Atlanta’s history is intertwined with Atlanta’s religion. Houses of worship have not just been a presence in Atlanta, they have been one of the forces that helped shape and support our community. This week, we tell the tale of Leonard Broughton who came to Atlanta to lead a church and ended up building one 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
One day you’re the hammer, the next you’re the nail
Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you. That’s pretty much how it goes in life. You can’t win them all. Fortunately, not everything is a contest and, sometimes, being second is still pretty cool. To be sure, as Mel Brooks once said, “It’s good to be the King.” But if you […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
It’s often how things get done
In almost every significant step forward, there are the people who get the credit and then there are the people who actually did the work. Sometimes they are the same people and sometimes not. It was Coca-Cola Chairman Robert W. Woodruff who supposedly said, “There is no limit to what a man can do or […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
The continuing saga of out with the old – in with the new
I don’t understand “spacetime” any more than I do the argument that there is no such thing as time. It all makes about as much sense to me as the quantum theory of multiple universes where everything that can happen is happening and at the same time, which is odd because I thought there was […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Look! Up in the sky…
“Twinkle twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are.” You might ask, what in the world does a 19th century English lullaby have to do with a picture of a Coca-Cola sign stuck in the middle of nowhere? Good question, if you’re a first time viewer. But if you’ve been here before, you know […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
She never worked a day in her life
It seemed appropriate, at this juncture, to revisit one of our earlier stories. It helps to remember from time to time that anyone can make a difference. One of the more interesting aspects of looking into the history of the City of Atlanta is discovering how certain Atlanta institutions came to be. Over the past […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
It’s a game of Six Degrees of Atlanta
This week we play a game of “connect the dots” as we trace the family connections of two famous Georgians who each played a role in Atlanta’s young but stellar past. We start with the birth of Crawford Long in 1815 and take a brief look at why we all owe him a major debt of gratitude. You […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Not suitable for the eyes of young girls
There is a building in downtown Atlanta that is more than meets the eye. A treasure trove of Atlanta history, this building has generated over 100 years of stories. Built in 1906, the Candler Building is a 17-story high-rise meticulously constructed to the specifications of Coca Cola magnate Asa Candler and architect George Murphy. It […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
An all that glitters is not gold lesson
“Why did Constantinople get the works? That’s nobody’s business but the Turks.” At least, that was the opinion of the band “They Might Be Giants” when they sang about changing the name of the city of Constantinople to Istanbul. I only mention that because this week we’re taking a look at the names of some […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Once upon a time
What is it about stories? Myths, legends, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, sagas, yarns, it doesn’t matter what type of story. We are captivated by all of them. We always have been. It probably has something to do with the fact that a good story skips the brain and goes right to the heart. […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
This should come as no surprise to anyone
If you had to pick just one occupation that people throughout the ages would recognize as a job, what would you pick? Yeah, us too. This week’s story is about those who work for a living. More accurately, it’s about those who worked for a living in 19th century Atlanta. This topic came about quite […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
In its day, it was a really big deal
At the corner of Peachtree and Carnegie Way there is an entrance to the Peachtree Center MARTA station. It hasn’t always been there, of course. Over one hundred years ago on that very same spot stood the Hotel Aragon, a six-story, 125-room establishment that opened for business in 1892. By all accounts, it was a […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Ever taken a wrong turn in Atlanta
If you’ve lived in Atlanta longer than about a day and a half, chances are pretty good that you have discovered navigating Atlanta’s road system can be a bit challenging and I’m pretty sure you didn’t need me to tell you that. I’ll never forget my first day driving in Atlanta as someone from another […]
Posted inMain Slider
This demolition was a tad ironic
The hubbub began back in 2012 when an application was submitted that would lead to the demolition of a building located at 771 Spring Street. The building in question, the Crum and Forster building, had been constructed around 1926 and it served as the Atlanta location of the the Crum and Forster Insurance Company. The […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
The hallowed ground of Atlanta’s notable citizens
With all of the books, documentaries and tours, you would think that there was nothing new to be learned about the final resting place of Atlanta’s notable citizens. But if you happen to be a regular viewer of our stories, you already know that there is always more to the story. When you think about […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
The sum of its parts
It is natural for any city to brag a little about itself … but in Atlanta, boosterism is a way of life. That, however, does not change the fact that there are many things about Atlanta that are worth bragging about. I guess we were just in a little bit of a reflective mood this […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
The dragon that reaches out and grabs you
It was the childhood drowning of his older sister in a river near Gloucester, Massachusetts that sparked Roger Babson’s life-long interest in finding a way to control the effects of gravity. So motivated was he, that Babson wrote an essay titled “Gravity – Our Enemy No. 1.” Speaking of his sister in the essay he […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
Sort of a milestone
With the posting of this week’s story, we reach a milestone, of sorts. When we first started the Stories of Atlanta, we really didn’t have a plan. We just had all of these facts about the City of Atlanta that we found interesting and, with the thought that others might also find them interesting, we […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
For a woman of her time, she took the road less traveled
Rebecca was older than Atlanta. By the time the tiny railroad terminus had been carved out of the north Georgia wilderness, she had lived for 3 years and, by the time she reached the age of 7, Rebecca was lucky enough to be given a seat on the very first passenger train to leave the […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
The Measure of a Man’s Character
Our story this week is about Atlanta-born Walter White. On the surface, it is the story of a man who found his calling, applied himself and eventually took a place on the national stage. But in reality, this story is much more than a chronicle of a man’s career path. Walter White was born in […]
