Charles Weigle In Chattanooga

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I think I’ve been to Chattanooga Tennessee once in my lifetime – 32 years ago in July 1992 during a road-trip with my little brother (age 17) from Huntsville Alabama. I picked him up after Space Camp, and we drove to Nashville, Knoxville, Gatlinburg, and Chattanooga Tennessee, and then from there to Atlanta. That was a fun adventure in my 1989 Geo Spectrum that included a trek on U.S. 441 up, through, and down the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. We drove and climbed to the top of Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet above sea level – the highest point on land that I’ve ever been to.

My retirement hometown of Sebring Florida has a little bit in common with one of those cities above – Chattanooga.

As you may have read previously here on my blog – I’m a docent at the Charles Frederick Weigle House Museum here in Sebring. Come visit us. We’re open 5 days a week – Tuesday to Saturday – from 10 to 3. Before I was a docent – I was a frequent visitor of the historic house, and I was (and still am) intrigued by its 102 years of history. I will never stop studying the history of the house, the man and his wife who lived in the house, and the city that they called home.

Dr. Weigle – an evangelist and songwriter – lived in the house from the time it was built brand-new in 1922 – until 1951 – when he “retired” to Chattanooga Tennessee. I put “retired” in quotes because he actually went back to work up there in his early-80s. He and his wife moved there so that he could work at Highland Park Baptist Church. He wanted to spend his remaining years of life near a Bible college campus so that he could help train and inspire young people in the Lord’s work. The church provided Dr. Weigle with a nice apartment, and he lived there until he passed on 15 years later in 1966.

He maintained his residence in Sebring during much of that time. He continued to study the Bible, and teach, and preach, and write music during his last 15 years in both Chattanooga and Sebring.

Less than 2 weeks after his 95TH birthday – he had entered Heaven’s gates to be with the Lord eternally. Today – he’s buried with his second wife Carrie in a cemetery in Sebring – just a couple of miles away from his longtime house by the lake.

Next #TravelThursday – I’m exploring Highlands, Polk, Osceola, and Orange Counties in Central Florida over 7 days with my little brother. And the Weigle House Museum makes an encore appearance. Let’s keep traveling together.