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33-639: The museum opened in 2018 in Terminal Station (Chattanooga, Tennessee) which was originally opened in 1909 and saw the arrival of dozens of trains per day prior to WWII. The curator was guitar collector David Davidson who collected rare guitars while the museum was funded and overseen by President Johnny Smith (of the McKenzie Foundation) and investor/collector Thorpe McKenzie. The museum displayed vintage and celebrity guitars, and hosted live music events. The museum had 1,500 guitars from

66-414: A Chicago-based development group. The first Chattanooga Union Station was built in 1858 and demolished in the early 1900s. An initial plan for a smaller facility to handle supplies and small packages was rejected in favor of a grand station to handle passengers as well. Construction on this Terminal Station began in 1906; it was opened in 1909 at the total cost of $ 1.5 million. The Terminal Station

99-405: A center section with an 82-foot (25 m) ceiling dome with a skylight. The station included a main waiting room, bathrooms, ticket offices, and other services for passengers. The original Terminal Station was merely one story in height, so the aforementioned dome and skylight made this area look gargantuan in juxtaposition to other similar buildings, while the arched main entrance was said to be

132-679: A group of business people seeking to trade on the " Chattanooga Choo Choo " song and its enduring popularity decided to reopen the station as a hotel. They poured more than $ 4 million into a renovation and reopened it in April 1973 as the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hilton and Entertainment Complex. In 1989, another group of business people invested another $ 4 million to refurbish and renovate the hotel and to bring in and hire new management and staff. They renamed it The Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel. The 24-acre (97,000 m ) complex

165-650: A positive political acknowledgement in both West and East Germany. In October 1944, a new recording by Captain Glenn Miller and the Army Air Forces Training Command Orchestra featuring Sgt. Ray McKinley and the Crew Chiefs on vocals was released as a V-Disc by the U.S. War Department, one of a series of recordings sent free by the U.S. War Department to overseas military personnel during World War II. Trains have

198-648: A pride of place in Chattanooga's former Terminal Station . Once owned and operated by the Southern Railway , the station was saved from demolition after the withdrawal of passenger rail service in the early 1970s, and it is now part of a 30-acre (12-hectare) resort complex, including the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel, and numerous historical railway exhibits. Hotel guests can stay in half of a restored passenger railway car. Dining at

231-524: A private collection; many were rare and valuable. The museum had two Gibson Explorers worth one million dollars each. It also had 36 1958-1960 Sunburst Les Paul guitars worth an estimated $ 250,000 to $ 500,000 each. The for profit museum closed during the summer of 2020. It was called "a victim of the pandemic" according to a documentary about the museum's closing. The documentary was created by Dagan Becket and it won an Emmy Award in March 2022. The museum

264-631: A restaurant co-owned by actor Norman Reedus . A symbol of the terminals previous life is ex Smoky Mountain Railroad exx Genessee and Wyoming 2-6-0 #206. It has been backdated and renumbered to Cinncinati Southern #29. It was moved to the site in 1972 from the Rebel Railroad in Tennessee and has been on display ever since. It also once featured the "Dinner in the Diner" dining car restaurant, which

297-559: Is a former railroad station once owned and operated by the Southern Railway . Listed on the National Register of Historic Places , the station operated as a hotel from 1973 to 2023, and was a member of Historic Hotels of America , part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation . The two-floor hotel building, once called The MacArthur building, was renovated and renamed in 2023 to The Hotel Chalet by Trestle Studio,

330-402: Is no longer operating. Some parts of the complex were connected by a heritage streetcar line, operated by a 1924-built ex-New Orleans Perley Thomas trolley car originally numbered #959; this has been discontinued. In 2022, the complex's owners launched a second renovation, which started with the demolition of one of the passenger cars and the removal of others. Officials said that eight of

363-604: The Pelican , connecting New York and New Orleans; Ponce de Leon , Cincinnati-Jacksonville; Royal Palm , Cincinnati-Miami; and Tennessean , Memphis-Washington, D.C. As passenger traffic declined, the railroad began using the station's platforms for storage. In 1970, Southern cancelled its last passenger train to Chattanooga—the Birmingham Special , from New York City to Birmingham —and closed Terminal Station. Plans were laid for its demolition. Instead,

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396-1026: The Pennsylvania Railroad . Details in the song do not align with The Birmingham Special , however, which suggests that the writers took some artistic license. Specifically: On the May 7, 1941 original recording by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra in Hollywood on RCA Bluebird, the featured singer was Tex Beneke , who was accompanied by Paula Kelly , the Modernaires (vocals), Billy May , John Best, Ray Anthony , R. D. McMickle (trumpet), Glenn Miller, Jim Priddy, Paul Tanner , Frank D'Annolfo (trombone), Hal McIntyre , Wilbur Schwartz (clarinet, alto saxophone), Tex Beneke , Al Klink (tenor saxophone), Ernie Caceres (baritone saxophone), Chummy MacGregor (piano), Jack Lathrop (guitar), Trigger Alpert (bass), and Maurice Purtill (drums). The arrangement

429-719: The "largest arch in the world." Lighting was provided by large brass chandeliers . Terminal Station had 14 train tracks serving seven passenger platforms. The then-president of the Southern Railway System, William Finley, wanted the architecture to recall the National Park Bank of New York . The 1941 Glenn Miller song " Chattanooga Choo Choo " told the story of a train trip from Track 29 at Pennsylvania Station in New York City through Baltimore , North and South Carolina , and finishing

462-551: The East German festival Rock for Peace on October 25, 1983, on the condition that Lindenberg would not play Sonderzug nach Pankow at the concert. Honecker, a former brass band drummer of Rotfrontkämpferbund , and Lindenberg exchanged presents in form of a leather jacket and a metal shawm in 1987. Lindenberg's success at passing the Inner German border peacefully with a humorous song gave him celebrity status as well as

495-619: The Harmonizing Four , Harmony Grass , Ted Heath , Betty Johnson , Susannah McCorkle , Ray McKinley , Big Miller , the Muppets , Richard Perlmutter , Oscar Peterson , Spike Robinson , Harry Roy , Jan Savitt , Hank Snow , Teddy Stauffer , Dave Taylor , Claude Thornhill , the Tornados , Vox and Guy Van Duser . Other notable performances include: Nevertheless, Lindenberg finally succeeded in getting an invitation to

528-658: The back of the property. The city's other historic station, Union Station, parts of which predated the Civil War , was demolished in 1973; the site is now an office building formerly housing the corporate offices of the Krystal restaurant chain (the restaurant chain offices have since relocated to Atlanta, Georgia). In addition to the railroad exhibits at "the Choo Choo", there are further exhibits at Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum , in east Chattanooga. The reputation given to

561-408: The band, sounding like a train rolling out of the station, complete with the trumpets and trombones imitating a train whistle, before the instrumental portion comes in playing two parts of the main melody. This is followed by the vocal introduction of four lines before the main part of the song is heard. The main song opens with a dialog between a passenger and a shoeshine boy : The singer describes

594-578: The city by the song also has lent itself to making Chattanooga the home of the National Model Railroad Association since 1982. In addition, the athletic mascot of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga was, for a time, a rather menacing-looking anthropomorphized mockingbird named Scrappy , who was dressed as a railroad engineer and was sometimes depicted at the throttle of a steam locomotive . Choo Choo DME,

627-611: The complex includes the Gardens restaurant in the Terminal Station itself, The Station House (which is housed in a former baggage storage room and known for its singing waitstaff) and the "Dinner in the Diner" which is housed in a restored 1941 Class A dining car . The music venue "Track29" is also on the grounds of the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel in the building that formerly housed the city's only ice rink at

660-521: The film performance. The composition was nominated for an Academy Award in 1941 for Best Song from a movie. The song achieved its success that year even though it could not be heard on network radio for much of 1941 due to the ASCAP boycott . In 1996, the 1941 recording of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame . The song was written by

693-481: The first to be certified a gold disc on February 10, 1942, for 1,200,000 sales. The transcription of this award ceremony can be heard on the first of three volumes of RCA's "Legendary Performer" compilations released by RCA in the 1970s. In the early 1990s a two-channel recording of a portion of the Sun Valley Serenade soundtrack was discovered, allowing reconstruction of a true- stereo version of

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726-503: The growth of the city. The modern Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel is adorned with a bright neon miniature sign version of the trains that once visited. The hotel is surrounded and fenced in by rose gardens and includes an additional area for educational historic trolley rides as well as an outdoor ice skating rink during the cold winter months. There are several restaurants, a comedy club and the Gate 11 micro-distillery at Terminal Station, including

759-544: The instruments imitating the "WHOO WHOO" of the train as the song ends. The lyrics reference other popular songs of the 1920s and 1940s, such as " Nothing could be finer than to have your ham and eggs in Carolina ", "When you hear the whistle blowin'", " Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar ", and " Satin and lace, I used to call 'funny face' ". The 78-rpm was recorded on May 7, 1941, for RCA Victor 's Bluebird Records and became

792-458: The team of Mack Gordon and Harry Warren, allegedly while traveling on the Southern Railway 's Birmingham Special train. This was one of three trains operating from New York City via Chattanooga. The Tennessean continued to Memphis while the Pelican continued to New Orleans via Birmingham. The Southern Railway operated these trains in cooperation with the Norfolk and Western Railway and

825-532: The train cars will be moved next to the hotel, nine will be moved among the Gardens, and six will be donated to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum . The renovation was slated for completion in mid-2023, when the hotel is to reopen with "127 rooms, including 25 Pullman train car rooms". The Beaux-Arts -style station designed by Donn Barber remains one of the grandest buildings in Chattanooga, with an arched main entrance leading to

858-552: The train route, originating from Pennsylvania Station in New York and running through Baltimore to North Carolina before reaching Terminal Station in Chattanooga, Tennessee . He mentions a woman he knew from an earlier time in his life, who will be waiting for him at the station and with whom he plans to settle down for good. After the entire song is sung, the band plays two parts of the main melody as an instrumental, with

891-487: The trip at Terminal Station. (No such train actually operated.) Chattanooga Choo Choo " Chattanooga Choo Choo " is a 1941 song that was written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren . It was originally recorded as a big band / swing tune by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra and featured in the 1941 movie Sun Valley Serenade . It was the first song to receive a gold record , presented by RCA Victor in 1942, for sales of 1.2 million copies. The song

924-542: Was a convention center, hotel and resort with restaurants, shops and a model railroad setup that was operated by the Chattanooga Area Model Railroad Club (now disbanded) on the second floor of the property. Hotel guests could stay in restored passenger railway cars. In 2017, the two rear buildings of the hotel were renovated, turned into small apartments, and renamed Passenger Flats. The train tracks have mostly been removed to accommodate

957-665: Was an extended production number in the 20th Century Fox 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade . The Glenn Miller recording, catalogued RCA Bluebird B-11230-B, became the No. 1 song across the United States on December 7, 1941 , and remained at No. 1 for nine weeks on the Billboard Best Sellers chart. The B-side of the single was " I Know Why (And So Do You) ", which at first was the A-side. The song opens up with

990-521: Was by Jerry Gray . The song has been recorded by numerous artists, including Taco , Beegie Adair , the Andrews Sisters , Ray Anthony , Asleep at the Wheel with Willie Nelson , BBC Big Band , George Benson , John Bunch , Caravelli , Regina Carter , Ray Charles , Harry Connick Jr. , Ray Conniff , John Denver , Ernie Fields , Stéphane Grappelli and Marc Fosset , John Hammond Jr. ,

1023-527: Was no exception to the general decline in American railroad passenger traffic after World War II. In 1949, the Southern canceled its Florida Sunbeam, an express train that connected Chattanooga to Detroit, Cincinnati, and Jacksonville, Florida. Traffic continued to decline amid competition from automobiles and airplanes in the 1950s and 1960s. One by one, the Southern cancelled its trains, which included

Songbirds Guitar Museum - Misplaced Pages Continue

1056-867: Was reopened in 2021 as a non-profit led by Executive Director Reed Caldwell. The Songbirds museum is now a music venue and museum which displays about 550 guitars. The museum was rebranded as the Songbirds Guitar & Pop Culture Museum. On their website, they state that the Station Street location will close December 23, 2023, and they plan to open at 212 Main Street, Chattanooga in later March or early April 2024. 35°02′13″N 85°18′22″W  /  35.0369°N 85.3060°W  / 35.0369; -85.3060 Terminal Station (Chattanooga, Tennessee) The Chattanooga Choo-Choo (formerly known as Terminal Station ) in Chattanooga, Tennessee ,

1089-453: Was the first train station in the South to help open a pathway to connect the north from the south, connecting the city of Cincinnati to Chattanooga. Eventually, the Terminal Station was serving some fifty passenger trains per day plus some freight and package service. It has greeted United States presidents Woodrow Wilson , Franklin D. Roosevelt , and Theodore Roosevelt . Chattanooga

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