Rock City

Tim Hollis

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781467126106
• eBook ISBN: 9781439660393
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Since May 21, 1932, tourists have been making the trip to the top of Lookout Mountain to stroll through what pioneers as far back as the 1820s called "the rock city." This collection of huge boulders in a wild array of shapes and sizes was developed as an attraction by Garnet Carter, the inventor of modern miniature golf, and his wife, Frieda, a devotee of European fairy tales. Rock City Gardens quickly became one of the most famous tourist attractions in the Southeast, especially after Carter started a program of painting advertisements on barn roofs. During the post-World War II baby-boom era, Rock City became even more of a destination with the additions of Fairyland Caverns and Mother Goose Village.

One

ALONG THE
ENCHANTED TRAIL

Rock City’s story truly begins with the development of a residential neighborhood known as Fairyland and a resort hotel called the Fairyland Inn, during 1924–1925. The streets in the Fairyland community were named for various storybook characters, and statues of those legendary heroes were imported from Germany to decorate the vicinity. (Rock City Archive.)

The developers behind Fairyland were Garnet Carter and his wife, Frieda. It was Carter’s business acumen and Frieda’s love for classic European folklore that combined to give the neighborhood and hotel their charm. (Rock City Archive.)

To entertain guests at his Fairyland Inn, Garnet Carter invented a new game he patented as Tom Thumb Golf. It turned out to be the first commercially successful miniature golf course, and Carter had soon made a fortune by franchising his idea nationwide.

After selling Tom Thumb Golf and then losing most of his profits in the Great Depression, Carter then set out to develop his wife’s adjoining rock garden as a tourist attraction. Rock City Gardens had its grand opening on May 21, 1932, with this cone-shaped building as its ticket office and souvenir shop.

In a noteworthy nod to its origins, when Rock City had new ticket booths constructed some 70 years after its opening, they were patterned after the original 1932 entrance building. Even the metal “banner” with the Rock City name was modeled after the one that can still be seen atop the original entrance.

In 1937, a new stone entrance building was constructed to take the place of the original round structure. This enabled visitors to begin their tour at a more picturesque point than the first building, the location of which necessitated a rather lengthy hike to reach the head of the trail.

Although cars originally parked in front of the new 1937 entrance building, as seen in the postcard at the top of this page, it was not long before a new parking lot was constructed across the street, leaving the entrance court clear for a gift shop, a restaurant, and other amenities. (Rock City Archive.)

Regrettably, one of the natural features that had to be sacrificed for construction of the new parking lot was the aptly named Anvil Rock. Its loss would hardly be felt due to the many other interesting rock formations throughout the property.

Frieda Carter personally designed the Fairyland Service Station adjoining the new Rock City parking lot. It filled thousands of visitors’ cars with gas for many years before being converted into a Starbucks outlet, its current incarnation.

The original Rock City souvenir shop sat just to the left of the entrance building. The position of the home movie title sign pictured on page 4 can also be seen.

Most people probably do not even notice these stone drinking fountains at Rock City’s entrance. In the bad old days, the one on the right was for “whites only,” while the one on the left was the “colored” fountain. Once that Southern tradition was dead and buried, both were used equally, but one is now a planter and the other is nonfunctioning.

In 1968, a new restaurant was constructed in the entrance court, built around a giant rock formation that sat just to the right of the original, smaller snack bar. Even at that, a portion of the stone monolith had to be blasted away to accommodate the restaurant’s foundation, but as one can tell, what was left was certainly impressive enough.

Having undergone several names over the years, the restaurant is currently known as the Big Rock Grill—named, not surprisingly, for its most distinctive interior decoration.

In the 1990s, those waiting in line to buy admission tickets were entertained by a robotic elf named Alvin, who gave a prerecorded spiel concerning the sights to be seen in Rock City. During the busiest part of the tourist season, an employee could operate Alvin manually and carry on conversations with visitors.

At the beginning of the Enchanted Trail, the first thing gues...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Along the Enchanted Trail
• 2. Lover’s Leap
• 3. Out through Magic Valley
• 4. Fairyland Caverns
• 5. A Rock City for All Seasons
• 6. To Miss Rock City Would Be a Pity