During the first years of the Great Depression, Krystal was founded in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by Rody Davenport Jr. and partner J. Glenn Sherrill. Davenport's wife, Mary, came up with the restaurant's name after noticing how clean a crystal ball lawn ornament was. Davenport and Sherrill were sticklers for cleanliness, so "crystal clean" or "clean as a crystal" came to mind. The original restaurant cost $5,000 and consisted of a 25-by-10 foot building.