50% Off Paalzow Farr Mansion in Red Bank

The Estate of Dr. John and Delores Farr.

Step into a museum, only here you can take the collections home! The home on the hill in Red Bank that you have always wanted to tour is finally going to be open to the public for four days only. 

The Paalzow Farr Mansion

The home was built in the early 1920s and purchased by John Paalzow in 1930. A number of interesting furnishings that were  in the home at this time remain today. In the den area is an exquisitely carved desk and entryway table handcrafted in Italy. The living room features a grand piano, the origin of which is said to have come from the Signal Mountain Hotel.

The dining room suite was bought for Mr. Paalzow by one of the Fowler furniture store brothers on a buying trip in Louisiana. It now features a scratch made by a relative after being given a diamond ring. According to Dr. Farr, she was simply testing the ring to make sure it was indeed a diamond. Needless to say, the family members were not that happy.

Upstairs is a desk Mr. Paalzow had in the James Building, while in the basement is a bowling lane and an old billiards table acquired from an African-American church and recreation building on MLK  Boulevard.

Dr. Farr's grandparents had an old Philco radio, and he remembers being in the home as a small child and hearing the news that Germany had bombed Poland at the start of World War II and later that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. His grandparents saved a large collection of Chattanooga Times Free Press Newspapers from this era in a cedar trunk in the attic as well as the Philco radio in the basement. Dr. Farr remembers using his grandfather’s large collection of books to help do school reports while attending Baylor School. The collection remains with the home and has been added onto throughout the years to include large numbers of Easton Press, Folio Society, and Franklin Library Leather Bound Collections as well as books related to WWII and Civil War History!

Dr. Farr said his grandfather also had a large number of animals on the expansive acreage. “During the war he had about 50-75 head of sheep and before that he had about 40 head of cattle,” he said. The barn still holds many implements from the time that the estate was a working farm which will be available for sale. 

Mr. Paalzow, the son of a German Bavarian, who had come to the United States after being politically opposed to the German leader, Bismarck, Mr. Paalzow served his teen-age years on a sailing ship and then became an engineer/surveyor in the gold mines of Idaho and Montana. He came to the Chattanooga area to work on the Hales Bar Dam, which opened in 1913 as the area’s first dam. There is a large selection of his books on regional geology and natural resources and gold deposits as well as lots of photography from the construction of the dam. 

“He became friends with (dam backers) C.E. James,”whose steamer trunks were found in the attic of the home. “When the dam was finished, James talked him into staying and gave him a job managing the Signal Mountain Hotel.” A small number of pieces from the hotel remain in the home.

Mr. Paalzow died in 1950, and the Paalzow descendants owned the historic downtown Chattanooga James Building until 1979.

Dr. Farr’s parents later moved into the home and eventually sold some of the land along Dayton Boulevard to Red Food Store.

Dr. Farr and Delores had lived in the home since 1987. “It is an interesting old place and I have enjoyed trying to keep it up,” Dr, Farr said.

(Excerpts taken from an interview with Dr. Farr appearing in the Chattanoogan article, "Paalzow/Farr Home Is Red Bank Mansion" (Shearer, 2003))

Dr. John Paalzow Farr

John Paalzow Farr of Red Bank, an exemplary public servant. Born in Chattanooga to the late George Harris and Betty Paalzow Farr, and raised in this very mansion. John Farr graduated from The Baylor School; the University of Chattanooga (BS), University of Tennessee (MS), Middle Tennessee State University (PhD). He held onto many t-shirts, letterman sweaters and jackets, yearbooks, and other ephemera from these schools. After more than thirty years of service in the United States Army, Mr. Farr retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Many pieces from his military career remain in the home. A former History Teacher at Red Bank High School, Chattanooga Central, and Sale Creek, Mr. Farr was passionate about local and regional history and collected countless numbers of books including a very large collection of books related to the Civil War and WWII. Mr. Farr started several wrestling programs in the area including Red Bank High School where he led the team to three consecutive State wrestling championships. Farr was inducted into several Athletic Halls of Fame from local to national for his expertise. There are vast amounts of souvenirs from his tenure as a wrestling coach from ephemera, trophies, and uniforms to stacks of vintage photographs. Mr. Farr enjoyed the loving companionship of his wife, Delores, of forty-eight years. Delores J. Farr taught English at Red Bank High for over 30 years. Mrs. Farr loved to decorate for the holidays and neighbors remember seeing the house on the hill lit up during Christmas time. A collection of Hawthorne Holiday Villages and a large collection of vintage seasonal die cut decorations from her classroom are a few of the interesting seasonal collections that remain in the home. Mrs. Farr had a fine eye for jewelry and especially loved pearls.  A most extensive gift closet, as any fine Southern lady would have,  included a HUGE selection of jewelry, perfumes, skincare, and makeup from HSN, QVC, and JewelTV. 

(Excerpts of this article were taken from the SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 92 by the SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING, to honor the memory of John Paalzow Farr)