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 […]
Tag: Stories of Atlanta
Posted inStories of Atlanta
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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Downtown became more challenging
Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” However, in true Henry Ford style, he did not ask for opinions and what we got was the “horseless carriage.” And the world has never been the same. Americans have long had a love affair with the […]
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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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A football legend starts a tradition
They say that football is a contact sport. Those who’ve actually played the game disagree. Basketball, they say, is a contact sport…football is a collision sport. Football is a tough and strategic game and the difference between winning and losing on any given Sunday often comes down to a thin, undefinable characteristic. There are no […]
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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 […]
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You know the notes but where did they originate?
For those who regularly watch Stories of Atlanta, this will be a familiar tale. We’ve posted it before, probably more than once. Given the circumstances, however, it does seem fitting we go back to the well one more time. Fitting, because Tuesday March 15, 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the day WSB Radio signed […]
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Knowing your place
It is becoming increasingly difficult to get lost. In fact, with the exception of traversing the fringe regions of the planet, those areas without access to a cell signal, wi-fi or satellite reception, one has to work pretty darn hard to lose one’s way. For sure, you can get confused or disoriented…but lost? Thanks to […]
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It was the country’s first, but it didn’t last
Today, a visit from the President of the United States often means traffic jams and inconvenience. But, in the early days of the City of Atlanta, a visit from the Commander in Chief was an occasion for great fanfare. Probably because such visits were few and far between and the opportunity to see, first-hand and […]
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Maybe not what he had in mind
Atlanta’s history is intertwined with Atlanta’s religion. Houses of worship were not just a presence in Atlanta, they were one of the major forces that helped shape and support our community. This week, we tell the tale of Leonard Broughton who came to Atlanta to lead a church and ended up building one of Atlanta’s […]
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One day you’re the hammer, the next you’re the nail
Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you. That’s pretty much how it goes in life. You can’t win them all. Fortunately, not everything is a contest and, sometimes, being second is still pretty cool. To be sure, as Mel Brooks once said, “It’s good to be the King.” But if you […]
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It’s often how things get done
In almost every significant step forward, there are the people who get the credit and then there are the people who actually did the work. Sometimes they are the same people and sometimes not. It was Coca-Cola Chairman Robert W. Woodruff who supposedly said, “There is no limit to what a man can do or […]
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Out with the old, in with the new…again
I don’t understand “spacetime” any more than I do the argument that there is no such thing as time. It all makes about as much sense to me as the quantum theory of multiple universes where everything that can happen is happening and at the same time, which is odd because I thought there was […]
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Look, up in the sky…
“Twinkle twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are.” You might ask, what in the world does a 19th century English lullaby have to do with a picture of a Coca-Cola sign stuck in the middle of nowhere? Good question, if you’re a first-time viewer. But if you’ve been here before, you know that […]
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It’s a game of 6-degrees
This week we play a game of “connect the dots” as we trace the relationship of two famous Georgians who each played a role in Atlanta’s young but stellar past. We start with the birth of Crawford Long in 1815 and take a brief look at why we all owe him a major debt of […]
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Not suitable for young girl’s eyes
There is a building in downtown Atlanta that is more than meets the eye. A treasure trove of Atlanta history, this building has generated over 100 years of stories. Built in 1906, the Candler Building is a 17-story high-rise meticulously constructed to the specifications of Coca Cola magnate Asa Candler and architect George Murphy. It […]
