You might have come across a “See Rock City” barn before. This was an advertising campaign created by a man named Garnet Carter and his wife Freida to promote their Rock City Gardens attraction, located just outside Chattanooga, Tennessee.
A number of these barns still exist, though the number is dwindling. These advertisements started appearing in 1935 and went up for the next 30+ years. At one time there were as many as 900 such barns throughout the South and Midwest. From The Tennessean:
Rock City Gardens, which opened in 1932, featured panoramic views from atop Lookout Mountain as well as unusual rock formations. Frieda also added scenes and gnome-like figures to the gardens to create “fairylands” and other visual surprises.
In 1935, Carter had the idea to advertise on barn roofs along routes leading to the attraction, eventually advertising on barns from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, according to SeeRockCity.com. He hoped the signs would lure Americans, who had just begun traveling again as the Great Depression ended, to his unique attraction. It worked.
The number of such signs had dropped to around 100 at the time this article was written, about six years ago. Apparently one remains in the Ethridge, Tennessee community (or at least did in 2012, when this photo was taken). An Amishman passes by in this shot.
The various old-timey metal signs complete the nostalgic effect. I spy Greyhound, Coca-Cola, and Purina.
I doubt this Amishman has ever Seen Rock City, though you can if you want to.
Image: Brent Moore/flickr
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I have never been to the Rock City exhibit, but I have been to Lookout Mountain above Ruby Falls and on a clear day you can see far. Ruby falls is the tallest and deepest underground waterfall open to the public and is worth the admission price. No Amish in the close vicinity of Chattanooga that I know of.
Sounds great. I’ve never been in that part of TN, at least not that I remember.
Rock City and other TN spots
I have yet to “see Rock City” myself. I’d also like to see a place called Big Sandy. I met a really nice college student from there at a bus station (maybe in Ohio), on his way to Brooklyn NY, of all places. I’m from the north east to begin with, so I never expected him to give me much information about himself – especially contact information, but his description of Big Sandy has stayed with me since then. I search for it on maps from time to time, and muse about being there one day. So much to see there, any way. I went to bring a clothing donation after the wildfires ravaged Gatlinburg and the neighboring areas in the Great Smoky Mountains. That place (and the entire state!) has been calling to me ever since!
" See Ruby Falls Barns Advertisement "
” I remember these types of barns ;in, the sixties traveling to see the maternal parents living in Parsons, Tennessee ! “