There are many facets that make up a successful community, city or state, but without question, one of the most important elements, if not the most important element, is people. It’s hard to have a thriving community if nobody’s home. Which was exactly the case for the State of Georgia at the turn of the […]
Category: Stories of Atlanta
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For the want of a floodlight
There are few better examples of the value of long-term planning than Atlanta’s airport. Atlanta did not blindly stumble into its status as an aviation powerhouse; it got there purposefully, thanks to the forward thinking of several Atlanta citizens. And it began with airmail. A byproduct of World War 1 was the significant advancements made […]
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First, it kept an eye on the people of Atlanta
For time after the Civil War, Atlantans found themselves living under military occupation. In fact, the government built barracks close to downtown which housed Federal troops for that specific purpose. You probably know the name….
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Their name reflects their gratitude
The Lord works in mysterious ways, as the saying goes, and, were he here today, the Reverend Frank Quarels would, no doubt, offer his personal testament to that adage.
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It was a big deal for the entire town
There is something undeniably compelling about the shared experience. It’s a human thing. We all have it, that need to be with others. A neuroscientist could probably offer a pretty strong biological reason for what the sociologists call collective behavior. You and I, we don’t usually feel the need to get that deep into the […]
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For a while it was king of the hill
There was a time when movie-goers had a number of choices in downtown Atlanta. From the Loew’s Grand and the Paramount to the 81 and the Roxy, the options on Peachtree Street were plentiful. In the early 20th century, Atlanta boasted the largest movie theater in the Southeast and it’s still in operation today. Only, […]
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What’s your favorite color
They say the human eye can distinguish upwards of 7-million different colors. With so many options, it makes one wonder just how picky must Steve Jobs have been that he had to design his own shade of white because he couldn’t find one he felt worked for his computers.
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A wartime skill finds new life
One of the challenges of our 21st century lifestyle is trying to process the unprecedented amount of information available at any given moment. We are subjected to so much input on so many different topics that it is hard for us to imagine how people got along before the invention of instantaneous communications. It helps, […]
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A vacation paradise on the outskirts of town
One constant that seems to endure no matter how much life changes is the need people feel to “get away.” The vacation is a time-honored tradition that has long been on the minds of Atlanta’s workers. It is as true today as it was in the 1870s when Atlantans discovered a new vacation spot to wash away the memory of the challenges of big city life.
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The birth of a legend
There has been much conversation of late about “fake news” and it seemed like a good time to revisit a story we did about a very “real” news event that happened in Atlanta in 1883.
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In hindsight, it seems obvious
Part of the fun in looking back through time is examining the origins of the things that today we take for granted. Even though it is obvious that there clearly had to be a first for just about everything, that doesn’t make it any less interesting to find out just exactly how a particular “first” went down. So, once again, we pause to consider just exactly who was the first and what had to happen to make it that way in this week’s Stories of Atlanta.
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Not everyone shared his enthusiasm
James Litchfield Beavers is not a name that most Atlantans today are familiar with but, back in his day, James Beavers was “The Man”…literally. For 26 years, James Beavers was a member of Atlanta’s police force and from 1911 to 1915 he was Atlanta’s “Top Cop,” the Chief of Police.
In his almost three decades of police work, James Beavers changed, adapted and grew with the City of Atlanta. He was on duty during Atlanta’s Race Riot of 1906, he was charged with enforcing a city-wide ban on alcohol which took effect in our city 12 years prior to the passage of the 18th amendment. In his capacity as Chief, Beavers oversaw the investigation of the Leo Frank case which garnered nation-wide publicity.
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Everyone knew it was a dangerous situation
He was a freedman and a barber at the Atlanta Hotel who, by all accounts was well-liked and respected. He just picked the wrong day to step outside.
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Attracting the wrong kind of attention
In September of 1895 at Atlanta’s Cotton States and International Exposition, Charles Jenkins demonstrated to the world what he called a Phantoscope, an early version of a movie projector. From that moment on, the world would never be the same.
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Star gazing at the Fox Theatre
To be honest, it seemed like an urban myth when we first heard about it but, after a little bit of research, the myth proved to be fact. A whimsical tale on its own, the reality that it is true makes it one of the Stories of Atlanta worth a second look. Here’s what we […]
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Not exactly a favorite son
I can think of at least two residents of Metro Atlanta that have tossed their hat into the Presidential candidate’s ring. Maybe there are more, but, has there ever been a Presidential candidate who was actually a resident of the City of Atlanta? Our friend Greg Hodges asked that question and the answer he discovered […]
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Some first-of-the-year inspiration
It’s time for the annual first week of January ritual. You know, the one where we tell ourselves, “This year is going to be the year.” This year we get back into the gym – we start eating better – spending more time with our family – working smarter and, in general, making the self-improvements we think we need to make.
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Tested and proved in the South
The early days of automobile manufacturing were much like the Wild West. By some accounts, there have been over 1800 car manufacturers and it took a while before the “Big 3” to became the dominant American automobile companies. Most early car companies are nothing but distant memories on the American landscape but one is, to […]
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From Atlanta he sold to the world
As sure as there is breakfast, lunch and dinner, there is snacking. Satisfying those between-meal cravings is a need we all have. While some people are able to eat healthy snacks, many of us cannot resist the lure of less healthy foods. Snacking certainly is not a new innovation. It goes back, in some […]
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A look back at the summer of love
It was the sixties and hundreds of thousands of people gathered together for 3 days of music. You can probably guess the rest.
