Houston Museum features priceless collections

Anna Safley Houston had at least nine husbands, probably more, and divorced them all. Not a single one was wealthy. She arrived in Chattanooga in 1904, operated a successful millinery shop and wheeled and dealed in real estate and mortgage finance – something few women were involved in during those pre-feminist years.

Houston lost all her properties in the Great Depression and lived in virtual poverty until her death in 1951. And she left in trust to the people of Chattanooga what have been called the world’s finest collections of antique glass and ceramics.

This colorful woman, whom some remember as being a red-haired beauty, was know behind her back as “Antique Annie” and even “Crazy Annie” because of her supposed eccentricity.

Her remarkable life story, and her even more remarkable collections, are now features of a unique visitor attraction in downtown Chattanooga, the not-for-profit Houston Museum of Decorative Arts. Extensive improvements along the city’s waterfront – home of the famed Tennessee Aquarium – have made the museum easily accessible to the hundreds of thousands who come to this city every spring and summer.

Housed in a restored Victorian-era residence and located across the street from the Hunter Museum of American Art, the museum is operated by trustees who oversee the priceless collections, most of which were not even discovered until after Houston’s death.

How she acquired them is a mystery that has never been solved. But her biography, “Always Paddle Your Own Canoe, the Life, Legend and Legacy of Anna Safley Houston” makes it clear that this woman with only a sixth grade formal education had studied antiques of all kinds so extensively that she was consulted by dealers and collectors all over the country as well as editors of publications in the antiques field.

Located high on a cliff overlooking the Tennessee River, the Houston Museum takes visitors on a guided tour of its rooms, where thousands of examples of rare antique glass, porcelain and pottery, as well as antique furniture, music boxes, lamps and much more are on display, all part of Houston’s collections. At one time she had 15,000 pitchers, the largest such collection in the world.

During the tour, visitors are told the story of her life, and her biography is on sale at the museum’s gift shop, which is open to the public, whether or not they take the museum tour. Complete information on open hours and tour schedules may be obtained by calling 423-2654-4571.