Point Park: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park - Lookout Mountain Unit, National Park Service

Styles, Sean; Goetcheus, Cari; Hasty, David

Point Park is a component landscape of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and is situated in the Lookout Mountain subunit, southwest of Chattnooga, Tennessee. The 16.5-acre site marks the location of Confederate batteries overlooking Chattanooga, Lookout Valley, and the Tennessee River. Point Park is significant because of its association with the Civil War Battle of Lookout Mountain, the commemoration design as a part of the country’s first national military park, and construction efforts by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) with the transfer of park administration to the National Park Service (NPS). The Battle of Lookout Mountain, also known as the Battle Above the Clouds, occurred on November 24, 1863. Before the battle, Confederate battery emplacements were constructed and breastworks and rifle pits were built at the North Point of the mountain. Along with the Cravens House, Point Park was initially acquired and developed by the Park Commission in 1898 to commemorate the events of the Civil War Battle of Lookout Mountain. Located at the northern crest of Lookout Mountain 1,346 feet above Chattanooga Valley, its prominent location also made Point Park an ideal vantage point for viewing all of the major battlefields of the Chattanooga siege of 1863. During this era of construction, markers, gates, and memorials were added to the commemorate landscape, including the New York Peace Monument in 1910. In 1933, the property was transferred to the NPS, initializing a new period of construction and development. The CCC built trails around Point Park, as well as a comfort station, caretakers lodge, walkways, and the Ochs Museum. The site retains its integrity of location, as well as in aspects of design and materials employed in commemorative era infrastructure. Some regrowth of vegetation has obscured several views. The most notable recent changes to the landscape include a portion of the original stone retaining walls being covered over with siltation, installation of new metal safety railings and handicap accessible walkways, a fountain, benches, and a newly designed overlook that extends the historic battery positions overlook. Historically, the War Department/Park Commission kept the summit and slopes of the park cleared of vegetation in order to maintain the historic views of Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, the Tennessee River, and surrounding mountains. The NPS Master Plan shows planned vistas out from the park and in towards the monument. These vistas remain largely intact today, imparting to the viewer an understanding and appreciation of the difficulties of the Chattanooga campaign. Point Park is a designed landscape featuring elements of nineteenth-century urban park design including the circulation pattern, the open planting of trees, the boundary walls, and the monumental entrance gate. Today, Point Park’s landscape retains the overall spatial organization established by the Park Commission, as well as features contributed by the NPS period of development.

Point Park: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park - Lookout Mountain Unit, National Park Service

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