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 land for $150 and erected an even smaller store with a place to sort the mail. It served his purposes well, until it didn’t…and at that time, he tore down the first building and built a brick building on what was then, as it is today, the corner of Decatur and Peachtree streets. It’s the story of a pioneer citizen who dabbled in real estate on this week’s Stories of Atlanta.
