In the 1940s and 1950s, the Dixie Manufacturers' Saw Shop on Rossville Avenue in Chattanooga was buzzing.

A retail outlet offering power-saw and saw-blade sales and service, the South Chattanooga store featured Simonds and McCullouch saws and products made by the Dixie Saw Manufacturers Company.

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Signs on the exterior of the shop touted saws, files and knives for sale inside, and ads highlighted circular saw blades as big as 5 feet in diameter.

This photo from June 1949 was taken by Chattanooga News-Free Press photographer Delmont Wilson as an advertising photo. Identifications for the men in the photo were not provided in the caption.

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According to news reports, A.W. Thorgmartin was the president of the Dixie Manufacturing Saw Shop, which was located on the 1700 block of Rossville Avenue, a few blocks from Main Street. Today, the Rossville Avenue area is occupied by restaurants and other small businesses in the booming Southside district.

Launched by history enthusiast Sam Hall in 2014, ChattanoogaHistory.com is maintained to present historical images in the highest resolution available.

If you have photo negatives, glass plate negatives or original nondigital prints taken in the Chattanooga area, contact Sam Hall for information on how they may qualify to be digitized and preserved at no charge.

In a news blurb of the period, Thorgmartin was quoted as describing the store as a "first-class repair shop of circular saws and band saws." Other advertising materials said the store catered to the needs of sawmills and woodworking plants.

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This photo is one of many vintage newspaper images salvaged by ChattanoogaHistory.com, a website devoted to preserving historical photographs. The site is curated by history enthusiast Sam Hall.

Follow the Remember When, Chattanooga? public group on Facebook.

Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645. Follow him on Twitter @TFPcolumnist.

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