The pendulum of opinion swings freely when it comes to the question of form following function. It isn’t necessary to get into that debate here, I bring it up only to offer that, sometimes, it doesn’t matter where one stands on the question. Often, it’s the person paying the bill who determines which way the […]
Category: Stories of Atlanta
Posted inStories of Atlanta
They do have that saying.
There is an oft-repeated phrase used to illustrate the common experience of those passing through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport. Something about how, even when traveling to the afterlife, you’ll need to make connections through Atlanta. It is the sort of thing that comes with the territory when one manages the world’s most traveled airport. Given […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Some improvements needed
Historically, the jail house has been among the first of the public buildings constructed in most new communities. It is interesting to note that, initially, jails were intended to be little more than holding cells…places to keep criminals until they could be tried. And that is exactly the purpose that led to the construction of […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
It was partly about style
Throughout history, some of the world’s most enduring companies have been the result of business partnerships. Sometimes, the partnership brings renown to all of the partners, Procter and Gamble, Hewlett-Packard and Ben and Jerry come to mind. But not every partnership can be Rodgers and Hammerstein and, as they say, ‘Fair’ does not always mean […]
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Nothing but women
South Carolina-born architect Geoffrey Lloyd Preacher headed the Atlanta architecture firm of G. Lloyd Preacher and Company. In the first half of the twentieth century, Preacher was nothing if not prolific. Among his designs were some of Atlanta’s most iconic structures: Peachtree Street’s Grady Hotel, Bass High School near Little Five Points, and the current […]
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The end was the beginning
There is a statue in Underground Atlanta of a man and a bear. The statue is representative of a section of Atlanta during its pioneer days, when confidence men, con artists, snake oil salesmen and animal acts were a common sight in our city. The display of wild animals was, of course, not unique to […]
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A young boy’s inspiration
Since Atlanta’s early days, religion and spirituality have been key factor in the lives of many Atlantans. In some cases, the influence of religion spilled over into other aspects of the city’s development. One clear example of this is the case of Friendship Baptist Church and its founding minister, Reverend Frank Quarles. Today, Friendship holds […]
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Thanks to him…we know
Much of our knowledge of Civil War Atlanta comes from the work of the official photographer of the Army of the Mississippi, George Barnard. Assigned to document military camps, fortifications and rail lines, Barnard followed General William Sherman and his troops on their infamous March to the Sea. In the process of completing his assigned […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Southern Hospitality
The City of Atlanta is host to hundreds of conventions each year, and millions of people visit Atlanta for those conventions…every year. Atlanta is most definitely a major player in the world of event planning and, if you think about it, it is a role that the City of Atlanta comes by quite naturally. Hospitality […]
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Unknown stories of everyday people
At the intersection of Memorial Drive and Boulevard sits Oakland Cemetery, the City of Atlanta’s first official burial grounds. Established in 1850 on an original six acres of land, Oakland now spans 48 acres and is home to thousands of residents. Among them are names familiar to most generations of Atlantans, a “who’s who” of […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Thanks to him…we know
Much of our knowledge of Civil War Atlanta comes from the work of the official photographer of the Army of the Mississippi, George Barnard. Assigned to document military camps, fortifications and rail lines, Barnard followed General William Sherman and his troops on their infamous March to the Sea. In the process of completing his assigned […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Defying Convention
May Irwin was a 19th century actress who starred – with John Rice – in an 1896 short film titled The Kiss. Chances are you are not familiar with The Kiss – or Ms. Irwin or Mr. Rice – but the film’s title holds a special place in movie history as do its actors. Today, […]
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The Balloon Ride
For a species born without wings, we sure have spent a great deal of time trying to learn to fly. The desire to fly is probably as much a part of being human as is the fear of falling. Go figure that one out. This week we examine an event that took place in Atlanta […]
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From Prussia to Peachtree
When the Civil War ended in 1865, life, as you can imagine, did not just magically return to normal. There was no “normal.” Chaos was the order of the day and the State of Georgia had been particularly hard hit. Its politics was scattered, the economy was in shambles and in June of 1865 the […]
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We all knew it wasn’t right
In his epic work “The Souls of Black Folk,” WEB DuBois seems to describe the City of Atlanta in terms that separate Atlanta from what is generally considered to be a traditional Southern city. “South of North, yet north of South lies the city of a hundred hills…” he writes. The image of Atlanta as […]
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The lumberman who saved a few trees for Atlanta
The name Martin Amorous is not one that most Atlantans associate with the development of the City of Atlanta but that doesn’t diminish his contribution to the well-being of our city, not in the least. Martin Amorous was born in Savannah, in 1858. His father , Mathias Amorous, was a proud Spaniard from Barcelona who […]
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A busy store on a busy corner
Any city that attains any sort of momentum attracts interesting visitors…some famous, some not so much. And every visitor to Atlanta comes with a story and this week we were going to tell just such a visitor story…a pretty good one too. But that was all before we discovered Miss Fluffy Raffles. Fluffy is not […]
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His request has been honored
Even Atlanta, with it comparatively young history, is not without its colorful characters. And one of Atlanta’s more interesting individuals was Jasper Newton Smith. Smith was an Atlanta businessman during the city’s reconstruction days. He owned a business at what is today the intersection of Peachtree and 14th Streets. Jasper Smith, or Jack as he […]
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The house on Marietta Street
Most people, when giving a tour of the City of Atlanta to friends or family, usually find themselves starting more than one sentence with the phrase, “On this spot…” It’s pretty much a necessity in Atlanta to point out what was in a location because, as almost everyone knows, Atlanta has never been particularly sentimental […]
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We didn’t give up with a fight
Of all of the legendary names who were instrumental in building Atlanta into one of the nation’s premiere metropolitan regions, the name Carl G. Fisher is not one of them…but perhaps it should be. One could make the case that without the motivation supplied by Mr. Fisher, Atlanta would not be the city that it […]
