© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
Chattanooga TN
Gordon’s Gin – Regency Liquors – The Half Note Club – Chattanooga, TN
© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
502 E MLK Blvd © Frank H. Jump
This awning was full of mold an inch deep and the smell coming out of the building of both the Half Note Club and Regency Liquors indicated they were closed for a number of years.
For decades, Ninth Street was the hub of the black community, home to black-owned retail shops, nightclubs and businesses. Bessie Smith sang there as a child and teenager, and it attracted many of biggest black entertainers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne and Nat “King” Cole, who would stay in the Martin Hotel. Clubs like the Whole Note and The Half Note were full of blues and jazz.
East Ninth Street was renamed M.L King Boulevard in 1981. – Chattanooga Now, March 2014
According to a thread in Old Bars, Chattanooga;
The Whole Note started out as a top of the line club for R&B entertainment and the Half Note was private for the who’s who’s in African American businessmen and politicians. Charles Bryant was the owner.
Rock City – Chattanooga, TN
McElree’s Wine of Cardui for Women – Chattanooga, TN
© Frank H. Jump
Martha’s Vintage Attic
The Quack Doctor
Chas. Patterson Feed © Frank H. Jump
On a website called The Museum of Menstruation, there’s a tongue-in-cheek anecdote taken from a 1904 women’s medical journal called “The 20th Century Song Book”: “Menstrual, kidney & liver problems, constipation & bowels, tiredness, indigestion,colic, colds, chills, fever, childbirth, rheumatism, arthritis, menarche,leuchorrhea, dizziness, pain, headache, Cardui, Wine of Cardui, tonic, ‘female weakness,’ etc.” Perhaps this should be sung to a popular “list song” tune like the “Twelve Days of Christmas” or Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” – Fading Ads of New York City (History Press, 2011) © Frank H. Jump
According to The Mary Frans Muse Weebly:
In 1880 Dr. McElree’s Wine of Cardui was introduced, a menstrual relief product for women . To maintain the company’s building reputation for quality, the new product was delivered to customers with the agreement that they would pay for it only if fully satisfied with its results. Wine of Cardui immediately became successful, as more than 6,500 women reported cures and sent payment to the company for an initial shipment of 7,000 bottles…. The Company was founded as the Chattanooga Medicine Company on February 21, 1879. It began operations in a small unpretentious 2-story brick building located on a muddy, unpaved road called Market Street in the heart of downtown Chattanooga. At the time, the city of Chattanooga consisted of fewer than 10,000 people whose occupations often centered around the railroad and thriving river port.
