G.W. Collier was one of those Atlantans who got in on the ground floor of a good thing. When he first came to the region there was nothing but wilderness and Indians. When Marthasville was incorporated as Atlanta, he became the city’s 1st postmaster and to fulfil his duties, he purchased a small parcel of […]
Author Archives: Lance Russell
Lance Russell is an Atlanta-based filmmaker and media communicator who, for over three decades, has been entrusted by clients to tell their stories. A seasoned producer with an innate ability to cut to the heart of the matter, Lance’s instincts are tailor-made for today’s “media bite” culture. Brief, poignant and always entertaining, Lance’s current passion is bringing Atlanta’s colorful and inspiring past to life with his “rest of the story” style video series, Stories of Atlanta. “History’s best communicators,” says Lance, “have always been storytellers. It’s in our DNA. ‘Once upon a time’ is how we got to where we are now.”
Posted inStories of Atlanta
The story of a friendly man
One of the early residents of Atlanta was Dr. Joseph Thompson, who had been lured to the young city by an old friend. Dr. Thompson had a well-known and respected 20-year medical career in Decatur but issues with rheumatism put an end to his practice. He was running an inn when J. Edgar Thomson, a […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
He chose Atlanta
He was on his way from Covington to Newnan via a 2-horse coach when Richard Peters first laid eyes on the young city of Marthasville. It was 1844 and Peters, an engineer for the Georgia Railroad, was part of the team building a rail line that would connect Augusta to Marthasville. As he passed through […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
From the story files of an Atlanta institution
“You want to be where everybody knows your name.” That is a line in the chorus of the theme song from the long-running TV show “Cheers,” a show about a fictional Boston tavern and its regular customers. “Cheers” was patterned after Boston’s Bull and Finch Pub, an actual tavern that opened for business in 1969 […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
He didn’t stay long
It was not long after 3-railroad lines were connected to a central point in north Georgia that people began beating a path to Atlanta. Word had spread of the abundant opportunities and cheap land and those seeking better lives were arriving to the young city every day. There were, of course, those looking for jobs […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Couldn’t hold him down
Bill dreamed of becoming a lawyer but, at a young age, he had to drop out of school to help support his family. He got a job as a law clerk for an Atlanta firm where he discovered that there was more than one way to get an education. It’s the tale of the self-taught […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
The beginning was almost the end
Looking at photographs of downtown Atlanta in the late 1800’s one cannot help but be impressed with the number of railroad tracks that populated the area we now call The Gulch. By some accounts, at the height of Atlanta’s railroad history there were over 350 trains a day that traveled through the city. Atlanta was […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
The boss’s daughter
A young man from Cartersville, GA comes to the big city hoping to pursue a career in medicine. He walks the streets of Atlanta, knocking on the door of every drug store in town. As the sun is setting, he is hired on the spot by one of the best-known druggists in Georgia and his […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
A new way to dine
When the Hyatt Regency on Peachtree Street opened as the Regency Hyatt House in 1967, it immediately became one of Atlanta’s biggest tourist attractions. It was, in fact, completely unique in the history of modern hotels and people came from near and far to experience architect John Portman’s newest creation. Part of that experience involved […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
The Walker farm
That almost everything was something else before it became what it is today is hardly news to anyone. Knowing that fact, however, does not make the observation of the evolution of a city any less fascinating. Such is the case with the subject of this week’s Stories of Atlanta. At its heart, this story is […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Solomon
He was a freedman, a barber at the Atlanta Hotel and, by all accounts, well-liked and respected. He just picked the wrong day to step outside for some fresh air as you’ll see in this week’s Stories of Atlanta. Producer’s Note: this story references a lamppost located in Underground Atlanta and, while true at the […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Final resting place
At the intersection of Ponce de Leon Avenue and Oakdale Road sits a grand old home, one of many along that stretch of Ponce. Built for well-heeled Atlantans, many of the homes, including this one, are no longer residences but, unlike most of the grand homes that once lined Ponce, this home is memorialized in […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Hedging his bet
As automobile fever began to sweep across America, not everyone was enthralled with the new type of transportation. Among those said to be less than thrilled with the new-fangled form of conveyance was the founder of the Coca-Cola company, Asa Candler. A passing fad thought Atlanta’s best-known businessman, which makes one wonder why, then, did […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
A tragic end
As we have so often observed, there is a reason for everything…you just have to know the story. That is not true, at least, when it comes to Martin and Susan DeFoor. You may recognize the name, the DeFoors gave rise to one of Atlanta’s many streets named after ferry proprietors. Unfortunately, Atlanta history remembers […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
But was his mother proud?
Cities always like to put their best foot forward and Atlanta is no exception. Our city’s efforts at boosterism are well documented and, while Atlantans may have been guilty of going overboard on some rare occasions, that sort of larger-than-life confidence is exactly the quality that has enabled the city to reach and capture that […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
The Transportation Affair
Atlanta hooked its star to the burgeoning railroad industry and, as a result, became the first great inland city of America. The railroads and Atlanta grew together as rail travel came to dominate the American landscape. But it turns out that Atlanta’s love affair wasn’t so much with the railroads as it was with transportation. […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Chance or skill?
It is illegal in Mobile, Alabama to spray Silly String. In West Virginia, if you’ve ever fought a duel with a deadly weapon, you can forget about running for office, that would be illegal…as would entering a mine in Wyoming should you be intoxicated. And, if you’re under the age of 18 in the State […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Three train town
By the end of 1845, people in the region had begun to believe that there just might be something to the young town of Atlanta. Any who remained skeptical of the hype found it harder to do so with the arrival of the first Macon and Western train. It’s the tale of a 3-train town […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
A one in five chance
It was a new camera and the photographer only had 5 flash bulbs, yet there he was, on that fateful night, witnessing what would become the most devastating hotel fire in American history. Arnold Hardy ended up getting detained by the police that evening but not before he made history as we tell in this […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
A familiar face returns
As these things go, the changing of the name Marthasville to Atlanta went about as smooth as could be expected. There was one slight hitch, some, who were no doubt devotees of ancient literature, assumed that there had been a typographical error in the spelling of the town’s new name and that actually “Atlanta” should […]
