In my 50-plus years living on Signal, I’m always surprised by the number of neighbors yet to discover our hidden jewel nestled in Walden’s woods. Dappled in sunlight among towering hemlocks and 100-year-old white oaks, the Little Brown Church has been warmly welcoming locals and visitors from around the world for summer services for the past 111 years.

Not publicized or marketed, it’s a bit like happening upon an unexpected treasure. The decades-old pea gravel under my truck’s tire and the century-old familiar squeak of the worn hardwoods remind me how exceptional the Little Brown Church is: a simple place of worship with the gentlest of improvements over time.

If you’re nearby on a Sunday morning between Memorial and Labor Day, you’ll see horses, golf carts, bicycles, and Jeeps parked out front. You’ll feel at home whether you get a seat inside or a bench on the porch. Among giggling children in seersucker, parents in shorts with coffee mugs from home, and family dogs roaming freely, you’ll hear a piano that sounds like an old Western movie playing hymns you haven’t sung in years. You’ll likely be invited to stay after for a watermelon cutting or “lunch on the grounds.” And you’ll wonder how it got started and why it still thrives.

My family, just four generations on Signal and, therefore, “new-comers,” visited with two beloved families who have lived the history of The Little Brown Church. We couldn’t help but share the wealth of their iconic Signal Stories and this unique inter-denominational community born out of love...and necessity.

Catherine O’Kelley Fore, (b. 1980), six generations Little Brown Church
“The Little Brown Church started around the turn of the 20th century. At that time there was a big colony of summer residents with homes on Signal Mountain in an area of Walden we still call Summertown. Chattanoogans came up to Signal to escape the heat, yellow fever and cholera. It was at least a five-hour round trip up and down the mountain via horse-and-buggy or hack [horse-drawn wagon with bench-style perimeter seating for multiple people]. Because of that, folks were unable to make it down to the city for weekly church services.”

Rachel Divine Sharp Decosimo, (b. 1926), six generations Little Brown Church
“The church started on my grandmother’s front porch in Summertown as a Sunday school for the children of the summer residents. This was a way that Summertown residents could worship the Lord together. After my grandmother’s porch got too full, they realized they needed a building. So, in 1908, local men raised the money and handled the construction of a Swedish barn design. I’ve always wondered how they knew anything about Sweden way back on Signal Mountain!

“I started going to the Little Brown Church when I was 5 years old. I’m 91 right now, so you do the math. It was the highlight of our summer as children! All the children got to be barefooted at church because, on May 1, you took your shoes off and didn’t put them back on until school started in the fall. We loved being with each other and our wonderful Sunday School teachers!”

Catherine O’Kelley Fore:
“My great-great grandparents were a part of the Little Brown Church in its earliest days. They had a home in Summertown where my family still spends many happy summer days. My great grandfather was the church’s superintendent in 1958-59, and I served in that same role in 2018, so it’s been very meaningful.
“One of the highlights of the weekly services for me are the hymns. Growing up, I remember singing ‘Old Rugged Cross,’ ‘Beulah Land’ and ‘In the Garden.’ Now my children are singing those same hymns. It’s special to carry on that tradition.

“We close each service with all the children coming up front to ring the old bell, just as I -and generations of children before me - did. The ringing accompanies the adults singing our theme song ‘Little Brown Church in the Wildwood,’ with verses customized for our church in 1932 by Summertown resident R.H. Williams.”

Rachel Decosimo:
“The purpose of the Little Brown Church is that people will learn about God and Jesus Christ. We have never had our own preacher. We invite different teachers and leaders to come up from the Chattanooga area to speak to us each week. It’s very important that they teach clearly and stay right on track.” [“...and right on time” her son Fred Decosimo jokes, “preach Jesus and do it in 20 minutes.”]

“We have so many visitors,” Mrs. Decosimo says. “It’s a wonderful outreach to people who may not go to church regularly, but feel comfortable here. You know, even though we lovingly call it ‘Little Brown Church’, its official name is Union Chapel because all are welcome here, regardless of denomination. I remember, one of the brothers of Adolph Ochs’, a Jewish Summertown resident, [publisher of Chattanooga’s Times Free Press and owner of The New York Times] was one of our first treasurers.

“There’s just something here that draws people. I feel it. My great, great grandchildren feel it. We’re drawn to this place. It’s real. As real as it gets, thanks to generations of these and many welcoming Signal Mountain families who have gathered to worship together through World Wars, epidemics, and moon landings. When it comes to a sense of peace, community, and a true Word from God - the things everyone is searching for - when you come to the Little Brown Church, you find it.

The fourth annual River City Sessions at Lula Lake is your No. 1 destination for a unique twilight concert at Lula Lake Land Trust’s core preserve. Enjoy over eight miles of trails and live performances by Rising Fawn Social Club, Katrina Barclay, Michael Gray, and Suck Creek String Band.
 
Gates open at 4:30 p.m., and guests are welcome to hike and explore the trails before the event. Enjoy “busking by the lake” with Suck Creek String Band as you hike and relax by Lula Lake. Music by the lake will start at approximately 5:30 p.m.
 
After your hike, make your way back to the meadow for the main show. Beginning at 7 p.m., Katrina Barclay will take the stage, followed by a storytelling performance by Michael Gray and Star Line Books. Rising Fawn Social Club will close the show.
 
Guitar Center will give away a Fender FA 135 CE acoustic electric guitar, and every $10 donated enters you in for a chance to win! Elley Communications will give away four gift cards to Star Line Books, Chattanooga's only independent bookstore.
 
Beer, wine, soda, and water will be available. Lupi’s pizza pies, Clumpie’s ice cream, and Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint will be on site with food. No outside food or drink is permitted (except for water). Proceeds benefit Lula Lake Land Trust in its mission of conservation, education, and low-impact recreation. 

When you support Lula Lake Land Trust, you're supporting nearly 12,000 acres of conservation.
 
Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 on the day of the event. 

Tickets can be purchased online at http://bit.ly/2019rcsatlula.

By Michelle Workman

Truly a celebration of our unique and close-knit community, the Fourth of July parade captures the charm and delight people feel about living on Lookout. The annual parade will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 4, at Lookout Mountain, Ga., City Hall and end at the Commons, where everyone will enjoy food trucks, music, and lots of fun prizes for the best-decorated vehicles in several classes.  

This parade will consist of fire trucks, a mayoral convertible, children on decorated bikes, Veterans, DAR members, decorated golf carts, homemade floats, business floats, motorcycles, classic cars and all sorts of other vehicles, as well as folks on foot, skates or unicycles. There are no limits! We encourage everyone to be creatively patriotic.
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We are looking for community members to actively participate. Vets and members of the DAR are requested to walk or ride in the parade. We are also looking for children who would like to ride their bikes in the parade, as well as people who want to decorate and drive their golf carts in the parade. Musicians are needed to perform on floats or play for the post-parade gathering at the Commons. Look for updated details at the Lookout Mountain Mirror’s website, mountainmirror.com, and on posters around the mountain. Remember the success of this event depends on everyone’s participation.  

Click here to sign up!

By Anne Henley Perry

Brooke Lowry Maclellan is a beautiful redhead effusing charm and poise. A native of Vestavia Hills, Ala., she ended up on Lookout Mountain after finding her Prince Charming, Dr. Reid Maclellan.  Brooke is the oldest of four children and grew up loving “fancy things,” adding that she enjoyed hosting extravagant tea parties for her dolls and Barbies, and dressing up in her finest frills. Brooke has always had a flair, even as a young girl. She explained, “I would set the table with my mom’s fancy china for a random Saturday lunch, and I would read about manners! My mother bought me a few staple etiquette books; “Emily Post” is my favorite. I still carry some of those lessons with me to this day!”

A graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Brooke knew she wanted to work in children’s entertainment. She felt like it was best to make the transition to Los Angeles while she was still able to build a community and make it her home. With a major in theater arts and media production and a minor in English, Brooke secured her first job at Paramount Pictures. She worked as an assistant to the COO and CEO at the time, Frederick Huntsberry and Brad Grey, respectively. After working at Paramount, she worked in an independent creative development shop for children’s media properties, managed the life of the president of Creative Artists Agency  (CAA) Richard Lovett, before finally ended up at her dream job in creative development at Disney Junior. These varied experiences helped shape who Brooke is today.

While living in Los Angeles, Brooke found herself in a world of juxtapositions, both dining in the cafeteria with her co-workers at Disney Junior and that same day enjoying a posh dinner at Nobu in the company of CAA’s most powerful men and women in Hollywood. No matter the status of the company she kept, Brooke learned that “the basic rules of interaction are the same, and they can be taught at a young age.”

Her website Southern Royal states: “You’re not born with charm, but you can learn charm, and a lot of that has to do with etiquette:  your poise, your posture, and how eloquently you speak. In the end, it’s all about being kind, thoughtful, and respectful to everyone around you.”

Newlywed Brooke decided to begin her new business on Lookout after marrying Reid. While working in a myriad of industries with a variety of personalities and statuses, Brooke learned lessons that she has carried with her. While working with Richard Lovett, Brooke spent time with A-List Hollywood elite, including Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Will Smith, and Ron Howard. Brooke explained that these interactions were on a different level than those she experienced in the offices of Paramount.  But she relied on life lessons she’d already learned.

“I quickly learned that when you have good manners, you are considering the feelings of other people and being the kind of person that others will like and respect. I learned that if you are respectful to others, then you are more likely to be treated with respect by them. If you show good manners everywhere you go, you are more likely to encourage others to behave in the same way towards you. I found that to be the secret formula to handle any person of any status in any setting. Manners are important for making a good impression on others in everyday life. They also help you feel good about yourself and your identity! When you practice good manners, you are setting standards for other’s behavior and encouraging them to treat you with similar respect,” she said.

With these tenets in mind, Brooke began Southern Royal. She believes charm accounts for a heavy percentage of a person’s success in life, and that personality and communication skills are just as important as the  prestige of the university one attended or their personal intellect. In fact, Brooke feels that “every single job position I have been lucky enough to have has not just been because of my Pepperdine degree, but because I was ‘likeable’ and put people ‘at ease’.  You can learn charm. Charm is all about evoking positive emotion,” she said.

Brooke seeks to educate young ladies and gentleman in the art of charm. She confessed, “While it may all sound a little old-fashioned, Southern Royal combines the art of Southern charm with the rules of royal protocol followed by the British monarchy. This is not your grandmother’s etiquette class. After studying formal etiquette with a former aide of Kensington Palace during my time abroad, along with being certified in signature courses at America’s leading finishing school, Beaumont Etiquette, housed in the glamourous New York Plaza, I have combined the rules of propriety with practical, relevant advice.”

Brooke teaches basic manners along with etiquette for today’s changing world. “Sprinkled within my courses are rules on how to communicate digitally - how to email, whether or not to text emojis to your superior, and the best way to navigate your tech life. With digital life growing at an alarming speed, so too is modern etiquette evolving! In fact, as society loses social interaction, I would argue that etiquette becomes every more relevant. Text language bleeds into email, personal lives are laid open on social media, and employees are tagging their superiors instead of engaging in conversation. The more time goes by, the more we’re relying on our devices. Therefore, the more we are used to working online, the less confident we are when we walk into a room and interact with others,” she said.

She believes her generation, the “millenials,” have become more lax in their behavior, both personally and in business, which she believes is uncouth. She thinks this makes etiquette even more crucial, especially as her generation becomes parents and moves into leadership positions in business. Thankfully, Britain’s young royals have made the word etiquette ‘cool’ again. Additionally, the popularity of shows such as “Downton Abbey” and “The Crown” have helped bring manners into the forefront, since they portray aristocratic habits as chic and aspirational!


With a belief that the most important thing in executing proper etiquette is to be kind, thoughtful, and respectful to everyone around you, Brooke feels that even if a person does not know the protocol of a situation, good manners are always appreciated.

However, being a fan of all things royal, Brooke elaborates with these questions, “Do I believe a commoner can adopt princess panache? Absolutely! I think the proof is in the pudding. If you look at the most recent royal weddings globally in England, Sweden, Spain, and Monaco, almost all of the royals married ‘normal’ people.  Yes, I do believe these people went through intensive etiquette training, but it proves that anyone can do it, and that grace and charm can be taught!” She also believes that you can never start too young. She says earning etiquette improves quality of life because once you learn simple techniques to communicate, those techniques make you instantly more approachable, confident, and polished in every sense of the word!

Brooke believes that time is of the essence when teaching children. “Children should be learning proper etiquette by the time they’re able to sit at the dining table. For example, they learn early on to address adults as ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’ or ‘Ms.,’ which teaches them the importance of respect, as well as the power of an appropriate speaking voice and good eye contact. The earlier children start to learn good manners, the more proper etiquette comes second nature to them! My goal is to teach timeless class through my Southern Royal Classes!”       
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This summer, Southern Royal will offer classes for ages 6- to 12-year-olds at the Lookout Mountain Club at Fairyland. Private princess classes are immediately available for up to four girls.
Contact Brooke at [email protected] or go to www.southernroyal.com.

Vision Hospitality’s Edwin Hotel recently added the Ama Spa to its autograph collection. “Ama” is the Cherokee word for “going to the waters.” To the Cherokee, going to the waters was a way of cleansing away physical and spiritual elements. Local Lookout Mountain resident Michele Paty was selected to be the spa manager due to her extensive experience in the industry, including upper management in the Ritz Carlton Spa in Sarasota, Fla., a 28,000 square-foot facility known worldwide for its luxurious experience.

Over 15 treatments and a multitude of ad-ons are available at Ama Spa in the Edwin. Many of the treatments are unique to Ama and are not available anywhere else, and with the multiple offerings of add-ons, you can customize a treatment to fit your individual needs.

Deep tissue massage, Lighting Whelk Renewal, and a reflexology foot massage are available treatments, just name a few.

The Whiskey and Wellness treatment is a local favorite. Unique to Ama, the treatment includes a Chattanooga Whiskey infused sugar scrub exfoliation, followed by a sweet orange warming body wrap and a full body custom massage of your choice, along with a collagen infused weeping eye mask.

There are also several facials from which to chose, including: hydrating, brightening, resurfacing and even a gentleman’s facial geared toward men’s unique skin needs.

In addition to any treatment, you can select add-ons, including the guided meditation. This guided reflection experience promotes deep relaxation. Other add-ons include detox body exfoliation, collagen treatments for eyes, lips and hands, LED light therapy and a corrective peel.

The color scheme of the relaxation and treatment rooms are in shades of blue to remind you of the healing power of water.

The waiting relaxation room is a fabulous place to unwind before your treatment. The dressing room and lockers are perfect for the girl on the go who needs to squeeze in a little “me time” between business meetings. There are showers available, as well as a curated selection of complimentary products. Be sure to try Privai’s Sweet Orange Crème cleanser and eye make-up remover. Slip into Ama’s luxurious robes while you wait, and if you forget your glasses, don’t worry – there are extra readers for those who need just a little help in low-lit rooms.

The back lit halite salt brick wall that is absolutely a work of art in itself sets the body’s mode in motion for pure relaxation. (Yes, the bricks composing the wall are made of salt.) The sconces are made from Carnelian stone, which was known as the “Stone of Life” in Ancient Egypt and is known for healing properties that became well known in the western hemisphere with 12th century abbess Hildegard of Bingen.

Michele has hand selected many local items available in the gift shop, as well as a unique selection of products for treatments that are available for purchase as well. Privai’s, SLS-free, botanically infused products are made regionally in Ashville, N.C., by Christina Stratton and Ilana Alberico. The two dynamic female developers, whose mission is to promote natural beauty, find the most effective ingredients that are consciously sourced and support the holistic empowerment of women, donating a portion of the company’s proceeds to Women for Women International. There is a large selection of local Jonesy Wood’s jewelry and Renegade Silver if you need a little bling to accentuate your newly beautifully buffed skin, and don’t forget to check out the wonderfully aromatic lotions from K. Hall Designs.

The Ama Essentials is an express package to pure relaxation when time is not in abundance. Perfect to unwind from a long week at the office and get you ready for the weekend, the package includes a 25-minute foot ritual, a 25-minute relaxation massage, a hydrating aqua facial mask and a 25-minute aromatherapy scalp treatment targeting the head, neck and shoulders. Grab a hostess gift from the well-curated local selections at the gift shop and you are set for the weekend.

Michele and Vision Hospitality want you to know that the Ama Spa is not just for hotel guests. They offer a spa membership for $79 per month. The amenities include a 50-minute service of your choice each month ($135 retail value) as well as 30 percent off additional services, complimentary parking, 10 percent off items in the spa boutique, and discounts on the White Bird Restaurant and at the Provisions store. With that kind of offering, it makes it pretty hard to pass up a day of pampering yourself each month … and with Mother’s Day around the corner, everyone knows that would be the perfect gift for the lady in your life who takes care of you and your loved ones 365 days a year!
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What better location to cleanse away the toll of city life than right next to the Tennessee River?

The LMS PTA is currently updating Lookout Mountain and Elder Mountain residents’ information for the new 2019-2021 Lookout Mountain telephone directory. The directory serves as an excellent resource for your local police department and post office, as well as for keeping in touch with your neighbors.
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All residents will receive a postcard allowing you the opportunity to send in your current contact information. If you would like to go ahead and submit your updates and changes, there are several places for you to obtain forms: Fairyland Pharmacy; Lookout Mountain Mirror office at 112 N. Watauga Lane; and Lookout Mountain Mirror website at www.mtnmirror.com.

Additionally, you may contact Whitney Faler at [email protected] with your updated contact information.

If you are interested in advertising in the directory, please email Karen Leavengood and Ginger Birnbaum at [email protected].