A Fortuitous Move to the Tennessee Mountains

The 2,300-foot peak of Lookout Mountain informs life in Chattanooga, TN, and the surrounding towns and communities. You can view it from everywhere. The peak even gave Chattanooga its name, most likely derived from the Creek Indian word Chat-toto-noog-gee, meaning ‘rock rising to a point’.

From the peak, you can look northeast to downtown Chattanooga and the Tennessee River, which swirls around the elegant city, just five miles away as the crow flies. Look northwest three miles, and from Lookout Mountain’s Sunset Rock, you can spot the pristine fairways that swirl around the graceful 3,000-acre community of Black Creek.

Black Creek is a stunning multi-generational community tucked along verdant mountain ridges. Amenities abound at Black Creek, including a championship 18 holes recently rated among the Top 10 Golf Courses in Tennessee by the prestigious Golf Magazine Ranking Panel. There is also tennis, a swimming pool, a fitness center, casual and fine dining, an outdoor sports complex, a breathtaking rockfaced clubhouse, and countless club activities.

In the fall of 2017, Mark and Linda Smylie had all three of their children attending the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and thought it was a good time to get away from their tasking Chicago winters and move south and closer to the kids. Not right on top of them, mind you, but nearby.

by Warren Grant

The couple looked at Atlanta, Birmingham, Greenville, and Nashville, but couldn’t settle on any of them. Then, a friend suggested they visit Chattanooga, where they connected with a local realtor. Soon they were looking at homesites at Black Creek and generally falling in love with the stunning setting, people, and amenities.

“We bought a lot at the end of a cul-de-sac after just three days,” says Mark. “We thought the search process would take 14 to 15 months, but we surprised ourselves with how certain we were about this special place.”

While waiting the last three months for their house to be built, the Smylies stayed in three different Airbnbs in downtown Chattanooga— North Shore, South Shore, and St. Elmo— giving them a head start in acquainting themselves with the city.

Completed in August of 2018, their 3,100-sq.-ft. home originally had a screened porch specified, but Mark decided to dry-in the space and convert it to an indoor sunroom. A prophetic move, considering 18 months later the world would be turned upside down.

Mark and Linda, both in their late 50s, have full-time jobs. She is an actuarial analyst and works out of a cozy keeping room with a fireplace in their Black Creek home. Mark, however, works for Nielsen, the television rating service, and was on the road eight to 10 days a month working with television stations and consumers on the West Coast. But last March, the company put a moratorium on airplane travel, so his sunroom is thankfully now his full-time office.

Last spring, they enhanced and enlarged their whole backyard outdoor living space by creating a two-tiered patio and adding a fireplace, water feature, and patio furniture, creating a perfect space for entertaining while also observing social distancing guidelines.

The Smylies love to hike with their three dogs, and just beyond the patio, they can jump on a four- to five-mile loop trail that winds throughout the community. They also enjoy tennis and are picking up pickleball. And Linda is active in both bunko and book clubs.

They look forward to getting back to normal and frequenting favorite downtown spots like The Riverwalk, Tivoli Theater for an Allison Krause concert, Niedlov’s bakery for breakfast, State of Confusion for eclectic fare, or Linda’s favorite Italian restaurant, Alleia on Main Street. Avid baseball fans, they also can’t wait to attend the Chattanooga Lookouts minor league baseball games, where they only have to gaze to the horizon to see the famous ‘rock rising to a point.’