — a period when the city’s industrial economy and its position as a railroad hub supported substantial commercial investment. The commission went to the Chicago architectural firm of Holabird & Roche — the partnership of William Holabird and Martin Roche, whose practice had shaped major civic, commercial, and hotel commissions across the country. Their design gave the Read House a sixteen-story tower in the Art Deco manner — vertically composed, with decorative vocabulary applied at the cornice and base, and the middle floors treated with the restrained brick and stone characteristic of well-crafted American commercial architecture of the 1920s.
The hotel was a center of Chattanooga civic and social life through the middle decades of the 20th century, hosting political figures, military officers during World War II, and the traveling performers and celebrities who passed through the city. The National Register listing in 1976 recognized the building’s architectural significance and contributed to the preservation investment that has kept it in continuous operation as a hotel into the 21st century.
What you see
On Broad Street the Read House presents a vertical composition characteristic of Art Deco hotel design of the 1920s: the base of the building, with its commercial storefronts and lobby entrance, is separated from the upper shaft by a strong horizontal transition; the shaft rises through its sixteen stories with the regularity that Holabird & Roche’s commercial practice had refined across hundreds of commissions; and the upper floors and cornice provide the decorative punctuation that gives the building its identity on the Chattanooga skyline.
The interior retains the lobby character of a 1920s luxury hotel — the proportions, the materials, and the spatial sequence of arrival, registration, and movement through the public spaces communicate the formality that the architects and their clients understood as the mark of a first-class establishment. The renovation that brought the property into the Curio Collection has preserved this character while updating guest rooms and amenities to contemporary standards, making the Read House a successful example of historic hotel preservation.
Practical information
- Current use: Luxury hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton; restaurant and bar on premises
- Reservations: Available through Hilton website and standard travel platforms
- Tennessee Aquarium: Chattanooga’s waterfront attraction is approximately 10 minutes on foot from the hotel
- Lookout Mountain: Civil War and natural history sites are 15 minutes by car
Getting there
The Read House is at 827 Broad Street in downtown Chattanooga, within walking distance of the Tennessee Aquarium and the Chattanooga waterfront. Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (CHA) is 8 miles east. The Tennessee Riverwalk along the Tennessee River is a short walk from the hotel. Amtrak does not currently serve Chattanooga; the nearest stations are Atlanta (118 miles south) and Nashville (134 miles northwest).
Nearby
- Tennessee Aquarium — one of the largest freshwater aquariums in the world, on the Chattanooga riverfront, approximately 0.4 miles from the hotel
- Lookout Mountain — Civil War battlefield (Battle Above the Clouds), Ruby Falls, Rock City Gardens, and the historic Incline Railway; 4 miles southwest
- Tivoli Theatre (1921) — Chattanooga’s Beaux-Arts performing arts theater, 0.5 miles north on Broad Street
Sources
- Wikipedia, “Read House Hotel” — history, architects Holabird & Roche, NRHP listing 1976, current affiliation
- National Register of Historic Places nomination — architectural significance, 1979
- Chattanooga History Center — documentary archive
- Hilton Curio Collection — current operational details
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