For the first time in history, the famed Olympic Torch will relay through all 50 U.S. states before landing in its host city of Los Angeles — and the tour will kick off in Atlanta. The flame will be lit in Olympia, Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, before heading through the United States […]
Tag: Atlanta History
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Just Another Day at City Hall
For nearly 24 years, William B. Hartsfield was the face of Atlanta. And being the face of a growing city apparently required a mayor who would do just about anything. Fortunately, photographers were there to capture it. This week, Stories of Atlanta steps away from the usual history lesson and into the photo album for […]
Posted inMedia, Stories 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
Shave and a Future…
In the deeply segregated American South of the 19th century, one profession offered Black men a surprising path toward independence, prosperity, and even wealth. The opportunity existed, ironically, because of the very racial attitudes that otherwise worked against them. And succeeding required more than just skill with a razor. It meant learning how to navigate […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Banking in the Round: Atlanta’s C&S Tower
In the late 1960s, Atlanta’s Citizens and Southern Bank left its longtime downtown headquarters for a striking new circular tower in Midtown. Designed by Atlanta architect Richard Aeck and inspired by a revolutionary Frank Lloyd Wright concept, the new C&S building was anything but conventional. Its unusual construction solved a very practical problem for the […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Who Brought the Crowds Out?
What does it take to bring Atlantans out by the thousands? Sometimes the answer is obvious. A famous face, a historic occasion, a celebration, or simply the chance to witness something you may never see again. Over the years, Atlanta has produced some remarkable crowds, gathering for reasons that ranged from the deeply emotional to […]
Posted inMedia, Stories of Atlanta
Not to his liking
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…form then function or function then form. Often, it’s the person paying the […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
A Penny Saved
Joe Jacobs is a name familiar to most aficionados of the City of Atlanta. He is known because he was the owner of the pharmacy that sold the very first glass of Coca-Cola, ever…anywhere. His store was located at 5-Points. There is a plaque commemorating Jacobs’ role in the history of our hometown beverage, a […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Undeveloped Acreage
G.W. Collier was one of those Atlantans who arrived just as the ground itself was beginning to whisper opportunity. When he first came to the region, there was little more than wilderness, wagon ruts, and the faint outlines of a future not yet agreed upon. By the time Marthasville took on the name Atlanta, Collier […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
The streetcar that almost wasn’t
Most people assume Atlanta’s first street railway began with rails and horses. It didn’t…It began with an idea. Just one year after the Civil War ended, while Atlanta was still clearing away the wreckage of war, a handful of visionary citizens convinced the Georgia legislature to charter a street railway company. It was a bold […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
The Mission has Changed
What if one sentence could change the way you see an entire story? Years ago, I told the story of Roger Babson and the unusual monument he placed on Emory University’s campus. While revisiting that story, one phrase on the monument’s inscription caught my attention and sent me down a path I hadn’t explored before. […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Atlanta’s First Great Nickname
Atlanta knew how to throw a party. When the nation’s railroad leaders came to town in 1857, the city welcomed them with such enthusiasm that many Atlantans climbed aboard the departing train and traveled all the way back to Charleston just to keep the celebration going. Somewhere along that unforgettable journey, Atlanta earned a nickname […]
Posted inDelaney Tarr
Atlanta History Center opens ‘More Perfect Union: The American Civil War Era,’ its most ambitious exhibit so far
On July 10, the Atlanta History Center will open its most ambitious exhibit yet: “More Perfect Union: The American Civil War Era.” With hundreds of artifacts and roughly 9,000 square feet of space, the exhibit takes on the herculean task of telling the long tale of the Civil War. And it begins with a bang […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
A Photographer’s Wink
Every photograph captures a moment. Most are forgotten. In 1927, someone walked the streets of downtown Atlanta with a camera, methodically photographing storefront after storefront. At first glance, the images seem almost painfully ordinary. A grocery store. A hardware shop. People standing on a sidewalk, unaware that anyone would ever care. A century later, those […]
Posted inLatest News
Martin Luther King Jr. Birth Home to reopen on July 4
You can quite literally hear the history inside Martin Luther King Jr.’s childhood home. The National Parks System pushes it through — the sound of silverware clinking in the dining room, soft music in the parlor and sibling arguments over a game of Monopoly. It’s an immersive approach to the early years of the Atlanta-raised […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Before the Storm
By the late 1850s, Atlanta had already transformed from a rough railroad settlement into one of the South’s fastest-growing cities. In this installment of Iron and Ambition, our ongoing series of the history of Atlanta, we explore the final years before the Civil War as the young city worked to keep pace with its remarkable […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Atlanta’s Forgotten Pioneers
It is not hard to imagine how difficult life must have been for America’s early settlers. Most of us today would be ill-equipped at best to walk out into the wilderness and make a home for ourselves. In the 1800s however, it would have been expected of you. Tales abound in American history of the […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
The Rise and Fall of the Peachtree Arcade
For nearly fifty years, Atlantans passed through a grand archway and entered a world unlike anything else the city had ever known. Beneath a soaring skylight, shoppers wandered marble corridors, entrepreneurs launched businesses, friends met for lunch, and generations of Atlantans gathered in what was once one of downtown’s most remarkable destinations. Known as the […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
There’s a nickname for that
What if you moved to Atlanta and suddenly couldn’t understand the conversation around you? Not because people were speaking a different language, but because they were speaking Atlanta. Over the years, Atlantans have developed a remarkable habit of renaming the places, landmarks, institutions, and traditions that shape daily life. Some of those names are so […]
Posted inAtlanta Way 2.0
CHAPTER 1 (The intersection) // A 404 Day Essay
Games of Atlanta’s Legacy (GOAL) is a special journalism project through the Atlanta Way 2.0 Future of Journalism Initiative led by Atlanta journalist Floyd Hall. To deepen public understanding of Downtown Atlanta’s cultural, business, transit, and community infrastructure—past, present, and future—particularly in the context of major global events such as the 1996 Olympics and 2026 World Cup, […]
