It will come as no surprise to anyone that Peachtree Street was not always the bastion of business that it is today. At the turn of the 20th century, Peachtree Street was a tree-lined avenue with magnificent mansions on either side. It was a neighborhood…a neighborhood filled with well-to-do residents…but a neighborhood none the less. […]
Tag: Atlanta Stories
Posted inStories of Atlanta
For sale, the State of Georgia
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 […]
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Keeping an eye on Atlantans
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, but if you don’t, you can find out in this week’s Stories of Atlanta.
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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. But the truth is, color, in […]
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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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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” […]
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Atlanta’s presidential candidate
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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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 for the “Big 3” to become 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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A credit to his Profession
Ask anyone in Atlanta what comes to mind when you mention our city’s boxing tradition and chances are you’ll get the name Evander Holyfield. That is assuming the person you are asking doesn’t confuse boxing with wrestling, in which case, you’ll probably get Dusty Rhodes, Rick Flare or Gordon Solie. It is, however, Evander “The […]
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It had everything to do with necessity
Necessity is the “Mother of Invention.” Not much to argue with there. If it weren’t for necessity, there would never have been a MacGyver. The crew of Apollo 13 could probably tell you a thing or two about the motivation provided by necessity. And we’re pretty sure that if it weren’t for necessity, Ron Popeil […]
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It’s a stretch. . . But it does reach
It is a safe bet to say that there were no Atlantans who fought at the Battle of the Alamo. Safe because the battle was over and done with a year before the terminus stake was ever driven into the ground. And yet…there is a connection between Atlanta and the Alamo. Not surprisingly, the connection […]
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An-out-of-towner raises the roof
The term “carpetbagger” is defined as one who is an unscrupulous opportunist. But just as it is true that all that glitters is not gold, it is also true that not all who came to Atlanta following the Civil War were solely unscrupulous, opportunistic carpetbaggers. Take the case of Hannibal Ingalls Kimball. H.I. Kimball was […]
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An ineffective good samaritan
If tomorrow you take a stroll down Peachtree street, the chances are better than pretty good that, at several points during your walk, you will be photographed. There are cameras everywhere, not just downtown but, well, everywhere. I’ve seen estimates that, on the average, we have our pictures taken between 40 and 75 times a […]
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She found what she wanted
They say it was Benjamin Franklin who uttered the oft repeated phrase that nothing is certain except death and taxes. He supposedly said that in reference to the life span of the recently written United States Constitution, which he felt had the appearance but not the certainty of permanency. But surely there are other examples […]
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Not everyone in Atlanta was pleased
Atlanta’s connection to the newspaper business is long and colorful. And over the years, there have been a large number of publications that tried to make a go of it in our town. Most did not stand the test of time. The Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution are two of the obvious exceptions, as […]
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An Atlanta Institution
“You want to be where everybody knows your name.” That is a line in the chorus of the theme song from the long-running TV show “Cheers,” a show about a fictional Boston tavern and its regular customers. “Cheers” was patterned after Boston’s Bull and Finch Pub, an actual tavern that opened for business in 1969 […]
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Who among us hasn’t made a mistake
Mistakes are a part of life, that’s the way it is and that’s the way it has always been. “Errare Humanum Est,” to err is human. The hope is that our mistakes aren’t too visible and, in general, are of the minor variety and not of the George Custer variety. But it doesn’t always go […]
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Out of tragedy came opportunity
One of the more interesting aspects of a circus is that it is, essentially, a visual art form. Unlike almost any other form of public performance, television, radio or movies to name a few, one does not need to speak the language of one’s audience to put on a circus. And though the circus has […]
