The origin of the name “Atlanta” has been questioned for as long as there has been an Atlanta. When all is said and done, however, the name of the city is “Atlanta,” and it’s a safe bet that’s not going to change anytime soon. We haven’t read much about how the people of Marthasville felt about their city’s name change, but there must have been some controversy.
The spark for promoting the name change has been identified as Georgia Railroad Superintendent, Richard Peters. Peters claimed he was only choosing a name for the Georgia Railroad’s depot, as reflected in the flyers he had printed up advertising the Atlanta Depot. But, as the Georgia Railroad, at the time, was running the only game in town, Peters didn’t get much pushback and, eventually, everybody began referring to Marthasville as Atlanta.
All’s well that ends well, I suppose, but it is interesting to review the naming history of the town known as Marthasville, and to learn just how many different names the community by the railroad tracks was known by before they finally settled on Atlanta, which is exactly what we do on this week’s Stories of Atlanta.
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