City, oj tke Modern South
^
ILLUSTRATED
AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES
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AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES
c4tlanta
A CITY OF
THE MODERN
SOUTH
THIS NEW ADDITION to the American Guide
Series is the first exhaustive and profusely
illustrated book on the city that is rapidly
becoming the cultural, industrial, and com-
mercial center of the South. The book is
concerned not only with the physical de-
scription of Atlanta, but with its past, its
historical buildings and monuments in the
city and in the neighborhood, and with
every kind of information useful to a citi-
zen of Atlanta or to the visitor. It covers
its modern metropolitan aspect, art and
education, industry and commerce, parks,
recreation, hotels, night clubs and theatres.
The illustrations are as fine as in any of the
American Guide Series books.
The American Guide Series needs no fur-
ther introduction. Lewis Mumford wrote
of them in the New Kcfrubllc: "This series
of American guidebooks is the first attempt,
on a comprehensive scale, to make the coun-
try itself worthily known to Americans.
These guidebooks are the finest contribution
to American patriotism that has been made
in our generation."
SMITH & DURRELL, INC.
25 WEST 45TH STREET - NEW YORK
ATLANTA
A City of the Modern South
ATLANTA
A City of the Modern South
Compiled by Workers of the
Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration
in the State of Georgia
AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES
ILLUSTRATED
Sponsored by the Board of Education
of the City of Atlanta
SMITH & DURRELL
Publishers New York
COPYRIGHT, 1942, BY THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
OF THE CITY OF ATLANTA
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA,
State-wide Sponsor of the Georgia Writers' Project
FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY
BRIG. GEN. PHILIP B. FLEMING, Administrator
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION
HOWARD O. HUNTER, Commissioner
FLORENCE KERR, Assistant Commissioner
HARRY E. HARMAN, JR., State Administrator
FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1942
All rights are reserved, including the rights to reproduce
this book or parts thereof in any form.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY J. J. LITTLE AND IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK
Preface
i
N THE minds of many American citizens,
tradition is the very essence of the South. They expect to find it both
as a grace and a disaster, sometimes flowering as fine living and ex-
quisite manners, sometimes wrapped like a vine about an entire com-
munity and strangling all the best energies of progress. This picture
takes into account only two aspects: on the one hand magnolias, black
mammies, fried chicken, and beautiful belles; on the other cornbread
with fat-back and lackadaisical farmers.
To both these preconceptions Atlanta is its own best refutation.
At first sight the tourist may see no tradition at all. All the bustle
and clamor of this ever-changing city seem to take no account of the
past, to make no terms with anything but modern ways and rapid
production. This city of big stores, of smoking factories, of handsome
modern residences, is truly a city of the modern South. Yet the reader
must not be misled by the subtitle of this book. Young as it is, Atlanta
has a most dynamic history, swift, exciting, sometimes turbulent.
In assembling the vital facts, the Georgia Writers' Project con-
sulted many written records and interviewed many people. The
written sources were helpful. The research workers of the project
pored over everything from old newspaper files to Walter G. Cooper's
The Official History of Fulton County. The interviewing of people
was more difficult and more fascinating. In a city as young as Atlanta
it was sometimes possible to *fmd older citizens who remembered back
to the exciting days of Reconstruction, and occasionally these men and
women would recall comments of their parents that threw light on
the very beginnings of Atlanta. The books and papers gave necessary
facts; the people interviewed gave an atmosphere fresh from actual
experience. They did not always remember exact dates, but by such
remarks as "We children weren't allowed to play on that street," or
"You didn't have to take a chaperon if there were two couples in the
surrey" they imparted a living quality to their reminiscences of Atlanta's
history.
VI PREFACE
Since the publication of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind
and the extraordinary publicity given the city by the world premiere
of the motion picture, an increasing number of people have wanted to
know more about Atlanta. Atlanta, A City of the Modern South, com-
piled by the Georgia Writers' Project and sponsored by the Atlanta
Board of Education, should answer many of their questions. The
first part tells of the development of the city in its many phases; the
second part locates and describes some of the principal points of in-
terest; a chronology, bibliography, and index will be found in the
third section. It is for both tourist and Atlanta citizen that this work
has been published.
SAMUEL TUPPER, JR.,
State Supervisor
KATHRYN A. HOOK,
Project Technician
Contents
PREFACE v
GENERAL INFORMATION xv
RECREATIONAL FACILITIES xix
CHURCHES xxi
CALENDAR OF ANNUAL EVENTS xxv
MAP OF ATLANTA \
FULTON COUNTY MAP /
Part I: The General Background
ATLANTA: A CITY OF THE MODERN SOUTH ..... 3
HISTORY 8
GOVERNMENT 41
TRANSPORTATION . 48
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 56
LABOR 64
PUBLIC WELFARE 72
RELIGION 81
EDUCATION 87
NEWSPAPERS 94
RADIO 103
SPORTS AND RECREATION 107
ARCHITECTURE 114
ART 121
Music 127
THE THEATER 134
LITERATURE 143
Part II: Points of Interest
THE STATE CAPITOL 153
THE STATE OFFICE BUILDING 155
vii
Vlll CONTENTS
THE ATLANTA CITY HALL 155
THE CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION . . . .156
A STONE MILEPOST 157
THE FULTON COUNTY COURTHOUSE 158
AN OLD LAMP POST 161
THE KIMBALL HOUSE 161
THE JOEL HURT PARK 163
THE MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM 164
WOODROW WILSON'S LAW OFFICE .165
THE HENRY GRADY MONUMENT 165
THE CANDLER BUILDING . . . 166
THE GRAND THEATER 167
THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY 169
MARIST COLLEGE 170
BALTIMORE BLOCK 170
THE GEORGIA SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY 172
PIEDMONT PARK 177
THE HIGH MUSEUM OF ART 178
RHODES MEMORIAL HALL 180
WASHINGTON SEMINARY 181
THE NATIONAL STOCKYARDS 182
THE SITE OF JOHNSTON'S HEADQUARTERS 183
THE HUFF HOUSE 184
SUTHERLAND 184
OAKLAND CEMETERY 185
GRANT PARK 187
THE McPHERSON MONUMENT 192
THE WALKER MONUMENT 193
THE ROBERT BURNS COTTAGE 193
THE FEDERAL PENITENTIARY 193
LAKEWOOD PARK 194
GAMMON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 195
THE STATE FARMERS' MARKET 196
WREN'S NEST 197
THE ATLANTA UNIVERSITY SYSTEM 198
THE BOOKER T. WASHINGTON MONUMENT 204
THE SAMUEL SPENCER MONUMENT 205
CONTENTS IX
Part III: Points of Interest in Environs
FORT MCPHERSON 209
EAST POINT 210
COLLEGE PARK 211
GEORGIA MILITARY ACADEMY 211
HAPEVILLE 212
ATLANTA MUNICIPAL AIRPORT 212
DECATUR 213
AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE 217
COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY .218
AVONDALE ESTATES 219
STONE MOUNTAIN 220
EMORY UNIVERSITY 222
THE STATE GAME FARM 229
OGLETHORPE UNIVERSITY 229
FLOWERLAND 231
UNITED STATES NAVAL RESERVE AVIATION BASE .... 232
THE LAWSON GENERAL HOSPITAL 232
THE RUINS OF SOAP CREEK PAPER MILLS 232
ROSWELL 233
Part IV : Appendices
CHRONOLOGY 241
BIBLIOGRAPHY 247
INDEX 251
Illustrations
HISTORY
Rhodes Memorial Hall, Georgia
Department of Archives and
History
Lane Brothers
"Whitehall Tavern," from a
Water-Color Drawing by Wil-
bur Kurtz
Kenneth Rogers, courtesy of
Beverly DuBose
"Howell's Mill," from a Water-
Color Drawing by Wilbur
Kurtz
Kenneth Rogers, courtesy of
Beverly DuBose
"The Arrival of the Florida at
the Terminus," from a Water-
Color Drawing by Wilbur
Kurtz
Kenneth Rogers, courtesy of
Beverly DuBose
"The First Post Office of At-
lanta" (Then Marthasville),
from a Water-Color Drawing
by Wilbur Kurtz
Kenneth Rogers, courtesy of
Beverly DuBose
PAGE
Between 36 and 37
Baltimore Block
Kenneth Rogers
The Kimball House, Atlanta's
Oldest Existing Hotel
Lane Brothers
Church of the Immaculate Con-
ception, Oldest Existing Church
in the City
Lane Brothers
Vivien Leigh at the World Pre-
miere of "Gone With the
Wind"
Kenneth Rogers
Section of the Cyclorama of the
Battle of Atlanta
Courtesy Atlanta Journal
Unfinished Confederate Memorial
on Stone Mountain
Courtesy Atlanta Journal
The Old Huff Residence, House
of Three Flags
Lane Brothers
Confederate Ordnance on Site of
Fort Walker, Grant Park
Lincoln Highton
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Railroad Yards, Atlanta Terminal
Station
Courtesy Georgia Power
Company
Freight Trucks
Lane Brothers
Department Store Bargain Sale
Courtesy Rich's Incorporated
Telephone Operators
Courtesy Southern Bell Tele.
Co.
Bus Terminal
Kenneth Rogers
Between 66 and 67
Midmorning at the Stock Broker's
Kenneth Rogers
Threading Automatic Banding
Machine in a Cotton Textile
Mill
Lane Brothers
Warping in a Cotton Textile Mill
Lane Brothers
Mill Village
Lane Brothers
Storing Coca-Cola Syrup in Metal
Drums for Shipment
Courtesy of the Coca-Cola
Co.
XI
Xll
ILLUSTRATIONS
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Packing Candy
Courtesy Norris Candy Co.
The "Constitution" Printing
Presses
Kenneth Rogers
(Continued)
Mule Auction
Walter Sparks
State Farmers' Market
Lane Brothers
EDUCATION AND WELFARE
Candler School of Theology,
Emory University
Maurice Russell
Medical Students, Emory Uni-
versity
Kenneth Rogers
Machine Shops, Georgia School
of Technology
Kenneth Rogers
Tower of Academic Building,
Georgia School of Technology
Courtesy Georgia Power
Company
Student Printers, Oglethorpe Uni-
versity Press
Kenneth Rogers
Agnes Scott College
Courtesy Agnes Scott College
Between 96 and 97
Art Student, Atlanta University
Courtesy Atlanta University
Laboratory at the Municipal
Grady Hospital
Kenneth Rogers
Recreational Center for Enlisted
Men
Walter Sparks
Henrietta Egleston Hospital for
Children
Lane Brothers
Hillside Cottages
Kenneth Rogers
Marist College Cadets
Kenneth Rogers
Modeling Airplanes in Tech High
School Shops
Lane Brothers
THE ARTS
Julian Harris, Atlanta Sculptor,
at Work
Courtesy Julian Harris
"Katie Lou," by Ben Shute
Courtesy Ben Shute
"Magnolias and Mushrooms," by
Robert S. Rogers
Courtesy Robert S. Rogers
"The Breakfast," by Robert S.
Rogers
Courtesy Robert S. Rogers
Georgia Tech and Agnes Scott
Students in Gilbert and Sulli-
van's "H. M. S. Pinafore"
Courtesy Agnes Scott College
Atlanta Theater Guild Produc-
tion of "The Barker"
Courtesy Atlanta Theater
Guild
Big Bethel Choir
Kenneth Rogers
Between 126 and 127
"Our Town," Produced by At-
lanta University Summer Thea-
ter
Courtesy Atlanta University
Emory University Glee Club
Courtesy Emory University
Glee Club
Harmony Class at the Georgia
Conservatory of Music
Lane Brothers
Class, at the High Museum
School of Art
Kenneth Rogers
Statue of General John B. Gor-
don on the State Capitol Lawn
Lane Brothers
The Wren's Nest, Home of Joel
Chandler Harris
Lane Brothers
Literary Autographing Tea at
Department Store
Lane Brothers
ILLUSTRATIONS
Xlll
DOWNTOWN
State Capitol
Kenneth Rogers
Broad Street Is in the Midst of
the Crowded Business District
Maurice Russell
Miles of Railroad Tracks ' Run
Beneath the Viaducts of the
Business Section
Kenneth Rogers
Narrow Streets Form a Zigzag
Pattern Peachtree and Ivy
Streets
Maurice Russell
Atlanta During Civil War
Photo by U. S. Signal Corps
The City Hall Towers High and
Modern a Block from Old
Capitol Square
Lincoln High ton
Between 156 and 157
Business Offices Stay Open Long
After Dark
Kenneth Rogers
The Post Office Annex Shows
the Newer Architectural Trend
Kenneth Rogers
At Marietta and Forsyth Streets
Stands a Monument to Henry
W. Grady, Persuasive Advo-
cate of an Industrial "New
South"
Lane Brothers
Looking Toward Five Points
1867
Whitehall Street at Railroad
Tracks 1865
SPORTS AND RECREATION
Grant Park Lake
Maurice Russell
Swimming, Grant Park
Lane Brothers
Tennis, Piedmont Park
Lane Brothers
Golf, Brookhaven Country Club
Lane Brothers
Playground, Washington Park
Lane Brothers
Parade of the Old Guard
Lane Brothers
Baseball, Ponce de Leon Park
Kenneth Rogers
Football, Grant Field at Georgia
Tech
Kenneth Rogers
Between 186 and 187
Barbecue, Lakewood Park
Lane Brothers
Southeastern Fair, Lakewood
Park
Lane Brothers
Dancing, Rainbow Roof
Kenneth Rogers
Bowling in a Downtown Alley
Kenneth Rogers
Archery, Agnes Scott College
Courtesy Agnes Scott College
May Day at Washington Semi-
nary
Courtesy Washington Semi-
nary
AROUND ATLANTA
Dogwood Blossoms Atlanta's
Spring Snowfall
Courtesy Atlanta Journal
Stone Mountain
Kenneth Rogers
Mimosa Hall, Roswell
Courtesy Georgia Power
Company
The Chattahoochee River
Lane Brothers
Between 216 and 217
Covered Bridge at Soap Creek
Maurice Russell
East Lake
Kenneth Rogers
Back-Yard Garden, Decatur
Lane Brothers
Dairy Farm near Atlanta
Lane Brothers
Cyclorama Building
XIV
ILLUSTRATIONS
AROUND ATLANTA (Continued}
Decatur from Courthouse Square
Lane Brothers
Dress Parade Inspection at the
Georgia Military Academy,
College Park
Courtesy Georgia Military
Academy
Inspection at Fort McPherson
Kenneth Rogers
Atlanta Airport, Hapeville
Lane Brothers
RESIDENTIAL
The Edward Inman House, on
Andrews Drive, Is of the Geor-
gian Style with Egyptian In-
fluence Showing in the Two
Obelisks on the Lawn
Maurice Russell
The Hugh Nunnally House, on
Blackland Road, Is a Fine Ex-
ample of the Neoclassic Style
Maurice Russell
The John M. Ogden House,
Pace's Ferry Road, Shows a
Strong Norman Influence
Maurice Russell
The Abreu House, Pace's Ferry
Road, Is Notable for Its Box-
wood Bordered Walk Leading
to a Balconied Regency En-
trance
Lincoln Highton
All Saints Episcopal and Second-
Ponce De Leon Baptist (Spire
Above) Are Two of the Many
Churches of the Residential
Sections
Lane Brothers Maurice
Russell
The Older Peachtree Street Resi-
dences, Many Now Boarding
Houses, Show an Elaborate
Combination of Diverse Archi-
tectural Details
Maurice Russell
Between 234 and 235
The Home of Mrs. Samuel M.
Inman Is a Good Example of
the Richardsonian-Romanesque
Architecture
Lane Brothers
Still Older Houses Along Capitol
Avenue Show the Mansard
Roofs, Turrets, and Scrollwork
of the "Gingerbread Era"
Lane Brothers
Techwood Is One of Several
Well-Equipped Federal Hous-
ing Projects
Lane Brothers
The Modern Apartment House of
Functional Architecture and
With Penthouse Garden Is
Still Rare in Atlanta
Maurice Russell
A Large Cross Section of Atlanta
Lives in Two-Family Houses in
the Old Section near the Cap-
itol
Lane Brothers
Many Atlanta People Live in
Modern Subdivisions
Lane Brothers
Negro Families Live in Crowded
Sections Throughout the City
Lane Brothers
Negro Slum Areas Are Being
Replaced by Such Federal
Housing Projects as the Henry
Grady Homes
Lane Brothers
General Information
Information Service: Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of
Commerce Bldg., Pryor St. at Auburn Ave. ; Atlanta Motor Club
(AAA), Biltmore Hotel, 817 W. Peachtree St.; Dixie Motor Club,
309 Peachtree St., NE. ; Atlanta Convention and Visitors' Bureau,
Rhodes-Haverty Bldg., 134 Peachtree St., NW. ; Atlanta Historical
Society, Biltmore Hotel, 817 W. Peachtree St. For correct time call
WAlnut 8550.
Railroad Stations: Terminal Station, Mitchell and Spring Sts., SW.,
for Central of Georgia Ry., Atlanta & West Point R.R., Seaboard Air
Line Ry., and Southern Ry. ; Union Station, 2 Forsyth St., NW., for
Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast R.R., Louisville & Nashville R.R.,
Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Ry., and Georgia R.R. ; Peachtree
Station, 1688 Peachtree St., NW., for Southern Ry.
Bus Station: Union Terminal, 81 Cain St., NW., for Southeastern
Greyhound of Alabama, Southeastern Management Co., Atlantic Grey-
hound Corp., Teche Greyhound Lines, Southeastern Stages, Inc.,
Georgia Stages, Inc., Service Stages, Inc., Smoky Mountain Stages,
Inc., Southeastern Motor Lines, Dahlonega-Atlanta Bus Line, Neel
Gap Bus Line, Tennessee Coach Co., Suburban Coach Co., and In-
terurban Transit Lines.
Sightseeing Busses: Daily sightseeing tours from downtown hotels,
the Union Bus Terminal, and the Sightseeing Bus Stand, Peachtree and
Broad Sts., NW. Automobiles for hire and guides also available.
Airport: Atlanta Municipal Airport, 9.2 m. S. of city at Hapeville
on US 41, for Eastern and Delta Air Lines; special bus, fare 75^,
stops at hotels, Terminal Station, and downtown ticket offices of air
lines.
xv
XVI GENERAL INFORMATION
Taxis: 35^ for first 2 l / 2 miles for one to five passengers; 10^ for each
additional % mile; $2.50 an hour.
Streetcars and Local Busses: 10^; two tokens for 15^; shoppers'
busses limited to central business section, 5$.
Traffic Regulations: Speed limit 25 m.p.h. Right turn permitted
on red light after full stop; left turn on green light only. Signs by
traffic lights mark intersection where no left turns are permitted.
One-way streets marked by arrows. Signs indicate where parking is
permitted in downtown area; parking on right of street enforced even
in residential section.
Radio Stations: WSB (NBC red network, 750 kc.), Biltmore Hotel,
817 W. Peachtree St.; WGST (CBS, 920 kc.), Forsyth Bldg.,
Forsyth and Luckie Sts., NW.; WATL (Mutual, 1400 kc.), Henry
Grady Hotel, 210 Peachtree St., NW. ; WAGA (NBC blue network,
1480 kc.), Western Union Bldg., Marietta and Forsyth Sts., NW.
Theaters and Motion Picture Houses: Erlanger Theater, 583 Peach-
tree St., NE., for occasional Broadway successes on tour; Municipal
Auditorium-Armory, Courtland and Gilmer Sts., NE., for scheduled
concerts and operas; 48 motion picture houses, including 6 for Negroes.
Accommodations: About 90 hotels, including 10 for Negroes; many
tourist homes. Space permits listing only the larger and better-known
hotels. City Hotels: Ansley, 98 Forsyth St., NW. ; Atlanta Biltmore,
817 W. Peachtree St., NE. ; Atlantan, in Luckie St., NW.; Briar-
cliff, 1050 Ponce de Leon Ave., NE.; Byron, 552 W. Peachtree St.,
NW.; Clermont, 789 Ponce de Leon Ave., NE.; Cox-Carlton, 683
Peachtree St., NE. ; Georgian Terrace, 659 Peachtree St., NE. ; Hamp-
ton, 35 Houston .St., NE.; Henry Grady, 210 Peachtree St., NW.
Imperial, 355 Peachtree St., NE. ; Jefferson, 87 Pryor St., SW.
Kimball House, 33 Pryor St., SW. ; Marion, 67 Pryor St., NE.
Piedmont, 108 Peachtree St., NW.; Robert Fulton, 114 Luckie St.,
NW.; Tremont, 192 Mitchell St., SW.; Winecoff, 176 Peachtree St.,
NW.
Environs Hotels: Candler, 150 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur;
Colonial Terrace, 2140 Peachtree Rd., NW. ; Hangar, Municipal Air-
port, Hapeville.
Negro Hotels: Mack, 548 Bedford PL, NE.; Royal, 214 Auburn Ave.,
NE. ; Savoy, 239 Auburn Ave., NE.
GENERAL INFORMATION XV11
Restaurants: Arcade, 11012 Forsyth St., NW.; Brass Rail, 138
Peachtree St., NW.; Colonnade, 2415 Piedmont Rd., NE.; Ellen Rice
Tea Room, 63^ Poplar St., NW.; Frances Virginia Tea Room,
Collier Bldg., Peachtree and Ellis Sts., NE. ; Herren's, 84 Luckie St.,
NW.; Holsum Cafeteria, 181 Peachtree St., NE.; Majestic, 1026
Peachtree St., NE.; Peacock Alley, 1564 Peachtree St., NE.; Pig'n
Whistle, 293 Ponde de Leon Ave., NE., and 2143 Peachtree Rd., NW. ;
Rector's, 620 Peachtree St., NE.; S & W Cafeteria, 189 Peachtree St.,
NE.; Ship Ahoy, 95 Luckie St., NW.; Tavern Tea Room, 625-27
Peachtree St., NE.; Venable's, 73 Forsyth St., NW. (Space permits
listing only some of the better-known restaurants. All the larger hotels
have coffee shops and dining rooms, and there are modern restaurants
in all sections of the city.)
Dining and Dancing: Empire Room, Biltmore Hotel, 817 W. Peach-
tree St.; Herren's Evergreen Farm (open during summer only), US 23;
Paradise Room, Henry Grady Hotel, 210 Peachtree St., NW., floor
show; Rainbow Roof, Ansley Hotel, 98 Forsyth St., NW., floor show;
Wisteria Garden, 172^ Peachtree St., NW.
Baseball Games: Ponce de Leon Park, 650 Ponce de Leon Ave., NE.,
Southern League (Atlanta Crackers) ; Rose Bowl Field (Georgia
Tech), Fifth St., NE.; Hermance Stadium (Oglethorpe University),
Peachtree Rd., NE.
Football Games: Grant Field (Georgia Tech), North Ave. and
Techwood Dr., NW. ; Hermance Stadium (Oglethorpe University),
Peachtree Rd., NE. ; Ponce de Leon Park, 650 Ponce de Leon Ave.,
NE., for high school games.
Recreational Facilities
Amusement Park: Lakewood Park, Lakewood Ave., SE. (open
May i-Oct. 5; bowling alley and roller rink open year round),
370.9 acres; lake for boating, race track, midway, roller rink, bowling
alley, exhibition buildings for Southeastern Fair.
County Parks: Adams Park, Cascade Rd., SW., 168 acres; golf
course, swimming pool, lighted tennis courts, Softball diamond, play-
grounds, picnic grills, bridle paths, lake for fishing, community house
with branch library. Georgia Botanical Garden, Gordon Rd., SW.,
459 acres. North Fulton Park, Powers Ferry Rd., NW., 320 acres;
golf course, polo field, stables and bridle paths, tennis courts, swim-
ming pool, lake for canoeing and fishing, archery range, picnic grills
and shelters.
Municipal Parks: Cochran Park (Oakland City), Holderness St.,
SW. ; swimming pool, tennis courts, playgrounds. Grant Park, S.
Boulevard and Atlanta Ave., SE., 144 acres; swimming pool, lake
for boating, tennis courts, baseball and softball diamonds, pony ring,
playgrounds, picnic grounds, greenhouses, zoo, Cyclorama of the Battle
of Atlanta. Maddox Park, Bankhead Ave., NW. ; swimming pool,
tennis courts, playgrounds. Mozley Park, Mozley Dr., SW. ; swim-
ming pool, tennis courts, basketball courts, baseball and softball dia-
monds, playgrounds. Piedmont Park, Piedmont Ave. and I4th St.,
NE., 185 acres; golf course, swimming pool, lake stocked with fish,
tennis courts, baseball and softball diamonds, picnic grounds, pony
ring, playgrounds. Washington Park (Negro), Lena and Ollie Sts.,
NW. ; swimming pool, tennis courts, playgrounds, baseball and soft-
ball diamonds, picnic grounds.
Bowling: Blick's Bowling Center, top floor Belle Isle Garage, 20
Houston St., NE. Blick's Lucky Strike Bowling Alley, 671 Peach-
xix
XX RECREATIONAL FACILITIES
tree St., NE. Speedway Bowling Alley, 693 Marietta St., NW.
(Only centrally located alleys listed.)
Golf: Adams Park Golf Course (county-operated), Cascade Rd.,
SW., 1 8 holes. Asa G. Candler Park Golf Course (city-operated),
McLendon Ave. at Mason Ave., NE., 9 holes. Black Rock Club,
Campbellton Rd., SW., 18 holes. Bobby Jones Golf Course (city-
operated), Memorial Dr., NW., 18 holes. College Park Golf Course,
W. Harvard Ave., College Park, 9 holes. Dixie Lakes Golf Course
(county-operated), 16 m. SW. on US 29, 9 holes. Forrest. Hills Golf
Course, Columbia Dr., Decatur, 9 holes. James L. Key Golf Course
(city-operated), Kalb St., SE., 9 holes. John A. White Golf Course
(city-operated), Huff Rd. at Cascade Ave., SW., 9 holes. North
Fulton Park Golf Course (county-operated), Powers Ferry Rd., NW.,
1 8 holes. Piedmont Park Golf Course (city-operated), Boulevard at
Tenth St., NE., 9 holes. New Lincoln Golf Course (Negro), Simpson
and Hightower Rds., NW., 9 holes.
Riding: Adams Park, Cascade Rd., SW. North Fulton Park, Powers
Ferry Rd., NW. Pine Hill Stables, W. Wieuca Rd., NW. Pinetop
Stables, W. Wieuca Rd., NW. Roxboro Riding Club, Powers Ferry
Rd., NW. Simmons Riding Academy, Candler Rd., NE.
Roller Skating: Atlanta Skating Casino, 31 North Ave., NE. Lake-
wood Roller Rink, Inc., Lakewood Park, Lakewood Ave., SE. Roller-
drome, 634 Penn Ave., NE.
Swimming: Pools in all Municipal Parks and County Parks. Black
Rock Club, Campbellton Rd., SW. Briarcliff Gardens, 1260 Briar-
cliff Rd., NE. Mooney's Lake, Morosgo Dr., NE. Venetian Athletic
Club, Nelson's Ferry Rd., Decatur. YMCA, 145 Luckie St., NW.
YWCA, 37 Auburn Ave., NE. YMCA (Negro), 22 Butler St., NE.
Tennis: See Municipal Parks and County Parks.
Churches
(Only the larger churches of most denominations are listed.)
Assembly of God: Tabernacle, 311 Capitol Ave., SE.
Baptist: Druid Hills, 1085 Ponce de Leon Ave., NE. ; First, 754
Peachtree St., NE.; Second-Ponce de Leon, 2715 Peachtree Rd., NE.;
Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St., NW.
Christian and Missionary Alliance: Atlanta Gospel Tabernacle, 850
Euclid Ave., NE.
Church of Christ: Moreland Avenue, 671 Moreland Ave., SE.; West
End, 580 Hopkins St., SW.
Church of Christ, Scientist: First, 1235 Peachtree St., NE.
Church of God: Hemphill Avenue, 869 Hemphill Ave., NW.
Congregational: Central, 180 Ponce de Leon Ave., NE.
Disciples of Christ: First Christian, 2OO Pryor St., SW.; Peachtree
Christian, 1580 Peachtree St., NW.
Episcopal: All Saints', 634 West Peachtree St., NW.; Cathedral *of
St. Philip, 2744 Peachtree Rd., NE.; St. Luke's 435 Peachtree St.,
NE.
Evangelical and Reformed: St. John's, 836 Euclid Ave., NE.
Evangelical Lutheran: Grace, 914 Cherokee Ave., SE.
Foursquare Gospel: Foursquare Gospel Church, 31 Trinity Ave., SW.
xxi
XX11 CHURCHES
Jewish: Congregation Ahavath Achim, 346 Washington St., SW. ;
Temple, 1589 Peachtree, NW.
Lutheran: United Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, 731 Peachtree
St., NE.
Methodist: Druid Hills, 675 Seminole Ave., NE.; First, 360 Peach-
tree St., NE.; Glenn Memorial, 1976 North Decatur Rd., NE.; St.
Mark's, 781 Peachtree St., NE.; Trinity, 565 Washington St., SW.;
Wesley Memorial, 63 Auburn Ave., NE.
Mormon: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 605 Boule-
vard, NE.
Nazarene: First, 123 Moreland Ave., SE.
Orthodox: Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, 522 Pryor
St., SW.; Syrian, 233 Central Place, SE.
Pentecostal: Apostolic Assembly Pentecostal Tabernacle, 476 Wash-
ington St., SW.
Presbyterian: Central, 201 Washington St., SW.; Druid Hills, 1026
Ponce de Leon Ave., NE.; First, 1328 Peachtree St., NE.; North
Avenue, 607 Peachtree St., NE.; Westminster, 493 Ponce de Leon
Ave., NE.
Primitive Baptist: Bethany, 171 Moreland Ave., SE.
Roman Catholic: Church of Christ the King, 2699 Peachtree Rd.,
NE. ; Immaculate Conception, 152 Central Ave., SW. ; Sacred Heart,
335 Ivy St., NE.
Salvation Army: Temple Corps, 54 Ellis St., NE.
Seventh-day Adventist: Beverly Road Church, Beverly and Peachtree
Rds., NE.
Unitarian-Universalist : Unitarian-Universalist Church, 669 West
Peachtree St., NE.
CHURCHES XX111
NEGRO CHURCHES
Baptist: Friendship, 435 Mitchell St., SW. ; Liberty, 395 Chamber-
lain St., SE.; Wheat Street, 359 Auburn Ave., NE.
Congregational: First, 104 Houston St., NE.; Rush Memorial, 150
Chestnut St., SW.
Episcopal: St. Paul's, 135 Ashby St., NW.
Methodist: Big Bethel, 220 Auburn Ave., NE. ; St. Paul's, 453 Mc-
Daniel St., SW.; Warren Memorial, 741 Greensferry Ave., SW.
Presbyterian: Radcliffe Memorial, 297 Houston St., NE.
Roman Catholic: Our Lady of Lourdes, 29 Boulevard, NE.
Seventh-day Adventist: Second, 105 Ashby St., SW.
Calendar of Annual Events
No fixed date
No fixed date
No fixed date
No fixed date
No fixed date
No fixed date
No fixed date (Biennial)
Easter
No fixed date
Twenty-sixth
Twenty-eighth
Eighth through tenth
No fixed date
FEBRUARY
Southeastern Golden Gloves Boxing
Tournament.
MacDowell Festival.
MARCH
Georgia Federation of Music Clubs
Contest.
APRIL
Atlanta Garden Club Association
Flower Show.
Opening Southern Baseball Association
Season.
Grand Opera Season.
Young Artists' and Student Musicians'
Contest.
Interdenominational Sunrise Service.
Dogwood Festival and Garden Tours.
Confederate Memorial Day Exercises.
Reunion of Irish Horse Traders.
MAY
Horse Show.
Music Week.
XXVI
No fixed date
No fixed date
Fourth
Week of Fourth
No fixed date
Second Friday
Labor Day
No fixed date
No fixed date
First Week
Second Week
No fixed date
No fixed date
Ninth
No fixed date
CALENDAR OF ANNUAL EVENTS
State Marble Tournament.
Uncle Remus May Festival.
JULY
Automobile Races at Lakewood.
Southeastern Chess Tournament.
Soap Box Derby.
AUGUST
Sacred Harp Singers' Southeastern
Convention.
SEPTEMBER
Automobile Races at Lakewood.
Georgia Old Time Fiddlers' Associa-
tion Convention.
Dog Show.
OCTOBER
Southeastern Fair.
Opening Georgia Tech Football Season.
DeKalb County Harvest Festival.
Opening of All-Star Concert Series.
NOVEMBER
Cat Show.
DECEMBER
Joel Chandler Harris Memorial Ser-
vice.
Roller Derby.
Part One
THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Atlanta
A City of the Modern South
M
ONE of the railway approaches to
Atlanta gives a just introduction to the city. A newcomer entering the
outskirts can scarcely believe that a thriving business section and hand-
some residences lie somewhere beyond the barricade of factories and
grimy warehouses. Yet in a moment the downtown skyline towers
suddenly in the smoky heavens, and in another half hour, perhaps, he
is being driven past estates as imposing as any in the modern South.
On the other hand, he could live here for months and see nothing more
inspiring than rows of houses indistinguishable from those of any other
city. He may see avenues of mansions or dreary back streets, pleasant
cottages or tumbledown Negro shanties. Wealth and poverty, beauty
and drabness Atlanta has them all.
The newcomer may believe he has caught its intrinsic spirit when he
turns east from the Terminal Station into the bustling downtown
section built about the flagpole at Five Points and cut in half by Peach-
tree Street, Atlanta's principal thoroughfare. Here is a city of an-
gular corners, of narrow, irregular streets crowded with traffic, of
smoke, of hurrying figures, of high buildings forming a jagged and
beautiful skyline, of darkly shadowed entrances and towers catching
the sun, of soot-blackened granite and shining plate glass, of old walls
crumbling while, to the clatter of riveters, new walls spring up toward
the sky.
Atlanta has almost everything except age. Only a century has
passed since the first railroad builders dug and hammered the town
into being, and through its years of tumultuous history it has grown
into a city too rapidly to look well to its monuments. In order to
find the landmarks of Atlanta's earliest history, it is necessary to go
down below the downtown streets into a dark underground, eternally
roaring with the noise of the railroad trains that gave birth to the
settlement. Here, encased in a protecting fence of crossties, stands the
"zero milepost," set up in 1842 to mark the eastern terminus of
the Western & Atlantic Railroad. In this region the pioneers cleared
4 ATLANTA
the brush and built rough shanties. Now the forest paths have been
hidden by cobblestones and steel rails gleaming in every direction, and
the five viaducts overhead hum with the echo of passing trains. Under
the sheds passengers get on and off trains to an intermittent accompani-
ment of other noises, the thud of mail sacks being thrown to the plat-
form, the creak of wheels as the baggage carts are pushed by men in
overalls, and the trainmen's recurrent call of "All aboard!"
Up to the level of Peachtree Street again and east of Five Points
is another section that is old for this vigorous and youthful city. This
area, encircling the Capitol for several blocks, was the heart of fashion-
able Atlanta until the middle i88o's when commerce broke into the
lines of handsome Victorian dwellings. These houses, looming spacious
behind their green lawns, were mostly erected after the Greek Revival
period and they bore the more romantic ornamentation of a later day:
ironwork, cupolas, bay windows, and turrets with pointed roofs. Many
of these still survive, but shabbily as cheap lodging houses. Neverthe-
less, the neighborhood about Capitol Square still has a measure of its
old dignity because of many large trees and some of the older churches
that stoutly hold their ground. Here also are some of the older
synagogues, and occasionally a rabbi, bearded, a black skull-cap set
upon his gray locks, walks by with gravely folded hands. The kosher
markets along Washington Street and Capitol Avenue are thronged
with Jewish housewives in aprons and shawls, dark faces glowing and
hands gesturing volubly as they fill their baskets with fish, chickens,
and vegetables. Scarcely less animated are the Greek peddlers with
their pushcarts heaped with peanuts or rich fruits, laughing and bicker-
ing along the pavements. Despite the imposing mass of the Capitol
and the tanks and smokestacks of factories farther eastward, this sec-
tion belongs neither to the law-maker nor the industrialist. It belongs
rather to the little foreign groups that have found their way to this
city Greek, Syrian, and Italian.
Some of the residential sections have an air that is completely un-
expected. Only a few minutes' drive from the Terminal Station is
West End, whose oak-shaded sidewalks and roomy, balustraded frame
houses suggest a small Southern town of the turn of the century. Much
of this atmosphere of neighborly gossip and front porch rockers may
be caught in other suburbs or near-by towns, College Park, Hapeville,
or Decatur. Nearer the hub of the city this spirit may seem to be
dead, but sometimes it has only gone from the front porch to the
garden in the back yard. In every part of the city the garden is an
important element of family life, for Atlanta has many days of warmth
and sunshine. Although rainfall is abundant, there is no long rainy
season, and even the cold snaps of winter are varied by many mild
days.
A CITY OF THE MODERN SOUTH 5
Druid Hills, which in spring is crowded with motorists viewing its
many white-blossoming dogwood trees, is handsome all the year with
shrubbery, sloping lawns, terraced formal gardens, and fine houses,
many of which are roofed with red or green tiles. Still more luxurious
estates are found in the area northwest of Peachtree Street near Buck-
head; few cities can show more sumptuous homes than some of those
along Pace's Ferry Road or in the newer Blackland and Tuxedo Park
developments. Less pretentious but very attractive and smartly kept
dwellings are found in such subdivisions as Garden Hills or Morning-
side, or the more centrally located Ansley Park, a residential labyrinth
of streets intricately curving and intersecting.
Despite outward appearances, the many quarters of the city are
neither isolated from nor independent of each other. Such busy little
commercial centers as those around Tenth Street, Buckhead, or Little
Five Points may seem to offer everything the housewife could need,
but as likely as not she will choose to do her shopping farther from
her home. Even the manufacturing town of East Point or the in-
dustrial villages of Scottdale or the Exposition Mills are not self-
sufficing units but integral parts of the metropolitan area.
Atlanta's large Negro population, though segregated, is scattered
all over town in large or small pockets. The most populous business
thoroughfare is Decatur Street, running eastward between rows of
pawnshops with crowded windows, restaurants emitting the sharp smell
of frying fish, and clothing stores with suits and overcoats hung over
ropes along the pavements. Here the scene is full of animation and
there is an eternal symphony of gay noises the crack of rifles in the
shooting galleries, the wooden clatter of balls in the poolrooms, the
thin, fast music of sidewalk phonographs, and always the voices, loud
but musical.
Auburn Avenue is a far quieter Negro business district of decorous
hotels and office buildings. There are evidences of still greater re-
finement along Ashby Street and in the vicinity of Atlanta University,
where many of the more prosperous Negroes maintain attractive homes.
Atlanta is the world's largest center for Negro education, and the
colleges are constantly taking a more important place in municipal life.
Perhaps no other Southern city shows so great a divergence, not only
economic but educational and social, in the condition of its Negro
citizens. The university set and their friends maintain a good living
standard for themselves and work toward the improvement of their
race. But the poorer Negroes live squalidly along their own streets
which appear abruptly in all parts of the city; here the ramshackle
wooden shanties and rooming houses are crowded with many families
and the streets are noisy with the cries of little ragged brown children.
A city so large, so scattered, and so diverse in its many components
6 ATLANTA
lends itself only with difficulty to general statement. A few such com-
ments can be made, of course, but they must be advanced cautiously
and with due regard for dissimilar points of view. For example,
national publications have frequently singled out Atlanta women for
their beauty and smart clothes, but other observers flatly declare that
the girls here are no prettier than American girls anywhere. The
question of amusements is another case in point. Many a traveling
salesman stranded here without acquaintances complains that there are
no night clubs, no regular theatrical performances, and no outstanding
restaurants, and that there is nothing to do but go to one motion
picture after another. Yet girls of debutante age visiting here during
the gay winter season declare that 24 hours are not enough for all
the luncheons, dinners, teas, and dances that are showered down so
lavishly. There is always an abundance of club life for both the
dancers and the golf and tennis crowd. In a few sets there is more
entertaining in the club than in the home, but most Atlanta hostesses
come into their own most truly and graciously in their own households
and at their own tables. There is comparatively little entertaining at
the hotels, which are essentially commercial.
Indeed, one of the few just generalizations that can be made is
that Atlanta is a predominantly commercial city. Although it is the
State capital, it is too large to be dominated by legislative and judicial
functions. It is the same with educational affairs: Georgia Tech,
Emory, Oglethorpe, Agnes Scott, and Atlanta University are exceed-
ingly important to several large groups without making Atlanta a
college town. Nor does industry predominate, although Atlanta wealth
is derived from sources ranging from cotton goods to bottled drinks.
It is business that takes first place.
Any newcomer feels this enveloping importance of commerce as
soon as he enters a large office in the Hurt Building, the Candler Build-
ing, the William-Oliver Building, or any of the national banks. He
becomes aware of an electric quickness in the tempo; officials and
clerks, though cordial, are not inclined to waste time. There is little
of the leisurely personal touch that is characteristic of business con-
ferences in smaller Southern communities. Atlanta offices are con-
ducted with the method and manner of the metropolitan East. It is
the same with the shops. Stock, equipment, and decorations are smartly
modern, and buying is brisk.
Since Atlanta is the Southeastern center for distribution offices of
large national concerns, there is a constantly shifting population of
salesmen and district managers. These men and their families, settling
briefly in hotels and apartment houses, seldom stay long enough to be-
come a permanent part of the city. Atlanta businessmen still form
the essential nucleus. Many of the names that were prominent in the
A CITY OF THE MODERN SOUTH 7
commercial life of pioneer Atlanta are still prominent, even though the
stores and offices that bear them are frequently owned by New York
firms. Although Atlanta's geographical situation is deep in the South,
busy train and airplane service ties it closely to the big cities of the
Eastern Seaboard and draws it into the orbit of national commerce.
From its earliest settlement, this community has pushed its develop-
ment by vigorous enterprise. Not aristocratic cotton planters but
energetic railroad men gave it life, and it was this spirit of dogged
survival that brought recovery and increased power after the town
had been burned by General Sherman's destroying forces. And this
spirit still animates Atlanta.
There is an abundant enthusiasm for music and the other arts;
there is plenty of graciousness and gentility. But in the final analysis
these qualities are less salient than those that twentieth-century lan-
guage designates as drive or punch. Atlanta is alert and aggressive
a true city of the Modern South.
History
A
ATLANTA'S early history resounds with
the ring of iron spikes driven against shining new rails, the clang of
locomotive bells and the hoarse voices of whistles, the clattering of
wagons over rutted roads, the bawling of teamsters and laborers, and
the carousing of gamblers, with an occasional shot sharpening the
cacophony. Only a few miles removed from cultured plantation life,
this frontier town was settled around a railroad terminus that was
conceived in economic stress.
After Eli Whitney's invention of the gin in 1793, there was an
increasing tendency among Southern planters to sacrifice food crops
and livestock to the cultivation of cotton. Cotton brought money,
whereas food could be bought; but transportation of Western meat
and grain to Georgia's principal cotton section, necessitating travel
over several different water routes and hauling over bad roads, was
slow and expensive. River traffic was uncertain since increasing settle-
ment and cultivation along the banks had clogged the channels, and land
travel was impossible when heavy rains slimed the red-clay roads. The
conviction grew that railroads were the only solution to the problem,
and in 1826 Hamilton Fulton, State chief engineer, and Wilson
Lumpkin went so far as to survey a route from the Tennessee River
to the South Atlantic seaboard. Finally in December 1836, the State
legislature created the Western & Atlantic Railroad to run from the
Tennessee River to the southeastern bank of the Chattahoochee River
and continue to "some point," defined in an amendment the next year,
"not exceeding eight miles, as shall be most eligible for the running
of branch roads to Athens, Madison, Milledgeville, Forsyth, and
Columbus."
Growth of the little settlement around the terminus was sure to
come, for it formed a gateway to the hardly accessible inlands on the
south and an egress for commerce to the north and west. Georgians
on the whole, however, had little faith in its development. Even as
late as 1847, just before it became the City of Atlanta, the townspeople
HISTORY 9
themselves were dubious of its future. At that time Colonel Stephen
H. Long, chief engineer of the State railway, predicted that after
completion of the railroads the town would dwindle to little more
than a crossroads store and a blacksmith shop.
There are few records concerning the site before transportation
to the cotton belt became of vital concern. It is known that during the
Revolution there was a Cherokee Indian town, The Standing Peach-
tree, on the south bank of the Chattahoochee River approximately
seven miles from the present Five Points, and it was reported that the
remaining land south of the river had been won, by the Creeks from
the Cherokees in a succession of ball games. According to Revolu-
tionary War records of August I, 1782, a secret agent was commis-
sioned to investigate rumors of friction between these two tribes near
the town. It is from The Standing Peachtree that Peachtree Creek
and Atlanta's famous Peachtree Street get their names. One version
of the name's origin states that the Indians met under a "pitch tree"
at the spot for games and conferences and used pitch from the tree to
caulk their canoes; another declares that it was derived from a large
peach tree growing on a near-by Indian mound (near the present
pumping station). In 1813, during the Creek War, Lieutenant George
R. Gilmer with 22 white recruits was sent to establish a fort near the
site, which, by his own statement, was between 30 and 40 miles beyond
the frontiers of the State. After he left, an important Indian trading
post was established at the spot, which was crisscrossed by numerous
Indian trails. In 1821 the legislature authorized that rentals of land
in Fayette County be paid at The Standing Peachtree, and the earliest
postal records indicate that the place was a post office in 1826. The
first ferryman on the Chattahoochee River, J.M.C. Montgomery, was
postmaster.
According to Henry Stringfellow, who came astride an Indian
pony from Alabama over the Etowah Trail, the present Alabama
Street was a primitive footpath in 1820. Scattered over the region
were small corn patches, the only agricultural efforts of the Indians,
who subsisted principally by fishing in the Chattahoochee and hunting
in the canebrakes along its banks and in the near-by "jungles." For
four years Stringfellow lived among the Indians. Here he joined in
a green corn dance held upon the return of a hunting party, and on
the footpath he witnessed an internecine battle between factions of
the Creeks, who had split after the signing of the Treaty of 1821,
in which the section was ceded to the Federal Government.
Six miles east of the spot a white settlement was incorporated in
1823 as the town of Decatur and seat of the year-old DeKalb County.
Between that time and 1836, Charner Humphries established his
Whitehall Tavern two and a half miles southwest of Five Points.
IO ATLANTA
The inn was the only overnight accommodation for travelers from
south Georgia to Tennessee and was a voting precinct as well. Near
the inn musters of the DeKalb County militia districts were held,
followed by considerable merrymaking. The road to Whitehall was
later straightened and became Whitehall Street.
Although three public roads ran through the site of the future
railroad terminus, the immediate vicinity was a wilderness and there
were few travelers other than Indians going on hunting expeditions
or passing through to the trading post at The Standing Peachtree.
When "General" Abbott Hall Brisbane, assistant surveyor to Colonel
Long, came to the site in 1837, tne only inhabitant he found was
Hardy Ivy, who was the first settler in the section that is now down-
town Atlanta. Ivy, a farmer, had contracted to pay "in produce
as he could spare it" for 200 acres of land in Canebrake, as the wooded
section was then known. He had erected his hewn-log cabin near the
present corner of Ivy Street and Auburn Avenue, and his bones, it is
said, lie beneath the hard-packed ground of a parking lot just west
of Ivy Street.
In the summer or early fall of 1837 Brisbane drove the stake, prob-
ably under the present Broad Street viaduct, marking the southeastern
terminus of the projected railroad. Actual construction of the road
was not begun until 1838, but a few settlers moved immediately to
the designated terminus in order to take advantage of the potential
commercial and land benefits. Interest aroused in the site by the
legislative act flagged from time to time as the exhaustion of funds
for the Western & Atlantic deterred progress on the road, and for
several years the population fluctuated markedly. By the fall of 1839
there were in the village only a few impoverished families living in
dirt-floored shanties, an old woman and her daughter, and John
Thrasher, the village's first merchant and the grading contractor for
the Monroe Railroad (Macon & Western) branch. Affected by the
Nation-wide depression, the stock of that road dropped to ten cents
on the dollar. "Cousin John" Thrasher, who was paid partly in the
stock for work on the Monroe embankment (near the present Terminal
Station), took his holding to McDonough and traded it for a gold
watch, a carriage, and merchandise for his commissary. In July 1841,
after selling his land for four dollars an acre, he abandoned his store
and disgustedly shook the red dust of the terminus from his high-heeled
boots for, as he thought, all time.
The prospect of completion of the Western & Atlantic line to
Marietta, however, apparently inspired the sale of real estate at a
public auction in 1842. On Christmas eve the engine Florida, brought
the 65 miles from Madison on a i6-mule-drawn wagon, was set up
and started near the Whitehall Street crossing on its trip over the
HISTORY II
virgin track. An excited crowd of 500 from Decatur and the sur-
rounding section gathered in the village, which now consisted of about
6 houses huddled at the present site of Five Points, and cheered the
train on its way to Marietta, 22 miles distant.
After completion of the track to Marietta, some of the settlers
who had moved away returned and the new ones began moving in.
This renewal of interest seemed unjustified in 1843 when growth of
the town was halted again by suspension of work on the Western &
Atlantic because of financial difficulties that led to an unsuccessful at-
tempt to sell the road for $1,000,000. For some months into 1844
the population consisted chiefly of unemployed railroad hands, many
of whom whiled away their time drinking and gambling.
Despite such hindrances to development, on December 23, 1843,
the State legislature chartered the town under the name of Marthas-
ville in honor of the daughter of ex-Governor Wilson Lumpkin, who
earlier had done much to further State interest in railroads. Under
the charter a five-man board of commissioners governed the town.
There were then in Marthasville two stores, the Western &
Atlantic Railroad office (which also housed the engineers), a hotel,
and approximately a dozen dwellings. The hotel had been literally
moved into the settlement the previous year from Boltonville across
the river on two flat cars drawn by a slowly moving locomotive. About
fifteen acres had been cleared, including five that had been given to
the state for the railroad yards. There were four highways meeting
at the site of Five Points, Whitehall-Peachtree and Marietta-Decatur
Roads, of which perhaps Marietta was the most thickly settled. The
latter part of 1844 brought the establishment of a tread sawmill and
several stores. In 1845 the town built its first lockup on Pryor Street
near Alabama Street. It was a one-room structure twelve feet square
on the outside, with walls three logs thick, and the key that fitted the
enormous lock was eight inches long and weighed a quarter of a
pound. But the lack of foundations enabled prisoners to burrow their
way out or tip over the structure and thus make their escape. In
the triangle near the present junction of Houston and Pryor Streets
a small building was erected by private subscriptions to be used as
school, church, and Sunday school. Such activity and a gradual in-
crease in population inspired the Reverend Joseph Baker to undertake
the publication of a weekly newspaper, the Luminary. It was un-
popular, however, because of its emphasis on spiritual rather than
topical affairs.
The same year the board of commissioners appealed to the legisla-
ture for a city charter to change the name to Atlanta and provide for
a surveyed street system. Because many of the townspeople opposed
the change on the grounds that it would increase taxes, the charter was
12 ATLANTA
not granted, but an act was passed in December changing the name of
the town to Atlanta and making it headquarters for the voting precinct
that had been at the Whitehall Tavern. Suggestion of the name is
generally credited to J. Edgar Thomson, then chief engineer of the
Georgia Railroad. His ingenious derivation was ". . . the terminus
of the Western & Atlantic Railroad masculine Atlantic, feminine
Atlanta." With no systematic layout of the streets, the townspeople
continued to build haphazardly along the cowpaths and in whatever
manner suited their personal whims. When the charter was finally
granted, it was too late to straighten the streets already lined with
buildings.
Impetus to growth of the town had been given by the arrival, on
September 15, of the first through train over the newly completed
branch of the Georgia Railroad from Madison, opening the market
to Augusta. In 1846 the Macon & Western branch opened transpor-
tation between Macon and Atlanta. The town now had three rail-
roads terminating at the State Square, which was the five acres of
Land Lot 77 given to the State by Samuel Mitchell, of Zebulon, for
railroad shops. The land around the square had been divided by
Mitchell into 17 town lots, most of which had been sold by the first
of the year. In April he had deeded to the Macon & Western for a
station site a block adjoining the State Square and bounded by Alabama,
Whitehall, Pryor, and the tracks. Soon afterward his remaining land
was surveyed and subdivided into blocks with intervening streets, which
were given to the city. Three adjacent tracts, Land Lots 51, 52, and
78, were similarly developed by their owners.
Active real estate development stimulated growth in other lines.
Two short-lived newspapers began publication in that year; and in the
one following two schools were opened, making a total of four in
operation. At this time, when the estimated population was 300, the
town was extended banking facilities by the Georgia Railroad agent
to sell exchange on Augusta, Atlanta's chief market. E.Y. Clarke, an
early historian, says that the year 1847 saw tne erection of a block
of brick buildings and cites among "other evidences of coming municipal
greatness" the razor strap man who daily perched upon a stump near
the corner of Whitehall and Alabama Streets and hawked his wares to
passers-by. So voluminous was the cotton trade at this time that it
was often impossible to weigh all the staple on the day it was brought
in. Long lines of cotton-loaded wagons drawn by oxen and four-
and six-mule teams lumbered daily into the town and departed filled
with commodities of the Atlanta merchants.
Government by the commissioners had been merely nominal, and
the rough elements of the population had been quick to take advantage.
Any attempt of the board to collect a tax or enforce a law had been
HISTORY 13
occasion for derisive laughter. A large part of the citizenry was com-
posed of railroad laborers and floaters who violently opposed all
measures of municipal law. These people lived in two villages on
the outskirts of the city, Snake Nation and Slab Town, the latter
so named because its impoverished inhabitants constructed their huts
of slabs salvaged from the near-by crosstie sawmill. A third dis-
reputable section, Murrell's Row, just off Decatur Street, was named
for a bandit who roved the Southern States. Here laws were ignored,
cockfights were held in the back yards, gambling went on day and
night ; shouting, loud quarreling, and shooting often shattered the quiet
of the nights, and respectable citizens were afraid to venture near the
spot after dark.
The charter of the City of Atlanta, as granted by the legislature
on December 29, 1847, provided for government by a mayor and six
councilmen. The first election, in which all 215 voters of the town's
estimated population of 500 participated, was held on Kile's corner
exactly one month later. The new city government made an effort
to curb the rampant lawlessness. During the first two months numer-
ous disorderly conduct cases were tried in the mayor's court and fines
imposed for these and other infractions of the law, such as draying
without licenses and shooting within the city limits. Laws were passed
prohibiting the transaction of business on Sunday. To prevent disease
threatened by the low living standards of most of the inhabitants, a
board of health was appointed during the summer. The active city
council in June decided on regular semimonthly meetings and special
meetings as necessary. Since there was no permanent gathering place,
the Committee on Horse Racks was made responsible for setting up
the bell before each session at the site selected so that the councilmen
might locate the meeting place by following its sound. This duty
eventually devolved upon the marshal and deputy marshal, who in
the early fall were each fined five dollars for failure to move the
bell. In November the council was forced to dismiss the city clerk
for refusal to report the receipts of his office. So strenuous were the
efforts to enforce the laws that even Mayor Moses W. Formwalt had
a disorderly conduct case lodged against him, presumably because of
his saloon which was popular with rough characters.
With improved civic conditions and a constantly increasing popula-
tion, the church people, who attended nonsectarian services in the
"triangle" building, felt the need for organization of their own denomi-
national groups. Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and
Catholic churches were organized in 1848, and all except the Presby-
terians erected their buildings in that year and the one following. The
Presbyterians, under the leadership of Dr. J.S. Wilson, who had
14 ATLANTA
served as minister in the triangle church since its erection in 1845,
continued for a time to hold their services there.
Supported by church circles as the candidate most likely to work
beneficial reforms, Dr. B.F. Bomar was elected mayor in 1849. Bomar's
administration levied a property tax of three-tenths of one per cent
and, in line with the precedent set by Formwalt, deposited fines for
disorderly conduct and other violations in the city treasury. Never-
theless in April of that year, because of irregular tax receipts, the
city was compelled to float a $500 bond issue, its first, to cover operat-
ing expenses. A petition had been made for the straightening of
Whitehall Street and, for the sake of economy, Bomar sentenced city
prisoners to dig up stumps on the street, the number in proportion
to the seriousness of the offense. A 2O-foot plank road was con-
structed on a portion of the street, and plank sidewalks, 8 feet wide,
were built as they could be afforded. A temporary hospital was estab-
lished, and the Atlanta Intelligencer, the first Atlanta paper to attain
any degree of permanency, began publication. In this year also the
Western & Atlantic Railroad was completed to Chattanooga,
Tennessee, affording the growing city a wider market.
Although to the orderly element of the populace Formwalt's ad-
ministration had seemed inadequate, it probably had accomplished all
that was possible in that short period after 12 years of almost no
municipal discipline. The next two administrations introduced no
new reforms calculated to show quick results. The 1850 council did,
presumably in desperation, require that each person obtaining a busi-
ness license post a bond of $200 as a guaranty that no violation of city
ordinances would be tolerated on the premises. This council also
built a new calaboose, larger and stronger than the first but still too
small; in order to imprison new offenders, those who had been con-
fined for the longest period of time were taken out, given a strapping,
and released. But these elementary measures could not alter Atlanta's
reputation as a wide-open frontier town, where there was said to be
one saloon for approximately every 50 inhabitants. Desirable potential
settlers were frightened away, and many inhabitants threatened to
move unless drastic changes were effected.
Late in 1850 the conservative citizens took a more vigorous stand
and formed themselves into the Moral, or Orderly, Party, receiving the
full support of the Atlanta Intelligencer. The opposing group, of
which the gamblers and drinking faction were members, was called
the Rowdy, or Disorderly, Party. After a lively fight the Moral
Party won the election, and the new mayor, Jonathan Norcross, im-
mediately began to wage an intensive campaign against crime and
lawlessness.
In defiance, the Rowdy Party staged an attempt at a "reign of
HISTORY 15
terror." One member, when arraigned before the mayor and council
for disorderly conduct, refused to make any defense but whipped out
a long knife and brandished it threateningly. The sheriff struck down
the knife with his walking stick, but in the melee that followed the
prisoner escaped. Two nights later the Rowdy Party placed a cannon
loaded with dirt and powder in front of Norcross' store on Peachtree
Street and warned the mayor to resign or have his store blown up.
The mayor assembled a volunteer police force of 100 armed men
which surrounded the party headquarters on Murrell's Row about mid-
night and, breaking in, arrested 20 of the men. The leaders were
locked in the calaboose and released later only upon their promise to
leave town. A group of the volunteer police later raided Snake Nation
and Slab Town, ran the inhabitants from their homes, crashed in walls,
and burned some of the shacks. Prostitutes were scuttled out of the
vicinity in wagons and warned never to return.
Although the mass criminal element had been routed, for the next
ten years the city officials were deluged by complaints of citizens against
their neighbors. Council proceedings were filled with such items as
that of December 1857, "Hogpens still giving trouble," and of July 23,
1858, when council was petitioned to require the "owners of cows and
cattle to have the same Stabled at night. As there are many of the
Citizens of the City who are greatly annoyed by Cows lying around
their gates and Lots. . . ." The marshal was harried by the problem
of keeping the streets cleared of the bodies of hogs killed by the heavy
wagon traffic. Young rowdies rolled barrels containing squealing pigs
down the Alabama Street hill and, when the marshal rode up to stop
them, tied firecrackers to his horse's tail. Brothels were declared
a nuisance and a fine of $50 was set. Hotel owners were fined for
throwing garbage into the streets, and laws were passed against the
blocking of sidewalk traffic in front of Whitehall Street stores during
auctions. But little heed was paid to these laws.
As late as 1850 the schools had met with little success and many
of the early teachers had moved away. Since only a few of the citizens
were slaveholders, the children were often kept at home to help with
the chores about the gardens and livestock. In 1851, however, several
teachers felt that times were propitious for the opening of more schools
and in that year several schools and academies, one high school, and a
music school were opened. In 1853 the first free school, financed from
the State poor school fund, was opened, and in 1858 an ill-starred
movement for a city public school was begun.
The town was now more than four times the size of Decatur,
and a movement was initiated to make Atlanta a county seat. Forth-
with in 1853 the legislature created from half the DeKalb County
territory the County of Fulton, named presumably for Hamilton
l6 ATLANTA
Fulton. At about this time the ambitious citizenry also made an un-
successful attempt to have the State capital transferred to Atlanta,
Mayor John F. Mims resigning in order to lead the campaign.
Early settlement had been made to the north of the tracks and some
houses were being built along Peachtree Street, -but expansion was
chiefly to the south. Business houses were concentrated along White-
hall and Alabama Streets, Market (Broad) Street was the center of
the market district, residences extended out Pryor Street to Garnett
Street, and small frame houses occupied the space between Alabama
and Mitchell Streets.
During the 1850*5 the city developed rapidly. Banks were estab-
lished; the Athenaeum, the city's first theater, and Parr's Hall pro-
vided entertainment by stock companies; a local dramatic club was
organized; a concert hall was opened; the Fulton Brass and String
Band provided music for parties; and a five-acre fair ground (Fair
Street) was bought and offered for the use of the Southern Central
Agricultural Association. Fraternal societies were formed, as well as
the military Gate City Guards and Atlanta Grays. Other churches
were erected and there was vigorous business and residential building.
Streets and sidewalks were paved, and a gas plant was built, the streets
being lighted by gas on Christmas night, 1855. A city hall, a market
house, and fire stations were constructed, and a fire engine was bought.
Atlanta Fire Company Number One was chartered by the legislature.
Mechanics Fire Company Number Two was organized, and, after a
fire in which several lives were lost for lack of ladders, the Atlanta
Hook and Ladder Company was formed. By the end of the decade the
city had still another fire company, Tallulah Fire Company Number
Three. The Atlanta & West Point Railroad was completed to Alabama
and two other railroads, the Atlanta & Charlotte Air Line and the
Georgia Western, were chartered. By April i, 1859, the city had a
population of almost 10,000, and the assessed value of its real estate
was $2,760,000.
Atlanta citizens had given little thought to the slavery question
beyond becoming aroused in 1857 to tne extent of sending military and
financial aid to Kansas when that territory became a source of conflict
between slave-holding and abolitionist settlers. But by 1860 Atlanta
was feeling strongly the tension between North and South. In January
merchants met and decided on cessation of trade with Northern whole-
sale merchants who were abolitionists. By April feeling ran so high
that a meeting was held to consider secession from the Union to join
Mexico under the leadership of Juarez, but conservative opposition
defeated this enterprise. Nevertheless, sentiment mounted with the
passage of time. Because of the answers Stephen A. Douglas gave
here at a public meeting on October 30 to questions regarding the
HISTORY 17
right of secession, the public was infuriated and the Intelligencer,
mouthpiece of the secessionists, bitterly attacked him. The next day
the Fulton County Minute Men organized to be ready for the fight
against abolitionist domination and named a correspondence committee
to maintain contact with similar organizations throughout the South.
Secession meetings were held every few days during December, and
on the 22d Atlanta celebrated South Carolina's break from the Union
with an all-day program, beginning with a sunrise salute of 15 guns
and terminating with a torchlight parade and the burning in effigy
of Abraham Lincoln before the Planters' Hotel. Fulton County dele-
gates to the State secession convention were elected on January 2, 1861.
Under the stress of the war, building activities ceased and some
businesses were crippled, but the city soon began to hum with war
industries. There was a steady influx of people, some fleeing from the
stand of war, others employed by the Confederacy in the manufacture
of war implements, medicine, and machinery for making arms and
ammunition. On June 3 an important convention of Southern bankers
was held here to consider measures of financial co-operation with the
Confederate Government. The city was placed under martial law
on August n, 1862, by order of General Braxton Bragg, and Mayor
James M. Calhoun was appointed civil governor of the city. Atlanta
then became a large hospitalization center as well as headquarters for
quartermasters and commissaries. All available large buildings, includ-
ing the medical college, several hotels, and schools, were converted into
hospitals.
As an inland city of the Deep South, Atlanta had had little fear
of actual bombardment, despite the knowledge that its five railroads
and many war manufactories made it the goal of Northern troops de-
termined to cripple the Confederate Army by cutting off its main
source of supply. As a local preparedness measure, however, in May
1864, all males between the ages of 16 and 65 were registered at the
courthouse on Washington Street and equipped with arms. But even
then, with the fighting only 100 miles away, Atlanta people were not
gravely apprehensive since the enemy had been driven from the State
at Chickamauga the preceding fall. General William T. Sherman,
however, had his eyes on Atlanta, "the citadel of the Confederacy," and
by means of his semicircular flanking movements to the rear of the
exhausted Southern troops had progressed in a few weeks as far as
Kennesaw Mountain, only 22 miles distant, from where the first faint
sounds of firing were heard in the city.
The contending forces pushed on to the Chattahoochee River, the
Northern line like a giant whip that continually curved around and
snapped at the heels of the Confederates, turning them ever south-
ward. By July 9 Sherman's 23d Corps (of the Army of the Ohio) had
l8 ATLANTA
crossed the river near Soap Creek, entrenching close by, and that night
General Joseph E. Johnston with his Confederates crossed near Bolton,
camping northeast of the crossing. On the night of the iyth Johnston
received President Davis' order relieving him of the command and
giving it to General John B. Hood, who completed Johnston's pre-
arranged alignment of the troops north and east between the Federal
trenches and the city. The Home Guard and "Joe Brown's Malish,"
10,000 men between the ages of 16 and 65, had been dispatched to
guard the river crossings, where they skirmished with small groups
crossing the river.
By flanking maneuvers all the Federal companies, 106,000 strong,
had crossed by the I7th and on the i8th were spread out fanwise
from the mouth of Peachtree Creek to Decatur. Just beyond Decatur
they wrecked several miles of the Georgia Railroad tracks. On the
1 9th, while Hood, with a total force of 47,000 men, was forming his
battle line facing Peachtree Creek, General George H. Thomas was
crossing the creek with his Army of the Cumberland. The attack of
William J. Hardee and Alexander P. Stewart, planned by Hood for
one o'clock on the afternoon of the 2Oth while Thomas was still
crossing, was delayed by a shift to the right over thickly wooded terrain.
By four o'clock Thomas had reached the south bank and flung up light
breastworks.
The Confederates attacked at five main points along Thomas' line,
which stretched out Collier Road from Peachtree to Howell Mill
Road. About half-past four General W.B. Bate's men swooped down
Clear Creek Valley east of Peachtree and charged up the slopes of
Brookwood Hills to battle furiously with General John Newton's
4th Corps forces. General W.H.T. Walker advanced up Peachtree
Road and assaulted Newton's corps on the front and right. The fight-
ing quickly spread westward. General George Maney struck the front
of General W.T. Ward's division just west of Peachtree Road. Gen-
eral W.W. Loring advanced on John W. Geary's line and, when
Colonel Benjamin Harrison's men fired into his right, his left wing
drove between the lines of Geary and A.S. Williams, pushing Harri-
son's brigade back to the creek. With the assistance of other Union
forces, however, Harrison's line was quickly replaced. General
E.G. Walthall attacked General Williams between Northside Drive
and Howell Mill Road, but the Confederates made no gains, and just
before dark Bate made another sally without success. After five hours'
fighting, a division of artillery that Thomas placed just east of the
bridge raked the valley, forcing the Confederates to retire.
Estimated casualty figures for the Battle of Peachtree Creek are
5,000 Confederates and 2,ooo Federals. Among those killed was
Brigadier General C.H. Stevens, one of Walker's commanders. Three
HISTORY 19
shells fell within the city, the first killing a little girl at the corner of
Ivy and Ellis Streets.
At about six o'clock in the evening General Hardee was ordered to
send P.R. Cleburne's division, which he was holding in reserve, to
the aid of General Joseph Wheeler, who was losing ground under
fire from J.B. McPherson's forces between the city and Decatur. It
was not until daybreak of the 2ist that Cleburne relieved Wheeler at
Bald Hill (Leggett's Hill near the corner of Memorial Drive and
Moreland Avenue), where his men had retreated at sundown.
Wheeler's orders were to extend his line to the right, but while the
changes in position were taking place two Federal divisions assaulted
the Confederates and drove them off the hill, which M.D. Leggett
was ordered to hold as a strategic point for firing on the Confederate
States Navy rolling mills. Light skirmishing in this vicinity continued
throughout the day. During the day the Confederate soldiers north
of the city reconstructed fortifications at the northern corners of the
inner defense lines, and in the night they moved back closer to the city.
That night Hardee's corps, under orders from Hood, moved by a
circuitous route through the southern part of the city to steal up behind
McPherson's forces in the Leggett's Hill section. Hardee's men were
to attack McPherson's rear at daybreak of the 22d while B.F. Cheat-
ham's corps assaulted the front with the aid of Wheeler, in the hope
of pushing the Union troops back to the creek. The plan was not
realized because Hardee's battle-tired men were slow in traveling the
15 miles to their destination and it was noon before they were ready
to attack. Meanwhile, most of the Federals, starting as early as three
o'clock in the morning, had moved up to the abandoned outer defense
trenches. Wholesale shifting of both the enemy and defending troops
created restless anxiety among the citizens, and in midmorning curious
groups repaired to the housetops to watch developments.
The Battle of Atlanta began about noon when the divisions of
Walker and Bate, under Hardee, broke into a clearing north of Glen-
wood Avenue and ran into T.W. Sweeney's division of the i6th
Corps, just after it had turned from Clay Street into Fair Street
(Memorial Drive). The intrepid Hardee, who had expected to come
up back of McPherson's iyth Corps, gave quick orders to left face,
and the fierce battle that then ensued raged for more than two hours.
Meanwhile, Cleburne's and Maney's troops had engaged those of
Giles A. Smith's iyth Corps division at Glenwood and Flat Shoals
Avenue. Charging the Federal breastworks, the Confederates cap-
tured the 1 6th Iowa Regiment, the 2d Illinois Battery, and Murray's
Battery. The hard-pressed Federals fled their trenches, through the
woods and up the slopes of Leggett's Hill, where they aligned them-
selves to the east of Leggett's forces, filling the gap between them and
2O ATLANTA
the 1 6th Corps. The Confederates gave chase, making the air ring
with the piercing rebel yell. Reinforced by Stevenson's division of
Cheatham's Corps, which Hood ordered to the spot from Grant Park,
they charged up the slopes, fell back and charged again, until the hill-
top was a mass of grappling humanity.
General H. Wangelin's brigade was brought in to assist the i6th
and 1 7th Corps in holding the hill. The Confederate line was rein-
forced by T.C. Hindman's and H.D. Clayton's divisions of Cheat-
ham's Corps, which marched out just north of the Georgia Railroad
to engage the I5th Corps. The fighting had spread to the west and
north of the railroad into the present Inman Park. A.M. Mani-
gault's brigade, assisted by the brigades of Sharp, Brown, and Reynolds,
split the Federal line near the Troup Hurt house (close to DeKalb
Avenue), and captured Battery A, ist Illinois. Pushing past the
house, they also captured DeGress's battery of five 2O-pound Parrott
guns, which they turned upon the enemy but were forced to leave in
place because the Federals stationed north of the site shelled the horses.
Federal infantry and artillery reinforcements hurried to repair the
gaping line, and the Confederates were stopped by the fresher and
greater strength of the opposing forces. The battle was over by dark,
but near Leggett's Hill there was intermittent rifle fire all during the
night.
During the battle young boys just entering their teens, old men,
convalescents, refugees, and soldiers in the city on leave, grasping any
article that might be used as a weapon, rallied to the aid of the South-
ern soldiers. The slaughter was terrific and, since there was no way
of counting the dead not on Hood's roster, authorities believe that all
casualty figures given are vastly underestimated. Computed losses,
including the wounded and captured, vary from 6,000 to 10,000 Con-
federates, and from 4,000 to 7,000 Federals. The Confederate general
Walker and the Union general McPherson were among those killed.
Although the Federals were not driven back to the creek, Hood
reported that his men had been greatly encouraged by "the partial
success of the day."
There were light skirmishes but no more real battles until 1 1 130
in the morning of July 28 at Ezra Church. Four divisions of Con-
federate infantry, led by Generals Stewart and S.D. Lee, attacked
the right flank of General John A. Logan's Army of the Tennessee
as it moved southwest of the city toward the Atlanta & West Point
and the Macon & Western Railroads. The vastly outnumbered Con-
federates desperately fought Logan's men, who hastily flung up impro-
vised breastworks of logs and of benches dragged from within the
church. Again the attacking Confederates fought chiefly in the open
and lost heavily. Generals Stewart, Brown, Loring, and Johnson were
HISTORY 21
wounded, and about sundown General Walthall gave the command to
cease fighting. Estimated losses were between 2,700 and 5,000 Con-
federates and 650 Federals killed and wounded. No definite advan-
tage was gained by either side.
The Federals then settled down to a steady bombardment of the
city, but the firmly entrenched Confederates successfully resisted all
attempts to break through the lines. On August 6 when Federal
troops drew too close to the railroads (near Lee Street), Bate's Con-
federate division made two furious sallies against General G.W.
Schofield's line, scattering the forces, capturing two stands of colors,
and killing and wounding 800 men.
Damage to the city and the loss of civilian life mounted as bombs
and Minie balls rained down. Although water was scarce, every house-
holder was required to keep a ladder and two buckets of water in
readiness in the event an exploding shell set fire to his house. At
strategic points around the city were stationed large guns, deafening
in their response to the booming of the enemy's immense siege guns.
The air was thick with smoke and the stinging smell of burnt powder,
the streets were gashed with great shell holes, and houses were demol-
ished. All during the day and night women, children, and aged men
scrambled in and out of bombproof dugouts in back yards or scurried
to and from warehouse basements. Hood says, "The ninth was made
memorable by the most furious cannonade which the city sustained
during the siege."
Privation and disease added to the suffering within the city. Con-
federate money was almost valueless, and typhoid fever struck down
soldiers and noncombatants alike. There were numerous fires other
than those caused by bursting shell, usually at night, and the volunteer
firemen, detailed to guard duty on the streets, worked under difficulty
because the Federals made targets of the fires.
During August the Federals concentrated most of their forces
around the defenses that protected the two railroads to the southwest,
but after the disastrous affair of the 6th they made no further advances
toward the tracks. By the end of the month the Northerners had
relinquished hope of penetrating the city lines, and, skirting the firing
trenches, they moved southward to cut the railroads farther down and
to draw Hood's forces from the city. Sherman, however, left his 2Oth
Corps at Atlanta to protect the captured Western & Atlantic Railroad,
which, repaired by his men, brought a daily average of 145 cars of
supplies to the Federals.
On the 29th the Union forces wrecked the Atlanta & West Point
Railroad at Red Oak and Fairburn. Two days later the Battle of
Jonesboro was lost by the Confederates, and with the cutting of the
Macon & Western Railroad the city was isolated from outside supplies
22 ATLANTA
and military reinforcements. On the next day six Federal divisions
completely routed Cleburne's forces at Jonesboro and forced their
retreat to Lovejoy Station.
Hood's only recourse was to try to divert Sherman from the stricken
city. His troops began marching from Atlanta that afternoon, and he
himself moved out at five o'clock toward Lovejoy -Station. With the
order to evacuate, the commissary warehouse was opened to the people,
who, after months of short rations, hurried eagerly to their homes
loaded with flour, syrup, sugar, and hams.
The hours after midnight were long remembered. The city rocked
with blasts and rumblings of earthquake dimensions, while crowds of
tired, bedraggled soldiers from the trenches streamed through the
streets, pushing south to join Hood. Five engines, a train of ordnance
stores, and 80 cars of ammunition, together with Confederate ware-
houses, were dynamited and kindled by Hood's rear guard before it
marched out.
After a sleepless night the citizens waited apprehensively in the
defenseless city, but the Federals remained quiet in their bivouacks.
No messenger came from outside, and finally at nine o'clock on the
morning of September 2, when the tension became intolerable, Mayor
James M. Calhoun gathered together a few of the citizens. The group
carrying a white flag and unarmed one man having removed four
pistols from his person at the mayor's suggestion that they disarm
rode three miles out Marietta Street to the Federal lines, where Mayor
Calhoun formally surrendered the city.
Almost immediately the troops began marching in, and between
that time and the yth approximately 80,000 soldiers filed into the small
city. Wallace P. Reed, an Atlanta historian, records: "At first the
soldiers took what they wanted, but in the main they behaved tolerably
well." The sutlers moved in with their supplies of everything from
dry goods to the latest novels. A depot of quartermaster's stores was
opened. Officers established their headquarters in some of the larger
homes. The work of building new fortification lines was begun, and
other measures were taken to prepare for defense in the event the Con-
federates tried to recapture the city. Fine residences were torn down
and the materials used to build cabins for soldiers, tents were set up,
and the city rapidly assumed the appearance of a gigantic army camp.
Indeed it was Sherman's plan to make it one, and on September 4 he
issued his order for evacuation by the citizens.
Because the railroads to the south of the city were a tangle of
twisted rails, he wrote General Hood on the 7th outlining a plan of
evacuation for southbound refugees and proposing a two-day truce at
Rough and Ready. Hood agreed, at the same time protesting the
inhumanity of driving innocent people from their homes. Five days
HISTORY 23
later 1,565 white citizens with 79 loyal Negro servants were trans-
ported in wagons by Northern soldiers to Rough and Ready with
trunks, bedding, and light furniture. One hundred men, stationed
there by Hood, assisted them on to the railroad at Lovejoy Station.
From there many of them went to Exile Camp, near Dawson, until
they could return home. The other refugees fled to the north by the
Western & Atlantic, chiefly to Tennessee and Kentucky, while most of
the Negroes, whose numbers had been supplemented by those who had
come great distances to camp around Sherman's lines during the siege,
remained with the Federal troops. About 50 white families, pre-
sumably Union sympathizers and foreigners, also were allowed to
remain during the 75 days of Sherman's occupation.
It was during this time that the Federal general, abandoning his
pursuit of the elusive Hood through northwest Georgia, decided to
destroy Atlanta and march to the sea, cutting the Confederacy in two
with a broad path of desolation. On November 14 torches were
applied simultaneously in various parts of the city and the more sub-
stantial buildings were blown up by gunpowder. One of the Federal
officers writing to his wife, said, ". . . all the pictures and verbal
descriptions of hell I have ever seen never gave me half so vivid an
idea of it as did this flame-wrapped city tonight. Gate City of the
South, farewell." While flames crackled and buildings crumbled
around them Sherman was serenaded by one of his bands, and he said
afterwards that he could never hear the "Miserere" from // Trovatore
without remembering that night. The next day he moved his troops
out of the burning city on his destructive way to the coast.
Almost immediately some of the citizens began returning, and early
in December the Confederates reoccupied the ruined city with Colonel
Luther J. Glenn in command. On the 7th a city election was held,
and Calhoun was re-elected mayor.
Within the city limits only 400 of 3,800 buildings were left stand-
ing, and of 500 on the outskirts only 100 remained. An unexplained
mystery causing conjecture and no little suspicion among the loyal
Southerners was the selection of buildings to escape destruction by
Sherman's men. In widely separated districts groups of houses were
unscathed by the flames that reduced most of the city to ashes, and one
entire business block was left untouched. The returning citizens set
to work at once, men, women, and even children putting their hands
to the construction of houses. Shanties were built with brick and
boards salvaged from the ruins, but many of the homes were make-
shift discarded army tents, old freight cars, and, in some cases, scraps
of old tin roofing nailed to rickety wooden framework. Some of the
people boarded in the remaining private homes until they could erect
more comfortable shelters. Almost all the commercial buildings had
24 ATLANTA
been wrecked, and during the hurried rebuilding a number of small
structures were moved intact to Whitehall Street by some merchants,
while others set up business in hastily erected shanties.
As late as Christmas many of the streets, piled with debris, were
impassable. Dogs, abandoned by their refugee owners, foraged in
droves at night and slept during the day under the roofs of flattened
houses on the edge of town. So terribly ravaged was the section that
there were no birds even when spring came. Food and fuel were
scarce and, since Confederate money was almost valueless, few could
afford the commodities that were available. There was dreadful suf-
fering during the cold winters of 1864 and 1865. People scoured
the battlefields for lead bullets, which they sold to buy food. Persim-
mon seeds were pierced for buttons, old clothes were raveled and
rewoven, corn shuck hats and wooden-soled shoes were made, diced
side meat was used for lard, and barter and trade took the place of
cash transactions. A smallpox epidemic aggravated conditions in 1865
and 1866. Beggars roamed everywhere, but by 1866 the church con-
gregations were able to hold fairs for the benefit of the most impover-
ished citizens.
Mounds and ridges of bare red earth on the outskirts of the city
were tragic reminders of the real price of war. In this year the
Atlanta Memorial Association was organized, and the bodies of soldiers
were removed from their temporary graves and reinterred in Oakland
Cemetery and in the Marietta cemetery. The date General Johnston
surrendered the territory east of the Chattahoochee River to Sherman,
April 26, was set aside for Memorial Day, which was first celebrated
in 1867.
On May 4, 1865, Colonel Glenn turned over the city to the Fed-
eral leader Colonel B.B. Eggleston. On the i6th the United States
flag was raised formally in front of Eggleston's headquarters and
lowered to half-mast because of Lincoln's death.
The majority of the citizens were willing to accept quietly the irre-
mediable circumstances. This attitude undoubtedly was aided by
Mayor Calhoun, who stated at a public meeting held June 24 that he
had never favored secession and that his greatest wish was to return to
the Union. In this attitude he was supported by other leaders in the
city who were sympathetic to the Union. Resolutions adopted at the
meeting expressed hope for early resumption of the State's former
relations and function in the Union and voted confidence in President
Andrew Johnson's administration.
With the passage of the Sherman Reconstruction Bill in February
1867, over President Johnson's veto, the tone set by Calhoun changed
to discord. A large group of citizens favored violent opposition, an-
other was resigned to submission, and a third claimed to uphold Presi-
HISTORY 25
dent Johnson but adopted an attitude of watchful waiting. After the
supplemental bill was passed by the House also over the President's
veto, the city was in an uproar, and a public meeting was called for
the morning of March 4. The newspapers, fearing the consequences
of too outspoken opposition, advised the utmost caution in action and
speech. The gathering listened in tacit disapproval to the submissive
resolutions drafted by pro-Union Colonel Henry P. Farrow and his
committee, but there was cheering and handclapping after the reading
of Colonel Luther Glenn's resolutions, which were conservative with-
out being subservient. The crowd stamped and shouted its approval
when Colonel T.C. Howard suggested that the Glenn resolutions be
adopted, with an amendment designating the Reconstruction Bill as
"harsh, cruel and unjust . . . degrading to the bitterest and last degree
as it sinks us below the legal status of our former slaves, surrenders
the control and policy of the Southern States to the blacks. . . ."
Because of the confusion the meeting was dismissed, but Colonel Far-
row announced that an adjournment meeting would be held that night
for further consideration of his resolutions. At the latter meeting
ex-Governor Brown made an eloquent plea for the Farrow resolutions,
which were formally adopted.
A few months later the city government, strangely enough, adopted
a proposal to appropriate ten acres for a city park to be the site of a
monument to Abraham Lincoln. J.L. Dunning, local president of
the Lincoln Memorial Association, made the request of council and
stipulated that the association would erect the monument at a cost of
approximately $1,000,000. The wise council, doubting the ability of
the association to raise the amount, considered adoption as the best
means of keeping the matter from the ears of the already aroused public.
Nothing more was heard of the monument.
A large delegation of the submissionists welcomed General John
Pope, commander of the Third Military District set up by the Sherman
law, when he arrived at the station on March 31, 1867. A reception
was held for him that night, and a banquet was given at the National
Hotel on his return from Montgomery on April n, when Atlanta
was made headquarters for the district. This cordial treatment over-
whelmed the brevet general, who had expected, at best, complete indif-
ference from all. The first impression made by Pope was an agreeable
one; he arrived in civilian clothes and was courteous to everyone he
met. The rigorous laws imposed on the South by Congress, however,
made it impossible for any administrator of the military government
to please the victims of their penalties. Then, too, Pope made the
mistake of allowing himself to be surrounded by unprincipled politi-
cians and trucklers who hoped to profit through the association. It
was only a short time before the people were calling for his removal.
26 ATLANTA
Ex-Governor Joseph E. Brown, the outstanding leader of the State
conformist group, made a number of speeches in the city, for the most
part pursuing his usual theme of strict submission to the military meas-
ures. Emphasizing the advantages to be gained thereby, he stressed the
futility of the State's pending appeal to the United States Supreme
Court. The many non-conformists were strong in their resentment of
the harsh laws and scornfully rejected Brown's proffered sops but lacked
an effective leader of their own.
Then, in the summer of 1867, Benjamin Hill mounted the other
oratorical stump in Atlanta and swayed the masses with his brilliant
speeches. He was followed by Robert Toombs, fierily eloquent on his
return from exile. Now having leaders to mold them, the non-
conformists in October organized themselves into the Conservative
Party, "anti-convention, anti-reconstruction, anti-radical." Representa-
tives from Clayton, Cobb, and Fulton Counties met in Atlanta on
November 23, four days after Pope's order for the State constitutional
convention, and appointed delegates to the State Conservative conven-
tion to be held in Macon. On December 9 the constitutional con-
vention met in the Atlanta City Hall. At the first day's meeting there
were 22 Negro delegates and 108 white, many of whom were carpet-
baggers and scalawags.
During the convention's holiday recess General Pope was removed
by President Johnson, who was sympathetic to complaints against Pope
and his carpetbagger advisers. It was hoped that this would intimidate
the convention, but the hope was vain; the President's views availed
nothing against Congress, and the convention had the support of the
radical Congressional leaders. The expenses were excessive, and on
January 13 General George G. Meade, who had replaced Pope on the
7th, issued his order removing the Democratic governor Jenkins and
State treasurer Jones from office for their refusal to pay the exorbitant
claim for expenses of the convention. The public was incensed and
the Atlanta press was vituperative.
The convention adjourned on March n after choosing Rufus B.
Bullock Republican gubernatorial nominee. The election was held
April 2023, the Fulton County polling taking place at the courthouse,
which was surrounded by Federal soldiers. As voters filed in to the
polling place, the soldiers marched in and stood about it with fixed
bayonets. Dr. J.F. Alexander, one of the two managers the county
ordinary was permitted to appoint, placed his hands over the ballot
box, said "No ballots shall be put in this box except over my dead body
until those soldiers are removed,'* and delayed the voting until the
soldiers were withdrawn. Fulton County gave the Democratic nomi-
nee General John B. Gordon, of Atlanta, a majority of votes, but
Bullock was elected by the Negro vote over the State. Many Con-
HISTORY 27
servative citizens, refusing to take the amnesty oath, did not vote either
on the governorship or on the ratification of the new constitution,
which contained a provision for a change in the capital site.
Atlanta as the new capital was the scene of the shameful fiasco
that was Bullock's administration. In the city hall on July 4 convened
the legislature described by Claude G. Bowers in The Tragic Era as
"a cross between a gambling den and a colored camp-meeting." Here
on the 2 ist the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, and on the next
day the dignity of Bullock's inaugural ceremony was shattered by an
audacious voice in the rear of the hall crying, "Go it, niggers!" Here
in September Negro legislators were ejected by the Conservative Demo-
crats with the aid of some of the Republicans and radical Democrats
who had become disgusted with the behavior of the Negro members.
In the temporary capitol at the corner of Marietta and Forsyth Streets,
in January of 1870, twenty-four white legislators were excluded arbi-
trarily by a Federal military commission, and 31 Negroes were seated.
In February the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified.
The military trial of prisoners arrested in connection with the Ash-
burn murder in Columbus, an alleged political crime committed shortly
after adjournment of the constitutional convention, was held at
McPherson Barracks, near Atlanta, for three weeks beginning June
30, 1868. There was strong public indignation over the arrest, con-
finement, and brutal treatment of a number of innocent white and
black persons. As a member of the prosecuting counsel ex-Governor
Brown became even more unpopular and was the target of invectives
hurled by speakers at a political rally in Atlanta. On July 23, 1868,
twenty thousand Democrats sweltered for five hours under a bush arbor
erected on Alabama Street as they listened to the fiery speeches of
such men as Benjamin Hill, Robert Toombs, and Howell Cobb. The
famous Bush Arbor Meeting initiated the campaign to end the carpet-
bagger rule in Georgia. And, while the Democrats worked to throw
off radical Republican domination, the administration with its "million-
dollar legislature" unwittingly furthered their cause by extravagant
corruption. The depleted State treasury could not long support a
government whose committee expenses included such items as the one
for "50 gallons of whisky, 15 gallons of sherry, 7,100 cigars and 57
dozen lemons."
Probably Atlanta was the only place in the State to receive any
benefits from the wanton extravagance. Bullock's semiofficial agent,
H.I. Kimball, lavishly dispensed the State funds. A Northern pro-
moter connected with many enterprises including the Tennessee Car
Company and a number of Georgia railroads, he secured legislative
authorization of apparently legitimate schemes that brought profit to
him and his associates at the taxpayers' expense. He had bought the
28 ATLANTA
unfinished opera house at Forsyth and Marietta Streets and completed
it, leasing it to the city for Atlanta's first capitol and installing, in
1868, on the first floor a $10,000 post office. He sold the building to
the State at a good profit in 1870, and in that same year he constructed
with $300,000 of State-endorsed railroad bonds the elaborate Kimball
House. Here he and Bullock spent thousands in wining and dining
military officers, legislators, and their friends.
Undermined by its own rottenness, the radical Republican regime
in Georgia passed out of existence when the Democrats won the elec-
tion in December 1871. In anticipation of this outcome and the result-
ing investigation, Bullock had left the State three months earlier.
Meanwhile, the city was being reconstructed in a manner more
acceptable to the citizens. The noise of foundries and machine shops
sounded together with the sawing and hammering of construction.
Four of the railroads were operating again by the fall of 1865 and the
Georgia road was being repaired. On March 3, 1866, the legislature
extended the city limits to a distance of one and a half miles in each
direction. The gas works were repaired and the streets again lighted
on September 15. By the end of that year there were 250 business
structures, most of which were brick; the assessed value of real estate
was $7,000,000 and the amount of trade was $4,500,000. The city
census showed a population of 10,940 white people and 9,288 Negroes,
almost double that at the beginning of the war.
Among this relatively large population there was some demand for
a library in the city, and in 1867 the first library was opened in a
rented room by the Young Men's Library Association. The library
and the lecture course it sponsored, which brought Henry Stanley,
Thomas Nelson Page, and other well-known lecturers of the day,
proved popular. An extension course was offered in the form of lec-
tures by various members of the University of Georgia faculty, and an
art school was also sponsored by the library.
Important steps in education were taken in 1869, and indeed it was
time. Negro schools had been opened by the Freedmen's Bureau after
the war, but the only white schools in the city were privately operated
and beyond reach of most of the citizens. In September a committee
of councilmen and citizens investigated educational needs and made
plans for a city school system. Two years later the schools opened,
and by the end of the term approximately 4,000 students were being
taught by 56 teachers in the two high and various grammar schools.
Rapid strides were made in the establishment of institutions of higher
education. Atlanta University for Negroes was opened in 1865 and
before 1885 five other Negro colleges began to function. The South-
ern Medical College was organized from the Atlanta Medical College
HISTORY 29
in 1879, the Southern Dental College was established in 1887, and the
Georgia School of Technology was opened in 1888.
As early as 1869 building costs had dropped sufficiently for Atlanta
to start construction on a grand scale. Included in the buildings
erected in 1870 were the DeGive Opera House, the Kimball House,
and the $70,000 James residence, purchased in October for the gov-
ernor's mansion. About 400 buildings were constructed in the follow-
ing year. Building activity continued into 1873 accompanied by
expanding mercantile and industrial operations, and in that year the
Atlanta Manufacturers' Association was formed.
A chamber of commerce, which had been organized in 1860, had
given serious attention to the problem of freight rate equity, but with
the advent of the war this organization turned to more urgent ques-
tions, particularly that of direct trade with Europe. Disbanded during
1 86 1, it was replaced in 1866 by the board of trade, which held daily
meetings until 1871 when it was reorganized as the chamber of
commerce.
A street railway, enfranchised first in 1866 and again in 1869 to
separate private interests, finally became a reality in 1871. In that
year two citizens bought the franchise and put into operation the city's
first horsecar line on Whitehall from Five Points to West End. During
the same period the general assembly was persuaded to revise the city
charter to permit municipal ownership of a waterworks. A board of
water commissioners was elected and the job was let to a construction
company in the next year. Four years later the works at the South
River reservoir (Lakewood Park) was in operation, and running water
in many sections replaced the street-corner pumps and wells that had
theretofore provided the water supply.
A natural aftermath of the post-war inflation was the depression
of 1873, bringing cessation of construction, price reductions in real
estate, and general business slackness. None of the banks failed,
although one of the largest suspended operations for a short time. The
Atlanta & Charlotte Air Line Railroad, kept alive through the war
by Jonathan Norcross who had resumed construction in 1869, first
began operation in September of the panic year. The city's financial
condition became alarming, affected as it was by the extravagance of
the Bullock government, the depression, and the liberality of the Con-
stitution of 1868 in permitting "towns and cities to aid public enter-
prises and to incur indebtedness, without constitutional limitations." In
November 153 citizens petitioned the council for a city charter revi-
sion, which was subsequently drafted, to require maintenance of the
annual expense at a figure below that of the income and incumbrance
of one-fourth of the real estate tax for reduction of outstanding debts.
The charter was amended accordingly by the legislature in 1874, when
30 ATLANTA
the estimated population was 30,869. The city's financial status began
to improve. With the abatement of the depression building revived
in 1875, improvements on real estate for the year amounted to
$1,000,000, and ground was broken in August for the erection of the
U.S. post office, to cost $275,000.
Federal soldiers were withdrawn after the national election of
1876, and, with the lifting of the military heel for the first time in
ten years, Atlanta experienced a sensation of complete release. Because
the capital site had been determined during Reconstruction in an elec-
tion under military supervision, another vote on that question was
demanded. The vote, taken in 1877, confirmed the selection of Atlanta
as the capital. In September of that year President Rutherford B.
Hayes, on a good will visit, was given a cordial reception by the city.
In the urgency of rebuilding there was little time for social activ-
ities, nor was there money to pay for them. During the Reconstruc-
tion Era Bullock, the Kimball brothers, and their cliques entertained
extravagantly, but most of the impoverished citizens had little inclina-
tion for gaiety. From 1873 to 1876, however, the carnival given each
January by the Twelfth Night Mystic Brotherhood considerably en-
livened the city. This event was similar to the New Orleans Mardi
Gras and featured a long parade of elaborate floats, which were chem-
ically lighted and displayed brilliant "transparencies." The parades
were followed by pageants, the crowning of Rex and his queen, and a
large ball at DeGive's Opera House. In 1878 the time was shifted
to October, during the fair, and in the next two years even more spec-
tacular celebrations were given by the Mystic Owls, evidently the
successor to the Twelfth Night Brotherhood. The festival was discon-
tinued after that, but the prosperous i88o's brought increasingly elabo-
rate entertaining that for years made Atlanta the gay social center of
the State.
By 1880 commercial growth was measured in great strides. The
railroads made the city an advantageous distributing point; it was a
focus for the distribution of flour and canned meat from the Middle
West, grain from Tennessee, Kentucky, and the upper Mississippi
valley, and guano from Peru. The dry goods jobbing trade annually
brought more than $1,000,000. Iron foundries and rolling mills and
brick manufactories did capacity business. At this time, when the
inhabitants numbered 37,409, the manufactured products for the year
were valued at $13,074,037. Auctions were still popular. A Northern
visitor the previous year reported "on certain days you will hear the
beating of triangles, and have your attention attracted to the red flag
of the curbstone auctioneer. . . . Public buildings in Atlanta are not
imposing . . . more like a western town. . . . There are banks and
boards of trade, and business exchanges . . . modern conveniences from
HISTORY 3 1
artificial ice to a Turkish bath. . . ." That same year, 1879, had
brought the installation of the first telephone exchange.
The city was being served by five volunteer fire companies and a
hook and ladder brigade. In 1866 the first steam engine was pur-
chased; two others were bought in 1871. Ten years later an electric
fire alarm system was installed, and in 1882 the city organized a paid
fire department and bought the equipment of the volunteer companies
for $12, no. An electric light and power company was organized the
following year and the city had its first electric lights in 1885.
A great step in expansion of the cotton industry, so vital to con-
tinued development of the city, was the World's Fair and Great Inter-
national Cotton Exposition held at Oglethorpe Park in 1881. H.I.
Kimball secured it for Atlanta through his friend Edward Atkinson,
a Boston economist who suggested an international conference to dis-
cuss needed improvements in the culture and processing of cotton. The
first world's fair in the South, it opened October 5 with a long parade
to the grounds, where addresses were delivered by nationally known
men. All the States and seven foreign countries were represented in
the 1,113 exhibits, which were viewed by approximately 350,000 per-
sons from all parts of the country. When the fair closed December 31,
a local stock company bought the grounds, covering 20 acres, and set
up a cotton mill in the main building.
At this time Atlanta was the booming metropolis of the New South.
Here the departure from the leisurely ways of Southern tradition was
hastened by a group of vigorous young men led by Henry W. Grady,
who with an inspired pen and voice cried for work, industrial devel-
opment, money, and national good will. Cheap labor and natural
resources were exploited to success. Northern manufacturers attending
the fair saw for themselves, and Atlanta as the capital of this move-
ment felt most strongly the effects that were experienced in some
measure by the whole South.
As the trading center of the Southeast, the city was a hub for many
sectional promotional conferences and events, one of the most signifi-
cant of which was the Piedmont Exposition in October 1887. This
exposition of products of the Piedmont States purposed to establish a
closer co-operation between agriculture and industry and attracted an
attendance of more than 200,000. President and Mrs. Cleveland were
among the notable visitors and were elaborately entertained during
their 24-hour stay in the city.
This prosperous period made the problem of saloons more acute.
In 1888 there began one of the most heated prohibition campaigns ever
waged in the city. Mayor John T. Glenn in his inaugural address in
1889 tried to quell the storm: "Bar-rooms never built a city nor did
fanaticism ever nurse one into greatness, and their war over Atlanta
32 ATLANTA
should cease ... we have no right to prohibit it [liquor traffic], but it
is our solemn duty to control it. . . ." This control was eventually
exercised by imposing high license fees, limiting the hours of sale, for-
bidding the use of screens in front of saloons, prohibiting sale on legal
holidays and election days, and forbidding minors to enter bar-rooms.
The water question became of increasing importance with the rapid
growth in population, which, more than 65,000 in 1889, was consider-
ably increased by the acquisition of West End in January 1892. The
artesian well at Five Points had proved a failure, its water having
been condemned by the board of health. The city was fast outgrowing
the supply afforded by the South River reservoir, and the fire depart-
ment was hampered by the poor water flow. Mayor Glenn in 1889
had determined to have a permanent works built on the Chattahoochee
River to give the growing city an unlimited water source. Although
bonds were voted, the opposition of council delayed the plan, and it
was not until 1893 that the new works, completed at a cost of
$821,069.74, was put in operation.
The severe pinch of the Nation-wide financial panic of the early
1890'$ slowed progress only temporarily. By 1895 the city had recov-
ered sufficiently to stage, with the aid of a Government appropriation,
the Cotton States and International Exposition. This fair, held at
Piedmont Park from September 18 through December 31, featured a
complete picture of the industries and resources of the ten cotton States
and was designed to promote commerce with the Latin-American
countries, as well as trade and manufacture within the United States.
The Negroes had a building, and Booker T. Washington was one of
the speakers on opening day. Visitors streamed in and out of the city,
President Cleveland and his cabinet members led the list of the distin-
guished, and on Governor's Day there were 20 governors in the city.
Total attendance was more than a million.
During the Spanish-American War Atlanta was the site of a train-
ing camp. The close of the war was celebrated by a peace jubilee
featuring a notable military spectacle and attended by President and
Mrs. McKinley, cabinet members and their wives, and many army and
naval officers.
Atlanta, which had been reduced to a shambles 36 years earlier,
began the new century with an extraordinary record of growth. The
population of 89,872 represented an increase of almost 700 per cent
during that brief period. The city now had 22 public schools, 8 fire
stations, large mercantile establishments, manufactories, and banks; the
real and personal property values were $53,177,717. At this time the
Whitehall Street viaduct was constructed, and the city presented a
$25,000 site to the Government for the erection of a Federal peni-
tentiary.
HISTORY 33
In 1891 an electric street railway system had supplanted the "dummy
engine" streetcars, popularly called "steam cars." In 1902 several
years' warfare between the Atlanta Consolidated Street Railway Com-
pany and the Atlanta Rapid Transit Company reached a crisis. The
former, which was the larger company, was suing the city on the claim
that violation of its right-of-way was permitted in the rival company's
franchise. Their franchises were expensive, for a number of mayors
had urged heavy charges for utility franchises in order to prevent a
private monopoly before municipal ownership could be effected. The
suit was settled in favor of the larger company, but on the day after
the settlement the city was appalled to learn that the two companies
had merged. Keen competition had resulted in a 2^2 -cent fare by one
of the companies, but immediately after the merger all fares were
raised and schedules reduced. The protesting citizens and mayor were
helpless against the monopolization of the streetcar lines. Electric,
steam-heat, and street railway services were combined under the name
of the Georgia Railway and Electric Company in 1902; a trolley line
was extended to College Park in the same year, to Hapeville in 1906,
and to Buckhead in 1907. The city then had 161 miles of tracks.
Atlanta received front-page publicity throughout the Nation in 1906
when a bitter race riot occurred. During a political campaign the
preceding year, the waning Populist Party, in a desperate stand against
the Democrats, had made flattering appeals for the Negro vote in the
State. As a result of this attention there was some display of boldness
and insolence by the lower Negro element; in November 1905, reports
of Negro attacks on white women began to circulate in and around
the city. Newspapers exploited the reports in headline and editorial.
Rusty Row, a Negro section stretching for several blocks from Five
Points along Decatur Street, was made up of gambling dives, saloons,
rowdy eating places, and thinly disguised brothels. Here drunken
Negroes fought in the street and knifings and murders were frequent.
Investigating committees, bewildered by the flagrant immorality and
the obscene pictures of white women on the walls, did not know how
to begin reforms. No definite action other than an occasional police
raid was taken until Saturday, September 22, 1906. Increasing reports
of Negro assaults on white women reached a crux that afternoon when
news of four such attacks, occurring too late for the newspapers, was
spread by word of mouth.
At nine-thirty that night a crowd of 5,000 people converged at Five
Points and swept down on Rusty Row, breaking plate-glass windows,
overturning carnages and wagons, and unmercifully attacking every
Negro in its path. A personal plea by Mayor James A. Woodward,
who rushed to the scene, was unavailing, and 300 policemen were unable
to cope with the mob; finally the firemen turned powerful streams of
34 ATLANTA
water on the crowd and swept it from the section. The frenzied mob
then spread out through the downtown area. Hotels and restaurants
barred entrances to protect Negro employees, but some Negroes, feel-
ing insecure behind the barricaded doors and windows, escaped by back
apertures and ran along the roof tops, eventually falling into the hands
of the mob. Trolley wires were cut and Negro passengers forcibly
removed from cars; ambulances taking the wounded to hospitals were
stopped and Negroes dragged out. The mobs spread out into the resi-
dential districts, and householders were able to protect their servants
only with guns and pistols. The State militia, unable to cover the
entire city, stationed itself in the wrecked business area to prevent
looting. Some of the routed inhabitants of Rusty Row banded together
and began to attack white people. On Butler Street they fired more
than 100 shots at a streetcar loaded with white passengers.
At two o'clock in the morning a heavy rain scattered the crowds,
but outbreaks continued through Tuesday noon. On that day 25 citi-
zens met in the council chamber and arranged for a law and order
meeting at the courthouse. A relief committee administered $5,423
that had been subscribed for the care of the victims and their families.
Although the accounts of the numbers killed and injured varied fan-
tastically, the committee reported that in all 2 whites and 10 Negroes
were killed and 10 whites and 60 Negroes injured. Prominent white
men spoke in Negro pulpits over the city, and a racial tolerance group
was formed.
This organization was the only one of its kind in the city until
1919, when the Commission on Interracial Co-operation, a national
society, was organized in Atlanta. With its board of both whites and
blacks, the commission has been the means of maintaining good will
among the races and promoting Negro welfare. Trouble threatened
again in 1930 when the "Black Shirts" took action against the employ-
ment of Negroes while numerous white people were out of work.
Although there was no violence, this movement resulted in some dis-
placement of Negroes by whites; in one week Atlanta hotels replaced
IOO Negro bellboys with white ones. Other associations that have
been of value in the uplift of the Negro and the promotion of better
racial understanding are the Atlanta Negro Chamber of Commerce
and local branches of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People and the National Urban League.
More undesirable publicity for the city was started in 1913, when
the bruised and assaulted body of 1 4-year-old Mary Phagan was found
in the basement of an Atlanta pencil factory. After a number of
arrests, Leo Frank, the Jewish superintendent of the plant, was indicted
and sentenced to hang on October 10. The newspapers gave the affair
sensational publicity. Thomas E. Watson's Jeffersonian in 1914 and
HISTORY 35
1915 inflamed public opinion and agitated racial prejudice until the
case became a major issue in political campaigns. Suspected intimida-
tion of the court and jury because of mass sentiment influenced the
granting of appeals to higher courts. New trials, during which Frank
was sentenced twice again to hang, and subsequent litigation stayed
execution until Governor John M. Slaton on June 21, 1915, the day
before his term expired, commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.
The following day martial law was declared in order to protect Gov-
ernor Slaton, hitherto one of the State's most popular governors, and
soldiers were ordered to guard his house. His assassination was
attempted at the capitol, and that night an armed mob of 5,000 bore
down on his home, wounding 16 of the guards before order could be
restored. There had been much activity outside the State to save
Frank, but the commutation of his sentence aroused strong feeling
throughout the Nation. Slaton left the State and later the country
for a protracted stay.
On August 1 6 a lynching party of 25 overcame the warden and
guards at the State Prison Farm and took Frank to the outskirts of
Marietta, Mary Phagan's home, where his body was found the next
morning hanging from a limb. A hysterical mob of several thousands
gathered and was restrained from tearing the body to pieces only by
the courageous speech of a Marietta judge. Authorities were forced
by threats to display the body at an Atlanta morgue where a morbid
15,000 viewed it. The ballad "Little Mary ' Phagan" was composed
around this tragedy.
Atlanta long had been termed "the City of Conventions," and as
it grew in enterprise the annual number of conventions increased. One
of the most important was the meeting of the Southern Commercial
Congress in 1911, when 2,000 delegates were addressed by President
Taft, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson, then Gov-
ernor of New Jersey. In the same year the peace jubilee and Old
Guard celebration, featuring the unveiling of the Old Guard Peace
Monument at Piedmont Park, gathered 1,500 military visitors. This
event commemorated the good will tour of the Gate City Guard in
October 1879 through the North and East and was the second of
Atlanta's peace jubilees.
Three years later, however, the city was feeling again the effects
of war, though indirectly. The European conflict drastically affected
the cotton trade, middling cotton dropping from 12^ to approximately
6^, and movement of the crop was blocked. The result in Atlanta
was a general business depression. Bankers, businessmen, and chamber
of commerce members conferred on the best means of meeting the
emergency and were instrumental in effecting the adoption of a cotton
warehouse receipt that could be used as collateral in making loans. As
36 ATLANTA
a further measure of relief, Georgia farmers were urged to cultivate
food products.
A stimulus to this movement was the large cattle show held by
the Southeastern Fair Association as its first exhibit in 1915. The city
leased Lakewood Park, site of the old waterworks, to the association,
which was organized at the initiation of the Chamber of Commerce
the previous year. The terms of the transaction were that 80 per cent
of the association's profits be spent on the park. Buildings were erected,
the race track constructed, and a streetcar line extended to the grounds.
More than $1,000,000 were later spent on improvements, and the site
has had increased popularity as a summer amusement park and a center
for racing, skating, and aquatic events.
In 1914 the city had secured the Sixth District Federal Reserve
Bank. Financial conditions began to improve in 1915, bank clearings
in the city at the end of 1916 exceeded $1,000,000,000, and business
expanded rapidly.
In January 1917, General Leonard Wood selected a site for the
establishment of Camp Gordon, a cantonment where approximately
55,000 men were trained. In 1918 the War Department made it a
replacement camp, and a total of 250,000 soldiers passed through it
during the World War and the period preceding demobilization in
December 1919. During construction of the camp, a special local war
tax was imposed to pay for piping water to the site, and after the
quartering of troops there a large bond issue was necessary to enlarge
the waterworks.
During this time the Federal Government was spending approxi-
mately $25,000,000 annually in the vicinity of Atlanta, using all avail-
able labor in the erection of plants and the camp. On May 21, 1917,
when private building was at a virtual standstill, the city was victim
of a disastrous fire which, beginning in a Negro house off Decatur
Street, swept out Jackson Street and Boulevard and across to Ponce
de Leon. The local companies were assisted by those from other cities
and 1,000 soldiers from Fort McPherson. But, in spite of dynamiting
and the use of every known means of fire fighting, 2,000 homes were
destroyed. The loss was estimated at $5,000,000 and approximately
10,000 people were rendered homeless. This disaster, at a time when
the city was crowded with new people attracted by the camp and many
war industries, made housing a serious problem until 1920 when labor
was available for private building.
In 1941 Camp Gordon, abandoned for many years, became a veri-
table ant hill of activity. Men worked night and day constructing a
large airport and a 2,ooo-bed cantonment hospital. The airport is a
reserve training station for preliminary instruction of naval and marine
corps aviators. Atlanta has been made 4th zone headquarters of the
History
RHODES MEMORIAL HALL, GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY
'HOWELL'S MILL," FROM A WATER-COLOR DRAWING BY WILBUR KURTZ
WHITEHALL TAVERN," FROM A WATER-COLOR DRAWING BY WILBUR KURTZ
w.
"THE FIRST POST OFFICE OF ATLANTA," (THEN MARTHASVILLE), FROM A
WATER-COLOR DRAWING BY WILBUR KURTZ
"THE ARRIVAL OF THE FLORIDA AT THE TERMINUS," FROM A WATER-COLOR
DRAWING BY WILBUR KURTZ
BALTIMORE BLOCK
THE KIMBALL HOUSE, ATLANTA S OLDEST EXISTING HOTEL
-
I
CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, OLDEST EXISTING CHURCH
IN THE CITY
411
VIVIEN LEIGH AT THE WORLD PREMIERE OF "GONE WITH THE WIND'
SECTION OF THE CYCLORAMA OF THE BATTLE OF ATLANTA
UNFINISHED CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL ON STONE MOUNTAIN
HB|IM ;
THE OLD HUFF RESIDENCE, HOUSE OF THREE FLAGS
CONFEDERATE ORDNANCE ON SITE OF FORT WALKER, GRANT PARK
HISTORY 37
United States Quartermaster Corps, and a $15,000,000 supply depot
is being constructed.
In 1921, the tax rate, which had been lowered to i% P er cent in
1897, was raised to i l / 2 per cent to meet increased operating expenses.
In addition it was necessary to float a bond issue for improvements in
the amount of $8,500,000. With the proceeds sewers wer laid, streets
were widened, and the Spring Street viaduct was constructed and
opened to traffic in December 1923. Widening and extension of the
streets leading to the viaduct immediately followed. Further construc-
tion of viaducts and schools, erection of a new city hall, and the expan-
sion of the waterworks and sewer system were permitted by an
$8,000,000 bond issue floated in 1926, when the population was
249,000. In the 1936 and 1940 elections a proposed issue of $4,000,000
for needed improvements on the schools and city hospitals failed be-
cause, although a large majority of favoring votes were cast, the total
of 19,357 votes necessary for passage was not attained.
Atlanta had woman suffrage before it became a national preroga-
tive. In May 1919, a group of women appealed to the Atlanta City
Democratic Executive Committee to permit the participation of women
in the city primary. The request was granted, and the Central Com-
mittee of Women Citizens was organized and canvassed the city, per-
suading 4,000 women, in all wards of the city, to register and vote in
September. In November of that year the name of the organization
was changed to the Atlanta Women Voters' League and has become
officially the Atlanta League of Women Voters, now affiliated with the
national league. This organization augments the valuable work of
several local clubs that strive to acquaint all eligible voters with the
issues involved and to stimulate active participation in elections.
The first scandal within the ranks of the city government came in
the fall of 1929, when charges of bribery were made against a city
official. An investigation led to the indictment of 26 persons, 15 of
whom subsequently were convicted and received sentences.
Law enforcement has been of great importance in recent city elec-
tions. From late in the 1920*5 through the middle of the I93o's there
was widespread agitation over poorly managed traffic, careless driving,
and inefficient police service. The hotel operators charged the police
chief with negligence and failure to co-operate in the fight against vice
and crime, and labor leaders preferred charges against him for drink-
ing and cursing while on duty ; policemen were charged with "grafting
and mooching" and with writing "bug" numbers. The grand jury
investigation of the department led to no tangible improvements. In
1937 William B. Hartsfield, who promised reorganization of the police
and detective departments, was elected to the office of mayor. During
his regime there was marked improvement in law enforcement services
38 ATLANTA
and the general functioning of the city government. In 1939 the city
closed its books with a cash surplus of $772,270.65, the largest in its
history. Proceeds from liquor store bonds and taxes after the repeal
of prohibition in 1938 were helpful in making this surplus possible.
Cultural activities assumed popular and important proportions in
the twentieth century. In 1904 the newly formed Atlanta Art Asso-
ciation began bringing exhibits to the city and encouraging annual
exhibitions of local work. Twenty-two years later the High Museum
of Art was opened and in the following year the art school was begun.
Beginning in 1910 the Metropolitan Opera Company gave perform-
ances in Atlanta each spring until 1931. As the only city south of
Baltimore to have annual performances by this company, Atlanta was
always thronged with out-of-State visitors during opera week. With
the coming of the depression this event was discontinued, and Atlanta
did not see the Metropolitan artists in opera again until the first Dog-
wood Festival in the spring of 1936, when the performance of three
grand operas was a feature of the festivities. In the meantime the city
had contented itself with the presentations of the Atlanta Philhar-
monic Orchestra and the All-Star Concert Series, which each fall and
winter brings notable artists. The citizens enthusiastically welcomed
a revival of the Metropolitan Opera season in April 1940, at which
time the Dogwood Festival also was revived. During the winter
months famous actors are presented by road companies in popular
Broadway plays. Leading lecturers are brought to the city each year
by Agnes Scott College, Emory University, and the civic clubs.
To counteract the threatened loss of citizens and business during
the Florida real estate boom, the Forward Atlanta Movement was
organized by the Chamber of Commerce in October 1925. The appeal
of low wages and fine natural resources was again presented to the
East and Middle West. An intensive campaign, costing $822,000, for
the importation of new manufactories and commercial concerns was
waged and in something over four years brought to the city 762 new
enterprises, employing 20,286 persons and paying annual wages and
salaries to the amount of $34,500,000.
In marked contrast to these booming years were the early 1930*3
when the city, with the whole country, felt the effects of the depres-
sion. Unemployment, which had presented no serious problem except
for a brief period after the World War, became serious indeed. In
1932 a mass demonstration of a thousand unemployed blacks and whites
led to the courthouse by Angelo Herndon, a Negro Communist, pro-
tested the inadequacy of relief measures. In 1933 the CWA brought
some alleviation and kindred agencies, the PWA, FERA, and WPA
have continued to do so. The housing agencies have replaced hundreds
of unsightly shacks with eight attractive developments, five for
HISTORY 39
Negroes and three for white people, that offer low-income groups full
utility services and the most modern in structural design at moderate
rents. In addition the city has received many benefits through the
various construction, education, and community service projects. There
is a growing tendency in the city to get away from the exploitation of
employees which was begun 60 years ago when there was need of indus-
trial expansion at any cost. Initiated by the short-lived NRA measures
in 1932, this trend has been accelerated by the Wages and Hours Law,
and Atlanta industry in its co-operation is increasingly exceeding the
requirements.
The city's importance as a county seat was heightened in 1932 with
the merging of Campbell and Milton Counties and the Roswell area of
Cobb County into Fulton County. This acquisition more than doubled
the area of Fulton and increased its population by more than 18,000
persons.
Atlanta, for so large a city, has had few calamitous fires. The
efficient fire department in April 1936 was awarded national honors
in fire prevention. But in the next year and a half the city had its
two most disastrous fires in 20 years. In the fall of 1936 three people
lost their lives in a flame-gutted studio building in the downtown sec-
tion, and in May 1938, twenty-seven persons perished when the old
Terminal Hotel was burned to the ground.
One of the Nation's ranking aviation, communication, and insur-
ance centers, the city in 1940 had a population of 302,538. The rail-
roads that gave the city birth and have fed it to almost prodigious
growth are responsible for its commercial prosperity and its establish-
ment as the outstanding convention center of the Southeast. In 1939,
495 conventions brought 134,000 delegates to the city, more than
double the number in 1935.
The tides of conventions and tourists have increased since publica-
tion of Margaret Mitchell's historical novel, Gone With the Wind, in
1936. Owing to phenomenal popularity of the book, international
interest has been aroused in the history of the city that rose so rapidly
from the ruins of Sherman's making. One of the greatest celebrations
to be held here in the twentieth century was the festival attending the
premiere of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's vivid picturization of the book
in December 1939. Hundreds of visitors streamed up and down Peach-
tree Street, a few of them searching, in all seriousness, for the site of
"Aunt Pittypat's" house, others conjecturing as to the spot Scarlett
O'Hara would have chosen for the erection of her "chalet" with the
scrollwork trim. Thousands lined the streets for two hours in a cold,
gusty wind awaiting the arrival of the stars, only to catch a kaleido-
scopic view of furs, red roses, and bared masculine heads as the delayed
parade streaked past. Crowds blocked the streets around the Georgian
4O ATLANTA
Terrace Hotel to see the actors and hear brief speeches of welcome
from the mayor, the governor, and other prominent men. A public
ball, at which men and women danced in costumes of the i86o's, was
given at the auditorium that night and featured entertainment typical
of the Old South.
The night of the premiere crowds packed the streets around the
theater, on the fagade of which a concrete, large-columned portico with
Greek pediment had been superimposed. Giant magnolias flanked the
pillars, and multicolored flowers bloomed in the garden that extended
into the street. Spotlights played over the theater front, the people
thronging the streets, dotting surrounding roof-tops, and peering out
of near-by office windows. In the theater, approximately three blocks
from the site of the State Square park that served as an outdoor hos-
pital in 1864, Atlantans saw the picture. They compared the primi-
tiveness of the pictured Peachtree Street and Five Points with their
present appearance and were proud.
Government
JL OR the first few years of its existence the
little settlement called the terminus was governed by no law other
than the common law of the State, and only a rough frontier order pre-
vailed among the pioneer settlers and railroad builders. A local gov-
ernment was established on December 23, 1843, when by legislative
enactment the settlement was incorporated as the town of Marthasville
and five commissioners were appointed to administer civic affairs. The
charter conferred full corporate jurisdiction on the commission, which
was to be elected annually by the qualified voters, but this body proved
ineffectual because responsibility was divided and no means were pro-
vided for enforcing ordinances. The duties of peace officer probably
were shifted from one commissioner to another as convenience dictated,
for there is no mention of a marshal at this time. The commissioners
were reminded emphatically from time to time by the few property
owners of the settlement that they did not want any additional taxes
imposed.
In 1847 the city of Atlanta was incorporated under a document
which, although called an incorporating act amendatory to that of 1843,
was in effect a new charter. This act changed the very character of
the town's government from a commission form to a mayor and council
type. From its inception until 1874, when a revised charter was
adopted, the act of 1847 was greatly altered by the addition of 29
amendments, but the changes made did not alter the basic form of
government under which Atlanta now operates that of mayor and
council.
The mayor and council were given authority to pass ordinances
within constitutional limitations, levy and collect taxes, and impose
fines for violation of ordinances. They were also empowered to elect
a clerk, treasurer, marshal, and tax collector, and fix their duties and
bonds. The salaries were small only $20 annually for each of the
six councilmen and $200 for the mayor. The mayor was given no
strictly exclusive powers except the appointment of standing commit-
42 ATLANTA
tees, which had no administrative authority and could only present
recommendations to council. The mayor had the deciding vote in the
event of a tie at council meetings but no veto power. All the specific
duties assigned to him could be performed by a councilman or group
of councilmen in his absence.
Early judiciary functions were simple. As there was no charter
provision for the trial of State offenses committed within the city, the
mayor and council in their individual capacities were made ministerial
officers of the State in so far as they were empowered to issue warrants
against criminal offenders and imprison them in the town, jail until
they could be tried in a State court. The only city tribunal was the
mayor's court, which had jurisdiction over civic matters only. In 1856
a city court was established but it was abolished the following year,
and the mayor's court continued to function until 1871, when a record-
er's court was established to handle violations of city ordinances and a
city court was set up with jurisdiction over civil and misdemeanor
cases.
The charter of 1847 recognized the need for a stricter enforce-
ment of law and specifically provided that "The marshal shall have
full power and authority to call to his aid any and all of the white
male citizens of said city capable of bearing arms." Three years later
this provision had to be invoked to quell a riot by a lawless gang that
had threatened the peace of the community for several years. In 1852
a supplementary peace force, known as the patrol, was organized. The
city was divided into three districts, and in each of these a patrol
captain and three patrolmen appointed by the mayor and council oper-
ated in 3O-day shifts, apparently without remuneration. In 1853 a
night force consisting of a chief and two assistants was installed and
equipped with "dark lantern and rabble," the rabble apparently being
a kind of riot stick. Added to their other duties was that of a fire
watchman, and they were instructed to give the alarm when a fire
broke out by rushing to the nearest engine house and ringing the bell.
Temporary additions to the force were made from time to time, but
crime control in these early days depended largely upon the leading
citizens who were deputized by the marshal when an emergency arose.
In 1858 the police force was removed from the general supervision of
the mayor and council and put under the direct administration of a
police committee of council, a step that was to lead finally to the organ-
ization of a distinct police department.
A volunteer fire company was organized in 1854, and later other
companies were incorporated, but they worked independently until
1860. At that time representatives of the various companies met and
elected a chief and two assistants to co-ordinate and direct the work
of the several companies. During the War between the States the fire
GOVERNMENT 43
companies not only protected the city from the ravages of fire but also
served as home militia companies, known as the fire brigade. So effi-
ciently did the volunteer companies serve the city that it was not until
1882 that the charter was amended to provide for a paid fire depart-
ment under the supervision of a board of firemasters.
Executive powers were broadened as the prosperous 1850*5 brought
a firmer sense of financial security. An unwise provision of 1860 per-
mitted the mayor and council to subscribe stock in private corporations
at their discretion, and, confident of railroad development as a means
of creating wealth, the city government subscribed $600,000 to the
capital stock of two railroads seeking to enter the city. At the same
time most of a $47,000 bond was outstanding. Then the orderly
process of civic development was disrupted by war. When Atlanta
was placed under martial law in 1862, the mayor was appointed civil
governor of the city and the police force was organized into a military
company. Heavy expenditures for defense and a greatly reduced tax
income had already undermined the city's credit before the defeat of
the Confederate States brought complete collapse to the treasury. The
city was forced to borrow money where it could and, in desperation,
even issued two-year scrip and bonds in order to meet current expenses,
notwithstanding the highest tax rate (2 per cent) in Atlanta's history.
By 1869, through the efforts of a wise finance committee, who
assumed personal responsibility for losses, the city had partly recovered,
but the rapid growth in population following the war made the need
for improvements and the expansion of services urgent. This meant
an increase from year to year in the bonded indebtedness and floating
debt until they exceeded the limit imposed by State law. During the
panic of 1873-75 the balance in the treasury was insufficient to meet
the interest due on the city's debts, and more loans had to be nego-
tiated. When the unsound character of such financing caused interest
rates to reach a peak of 18 per cent on small loans, civic leaders were
finally stirred to action, which resulted in the adoption of a new
charter.
The charter of 1874 embodied a much stronger definition of powers,
although it preserved the fundamental structure of the city government.
Probably the most important change was the reorganization of council
itself into a bicameral body; in addition to the two councilmen elected
from each of the city wards, three aldermen were elected from the city
at large. The term of aldermanic service was fixed at three years,
only one alderman being elected each year. The alderman serving his
last year acted as mayor pro tern and as presiding officer of the general
council. The bicameral council was created principally to safeguard
the treasury by having the two bodies act as a check upon one another
when voting upon ordinances concerning municipal finance. In all
44 ATLANTA
questions of increased indebtedness for the city or the expenditure of
revenue, the two bodies acted separately; on all other resolutions or
ordinances they acted together.
The new charter made the mayor a real factor in city government
by conferring on him the right of veto and revision. For the first
time he was made responsible not only for the execution of all city
laws but charged with the duty of revising such ordinances as author-
ized expenditure beyond a certain fixed amount and of auditing all
accounts against the city before payment was made. In this preroga-
tive the mayor's office became distinctly administrative, and the ten-
dency in all subsequent legislation has been to broaden his responsi-
bilities.
By 1874 the population of Atlanta had grown to approximately
35,000, and consequently the administration of the city's affairs was
becoming increasingly complicated. The charter further recognized the
need for diffusing the executive power by establishing two distinct
boards, a board of water commissioners and a board of commissioners
of police, and vesting them with the supervisory powers later given
to all city departments. This distribution of work through boards or
departments did not decentralize responsibility, however, for the mayor
and council retained disciplinary control over all departmental per-
sonnel through the power of dismissal for cause, whether the officers
were elected by the people or appointed by the mayor and council.
The charter of 1874 a ls imposed strict legal limitations on the
expenditure of municipal funds and on incurring indebtedness. It pro-
hibited the mayor and council from issuing bonds in any amount
without first submitting the issue to a vote of the people, restricted
all expenditures to the annual income, and permitted borrowing
only to meet payments due on the floating debt. By careful man-
agement and a slight increase in the tax rate the city government was
able to supply the funds needed for current expenses and at the same
time reduce the floating debt. By 1877, the year that the new State
constitution limited bond issues by municipalities to 7 per cent of their
taxable property, the city's credit had been restored and the interest
rate on loans had dropped to 7 per cent. Further efforts to assure the
city's financial stability resulted in an amendment in 1879 to provide
a sinking fund adequate to meet the interest on outstanding bonds and
floating indebtedness. So far had public sentiment swung in the direc-
tion of retrenchment that in 1884 the charter was aeain amended to
prohibit the mayor and council from contracting any loans whatsoever,
but the impracticability of this measure was soon apparent, and the
amendment was repealed in 1887. While executive borrowing power
was still limited by legal controls, it was made flexible enough to be
adjusted to current tax values and civic emergencies. Two years later
GOVERNMENT 45
the office of comptroller was created to act as the city accounting
department.
The Board of Commissioners of Police created by the new charter
was composed of five men, none of whom was a member of council.
Unlike the old police committee, which was supervisory, this body was
vested with full administrative power to direct and control the police
department. All appointments to the force, including the chief of
police, and all suspensions and removals were in its hands, and its
decisions were final. Also conferred on the board was the power to
summon witnesses and records and to punish for refusal to testify or
produce records.
This system proved satisfactory, and under it many improvements
were inaugurated despite the handicap of inadequate finances. Patrol
wagons were introduced in 1886 and telephone service was installed in
1891. A strong effort to sever the department from politics was made
in 1905 when the fixed term of police employment was abolished and
a tenure system established. A pension system was adopted in 1910.
Revisions were made from time to time. In 1900 the mayor was
made ex officio member of the police board, and in 1904 the chairman
of the police committee of council was added, but the most extensive
changes were made in 1913, when the name of the board was changed
to the Board of Public Safety and the city fire department was also
put under its direction. The chief of police was granted the privilege
of nominating all his officers and men, subject to approval of the board,
but this led to repeated charges of favoritism. Finally, in 1922, the
Board of Public Safety was abolished, and authority was divided be-
tween the head of the department and the police committee of council.
The Criminal Court of Atlanta was created by the Georgia Leg-
islature on September 6, 1891, and took over all the criminal work of
the city court, leaving to the latter its civil jurisdiction. The judge
was appointed by the governor until an amendment in 1898 made
both the offices of judge and solicitor elective by the qualified voters.
The territorial jurisdiction of this court was broadened in 1935, when
it became the Criminal Court of Fulton County.
From 1874 until 1913 about 60 amendments were added to the
charter of Atlanta. Although some of these amendments were dis-
carded after they had served their purpose, enough were retained to
make the charter such a patchwork that it was sometimes difficult to
determine what the law actually was. In 1911 a new charter was
proposed, providing for a commission type of government, but it was
rejected by the voters as constituting too radical a change in the form
of administration. The charter of 1913, really a sweeping revision of
the old charter, made no striking departure from traditional form but
introduced numerous specific changes.
46 ATLANTA
The most fundamental change was a further decentralization of
administrative power through the creation of more city departments.
Direct control over these departments was vested in charter boards,
which were composed of one member from each city ward appointed
by the mayor and general council. Each board appointed a chief over
its department, who in turn nominated all subordinate officers and
working forces, subject to the confirmation of the board. While the
duties of these boards were regulated by ordinance and each was given
full authority over its department, the final responsibility still rested
with the mayor and council through appointive and supervisory powers.
The mayor and chairman of the council committee corresponding to
the department were ex officio members of the various boards and
thereby remained in close contact with departmental activities. The
determination of the electorate to keep control over the city's officials
is indicated by the introduction of the initiative, referendum, and recall
and the provision that such officials as the comptroller and the city
attorney be elected by the people.
There was some reaction from departmentalization in the amend-
ment of 1922 which abolished the boards of police, health, waterworks,
and parks and transferred their authority to the committees of general
council corresponding to these boards. On the whole, this change was
not an improvement, especially in regard to the police department.
There was a noticeable retrogression in police service, a trend that
continued until late in the I93o's when decided improvements were
made through the determined efforts of the administration.
Atlanta still retains the sound financial policies adopted in 1874,
although some changes in operation have been made. In 1933 a budget
commission was established, which is composed of the mayor, comp-
troller, chairman of the finance committee, and two other members
of the general council elected by that body. The city has no floating
debt and its bonded indebtedness is 3.9 per cent of its assessed ad
valorem tax values, slightly in excess of one-half of that allowed by
the general law of the State. In 1940 the sinking fund amounted to
$824,450.22, and the treasury carried a cash balance of $750,000.
Twenty-year serial bonds sold in 1939 at 2^ per cent interest, while
$500,000 in short-term paper was secured at the very low interest
rate of I per cent.
Several changes have been made in the courts in the Atlanta area
during recent j^ears. In 1935 the old city court that was established
in 1871 was abolished and all its pending business transferred to the
Superior Court of Fulton County. Effective on April I, 1939, the
two divisions of the municipal court were changed in name to the Civil
Court of Fulton County and the Civil Court of DeKalb County.
Except for the early lamp-lighting days, Atlanta has never owned
GOVERNMENT 47
its lighting system, although it was a considerable stockholder in the
first gas lighting company, which was organized in 1855. But, since
the days of the street wells as a source of water supply, the city has
retained complete ownership of the water system. The present system
has a daily capacity of 40,000,000 gallons and a maximum capacity of
55,000,000 gallons, a supply sufficient to furnish a city much larger
than Atlanta.
The laws governing the city are set forth in a code which includes
the charter and a large number of ordinances, as well as many statutes.
No compilation of the code has been made since 1924, but a supple-
ment was published in 1936. Atlanta still derives its corporate powers
from the charter of 1847, although the changes effected in 1874 and
again in 1913 were so broad that the revised documents are referred to
as new charters.
As the city expanded, new wards were added until the number
reached 13 in 1929, with two councilmen and one alderman for each
ward. In 1935, however, the number of wards was reduced by law
to 6, and consequently only 12 councilmen and 6 aldermen now com-
pose the general council. The mayor, who is elected for a term of
4 years, appoints from council the committees that supervise the busi-
ness of the city government. This power of appointment and the veto
constitute the mayor's main source of influence despite the fact that
he is nominally the chief executive and a voting member of all com-
mittees. Consequently, the committee system gives Atlanta a highly
decentralized type of government.
The Governments of Atlanta and Fulton County, prepared by
T.H. Reed and published by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce in
J 938, presents a complete survey of the city's government and makes
recommendations for changes, particularly with reference to centraliz-
ing authority and combining the functions of many city and county
departments. The reactions of the citizens to these recommendations
are somewhat divided, and few major changes have yet been made as
a result of the report.
Transportation
'ONG before this territory was settled
by white people, the ridge along which Atlanta's well-known Peach-
tree Street now runs was already worn by an Indian trail leading to
a trading post on the banks of the Chattahoochee River. Scattered
pioneer families of the early nineteenth century, who settled in the
heavily wooded areas north of the present city, were often affrighted
by the sight of the bucks racing their horses madly to the post, waving
their hands and emitting ear-splitting yells while their black hair
whipped in the wind.
During the 1820*5 the intrepid Methodist circuit riders blazed new
trails through the area, and when campgrounds were established near
Sandy Springs, Lawrenceville, and Ben Hill, the connecting trails were
widened into wagon routes. Afoot, on horseback, and in mule- or
ox-drawn wagons, the God-fearing pioneers made their way along roads
gutted by winter freshets and choked with rotted vegetation.
In 1836 plans were announced for a State railroad to be built
through the mountains of north Georgia, the southern terminus to be
in this area. Various railroads in the lower part of the State planned
to extend their lines to connect with this road, and a stake was driven
at the present site of Atlanta to mark the proposed junction of the
tracks. The arrival of lumberjacks, wood haulers, and railroad work-
men attracted merchants, and soon this place, which was known simply
as the terminus, developed into a trading center. Five roads, leading
from Decatur, Marietta, McDonough, Whitehall Inn, and The Stand-
ing Peachtree, traversed the area, and short branch roads ran from
these to the junction. Mrs. Willis Carlisle, who came to the terminus
in 1841, says that the town was then a veritable wilderness and that
she and her husband followed strange paths in search of a house, only
to find the trails winding up at some spring or an uninhabitable shack
abandoned by railroad hands. The stagecoach driven by Tom Shivers
passed back and forth every other day from Decatur to Marietta, and,
48
TRANSPORTATION 49
says Mrs. Carlisle, "this event was an oasis in the desert of our lives,
for it was the only thing that broke the terrible monotony."
Other factors, however, soon broke the monotony more sharply.
By 1842 the tracks of the Western & Atlantic Railroad were com-
pleted to Marietta and people were eager to see their first train, but
the only engine available was in Madison, Georgia, 65 miles away,
and there was no connecting track. Undaunted, the railroad engineers
constructed a massive 6-wheeled wagon to which were harnessed 16
mules. This unwieldy juggernaut was pulled and pushed laboriously
through uncleared paths all the way to Madison. Fights with farmers
occurred on the way, for some rural folk opposed the spread of rail-
roads and did everything possible to obstruct the building of tracks.
In Madison the engine and two little "passenger boxes" were hauled
aboard the creaking vehicle and the return journey was begun. Families
for miles around came in their wagons and accompanied the procession
to the terminus where the entire population of the settlement, swelled
by visitors from as far away as the north Georgia mountains, had
gathered for the occasion. There were no real streets yet; the settle-
ment was "just a wide place in the road." Horses, mules, and oxen
were tethered to stakes driven in open ground and wagons were parked
in shallow openings of the brush. People climbed fences and trees
to view the arrival of the train. Many wild tales had been circulated
concerning the "iron horses." Some people believed it was dangerous
to stand near the tracks, as it was said that the suction of the passing
train would draw one to death beneath the wheels. Others believed
that engines squirted scalding water, and it was common knowledge
that the boilers were always exploding.
When the locomotive was set upon the tracks it looked harmless
enough and the people crowded close. An excursion to Marietta had
been planned to celebrate the opening of the new State road, and
those invited to make the trial trip formed a gay and excited group
as they waited for the train to pull away from the rough plank shed
at the terminus. Rebecca Latimer Felton, the first woman Senator
in the United States, was only seven when she accompanied her parents
on this excursion trip, but she recalled the exciting incident later in
her book of memoirs Country Life in Georgia. Of the big ball given
in Marietta in honor of the occasion, she said: "The joyful folks
danced all night. There were relays of fiddlers to keep the tunes going.
I remember I thought I had been awake all the time because the music
and the calling of dance figures and the dancers' feet seemed to be
going on until daylight in the morning."
After this successful run the people in the vicinity of the terminus
awaited with eager anticipation the completion of the State road and
the extension of other railroads to connect with the Western & Atlantic
50 ATLANTA
tracks. On September 15, 1845, the first through train from Augusta
pulled into Atlanta, as the town was now known, over the Georgia
Railroad tracks, and the following year the Macon & Western's first
train arrived from Monroe.
Despite its growing prominence as a railroad center, few seriously
thought the settlement would ever be other than a mere wood station,
and no consideration was given to community planning. True, prop-
erty for a depot had been donated to the State railroad, and this plot,
known as State Square, was the block bounded by the present Pryor,
Decatur, and Alabama Streets and Central Avenue. Also the adjacent
lot to the west was given to the Macon & Western Railroad as a site
for its depot. Landowners built wherever they pleased and, as a result,
the eroded scars that served as streets radiated from the State Square
in haphazard fashion like the warped spokes of a wheel. In 1849,
the road which led to Whitehall Inn out near the junction of the
Sandtown and Newnan roads (now Gordon and Lee Streets) was
straightened and named Whitehall Street. Pryor Street was laid out
in the same year and named in honor of Allen Pryor, the surveyor.
Alabama Street was at that time little more than a red clay ditch,
but it was so named because of its westerly direction and because the
early settlers were proud of boasting that some day it would reach
"clear to Alabama." Business houses had concentrated along White-
hall, Alabama, and Mitchell Streets, thoroughfares that were difficult
of passage and dangerous, for newspapers of the day state that they
were pitted by great holes, some of which were 15 feet wide and 18 feet
deep.
The movement of wagons and carriages through the town was ac-
complished with difficulty. Heavier vehicles constantly mired down
and "going to town" was more a matter of a walk than a ride. Drivers
often had to pull their wagons up on the dirt sidewalks to avoid the
deeper puddles of the streets, and thus the sidewalks became so rutted
that they were hardly distinguishable from the streets. Even those
who rode horseback fared little better, for their mounts often stumbled
and threw the riders into the mud or red dust. Many storekeepers,
in consideration for their customers, laid boardwalks in front of their
shops. By the late 1850*3 several of the sidewalks nearest the railroads
were so paved and a few of the streets had been surfaced with a double
layer of crushed rock.
The roads leading into town were equally difficult of passage, but,
despite transportation obstacles, brisk trade was developing with the
surrounding territory. Long wagon trains, heavily laden with produce
and sometimes drawn by as many as six mules or oxen, pulled into
Atlanta and struggled through the quagmires to the market place on
Marietta Street. In 1856 the city purchased 3,000 shares of stock
TRANSPORTATION 5 1
in a company organized to build a bridge over the Chattahoochee River,
thus stimulating trade with Cobb County.
A year later connecting lines of the Western & Atlantic Railroad
were completed to Memphis, Tennessee, on the northwest and to
Charleston, South Carolina, on the east. A group of Atlanta citizens
joined the mayor of Memphis and his party when they passed through
the city on their way to Charleston to mingle the waters of the
Mississippi River with those of the Atlantic Ocean. At the com-
memorative banquet held in Charleston the group from Atlanta was
toasted as coming from "The Gate City," an apt phrase which im-
mediately took hold and did much to advertise Atlanta as the distribu-
tion center of the South. In the same year the city bought $100,000
worth of stock in the Georgia Air Line Railroad which was to run
to Charlotte, North Carolina. An additional purchase of $100,000
was made the following year. In 1860 the city invested $300,000 in
the stock of the Georgia Western Railroad.
At the outbreak of the War between the States Atlanta was the
most important railway center in the South, with four major railroads
radiating from the city. The Federal forces, realizing that the capture
of Atlanta would seriously cripple the entire Confederacy, made it a
goal for their drives. Their aim was achieved in 1864 when General
Sherman left the city a shambles before marching to the sea.
Returning families could bring but few household furnishings over
the virtually impassable roads, which had been rutted by the passage
of heavy gun carriages and blasted by shell. Most bridges being de-
stroyed, it was necessary to wade creeks or unharness the horses and
walk them across the few remaining bridges. The wagons were then
pulled and pushed across the flimsy structures.
Conditions were even worse inside the city, where the wreckage
of buildings littered the streets. One member of the family usually
ran ahead of the returning wagon, searching for a passage through
the debris. One man, O.H. Jones, took advantage of the situation
to establish livery stables near the City Hall. With his stock of
powerful stallions he took over much of the business of moving the
belongings of private families. To the public he rented "rockaways,"
a type of carriage very popular because its lightness and high narrow
wheels rendered it unlikely to get stuck in the mud.
Even several years after the close of the war little had been done
toward repairing the highways and streets. Miss Sarah Huff tells in
her memoirs of the difficulties travelers experienced in approaching
the city over the Marietta Road. Great pits on this road, as on all
others, often made it necessary for drivers to lead their horses up onto
the dirt "sidewalks," much to the chagrin of pedestrians. One in-
genious vehicle, known as the slide, came into usage about this time.
52 ATLANTA
It was very much like a sled, with side runners connected by crosspieces.
Occasionally the runners were fashioned out of discarded railroad rails.
Pulled by a horse, these sleds negotiated the muddy roads with infinitely
greater ease than wagons.
The opposing armies had cleared many paths through the wooded
areas surrounding Atlanta, and, through constant usage, these paths
became roads. One of the most important was the line of General
Joseph E. Johnston's retreat. In 1866, when Atlanta's cattle and
mule market had its beginning, cattle were driven afoot from Tennessee
and the north Georgia hills along this line. The route today is virtually
the same as that followed by US 41.
In 1871 the officials of the five railroads running into the city
jointly rebuilt the Union Station on State Square. But the city was
growing in all directions and its increase in size made necessary some
means of city transportation. Accordingly, the Atlanta Street Rail-
way Company, which had been incorporated in 1866, completed its
organization and built the first street railway line in the city, extending
from the railroad crossing on Whitehall Street to Camp's Spring in
what is now known as the suburb of West End. The early cars,
mounted on cast-iron tracks and pulled by two mules, looked not unlike
the "Toonerville Trolley" of comic-strip fame. The car barn was
on Exchange Place where the Atlanta Theater now stands, and the
stables were at the corner of Ivy and Gilmer Streets. The horsecars
immediately proved so profitable that a second line began operating
out Marietta Street in January 1872. In May of the same year the
Decatur Street line to Oakland Cemetery began service. The Peach-
tree Street line began running as far as Ponce de Leon Circle in August
and, two years later, was extended to Ponce de Leon Springs where
the Sears Roebuck store now stands.
By 1880 the Peachtree line had been extended to the present Pied-
mont Park section, and a new route had been opened out Alabama
Street to McDonough Street. During the next two years two new
companies, the Gate City Railway and the Metropolitan Street Rail-
way, were organized and lines were put in operation through the
eastern part of the city to Ponce de Leon Springs and west to West
View Cemetery.
In 1888 two innovations in street transit were introduced by newly
formed companies. Early in the year Aaron Haas began the operation
of steam cars, popularly known as "dummies" because the steam engines
were hidden in the ordinary street car superstructure. Some south
side lines were leased from the Metropolitan Street Railway Company
and the steam cars, actually small trains, began operating over these
routes. The citizens of Atlanta considered these steam cars not only
practical conveyances but entertainment vehicles, and a "ride on the
TRANSPORTATION 53
dummies" became a most popular form of amusement. Such joy rides,
however, were not without hazard; the motor-driven vehicles were
capable of much faster speeds than the old horse-drawn cars and the
dummies often leapt the tracks.
Only a few months after the introduction of the steam cars, Joel
Hurt began operating the first electric cars out Edgewood Avenue to
Inman Park. In the same year the famed "nine-mile circle" was
established, an electric line running from Peachtree out Houston and
Hilliard Streets to Highland and Virginia Avenues and back to town
over Boulevard. This new means of transportation became immediately
popular and a ride over the nine-mile circle was regarded as the city's
prime entertainment feature. Such streetcar tours were even adver-
tised as being soothing to tired and frayed nerves.
But it was actually a noisy era with the rattle of three kinds of
streetcars horse, steam, and electric the shrieking of train whistles,
the rumble of heavy wagons, and the clatter of horses' hoofs over the
cobblestone pavements. Even so, Miss Sarah Huff recalls with nostalgic
longing "the merry bells of the horsecars ringing traffic warnings"
through the dignified residential districts. Many a noted citizen, such
as Joel Chandler Harris, Frank L. Stanton, Jonathan Norcross, and
George W. Adair, had their favorite places in the streetcars, and riders
who boarded the cars at points up the line tacitly understood that these
seats were not to be taken or were to be relinquished if these gentlemen
boarded the cars at their accustomed stops.
The decade of the nineties was a period of great expansion in all
of Atlanta's transportation facilities. In 1890 two new street railway
systems were organized. The Consolidated Street Railway Company,
headed by Joel Hurt, took over all existing lines and equipped them
for electric cars. The second system was the Atlanta, West End &
McPherson Barracks Railway Company. The following year this
system changed its name to the Atlanta Traction Company and a new
company, the Collins Park and Beltline, was organized. In 1892 still
a fourth company, the Atlanta City Railway, was formed. Two years
later both the Atlanta Traction Company and the Atlanta City Rail-
way went into receivership and were taken over by the Atlanta Railway
Company, which was organized in 1895.
The paving of Atlanta's streets had kept pace in most instances
with the extension of the streetcar lines. Crushed rock, Belgian blocks,
and cobblestones were the most popular surfaces. Sidewalks were laid
with bricks in herring-bone fashion. The work of grade separation
had begun in 1891 on a comprehensive scale with the erection of the
Forsyth Street viaduct. There followed in rapid succession the build-
ing of eight bridges, underpasses, and viaducts.
Several new railroads came into Atlanta during the nineties, and
54 ATLANTA
the city became general headquarters for a number of terminal com-
panies. Early in the decade the Southern Railway System had absorbed
many of the smaller companies. By the turn of the century the num-
ber of railway systems maintaining offices in Atlanta had risen to 44,
and more than one third of all the freight entering the State was
unloaded in the city. In 1904 the Terminal Station was erected to
accommodate the trains of six big railroads.
During the first ten years of the I goo's, ten more grade separation
projects were brought to completion and the city had 84 miles of paved
streets and 268 miles of brick sidewalks. In 1902 all street railways
were consolidated under the name of the Georgia Railway & Electric
Company. In 1908 this organization took over the Georgia Power
Company, which had been formed two years previously, and became
the nucleus of the present company.
Despite this bustling expansion the era was not without its elegance.
In his book Chip Off My Shoulder Thomas Stokes describes the flow
of traffic past his West End home in the early 1900*5. "There was
constant activity. The streetcars lumbered along the incline past the
house every few minutes and against the Belgian block pavement the
horses beat their tattoo, now slow and regular as they pulled a heavy
wagon up the incline . . . now gay and ecstatic ... as blooded steeds
proudly drew fine equipages, linked two and two. The coachman sat
stiff and erect. The plumes of the women waved a feathery trail
behind. It was a splendid sight."
"Constant activity" was to take on new meaning, however, and the
elegance of leisure was doomed to suffer extinction by the automobile.
The first "horseless carriage" to appear on the city's streets had been
purchased in 1897 by J.W. Alexander. The vehicle, known as a
loco-steamer, was propelled by a steam motor and was described as
being "as contrary a critter as was ever endowed with cranks and other
complications." Mr. Alexander's most sensational exploit was the
attempt of a one-day round-trip to East Point, six miles south of
Atlanta. Scoffers prophesied that he would never make it. They
were right. About three miles out of town a particularly stubborn
red mule disputed the right of way with Mr. Alexander's coughing
contraption. The stage of angry glaring was quickly passed and the
mule took the offensive with a well-placed kick which decided the
encounter by depositing Mr. Alexander and his loco-steamer in a gully.
This triumph of the mule over the machine was but the last spite-
ful gesture of a defeated era. Shortly after the turn of the century,
the automobile, while by no means commonplace, had ceased to be a
sensation. One type of motive power followed another in quick suc-
cession and, in a very few years, steam-, electric-, and gasoline-powered
automobiles were rolling along Atlanta's streets. When it became evi-
TRANSPORTATION 55
dent that the horseless carriage was here to stay, Atlanta's variety of
street pavings gave way to the smoother and more durable asphalt.
This repaving, at first a slow process, was hastened and made more
comprehensive by the Florida boom of the 1920'$. At that time the
State constructed many new highways through Georgia, and Atlanta
financed the paving of many thoroughfares through the city lest tourists
choose other routes. New streets were cut through several sections
of the city to relieve traffic congestion and one major elevated artery,
the Spring Street viaduct, was opened.
During this period another medium of transportation arose to com-
pete with the street railway system. This was the distracting fleet of
"jitneys" or model-T Fords overloaded with commuters who were
willing to put up with a great deal of discomfort to take advantage
of the five-cent fare. At one time these jitneys reached a peak of
363 cars. In 1924 they were abolished by a city law which declared
them to be an unsafe and unfair means of competition. This left an
unrivaled field for the Georgia Power Company which, it is generally
conceded, has provided Atlanta with the best street railway service in
the country. The company maintains a fleet of feeder, shoppers' special,
and express busses to supplement the electric streetcars and, in 1940,
introduced the modern streamlined trackless trolley.
Interstate bus lines, which started running into Atlanta late in
the 1920*5 and were considered only supplementary to train service, are
now a major factor of travel. In 15 years the bus traffic has outgrown
three depots, and a fourth station, the largest in the South, has recently
been opened. This depot serves more than 200 daily busses operating
on the 15 lines which enter the city.
Atlanta's two railway stations, the Union and the Terminal, serve
the 15 main lines of 8 major railway systems running no passenger
trains in and out of the city daily. A third station at Brookwood is
maintained by the Southern Railway System for the convenience of
north Atlanta residents.
As far back as 1910 Atlanta had an aerial exposition featuring "a
whole flock of the new-fangled air machines." City leaders were as
quick to recognize the growing importance of air travel as the early
settlers had been to grasp the significance of the railroads. Many
individuals, having bought their own private planes, urged the estab-
lishment of a graded landing field. In 1925 the city leased the Candler
race track and converted it into an airport. In 1929 the property was
purchased outright and extensive improvements made. Candler Field
now ranks third in the Nation's air passenger service and eighth in
volume of air mail. It is on the routes of eight major passenger lines,
and in 1939 handled 99,800 commercial passengers.
Commerce and Industry
T
JLH
HE railroads made Atlanta. The same
strokes that hammered spikes into crossties beat the breath of life into
the newborn town, and the city's present eminence depends upon the
hundreds of trains pulsing in and out daily via the steel arteries reach-
ing into the body of the Nation. Atlanta is essentially a city of
commerce.
The settlement became a small trading center soon after the stake
was driven in 1837 to designate the proposed junction of the various
existing railroads with a State line extending to Tennessee. In 1839
John Thrasher, expecting an immediate influx of railroad workers,
erected a general store which was the first commercial venture of the
community. But the building of the railroads did not go forward as
rapidly as had been anticipated, so, in 1841, Thrasher closed his estab-
lishment and moved away from the terminus. But his action was too
hasty, for the following year the road was completed from the little
junction to Marietta.
The first industrial venture, a horse-powered sawmill established
by Jonathan Norcross, fared better. When the tracks of the Georgia
Railroad neared the town in 1844, Norcross began fashioning construc-
tion timbers for roadbeds and bridges and rough slabs for workmen's
huts. The little community grew rapidly and before the year was out
numbered among its enterprises a grocery store, a general emporium,
and, in deference to the femininity of pioneer wives, a bonnet shop.
Early in 1845 a cabinet shop and coffin factory was opened, and
on September 15 of that year the first train pulled into town over the
Georgia Railroad from Madison. A year later, when the Macon &
Western's first train arrived from Monroe, Atlanta's commercial life
had definitely begun. Cotton, then as now, was the leading product
of the State, and the railroads quickly made Atlanta an important
distribution point for this staple. Warehouses were erected for storing
the cotton until sold, when it was transferred to the port city of
Savannah or to inland manufacturing centers. Farmers brought or
56
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 57
shipped their crops and livestock to town and an extensive barter trade
developed. Cloth was exchanged for corn and shoes for syrup, and
thus it happened that all early retail stores, regardless of their specializa-
tions, also carried groceries and produce.
William N. White gives a graphic picture of Atlanta's commerce
and industry in 1847, the eventful year of its incorporation. "The
city," he wrote, "now contains 2,500 inhabitants; thirty large stores;
two hotels; three newspapers; 187 buildings have been put up this
summer within eight months and more are in progress. . . . The
cotton picking season has just commenced and it comes in at the rate
of 50 or 60 wagon loads a day. This is nothing to what it will be in
December, and it will continue until spring; like the butter up north
it is brought here to market from places 100 miles distant. Grain and
all such supplies come down from the Cherokee country. . . . Busi-
ness here is increasing daily. Several thousand dollars worth per diem
are purchased of cotton, corn, wheat, etc. New stores are continually
being opened . . . there is no product of Georgia which cannot be
conveyed to Atlanta in three days time." The stores to which White
referred housed such businesses as clothing and drygoods, jewelry,
machine shops, wagon-works, groceries, and banking.
Real estate was being promoted extensively, White reporting that:
"I have been out looking at lots at various prices, from $20 to $400
per lot all within the limits of the city. On Whitehall Street a lot
20x40 feet would be worth twice that sum . . . one can hardly make
money as fast as property rises in this place."
Diversification of industry was furthered by Richard Peters, who
erected a gristmill in 1848. Since his was the only such mill in the
vicinity, it was often necessary for the pioneers to wait long hours
before their corn or wheat could be ground, and a visit to the mill
was often made an all-day occasion. Women would bring their knit-
ting and settle themselves comfortably under shade trees where they
could keep a watchful eye on the children; the men would gather in
little groups and discuss crops and politics while awaiting their turn
at the stone.
By 1850 street peddlers were being licensed, and at one meeting
in that year the city council passed an ordinance regulating the prac-
tice whereby slaves sold farm produce and merchandise for their masters
on the streets of the city.
This decade of the fifties was commercially and industrially sig-
nificant. The tracks of the^ Western & Atlantic had been extended to
Chattanooga, thereby opening new market areas. Banks, tanneries,
shoe shops, gins, and factories for the manufacture of furniture, car-
riages, and freight cars were erected. But the arbitrary freight rates
imposed by the railroads operated in such a manner as to affect ad-
58 ATLANTA
versely the Atlanta trade. Business men of older Southern cities,
jealous of Atlanta's progress, used the influence of their controlling
interest in the railroads to see that goods shipped to Atlanta from
Northern cities cost the local merchants about 100 per cent more than
other Southern cities were required to pay. This same disparity in
rates applied to freight shipped from Atlanta to other points in the
South. In further discrimination against the growing city, railroad
schedules were so timed that trains arrived in Atlanta at late hours of
the night with no stopover privileges. The resulting loss to Atlanta
merchants was estimated as being in excess of $400,000 during the
period from 1853 through 1858. Local merchants, owning no con-
trolling interest in the railroads, were powerless to alleviate these
transportation difficulties, and the condition was not improved until
long after the War between the States.
Still, the town grew. New banks were organized, and factories
manufacturing farm implements and construction materials were
erected. Luxury industries established during the fifties included those
for the manufacture of cigars, soda waters, candies, and cakes. In
1855 a S as plant was built, and on Christmas night of that year
Atlanta's first gas lights were turned on.
The growth of the town, though amazingly rapid, had been basically
sound, and its strategic location and excellent climate were two perma-
nent advantages. Consequently, by 1860 Atlanta had surpassed almost
all other Southeastern cities as a financial, industrial, and commercial
center. So great had been the city's progress that even the outbreak
of the War between the States did not immediately slow its momentum.
On the contrary, Atlanta burst into a new frenzy of activity. Many
established factories secured contracts with the Confederate Govern-
ment for the manufacture of ordnance supplies, and new plants were
built for the purpose. Shifts worked day and night turning out tents,
pistols, swords, harness, saddles, and shoes. Rolling mills were quickly
built for the manufacture of heavy guns, cannon, steel rails, and rail-
way car equipment. Goods brought through the Union blockade were
sold in Atlanta stores, and the city was crowded by foreigners who
came in to offer their technical advice on the manufacture of military
equipment. In 1862 the city became the South's largest army supply
base and, because of its increasing military importance, was placed
under martial law. As the war advanced, wealthy plantation owners
of the vicinity, feeling that the city offered more security, brought their
families to Atlanta and established residence. Business boomed, but
the pinch of war was beginning to be felt in the rise of commodity
prices. Then, in 1864, came General Sherman, to lay siege and cap-
ture the town and to raze it by fire before beginning his relentless
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 59
march to the sea. All but 400 of Atlanta's 3,800 houses and com-
mercial buildings were destroyed.
Reconstruction, however, was rapid. Temporary shelters were
quickly erected to store the goods which canny merchants were col-
lecting, and as soon as the less damaged buildings were repaired, a busi-
ness on a small scale began. Federal soldiers and carpetbaggers jammed
the streets, and many new names appeared on Atlanta storefronts.
The rebuilding of old railroad lines and the beginning of new ones
hastened the city's resumption of its commercial leadership. By 1870
Atlanta's population, which had numbered only 12,000 in 1864, had
risen to 22,000.
The decade of the seventies was one of great expansion. Northern
money poured into town, banks were reopened, and, as an indication
of the growing size of the town, the horsecars of the first street rail-
way made their appearance. The business census of 1875 listed 7 banks,
I bond broker, 17 cotton brokers, and 63 life and fire insurance agents,
showing that the city's position in finance was equal to its commercial
and industrial supremacy. In the same year a count showed 32 boot
and shoemakers, 7 carriage and wagon factories and dealers, 13 whole-
sale drug companies, 10 wholesale dry-goods firms, 8 flour mills,
5 foundries, and 7 furniture factories and dealers. A score of trains sped
to and from Atlanta daily, bringing in raw materials and taking out
finished products.
The decade of the eighties was notable for the International Cotton
Exposition which was held in 1881, calling the Nation's attention to
Atlanta's prestige in Southern commerce and industry. Scores of huge
buildings were erected and thousands of exhibits were displayed. The
exposition afforded the city great publicity and attracted from other
sections of the country much money which was immediately invested
in Atlanta enterprises. One direct result of the exposition was the
establishment of the Exposition Cotton Mills in 1882. The main
building of the exposition was converted into a factory which em-
ployed five hundred workers operating thirty thousand spindles and
seven hundred and fifty looms.
During this period and until the turn of the century, Atlanta's
industries very nearly eclipsed its importance as a commercial center.
The development of steam power brought about a great urbanization
of industry. The building of factories near waterways was no longer
necessary; it was sufficient that they be located near railroads making
available a large coal supply and affording easy distribution of products.
Atlanta exactly filled these requirements, with the result that during
the decade about 20 new factories were built for the manufacture of
farm implements, cottonseed oil products, construction materials, tex-
tiles, furniture, glass, pianos, and all sorts of machinery. Also during
60 ATLANTA
the eighties, Atlanta's livestock market, which had its beginnings before
the war, expanded to become the greatest mule market in the Nation.
This was the era of patent medicines, and several companies began
the manufacture of these bottled panaceas in Atlanta.
The year 1886 was significant for the beginning of a soft drink
venture that has carried the name of Atlanta around the world. In
May of that year J.S. Pemberton, a manufacturing chemist, perfected
his formula for a soft drink and sold it under the trademark "Coca-
Cola." The following year he disposed of two-thirds interest in the
business to George Lowndes and Willis Venable, who dispensed the
drink from the soda fountain of Jacobs Drug Store at Five Points.
Asa G. Candler, a wholesale druggist, purchased controlling interest
in the business in April 1888, and soon organized the Coca-Cola Com-
pany for the manufacture and promotion of the beverage. In Coca-
Cola's meteoric rise to popularity Candler and his associates amassed
a fortune. In 1919 the Candlers sold their interest, and the purchasers
reorganized and expanded the business to such an extent that the
product is now sold in more than 70 countries.
During the nineties several new railroads were extended into
Atlanta, and a number of terminal companies made the city their
headquarters. By the end of the decade 44 railroads maintained
Atlanta offices, and more than one third of all the freight entering
the State was unloaded in the city.
The outstanding event of the decade was the Cotton States and
International Exposition of 1895. This display surpassed even the
former exposition of 1881 and again served to advertise to the world
that, although it was an inland city, Atlanta was one of the Nation's
pivotal transportation centers. The response was immediate; national
manufacturing and financial corporations established branch offices in
the city, and it was during this decade that Atlanta's first skyscrapers
were erected.
With the turn of the century the development of long-distance
transmission of electric power drew industries away from urban areas.
Consequently, during the first decade of the igoo's there was a lessen-
ing of the number of factories established in the Atlanta area. But
what the city lost in manufactories was more than compensated for
by the concentration of branch offices of national concerns. Virtually
all Southeastern sales of nationally distributed goods were made through
Atlanta district offices, resulting in a great increase in the city's bank
clearings, postal receipts, and freight handlings. Almost all of the
present railroads had been established, and Atlanta became nationally
recognized as the commercial and financial center of the South.
During the decade of 1910 Atlanta became increasingly conscious
of its metropolitan potentialities, and many factors combined to bring
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 6l
them to realization. Building had lagged considerably behind popula-
tion and it now became necessary to erect new residences and business
houses. The Healey, Hurt, and Transportation (now Western Union)
Buildings, three of the city's first modern office structures, were erected.
Two large department stores were constructed, and among the new
hotels were the Ansley, Winecoff, Imperial, and Cecil (now the
Atlantan). Two automobile assembly plants were located in the city,
those of the Ford and Hanson Motor Companies. Recognition of
Atlanta's financial leadership was signified by the establishment of the
bank of the Sixth Federal Reserve District in the city.
In 1917 a devastating fire destroyed more than 60 city blocks with
a property loss of $5,000,000. This created a serious housing problem
as, by this time, the country had entered the World War and all
available labor in the city was employed in building barracks at Fort
McPherson and Camp Gordon. Not for several years could the
burned area be rebuilt. But at the cantonments there was great con-
struction activity, local industries were receiving large war orders, and
workers were well paid.
The impetus of lavish spending created by the war carried the city
on a wave of prosperity well into the twenties. Civic leaders began
publicity drives to "put Atlanta on the map," and these drives reached
a climax in the middle of the decade when the city experienced its
greatest expansion in the growth of office buildings, banks, stores, real
estate developments, street mileage, and population. This expansion
was largely due to the activity of the Forward Atlanta Commission,
organized by the Chamber of Commerce. During the four-year period
ending in 1929, the commission spent almost $1,000,000 advertising
Atlanta on a Nation-wide scale. Full-page advertisements were bought
in leading trade and commercial magazines and papers, and thousands
of pamphlets were sent to industrial leaders throughout the country.
The effects of the campaign are still operative, but an immediate result
was the establishment of many new concerns in the Atlanta area. It
was also during this decade that many large Atlanta business houses
became affiliated with Northern concerns and, through mergers, num-
bers of chain stores began to appear in the city.
During the early thirties Atlanta experienced its share of the
Nation-wide depression. Many businesses failed, stores closed, and
the proportion of unemployed mounted. Some concerns survived the
trying years by merging with larger organizations. Many small spe-
cialty shops opened, hoping to succeed where more conservative general
firms had failed. The majority of them, however, were but short-lived.
For about two years there were so many vacant stores in downtown
Atlanta that the Chamber of Commerce undertook a program urging
the remaining business houses to rent the vacant store windows for
62 ATLANTA
a display of their goods, thereby enabling the city literally to "keep
up its front."
With the instigation of various Federal Government emergency
bureaus, buying power increased and business slowly revived. Ex-
tensive slum clearance projects were financed and many public im-
provements were made with Federal funds in Atlanta. By the end
of the decade a fair amount of business stability was evident and private
concerns again were willing to invest large sums in the expansion of
building and production.
The impetus given commerce and industry by the building program
of the national defense agencies began to be felt in 1940, when many
orders for materials were placed with Atlanta firms. On the site of
Camp Gordon, World War cantonment, the army began the construc-
tion of the Lawson General Hospital, and the navy started the build-
ing of an aviation base for the preliminary training of its fliers and
those of the marine corps. During the following year the army bought
1,500 acres of land, 9 miles southeast of Atlanta on State 42, and
undertook the erection of 14 large concrete warehouses, costing be-
tween ten and fifteen million dollars. At these storehouses, which will
be called the Atlanta General Depot, supplies will be bought and
stored for the signal, medical, quartermaster, and engineering corps
and other branches of the army. All three of the defense projects
are to serve the entire southeastern part of the United States.
The Nation-wide speed-up of industry finds Atlanta admirably
equipped with facilities to maintain its commercial leadership. Its
pre-eminence as a transportation center is assured by the 15 main lines
of 8 railroad systems, by 8 major airlines, and by 75 highway freight
lines operating over a network of paved roads radiating in all direc-
tions. Atlanta's railway express shipments are more per capita than
those of any other city in the Nation. The city ranks as the third
largest telegraph center in the world, eighth among cities of the United
States in airmail volume, thirteenth in bank clearings ($3,009,375,000
in 1939), eighteenth in postal receipts, and fourth in the amount of
fire insurance premiums cleared annually.
Atlanta's location is such that a population of 14,500,000 lives
within a radius of 300 miles of the city. This easy accessibility to
the consumer accounts for the more than 2,500 branch factories, ware-
houses, and division offices Which are. located in the city. For the same
reason Atlanta is an ideal gathering point for Southeastern sales forces,
and, in 1939, 495 conventions were held in the city with an attendance
of 134,000 delegates. In Atlanta and its environs are about 900 fac-
tories manufacturing more than 1,500 commodities, the more important
being textiles, food products, paper containers, drugs and chemicals,
and furniture. In 1939 the value of products manufactured within
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 63
Atlanta proper was $165,729,836, and the total sales of Atlanta's re-
tail and wholesale stores amounted to $637,394,000. The city has
47 prominent office buildings with a total square footage of 2,748,619
feet, making it the first city in the Nation in per capita office space.
Labor
T
LH
HE founders of Atlanta were their own
workmen. Though built in the midst of a slave State, the town was
fiercely proud of its independence and vitality, and its social aspect
was essentially democratic. No newcomer to the city was ashamed
to build his own hut or store and personally perform all the daily
tasks necessary to a pioneer living. This was largely because most
of Atlanta's settlers were migratory workers, accustomed to shift for
themselves, while those few early citizens of means were Northerners
opposed to slave labor.
In 1847 Atlanta had a population of 2,500 and Dr. William White,
a school teacher from New York State, wrote in his diary of that year :
"There are not 100 Negroes in the place, and white men black their
own shoes and dust their own clothes independently as in the North.
All through the upper part of Georgia the labor is done almost entirely
by white hands. Carpenters get but ten shillings a day here and labor
commands about the same price as at the North."
The few Negroes in Atlanta during the town's early days were
freed slaves. Trained on the plantations as wainwrights and black-
smiths, they were theoretically free to follow these callings in the
hope of accumulating enough money to purchase the freedom of their
wives, children, and other relatives still held in bondage. They were
rarely successful at making a living, however, and the majority of them
returned to the plantations. Some farmers in the vicinity were ac-
customed to send their slaves into town to peddle produce on the
streets. The fact that the city council in 1850 placed a tax of $i on
each Negro sold in the slave market on Alabama Street indicates
that the trade was active, but these slaves were rarely purchased for
work in the city.
Several years before the War between the States it became fashion-
able for owners of outlying plantations to build houses and send their
families to Atlanta for residence at various seasons of the year. A
family was accompanied usually by a young Negro girl who acted as
64
LABOR 65
ladies' maid, a mature Negro woman to cook and do the house clean-
ing, and a grizzled darky who performed the duties of handyman and
carriage driver.
During the War between the States, Atlanta became the chief
military supply base of the Confederacy and business boomed. But,
with most of the young men in the army or engaged in the manu-
facture of war supplies, there was a serious shortage of labor in the
less important fields of industry. Many an older Atlanta business man
doffed his coat for a clerk's apron and left his executive desk to work
behind the sales counter.
Shortly after the war thousands of "free issue" Negroes crowded
Atlanta awaiting the division of confiscated lands which had been
promised them by the carpetbaggers. Disaster was their lot. With
no means of support, drinking and carousing day and night, running
wild and living in filth, hundreds of them perished from starvation
and disease. The Freedmen's Bureau helped some, building shelters,
feeding and caring for the homeless, and sending many to other sec-
tions of the country where there was more opportunity for employ-
ment. A few Negroes, trained in various mechanical callings on the
plantations, found their way into industry. Many, however, were
forced to return to their former owners where, facing the contempt
of the older slaves who had remained loyal to their masters, they helped
rebuild the ruined mansions and replant the devastated fields.
So it was that during Reconstruction potential labor went idle
while professional and businessmen carried mortar, bricks, and timber
to repair their residences and shops. Lack of money furthered lack
of employment, and the carpetbagger administration of Governor
Bullock did nothing to improve the labor situation. After his resigna-
tion and flight in 1871, business took confidence and there was con-
siderable expansion. A census of that year shows that 75 firms were
employing 846 men, 44 women, and 126 children in Fulton County.
The average weekly wage was $8.42.
The decade of the 1870*3 brought about a sounder reconstruction
program. As Southerners recouped their fortunes, older business houses
were re-established, while many new ventures, founded with speculative
Yankee money, failed. Reconstruction was physical as well as financial.
Scores of buildings and houses that had been hastily repaired after
the war were torn down, and new structures were erected in their
places. The construction industries boomed, providing employment for
thousands of workers.
A social evil which arose during this decade and had far-reaching
effects upon labor was the system whereby the State leased convicts to
private employers. Originally intended as a humanitarian move to
rehabilitate the criminal, the practice quickly degenerated into one of
66 ATLANTA
abuse and selfish gain. In return for a small per capita annuity paid
to the State (ten or twelve dollars per year) the leaser worked the
convicts from sunup to sundown with no other expense than the pro-
vision of food and shelter. Supervision was often brutal, and many
convicts died from neglect or flogging. Since free labor could in no
way compete with this enforced service, a general lowering of wage
standards followed. In 1873 a survey showed that, although 800
mechanics in the city were out of work, trains were almost daily
bringing in additional convict labor.
Some slight progress was made toward organization of workers,
however, when a small union of factory workers was formed. In the
summer of 1873 members of the Typographical Union struck in pro-
test against the dismissal of a foreman and two printers from the staff
of the Atlanta Herald, a newspaper edited by Henry W. Grady. When
the owners of the paper threatened to suspend publication permanently,
the union members returned to work, and the defeat of this abortive
strike was considered a triumph for the open shop. But the workers
had been impressed by their own audacity in even daring to strike,
and they were determined to gain strength for later and more telling
efforts.
In 1880 labor conditions had improved considerably in actual em-
ployment, but wage scales were still low. In that year Atlanta had
196 manufacturing establishments that employed 3,680 hands, includ-
ing 538 women and 394 children. But the average wage was only
$4.65 a week. Computed on the basis that each of these workers, in-
cluding children, represented a then typical family of five, estimates
show that of Atlanta's 37,409 population in that year almost exactly
one half were existing upon substandard incomes.
Under such conditions organization among the workers changed
from a mere desire into a compelling necessity. But, although various
trades organized local chapters under the leadership of the Knights
of Labor, these were but short-lived. Organization among Southern
workers was still too new to engender an effective feeling of unity,
but unionization was growing. In February 1884, the Woman's In-
dustrial Union was organized to teach working girls how to sew, cook,
and perform other duties, paying them while they learned. It was
claimed by the union that a girl earning 15 to 20^ a day in a factory
could easily make 75^ a day after being vocationally trained in the
union school. In April of the same year the Women's Industrial
Union expanded to establish the Woman's Exchange, a shop which
afforded the unemployed women of Atlanta an opportunity to sell
homemade articles. Heartened by the success of these ventures, exist-
ing unions also introduced training schools.
In 1888 an independent union, the first of its kind in the United
Commerce and Industry
FREIGHT TRUCKS
RAILROAD YARDS, ATLANTA TERMINAL STATION
1 ^
tv
DEPARTMENT STORE BARGAIN SALE
TELEPHONE OPERATORS
_
I
MIDMORNING AT THE STOCK BROKER'S
BUS TERMINAL
1 ,
H n^ag|
I If
THREADING AUTOMATIC BANDING MACHINE IN A COTTON TEXTILE MILL
WARPING IN A COTTON TEXTILE MILL
MILL VILLAGE
STORING COCA-COLA SYRUP IN METAL DRUMS FOR SHIPMENT
PACKING CANDY
THE CONSTITUTION PRINTING PRESSES
MULE AUCTION
STATE FARMERS MARKET
CQtfS 4-
LABOR 67
States, was formed by 19 machinists of Atlanta. By the following
year chapters had been organized throughout the Nation and in Canada,
and the name was changed accordingly to the International Associa-
tion of Machinists. Also in this year the International Brotherhood
of Blacksmiths, Drop Forgers, and Helpers was organized in the city.
An investigation by the Atlanta Constitution at this time revealed
the appalling circumstances of child labor in the city's textile industries.
One mill employed 75 to 100 children, half of whom were less than
10 years old. Similar conditions prevailed at another factory, except
that the majority of children were even younger, being from 6 to
8 years old. Employed as sweepers, carriers, and dofrers, these chil-
dren worked 12 or more hours every day. As an excuse for the long
overtime work, the mill owners claimed that the wet weather affected
the machinery, requiring that it be kept running almost constantly.
This exposure brought about an agitation for protective legislation
that resulted several years later in a child labor law which prohibited
the employment of children under 10.
With the expansion of industry in the 1 890*8, fresh impetus was
given to organization among labor. In 1891 workers representing
the carpenters, molders, plasterers, tailors, and typographical unions
formed a central body known as the Atlanta Federation of Trades.
By the turn of the century unionization had been achieved among rail-
way employees, newspaper workers, book and job printers, and many
other trades. But, as usual when wage standards and purchasing
power are high, interest in organization lagged and many of the unions
were short-lived. The depression of 1908, however, brought about a
revival of interest, causing the organization of many new locals and a
strengthening of the existing ones. By 1910 organized labor had be-
come a power that could not be disregarded.
In 1916 Atlanta experienced its most spectacular strike. In Septem-
ber of that year the motormen and conductors of the Georgia Power
Company struck for union recognition, shorter hours, higher wages,
freedom from compulsory membership in a company ' 'benevolent as-
sociation," and "political freedom." Cars were abandoned on the
tracks, and when the company hired non-union men to operate them,
these relief crews were immediately pulled from the cars. Trolleys
were cut, poles were sawed down, rocks were piled on the tracks,
and rails were soaped and spiked. Some cars were peppered with gun
shot, a few were dynamited. Opposing mobs jammed the downtown
streets and hundreds of deputies were sworn in to preserve order. This
state of affairs continued for about two months with city transporta-
tion completely demoralized. Injuries were inevitable, and, as a result
strike leaders and scores of union sympathizers were jailed. On
December 23, a compromise was reached in which the most significant
68 ATLANTA
clause provided an increase in pay. But union recognition and the
rehiring of men laid off for their union activities were not granted.
Resentment growing from these denials brought about a second
strike in July of 1918. After a four-day tie-up of trolley service, a
satisfactory agreement was reached between the power company and
its workers. Since then the local chapter of the Amalgamated Associa-
tion of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America has become
one of the largest, strongest, and best-ordered unions in the city, and
the relationship between the power company and its employees has
been almost ideal.
Although employment boomed during World War I, labor made
no contractual gains because of a shortage of workers and extensive
camp-building and munitions developments. Strikes in the war in-
dustries were handled in a summary manner, often being suppressed
by the Federal Government. Workers in less important industries
dared not make any drastic moves, knowing that public opinion would
be almost united against them in this critical time. During the boom
period of the 1920*8 the unions did not lapse into the lethargy usually
so characteristic of prosperous years. Dues in arrears were paid up
and much of the money was spent in a program of organization ex-
pansion. Industry, operating at peak production, willingly made many
concessions to organized labor, and few strikes marked this period.
The early years of the depression had as disastrous an effect upon
organized labor as upon all other phases of national life. The chaos
and financial stress caused by thousands of members being thrown out
of work was aggravated by the influx of laid-off farm hands who
flocked to the city seeking any kind of employment and concerned not
at all with unionism. Many groups split over strike issues, feeling
that conditions were too precarious to risk jeopardizing their jobs fur-
ther by radical voluntary action. On the other hand, many union
leaders felt that drastic action was necessary to insure the rights of
labor. As a result, the first half of the decade of the 1930*5 was a
period of constant strikes, many of which were, for the first time,
marked by racial prejudice.
A significant example of this new trend was the formation of The
American Fascisti Association and the Order of Black Shirts, an or-
ganization founded in Atlanta in 1930 by a group of men who had
no legitimate connection with recognized labor movements. Their im-
mediate object was to drive the Negroes out of industry and replace
them with white workers. Appealing as it did to the misery and self-
pity of the more ignorant unemployed white men who had always
regarded the Negro as an economic menace, the Black Shirt associa-
tion swept the State and, in a few short weeks, claimed a membership
of 27,000. Although some employers heeded the demands of the Black
LABOR 69
Shirts, the majority did not and, as soon as it became apparent that
the organization could not create work for them, members withdrew.
In July 1932, Angelo Herndon, a young Negro Communist, led a
demonstration of white and Negro unemployed on the steps of the
Fulton County Courthouse. Although the gathering was orderly and
city council recognized and granted its demands for continued work
relief, Herndon as its leader was arrested and charged with "attempt-
ing to incite insurrection." Many groups throughout the country came
to his defense, and in time the case assumed international proportions.
After five years of alternate imprisonment and freedom on bail,
Herndon was acquitted by a ruling of the Supreme Court of the
United States.
The middle 1930*8 was a period of great labor agitation. On
September 6, 1934, all textile mills in the Atlanta area, except the
Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills, were closed. This was a natural ex-
tension of the mill strike conditions which prevailed throughout the
State at that time. The workers' demands were the usual ones
shorter hours and higher wages. After two hectic weeks marked by
a declaration of martial law, the throwing of tear-gas bombs, and the
arrest of hundreds of strikers, the demonstration was called off. But
for the next several years hardly a season passed without a strike in
some Atlanta textile mill or garment factory.
With the rise of the Committee for Industrial Organization (now
the Congress of Industrial Organizations) in 1935, the labor stage in
Atlanta became a scene of great activity. Many established unions,
feeling that the new industrial organizations offered more strength
and security than the old trade unions, wished to affiliate with the
C.I.O. The result was a split in the ranks of the Georgia Federa-
tion of Labor. In April 1937, William Green, president of the Amer-
ican Federation of Labor, ruled that A. Steve Nance, president of the
Georgia Federation of Labor, was ineligible to preside over the annual
State convention being held that month because he had become South-
eastern director of a C.I.O. body, the Textile Workers Organizing
Committee. The various unions immediately chose sides, some sup-
porting Nance and others denying his leadership. For a time there
were two groups each claiming to be the real Georgia Federation of
Labor. This state of affairs continued until shortly after Nance's
death in April 1938. Some of the alienated textile workers returned
to the A.F. of L., but many remained in the C.I.O.
In the meantime, many other unions affiliated with the C.I.O.
This caused the A.F. of L. to begin its own intensive drives to enlist
groups who were for the first time becoming aware of the importance
of labor and were seeking leadership. The contest between the two
labor movements has been marked by considerable anger and mutual
70 ATLANTA
disparagement, but it has been a stimulating conflict, bringing many
new workers into the ranks of labor and causing many old-line mem-
bers of the union to regard their organizations more seriously. Only
the campaigning engendered by fierce rivalry could have brought about
the organization of the textile workers and other groups which had
been long neglected or had remained indifferent to the labor movement.
In November 1936, the United Automobile Workers of America,
a C.I.O. body, staged one of the first sit-down strikes in America in
the Fisher Body Company, Atlanta. The strike lasted three months
and ended when the company granted every demand of the union.
These included recognition of the union, 100 per cent raise in wages,
establishment of a minimum wage, recognition of seniority rights, res-
toration of jobs to men dismissed because of union activities, establish-
ment of a grievance procedure, control of the speed-up system, and
the granting of vacations with pay.
Encouraged by their success, the automobile workers undertook
the task of organizing groups of workers in entirely unrelated in-
dustries under the C.I.O. banner. At present 12 separate groups com-
prising 1 8 local chapters are so organized. These include workers in
the automobile, steel, aluminum, rubber, furniture, textile, quarrying,
meat-packing, communications, and garment industries, as well as office
and professional and Federal workers. Two of the groups, the alumi-
num and rubber unions, are composed of Negroes.
The C.I.O. now maintains a council in Atlanta in which all city
unions are represented. Its function is to co-ordinate the activities of
the various unions, to discuss plans for further organization, and to
hold educational programs. The A.F. of L. is represented by 100 local
unions with an approximate membership of 20,000. A central body
known as the Atlanta Federation of Trades functions in a manner
similar to the C.I.O. council.
In recent years the Georgia League of Progressive Democracy,
an affiliate of the national Non-Partisan League, has been bringing the
unions into closer contact with civic clubs and other groups. This
league is composed of representatives from both the C.I.O. and A.F.
of L. organizations.
The record of recent strikes in local industries is negligible com-
pared with the national labor agitation. During the period from 1934
through 1938 there were only 24 strikes in the city. These involved
4,845 workers who were laid off for a total of 98,808 man days.
Eight of the strikes were called because of wage and hour conditions,
1 1 were declared for union recognition, and 5 were due to miscellaneous
causes.
Labor statistics for 1930 show that there were 50,617 gainfully
LABOR 71
employed workers in Atlanta proper, of which 24,285 were women.
The approximate pay roll total for that year was $200,000,000.
In addition to State-wide labor legislation, various city laws regulate
Atlanta workers in certain industries and trades. These apply to
plumbers, barber and beauty shop operators, and workers who handle
foodstuffs.
Public Welfare
c
IOUNTY funds, church donations, and
individual benevolence provided the first relief for the poor of Atlanta.
As early as 1853, however, the city was beginning to recognize the
need for regular municipal aid, and Mayor J.F. Mims appointed from
council a committee on relief of the poor. This body had only ad-
visory powers: after its recommendations had been made, council as
a whole voted on each case. Assistance was then rendered not in the
form of supplies but as cash, an outlay that was seldom more than a
few hundred dollars annually. Once the money was given, little
effort was made to learn how it was spent. The minutes of the fifties
are full of such entries as "The Committee on Relief report in favor
of John Tiller having an order for five dollars on account of helpless
daughter" and "The Committee on Relief report that they have em-
ployed Mr. Baker to keep and maintain Mr. Gardner who is afflicted
with a sore leg, and his two small children, for the sum of one dollar
and fifty cents a day, for the present."
Soon after the outbreak of the War between the States, relief
costs mounted rapidly in 1862 the city expended almost $4,000 in
caring for the poor, in the following year this amount was increased
to $40,000, and in the last year of the war it was more than $80,000.
In place of cash relief council set up provision stores for the poor,
but with thousands of soldiers and refugees crowding into the city
even this arrangement proved too costly. In the midst of this emergency
a group of women came to the aid of the city by organizing the Ladies'
Soldiers' Relief Society. By charity balls and bazaars this organization
raised large amounts for the care of sick and wounded soldiers quartered
in the city.
In the period immediately after the war, the problem of existence
became still more acute. Refugees returned home, their numbers swollen
by hordes of freed slaves, and the young men disbanded from the army
often searched in vain for work to support their impoverished families.
Fire losses following Federal occupation and the collapse of Con-
72
PUBLIC WELFARE 73
federate finance constituted an appalling drain on the treasury. Hun-
dreds of unemployed were given transportation in order that they
might seek employment in other sections of the country. The work
of aiding destitute Negroes was largely taken over by the Freedmen's
Bureau, the American Missionary Society, and other Northern or-
ganizations, while many more were succored by their former masters.
In its extremity the city had to appeal to the country at large. Several
cities, Northern and Southern, responded generously, and many con-
tributions from individuals were sent in from points as far away as
Illinois and New York. The State of Kentucky sent 100,000 bushels
of corn to be distributed among the poor throughout Georgia.
In the summer of 1866 a severe smallpox epidemic broke out. Im-
mediate expenditures were necessary, and before the year was out two
pest-houses and a makeshift hospital had been constructed. Although
the danger from disease soon passed, the condition of the poor still
made heavy demands on the treasury. Early in 1867 Atlanta, aided by
Fulton County, erected 20 shanties 4 miles west of the city to serve
as an almshouse. Minor children of inmates were placed in private
homes with their expenses paid by the city. By the early seventies,
after a series of court rulings, Fulton County was compelled to take
over the entire burden of providing for Atlanta's poor who were com-
mitted to the almshouse. While the institution provided for the care
of the aged and decrepit, many able-bodied but destitute citizens con-
tinued to be without employment as a result of the war and the re-
construction program.
Again the women of Atlanta came to the aid of their city. In
rented rooms they established the Atlanta Benevolent Association, the
purpose of which was to provide a temporary home "for destitute and
helpless women and girls out of employment, in finding suitable work,
and, as soon as practicable, to give full instruction in industrial pur-
suits, thereby enabling such persons to become self-supporting and
useful." After giving several entertainments the association succeeded
in raising $4,000, with which two buildings on Alabama Street were
purchased. In 1881 the property and the entire facilities of the insti-
tution were deeded to the city, and soon afterward the name was
changed to the Atlanta Hospital and Benevolent Home. By the middle
eighties the city was fully maintaining this institution and contribut-
ing to several private charitable organizations.
In the same year the Florence Crittenton Home, a branch of the
national welfare organization of that name, was opened in Atlanta.
Many citizens bitterly opposed the establishment of this maternity home
for unmarried girls, but others refuted their arguments by answering
that innocent children should not be made to suffer for the sins of
the mothers and the unknown fathers. The Florence Crittenton Home
74 ATLANTA
was the first national welfare organization to be chartered by Congress,
and the Atlanta home was the fourth in the nation.
The Home for the Friendless was established in 1888 by three
Atlanta women who solicited church and private donations, rented a
cottage on Mangum Street, and opened its doors to the poor of all
ages. Applications for entry became so numerous, however, that within
a few months admission was restricted to children only. Two years
after the home was opened, a large building was erected on Highland
Avenue. Here the institution operated for 38 years until it was moved
to its present quarters on Courtney Drive, where it is now operated
as Hillside Cottages.
Although several attempts had been made to establish a refuge for
street waifs, it was not until 1888 that Atlanta Baptist women made
definite plans for setting up the Georgia Baptist Orphans' Home. In
that year Jonathan Norcross gave a tract of land, and soon afterward
the orphanage was opened. At first there were only five children
enrolled, but soon there were so many applications that two successive
moves to larger quarters had to be made. Before the decade was ended
several large gifts made possible the purchase of the 5O-acre tract in
Hapeville where the home is now operated. The nine buildings pro-
vide accommodation for approximately 300 children, and the property
now covers 92 acres.
The rapid industrial growth of this period often engendered hard
conditions for factory workers. In 1889 an Atlanta woman happened
to notice that a woman mill worker, unable to provide home care for
her child, was compelled to take it with her to work and tie it to a
window sill while she worked at the looms. Deeply moved by what
she had seen, the Atlanta matron and six other women pledged the
salary of a matron to care for the children of such working mothers.
A room was secured in the building of the Barclay Mission, a Sunday
school that had been started several years before by John A. Barclay
and Miss Sue Holloway, and the Barclay Nursery was opened to the
children of working mothers. Soon the institution outgrew its quarters
and W.A. Hemphill provided a new building where the additional
services of a kindergarten and a cooking school for mothers were added
to the nursery. After several changes two permanent places were
established, a north-side branch on Baker Street and a south-side branch
on Washington Street. Since 1925 all activities besides those of the
day nursery have been taken over by other social agencies. Now known
as the Sheltering Arms Nursery, this institution cares for an average
of 1 80 children a month.
Until 1889 little or no public assistance had been rendered Negro
children, and scores of neglected gamins played perilously about the
tracks of the old Union Depot. Carrie Steele Logan, a Negro matron
PUBLIC WELFARE 75
at the depot, became so distressed by these conditions that she quit her
job, adopted several of the waifs, and took them into her home on
Wheat Street. As she continued to take more orphans, her rooms
became overcrowded and her funds gave out, but the kindly woman,
respected throughout the city, appealed to both races for aid. Indi-
viduals and church groups contributed funds, and to these she added
the amount realized from the sale of her home in order to erect a
large brick building on Fair Street. The city donates a small amount
regularly toward upkeep, and since the new Roy Street building was
erected in 1922 the county has assumed part of the maintenance ex-
pense. The orphanage, now known as the Carrie Steele-Pitts Home,
is one of the most important local charities.
The Hebrew Orphans' Home also was founded in 1889. A large
rambling brick structure was erected on Washington Street, and Jew-
ish children from Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida, and
Virginia were given a home. Support was maintained by individuals
and organizations in the five States served and as many as 150 children
were housed in the institution at one time. In 1911 the directors of
the movement broadened their program and began to give aid to half-
orphaned children in their own homes. This reduced the number of
children actually quartered in the building. In 1930 the program was
extended again to provide a foster home for every child. The func-
tion of the institution then became that of a child-placing agency; its
name was changed to the Children's Service Bureau and an administra-
tive office was opened on Edgewood Avenue. The work of the agency
does not cease when the child is sent to board in a private home; gen-
eral supervision by members of the staff is continued until the child
reaches maturity. Regular physical examinations are made and treat-
ment provided, school reports are checked, and vocational training is
given.
Prior to the nineties all charity institutions had been instigated and
principally maintained by private individuals. Although some of these
agencies had been given assistance from municipal funds, the buildings
and equipment had become inadequate for the poor of the fast-growing
city. Particularly was this true of hospitalization and clinical services,
for economy had prompted the city to place its patients as they could
be accommodated in various private hospitals. In 1887 a move toward
more efficient management was made when all such municipal cases
were placed in the King's Daughters' Hospital, but it soon became
apparent that this institution was too small to care for all cases. In
order to remedy this situation a movement was begun to found a
municipally owned infirmary, and the erection of Grady Hospital,
named for the Atlanta editor Henry W. Grady, was financed by popu-
lar subscription with the provision that the city assume the responsi-
76 ATLANTA
bility for maintenance. In 1892 the hospital was opened with more
than 100 beds, 4 physicians, and 21 nurses. At first both private and
charity cases were admitted, but soon services were restricted to the
latter class. The hospital now consists of 12 buildings with about 700
beds and has a resident staff of 75 physicians supplemented by a visit-
ing staff of 300 physicians and surgeons. By an arrangement with
Fulton County, rural patients in the Atlanta vicinity are also eligible
for treatment.
By the turn of the century a number of welfare enterprises were
firmly established. In 1900 the Confederate Soldiers' Home, which
had been erected by the State ten years before but had remained unoc-
cupied for lack of maintenance funds, was opened to a group of 83
veterans. In the following year the King's Daughters and Sons estab-
lished the Home for Incurables on the site of the present Athletic Club
on Carnegie Way and, since many of the applicants were patients who
had been dismissed as incurable from Grady, the city appropriated $33
a month toward upkeep. Through the generosity of A.G. Rhodes,
George W. Stewart, and others, a new building was erected in 1904
on the present site at Woodward Avenue and South Boulevard.
The King's Daughters again came into prominence in 1905 by
establishing the Home for Old Women an institution that filled a
real need since it was especially planned to care for inmates who,
though indigent, were well educated and refined. The Associated
Charities, now the Family Welfare Society, was founded in the same
year. Before this time other charitable organizations of the city had
been concerned solely with clinical work and with the individual
pauper. The Associated Charities undertook dealing with problems of
personality and family adjustments and lent aid in situations involving
desertion and nonsupport, unmarried mothers, parent-child relation-
ships, and other domestic matters requiring sympathetic counsel.
Two years later further recognition of the need for aid to children
was manifested in the opening of the Atlanta Child's Home by Mrs.
F.M. Robinson. Here deserted wives and unmarried mothers could
find adequate care for their babies. In addition to caring for the chil-
dren, the home also makes provision for a limited number of mothers
during periods when it is necessary that they remain with their babies.
One of the most important of the city's charities is the Atlanta
Tuberculosis Association, which was founded in 1909 under the leader-
ship of Joseph P. Logan. White people and Negroes of any age who
have been exposed to tuberculosis may be examined and treated at the
clinic. In 1910 the Battle Hill Sanatorium, also an institution for the
treatment of this malady, was built jointly by Fulton County and
Atlanta. All residents of this area who have pulmonary tuberculosis
are eligible for entry.
PUBLIC WELFARE 77
In 1914 Atlanta's first hospital for crippled children was begun
when four leading citizens placed a few beds in Wesley Memorial
Hospital for the exclusive use of children of impoverished families.
The following year the Masonic Order of Ancient and Accepted Scot-
tish Rite, which had become interested in the work, bought two cottages
in Decatur and converted them into an infirmary. So great was the
demand for treatment of orthopedic afflictions that within a few years
a larger building was erected at a cost of $160,000. The institution
has become a pattern for similar work by the Shrine throughout the
United States.
By the time the World War period had come, the number of
Atlanta social agencies was so large that it became necessary to have
a co-ordinating body. This led to the creation of the Social Service
Index in 1917. An independent governing body, the Index made itself
available to all welfare agencies maintained by schools, churches, tax
funds, and voluntary subscriptions. As a clearing house for such
agencies in both Fulton and DeKalb Counties, this organization seeks
to avoid duplication of work and enables each agency to operate more
efficiently in its own specialized field.
The Atlanta Community Employment Service, begun in 1919 by
Cator Woolford, endeavors to obtain employment for both white people
and Negroes without cost to either employer or employee. Although
this agency is still in operation, much of its work has been absorbed by
the State Re-employment Office. One valuable phase of the work of
the Atlanta Community Employment Service is the training offered
Negro domestic servants in a school maintained by a grant from the
Rosenwald Fund.
For the past two decades scarcely a year has passed without the
addition of a new social agency. One of the most active of these is the
Atlanta Chapter of the Junior League, which was founded in 1919 by
Mrs. J.W. McKenna. The work of the league includes supplying
clothing for girls of the Churches' Homes, maintaining a ward at the
Egleston Memorial Hospital, supporting the thyroid clinic at Grady
Hospital, providing psychiatric workers for the Family Welfare Asso-
ciation, serving as Girl Scout leaders, directing physical training at
various day nurseries, maintaining a school of corrective speech, and
providing helpers at several clinics.
The prosperous post-war era of the early twenties brought addi-
tional charitable enterprises, of both local and national affiliations. The
baby clinic of the Central Presbyterian Church, founded in 1922, pro-
vides medical care for white babies without restriction on the area from
which they are brought for treatment. In 1923 a number of promi-
nent civic leaders organized the Atlanta Community Chest in an effort
78 ATLANTA
to centralize contributions to the various social service organizations in
the city, more than 30 of which are represented in the annual drive.
National prominence has resulted from the work done by the Good
Samaritan Clinic, established in 1923 to provide free treatment for
white and Negro residents of Fulton County who suffer from disturb-
ances of the endocrine glands. While the clinic is not the first of its
kind in the country, it is the first to be established entirely dissociated
from a medical center and to be operated on a charity basis. Research
and experimentation here have contributed many innovations in the
field of gland correction, and it was one of the physicians connected
with the institution who discovered the value of iodine treatments for
goiter before research in this field had been published. The clinic is
concerned not only with the treatment of abnormal physical develop-
ments but more recently with psychotherapy for delinquent and men-
tally abnormal children. Though originally designed to extend free
services to local residents, the Good Samaritan Clinic has attracted
from all sections of the State patients who are given diagnostical service
on a paying basis.
The Steiner Clinic, erected through funds bequeathed by Albert
Steiner and opened in 1924, gives free medical, radiumtherapic, and
surgical treatment to Atlanta and Fulton County residents suffering
from cancer. This hospital was operated as a ward of Grady Hospital
until 1933 when, by ordinance of city council, it was detached and put
under a separate board of trustees. Now functioning as a completely
separate unit, the clinic is the only cancer institution in the Southeast
to be given the full commendation of the American College of Surgeons
and the American Medical Society. The personnel includes a resident
staff of 6 doctors, a visiting staff of 26, 1 1 registered nurses, and
more than a dozen special technicians. Forty beds are maintained and
the total number of observation cases is more than 50,003 a year.
The Atlanta Legal Aid Society, which also began functioning in
1924, extends much needed facilities to the public by providing legal
advice and court counsel for those who are unable to pay for these
services. Such cases are usually recommended by the various social
agencies of the city, but the society sometimes extends aid also to indi-
viduals who apply directly.
Long before the national work relief program was initiated, some
of the Atlanta charity groups were organizing their programs with
an emphasis on self-help for the individual. One of the leading organi-
zations of this type is the Atlanta Goodwill Industries, which was
established in 1925 by representatives of almost 50 Methodist congre-
gations of the Atlanta area. This agency maintains a store and work-
shop in which cast-off garments and house furnishings are made over
and sold to provide support for the workers. The program also offers
PUBLIC WELFARE 79
vocational and religious instruction. An organization that is similar
in its aims of self-support is the Atlanta Community Shop, which was
founded in 1928 by the Community Employment Service. This agency
provides employment to the blind workers of Atlanta and its vicinity
by teaching them to make brooms and mops which are sold to the
public.
Child welfare has been particularly salient in the more recent work
of charity organizations. The Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Chil-
dren was built in 1928 from funds bequeathed by Thomas E. Egleston,
its purpose being to provide medical and surgical aid for children who
are seriously ill from causes other than contagious diseases. Patients
are admitted regardless of sex, creed, nationality, or place of residence.
The Central Presbyterian Church Baby Clinic, which is operated on
similar lines, is associated with the Henrietta Egleston Hospital in its
work.
In 1930 the Child Welfare Association of Fulton and DeKalb
Counties was organized. A child-placing agency rather than a child's
home, this institution extends its services to children under 18 whose
homes are broken by illness, poverty, or family maladjustments. Chil-
dren brought to the association are housed here only until they can be
placed in the proper corrective institution, school, or private home, as
the individual case demands. The association works in close co-opera-
tion with the county juvenile courts and other agencies.
During the early thirties when the Nation-wide depression was at
its height, the scope of social service became so greatly broadened that
it was necessary to co-ordinate the work more closely. In 1932 the
Social Welfare Society, which had been founded almost 30 years before
by Joseph C. Logan, changed its name to the Social Planning Council
and enlarged its field of activities. Its objective is to promote efficiency
in solving the welfare problems of the city through research and rec-
ommendations made by special committees, each expert in its field.
Through these activities public opinion is being directed toward a more
intelligent appreciation of welfare needs in the city.
As a memorial to Victor H. Kriegshaber, who had worked for
many years with the Georgia Association of Workers for the Blind, a
Braille library was installed in the old Hebrew Orphans' Home on
Washington Street. Though supported by private funds, the library
was set up under the supervision of the trustees of the Carnegie Library.
Two years later the institution was moved to its present site on Pied-
mont Avenue. About 500 phonographs for lending throughout the
State are furnished by the Federal Government, and the Work Proj-
ects Administration supplies two Braille instructors who teach the blind
to read raised lettering. Magazines in Braille and about 2,000 "talking
books" or records are also available.
80 ATLANTA
The Fulton County Department of Public Welfare, formed by
legislative act in 1937, not only administers direct relief but certifies
grants for old-age assistance, aid to the blind, and aid to dependent
children under the Social Security Act. This department is also a
certifying agency for the Work Projects Administration, the Civilian
Conservation Corps, and the National Youth Administration, and also
for the distribution of Federal surplus commodities.
In 1938 representatives of the Junior Chamber of Commerce,
Rotary, Optimists, Lions, and Civitan Clubs founded the Atlanta
Boys' Club for underprivileged youths between the ages of 8 and 18.
Paid instructors, volunteer helpers, and students from Georgia Tech
and the Georgia Evening School provide instruction in woodwork, art,
music, and reading.
Religion
cc
'ONG before Atlanta was even known as
Marthasville the proverbial Methodist preacher was roving the country
round. Wherever the people were, he was to be found in their midst,
helping to open up roads, establish communities and to build schools
and churches, and settle the pioneers in their log cabins, with a Bible
on their tables and the little families kneeling in prayer at the close
of day," wrote Dr. Wilbur F. Glenn in his history of the Methodist
Church in Atlanta. To these circuit-riders goes credit for the first
recorded religious services held in Atlanta. During the winter of
1844-45 the Reverend Osborne Smith, an itinerant Methodist minister,
conducted meetings in a frame building which stood just north of the
old Union Depot. The following summer Bishop James O. Andrew,
whose ownership of slaves had been responsible for the schism in the
Methodist Episcopal Church the year before, held a protracted meet-
ing in a cotton warehouse on the southeast corner of what is now
Auburn Avenue and Pryor Street. Later the Methodists held regular
meetings in the depot itself, and such was their zeal for these sessions
that if an itinerant minister was not available, some member of the
congregation would arise to "read the Bible and exhort."
Other denominations with as few members were stirred by this
Methodist leadership to plan some means for holding their own regular
Sunday services. The population of the town, however, was but about
200, and it is probable that barely more than half of these were of
adult age. The situation was further complicated by the fact that this
number was divided among five different denominations: Methodists,
Baptists, Catholics, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians; and although
each group desired a separate church the attainment of this aim was
numerically impracticable and financially impossible. After consider-
able discussion the plan was advanced that the five denominations com-
bine their resources and erect a building that could be used by all.
Despite dire predictions and grave head-waggings, the plan carried,
and a building known as the Union School and Church was erected
81
82 ATLANTA
in 1845 on the triangular site now bounded by Peachtree, Pryor, and
Houston Streets. It was a simple clapboard structure with a gable
roof and two chimneys, one of brick and stone and the other of clay-
daubed sticks, protruding at each side. Short brick pillars supported
the building and three wooden steps led up to the one door. Men and
women were compelled to sit on opposite sides of the aisle, an arrange-
ment intended to keep attention focused on spiritual matters.
This union of the churches signified no combining of doctrines but
merely an economic compromise. It is therefore remarkable, in view
of the prevalent dogmatic convictions, that no quarrels marred the gath-
ering of the diverse groups. One reason for this harmony was the
sensible manner in which the church was managed. All denominations
wished to hold regular Sunday morning services, but, since this was
impossible, it was decided that Sunday services should be strictly non-
denominational. These nonsectarian meetings were directed by Dr.
John S. Wilson, a Presbyterian minister of Decatur, and it is recorded
that a "spirit of love and co-operation prevailed." Dr. Wilson, a man
of remarkable tact, occasionally relinquished the pulpit to visiting min-
isters of other creeds who were equally careful to avoid doctrinal issues.
If baptism, communion services, or other rites demanded sectarian
privacy, the church was always available on week nights for closed
sessions.
Even so, the desire for separate buildings was so strong that in 1848
the Methodists, whose numbers were increasing apace with the rapid
growth of the town, erected Wesley Chapel on the site just south of
the present Candler Building. Funds were exhausted before the struc-
ture was little more than four walls and a roof, but the members were
determined to hold services in it. Accordingly, rough slabs for benches
were obtained from Jonathan Norcross' sawmill, holes were bored in
them, and stout pegs were driven in for legs. A crudely built platform,
upon which was set a druggist's prescription table, became the pulpit,
while a home-made tin chandelier held the candles for night services.
Thus equipped, the Methodists became the first congregation in Atlanta
to hold meetings in their own house. Before the year was out a Sunday
school was organized, and in 1849 a large revival brought several hun-
dred new members into the church.
The Baptists also erected a building in 1848. It was constructed
on the site of the old post office and, like Wesley Chapel, was but a
small frame shack furnished with rude benches. Yet, to the 6 men
and II women who formed the first congregation, it was a pleasing
reflection of their simple and rugged characters. That they were deter-
mined to retain this early simplicity was shown a few years later when
new members provided the church with a melodeon and the older mem-
bers, declaring the instrument a sinful innovation, ordered it removed.
RELIGION 83
Further evidence of stern discipline was revealed in the serious inquiries
into the actions of members, inquiries which sometimes led to excom-
munication. These included absence from services or business meetings,
failure to pay just debts, frivolity in dress, or permitting music and
dancing in their homes.
The Roman Catholics were next to withdraw. Less than any other
denomination this one had availed itself of the private usage of the
Union Church, for visiting priests usually conducted mass and admin-
istered sacraments in private homes. In 1848 Atlanta was made part
of the Savannah diocese and Father J.F. O'Neill came from that city
to fill the office of resident priest. A building was erected the same
year on the site of the present Church of the Immaculate Conception.
In 1849 the Episcopalians, though having fewer members than any
other denomination, were financially able to withdraw from the Union
Church and occupy their own building, St. Philip's. This church was
a small frame structure with a modest tower and vestry room, the
interior finished in white, with grained seats, pulpit, and chancel rail.
For the first year the Reverend John James Hunt, a missionary priest,
served as rector, but in 1850 support was pledged for the appointment
of the Reverend W.J. Zimmer as regular minister.
The Presbyterians were the last of the denominations to withdraw
from the Union Church. In 1852 their building, erected on Marietta
Street where the Federal Reserve Bank now stands, was dedicated. It
was the finest church in town at the time, being constructed of brick
and having a vestibule, a gallery, and a basement. In deference to the
wishes of John Silvey, an influential citizen who lived next door, no
bell was ever hung in the belfry. Silvey, a firm believer in Benjamin
Franklin's "early-to-bed" maxim, retired at seven o'clock every night.
In return for a generous contribution to the church, the elders agreed
that no bell-ringing would disturb his early evening slumbers. The
Reverend Jesse E. DuBose was chosen as regular pastor in 1854.
The First Christian Church, which had been organized by State
Evangelist Daniel Hook in 1850, was erected in 1853 on the corner of
Pryor and Mitchell Streets. This building was used for only one year,
at which time the property was exchanged for a lot on Marietta Street
near Ivy and a new building erected.
In 1854 nineteen members of the First Baptist Church withdrew to
form a second church. Their withdrawal was caused not only by
larger membership that taxed the capacity of the first church, but also
by the desire of the separating group, more liberal than the founders,
to have musical accompaniment for their services. An appeal to Bap-
tists throughout the State resulted in the erection of a $14,000 building
on the corner of Washington and Mitchell Streets. Until the new
church was equipped with a tank, the congregation held baptisms at
84 ATLANTA
an open-air pool on the corner of Spring and James Street. This cere-
mony was always an occasion for the gathering of many townspeople
who were in no way related to the church.
It is recorded that this church had a gallery in which Negro slaves
sat during the services and that they were permitted to share in the
communion after the white people were served. As the restraint of
the services was not satisfying to the more readily emotional Negroes,
however, they were allowed to use the church occasionally for private
services that were given to more abandon. Although no ordained Negro
ministers were available, some kindly white-haired patriarch of the
"Uncle Remus" or "Eneas Africanus" type was always ready to take
the pulpit and exhort the slaves to walk in "de ways ob de Lawd."
Colorful indeed were these sessions with the "amen corner" and the
"hallelejah chorus" responding vociferously to the words of the
"preacher." But the meetings were closely supervised by the white
elders, and the Negro leaders were somewhat restricted in their choice
of scriptural texts lest some of the more socially significant passages of
the Bible lead them into dangerously independent ways of thinking.
Also in 1854 Trinity Methodist Church, an outgrowth of a mission
Sunday school conducted under the auspices of Wesley Chapel, was
erected on Mitchell Street opposite the site of the present State capitol.
For the first year and a half the pulpit was occupied by visiting preach-
ers, but in 1856 it was made a separate charge and a regular pastor
was appointed. Three other Methodist churches were founded between
1854 and 1859, the African Methodist, the Protestant Methodist, and
Payne's Chapel. The African Methodist building was the first Negro
church in the city, and the denomination later played a leading part
in the fight for emancipation and the establishment of educational insti-
tutions for Negroes.
The Central Presbyterian Church, founded in 1858, was the last
of Atlanta's pioneer churches established before the outbreak of the
War between the States. Thirty-nine members of the First Presby-
terian Church addressed the Flint River Presbytery, of which the
church was a unit, and requested that they be permitted to form a new
congregation and that this body not be designated as the second church.
Both requests were recognized and the Central Presbyterian Church
was erected on Washington Street just north of the First Baptist
Church. This brick building, of Colonial design, with four tall
Corinthian columns supporting the entablature, was the most handsome
church structure in the city when it was dedicated on March 4, 1860,
by Dr. J.C. Stiles.
Thus 1860 found all the principal denominations, with the excep-
tion of the Jews, established in their own houses of worship. Churches
had become the center of virtually all public, social, cultural, and edu-
RELIGION 85
cational activities. Not only were they houses of worship on Sunday,
but they were the scenes of spelling bees, box suppers, dramatic read-
ings, and song fests during the week. The growth of the church was
definitely keeping pace with that of the city, and spiritual leaders were
making plans for even greater expansion.
Then came the war and the bombardment and burning of Atlanta.
Strangely enough, even in 1864 while the city was in the path of cross-
fire from opposing armies, still another Episcopal group found means
to build a church, St. Luke's. Dr. Charles T. Quintard, a physician
and Episcopal cleric who had been sent to Atlanta from his native
Connecticut as chaplain-at-large to the Confederate Army, found that
St. Philip's was not large enough to accommodate its congregation.
With characteristic zeal he immediately set about organizing a second
group of communicants, obtaining a lot and erecting a building. So
persuasive was Dr. Quintard that his efforts were quickly successful.
A new parish was created ; land, lumber, and furnishings were donated ;
and the building was erected on Walton Street where the Grant Build-
ing now stands. Bishop Elliott in his report of the year says: "Friday,
April 22, 1864, I consecrated to the service of Almighty God, St. Luke's
Church Atlanta In the afternoon of the same day a class for con-
firmation was presented, which I laid hands upon five persons, the first
fruits of this enterprise." Seven months later the church was a heap
of blackened ashes, destroyed in the fire that devastated Atlanta.
Most of the churches escaped the torch, but many were badly
damaged by cannon balls and the use to which they were put during
Sherman's occupation. The facades of the Immaculate Conception and
the Central Presbyterian Churches were both scarred by exploding
shells. Federal troops took over St. Philip's for a stable and bowling
alley and tore down the rectory to make room for breastworks, and
they converted the basement of the Central Presbyterian Church into
a slaughterhouse. By agreement with General Sherman, Trinity
Methodist was protected as a storehouse for furniture of the evacuating
citizens. Apparently the First Baptist Church was left in a usable
condition, for services were conducted there by the pastor on Christmas
Day, 1864, for those citizens who had already returned to the devas-
tated city.
The churches still standing among the smoking ruins afforded tem-
porary shelter to many of the returning refugees, who hung makeshift
screens of burlap or paper between the pews and along the aisles,
thereby fashioning rooms which provided a modicum of privacy. In
a short while the more pressing repairs had been made on the churches
and, as soon as the more urgent task of rebuilding houses had been
accomplished, attention was turned to plans for new church buildings.
Within ten years after the close of the war, every denomination in
86 ATLANTA
the city had erected at least one new building. Father O'Reilly, the
heroic priest of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, died in 1872
before the new church was completed and he was buried under the
altar stone. The year 1875 was significant in church history in that a
synagogue was dedicated, the first Jewish house of worship in the city.
The Lutherans also erected their first building in this year. During
the next decade new buildings were erected by three of Atlanta's most
prominent churches: the Central Presbyterian, St. Philip's, and St.
Luke's. In 1897 tne Sacred Heart Parish was created and the Cath-
olic church of that name was dedicated the following year. The Baptist
Tabernacle, an institution which was for years to play a leading part
in the growth of that denomination, was established in 1898. In 1899
the Christian Scientists, who had for years been holding classes in
various private houses and rented offices, built an imposing church on
Baker Street.
Atlanta's population trebled during the first quarter of the new
century; this period marked the greatest growth of churches. Most
of the older congregations of the city erected buildings that compared
favorably with the churches of the newer ones. Even the small foreign
elements, the Greeks and the Syrians, had increased to such an extent
that they could establish their first churches.
The Baptists attained a definite lead in membership which they
have maintained to the present (1942). The church census of 1936
listed 164 Baptist churches in Atlanta with 60,781 members. This
denomination entertained in 1939 the World Baptist Alliance, a con-
vention which brought many visitors to the city. The Methodists are
second in denominational strength, having 90 churches and 41,655
members. The Presbyterians have a membership of 10,940 and 22
churches. There are 10 Protestant Episcopal churches with 4,420
members, 6 Roman Catholic parishes with 8,430 members, and 6 Jew-
ish congregations with 12,000 members. Smaller denominations include
the Disciples of Christ, Lutheran, Church of God, Churches of Christ,
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Congregationalist, Sev-
enth-day Adventist, Church of Christ Scientist, Church of the
Nazarene, Universalist, and Unitarian, as well as scores of minor
schismatic bodies which have separated from all the foregoing. There
are 50 denominations represented in Atlanta, with 354 churches and
a combined membership of 152,083.
Education
i
N the chaotic year of 1844, before Marthas-
ville had changed its name to Atlanta, Miss Martha Reed courageously
opened a small private school in a shack near what is now the inter-
section of Decatur and King Streets. Here "for about a year" she
taught the children of "lumbermen, saw-mill workers, teamsters, train-
men, blacksmiths, commissary-keepers, mechanics and laborers" in the
town's first school. Its second school, a one-room shack that also
served as a church on Sunday, was erected by private subscription and
opened in 1845 on the site now bounded by Peachtree, Pryor, and
Houston Streets. No references are available indicating who taught
this school or how long it remained in existence. Apparently both of
these schools were short-lived, for during the following year the town
seems to have been without any educational institution.
Then, in the spring of 1847, Dr. Nedam L. Angier came to Atlanta
from New England and erected a building known as Angier's Academy
on the southwest corner of Forsyth and Garnett Streets. His wife
taught this school for several months during the summer, but the ven-
ture failed, for the little town was still too engrossed in its struggle
for survival to find time for cultural enterprises. During the year
almost 200 buildings had been constructed and the population had leapt
from a few hundred to more than 2,000. Children had been pressed
into service helping their parents clear the land and split logs so that
they might have shelter before winter set in. Regular schooling, for
the time being, was out of the question.
By fall, however, with noisy children kept indoors by cold and rain,
parents were more than ready to avail themselves of the services of
Dr. William N. White, an idealistic young man who had but recently
come south from Utica, New York, to regain his health while earning
his living as a teacher, ". . . which, with God's blessing, I trust I
shall be able to do." On October 21, 1847, be made this entry in his
diary: "There are lots of children who I am assured would go to a
school worth patronizing, and from what I can see I am sure, with a
87
88 ATLANTA
good building, in a very short time I could make a thousand dollars
a year. But there is a difficulty ; the only building I can get is a miser-
able shell of a thing without ceiling, and it cannot be finished this
winter. I have been to all prominent men of the pkce, who promise
their influence, and those who have children, their patronage. For two
years there will be great difficulties on account of the unfixed character
of the inhabitants, the poverty of most of the present settlers and, this
year, the discomforts of the old building."
On November 8, White took over Dr. Angier's academy, "which
has a bell, but is quite unfinished and is merely covered and enclosed,"
and opened his first class with an enrollment of 25 pupils. On Novem-
ber 18, he writes: "School goes off very pleasantly; have several new
scholars." A few days later, however, he declares mournfully, "Surely
there is no work in the world as onerous as the employment of the
teacher. It needs all the wisdom in the world. . . ." This entry
offers some clue as to why White, never the stern disciplinarian, closed
school within three months and departed for Athens to enter the book
business. Yet he was not embittered; he left believing "my scholars
love me, and I am sure I love them." Other teachers of the period
were not so sensitive, for various writers with first-hand information
stress the fact that a bundle of "wyths" or hickory sticks was always
kept in sight of the whole school. Thrashings were administered not
only for misconduct but for "missing lessons," and the mildest punish-
ment the derelict student could hope for was the wearing of a red
dunce cap.
Records indicate that the academy was taken over by a teacher
named Adair, who was followed by W.W. Janes. Janes' charges for
instruction are interesting: "For orthography, reading and writing, $4
per term; arithmetic, grammar and geography, $6; Latin, Greek and
Mathematics, $8." Mrs. T.S. Ogilbie, who opened a school early in
1851 on the corner of Hunter and Pryor Streets, offered instruction
in these same subjects at the same price, but added "... philosophy,
botany, rhetoric, astronomy, geography of the heavens, ancient and
modern history, moral and intellectual philosophy, $6; waxwork, fruit
and flowers, $10; music and use of the piano, $12.50; painting and
embroidery, $5."
Several other institutions also opened in 1851, among them Miss
Nevers'. "school for the instruction of children of both sexes" on Mari-
etta Street, Miss C.W. Dews' "School for females," T.O. Adair's
"literary school on the Humphries lot," the Misses Bettison's and
Daniel's school "near Walton and Spring" on the site of the present
old post office building, and two schools by the name of Atlanta Male
Academy, one directed by J.T. McGinty and the other by G.A. Austin.
It was not until 1853, when Atlanta's population had increased to
EDUCATION 89
4,000, that the first free school was opened. This was the Holland
Free School, named for Edmund Weyman Holland, a banker who
leased the old Angier Academy property free of rent to the city for
five years. A South Carolinian who had been a schoolmaster in Ala-
bama, Holland decided upon a free school as a fitting philanthropic
gesture toward his adopted city where he had made his fortune.
Although the students' tuitions were financed by the State poor school
fund, an aid usually resented and spurned by the citizens, the school
continued in successful operation for six years after Holland's exten-
sion of the lease. But, as Atlanta continued to grow, some of its
people began to show certain genteel snobberies of attitude frequently
found in a new society, and it was this element that revived the old
feeling toward the poor school fund.
In 1858 a group of citizens, unwilling to utilize this educational
system and unable to afford private tuition, began agitating for the
establishment of public schools. Foremost in this progressive group
was the Scotch-Irish schoolmaster and unionist Alexander N. Wilson,
who at that time was teaching his "classical and English school" in the
building first occupied by Martha Reed. Wilson made a special trip
to Providence, Rhode Island, to study its public school system and
returned enthusiastic for the establishment of a similar one in Atlanta.
Mass meetings were called and success seemed at hand, but an
opposing group, which regarded a public school system as merely a
substitute for the old poor school fund, came forward and began solicit-
ing for the founding of a "female institute." It is difficult to under-
stand why such an institute was deemed an acceptable alternative for
a public school system providing for both sexes and for a greater range
in ages. Nevertheless, the majority of the people supported this pro-
posal and, when council refused to appropriate funds for its establish-
ment, raised $15,000 by private subscription. The Female Institute
was opened in 1860 on the corner of Ellis and Courtland Streets. The
defeated proponents of a public school system, seeing that victory must
be deferred, adopted a conciliatory attitude and expressed approval of
the new school for young ladies "first because they believed education
from that source was better than none, and second because they believed
that educated women would be the strongest advocates in the future of
a system of public schools."
By 1860 more than a score of private schools had been established,
but during the years of the war all were closed and those that were
spared destruction in the burning of the city were converted into hos-
pitals. Yet, as soon as the more urgent needs of the reconstructed
town were met, attention was given to the re-establishment of schools,
and by 1866 there were 19 private institutions operating. But Atlanta's
population had now grown to 10,000, and, while these private institu-
90 ATLANTA
tions were more than sufficient to accommodate the children of the few
families of means, many less fortunate were growing up in a state of
illiteracy. Some momentum for the public school movement was left
from the pre-war period, but this alone was not -sufficient for an
advance. Also at this time the carpetbaggers began to agitate for racial
equality in the schools throughout the State. The result was that a
public school system, which would have been subject to this racial inter-
mingling, was further delayed and the position of the private schools
^strengthened.
In 1866 four schools were established for Negro children. The
American Missionary Society sent the Reverend E.M. Gravath to
Atlanta early in the year and he immediately organized a class in the
African Methodist Church on Gilmer Street. Within a few months
a second school was opened in a building brought from Chattanooga
and re-erected on Walton Street. These two schools housed about
1,000 children. During the summer this overcrowding was relieved
somewhat by the Freedmen's Bureau which made available a small
structure on the site of the present Candler Building. Later in the
year the Missionary Society and the Freedmen's Bureau co-operated in
collecting funds for a larger building. Dr. Storr's church, of Cincin-
nati, gave the largest sum, $1,000, and, accordingly, the new building
completed in December 1866 was called Storr's School. This building
stood on the corner of Piedmont Avenue and Houston Street and was
for years the principal grammar school for Negroes.
By 1870 it had become apparent that the Negro children of the
city were provided with better educational facilities than the white
children. But, with the removal of the threat of racial intermingling
in the withdrawal of the military government in the latter part of that
-year, the position of the earlier advocates of a public school system was
now fortified by economic conditions, and citizens who had formerly
been in opposition began to clamor for it.
The council hastily amended the city charter to permit the estab-
lishment of public schools and imposed taxes and issued bonds to assure
their maintenance. A board of education, consisting of 12 members,
was appointed, and in November 1871, M.B. Mallon was elected super-
intendent. In January 1872, the first three buildings were opened
with an enrollment of 1,839 pupils and with a faculty of "24 females
and 6 males." By the end of the scholastic year, the number of chil-
dren in attendance was almost 4,000, the faculty had increased to 56,
and the buildings, either rented or erected for the purpose, included
seven grammar and two high schools for white children and three
schools for Negroes. Most of the "private and select" schools were
forced to close their doors and many of the teachers were absorbed into
the public system.
EDUCATION 9 1
An unanticipated problem arose in 1873 when the Roman Catholics
of the city petitioned the board of education for separate schools to be
provided for their children. The petition was refused, but ^ the Cath-
olics returned the following year with the request that their children
at least be taught by teachers of the same faith. This petition also was
denied. Not until the turn of the century were the Catholics able to
erect their own parish school.
Running parallel to the expansion of the public schools was the
growth of institutions of higher learning. In this direction Negroes
received more outside philanthropic aid than the white citizens, and
from 1865 through 1885 six Negro colleges and universities were
founded in Atlanta. These institutions are now known as Clark Col-
lege, Gammon Theological Seminary, Morris Brown College, Spel-
man College, Morehouse College, and Atlanta University. The last
three, and the Atlanta School of Social Work, are affiliated under the
Atlanta University System, and Atlanta University is the only Negro
institution in the city offering a degree for graduate work.
In 1870 Oglethorpe University, formerly located in Milledgeville
and closed during the war, reopened in Atlanta. Financial difficulties
forced it to close two years later. The Southern Medical College was
founded in 1879 and was later combined with the old Atlanta Medical
College, which had been established in 1855. In 1882 the general
assembly, recognizing the need for skilled technicians to develop the
natural resources and build up the industries of the State, passed a
resolution calling for the establishment of a technical school. As a
result, the Georgia School of Technology was opened in Atlanta six
years later. Decatur Female Seminary, which was opened in 1889,
is now Agnes Scott College, an outstanding institution for the higher
education of women.
Educational progress was not made, however, without much oppo-
sition from reactionaries. An editorial in the Atlanta Journal of 1883
expresses the passing mood of an era. "Some of our best men appear
to rest under the impression that education is a sort of panacea for
every evil which affects the body politic. This is a mistaken notion.
What is education doing for the Negro? A Southern editor who has
been a close observer of affairs since the war answers this interrogatory
with the statement that every educated Negro goes into politics or into
the penitentiary. The truth is, education in the customary sense of the
word makes better citizens of those only whose natural bent inclines
them to a moral and law-abiding mode of life ; with the naturally vicious
the education of the schools goes for nothing, except that it increases
their power for evil. Perhaps it would be well to make haste slowly
in the matter of public education. A too rapid growth would inevitably
92 ATLANTA
make us a nation without a conscience, and give us over to infidelity
and dangerous political heresy."
Despite these views, the establishment of schools went forward and
by 1892 Atlanta had 16 grammar and 2 high schools. There were also
many private preparatory schools and several special schools. Wash-
ington Seminary, which had been established in 1878 as an elementary
school, was continually adding more advanced subjects to its curricu-
lum. In 1895 the Peacock School for Boys was opened to teach college
preparatory work, and the Southern Female Seminary moved to College
Park from LaGrange and reopened as Cox College. In 1900 the
Georgia Military Academy was established in the same Atlanta suburb.
These were followed by Marist College, a Roman Catholic prepara-
tory school for boys, in 1901 and by the Southern College of Pharmacy
in 1903. In 1909 the Sacred Heart Church, under the ministration of
Father John E. Gunn, established a parish school, thereby fulfilling the
desire which the Catholics had harbored since the seventies. In the
same year members of the North Avenue Presbyterian Church opened
an elementary school for girls and boys in the Sunday school room of
the church; high school work for girls was added in 1912.
In 1914 the old Emory College at Oxford was moved to Atlanta
and established as a university, and it later took over the combined
Atlanta School of Medicine and the Southern College of Physicians
and Surgeons. Oglethorpe University reopened in 1916, aided in its
re-establishment by a gift from Atlanta citizens of $250,000 and 137
acres of land.
The Negroes again assumed a prominent position in the educational
field with the founding of the Atlanta School of Social Work in 1925.
Set up through the efforts of leading educators of both white and
colored races, the institution achieved such excellent standing that
within three years it was admitted to the American Association of
Schools of Social Work, holding the only Negro membership in that
organization.
In 1933 the University System of Georgia took over the Georgia
Tech Evening School of Commerce, which had been established down-
town in 1914, and developed a university extension center. The eve-
ning college grants only the degree of Bachelor of Commercial Science,
but credit for three years' work toward a Bachelor of Arts degree can
be earned here and transferred to a senior college in the university
system. A junior college was added in 1934, with day classes.
During all these years the city had been hard pressed to build
enough public schools for its rapidly growing population, but, with
growth slowing after the boom years of the 1920*8, Atlanta had time
to adapt itself to the building needs of the system and to consider the
quality of its educational facilities. The progressive methods of
EDUCATION 93
Atlanta's public schools now compare favorably with systems found in
cities of much larger size. Textbooks and curriculum constantly
undergo modernizing processes designed to keep them attuned to the
trends of public opinion. In addition to the basic studies found in
every modern system, the Atlanta schools give instruction in creative
art, music, and physical training. Free textbooks are supplied to all
grades, free lunches to undernourished children, and free clinical service
to the entire student body.
The system is administered by a board of 6 members, one from each
city ward elected for a 4-year term, who appoint and have control
over the general superintendent and his 3 assistant superintendents.
There are 73 school buildings, housing 44 elementary schools for white
children and 12 for Negroes, 6 junior and 4 senior high schools for
white children, and 2 senior high schools for Negroes. The remaining
buildings are allotted to special classes, such as those for the blind, the
mentally defective, and the hard-of-hearing.
The enrollment numbered 64,950 for the 1939-40 term. Mainte-
nance cost approximates $3,500,000 yearly, a sum amounting to 30 per
cent of the city's annual revenue. As funds become available, a further
expenditure of $6,000,000 is planned to modernize and increase the
number of buildings and facilities.
Because of the city's metropolitan spread, three other school systems
are operated within the vicinity: the Fulton County Schools, the De-
Kalb County Schools, and the Decatur Schools. Fulton County main-
tains 94 schools, of which 39 are for Negroes, and has an enrollment
of 21,733. DeKalb County, with Decatur as its seat, has 51 schools
with 10,122 pupils. Decatur organized its public school system in
1902 and now has 9 schools with an enrollment of 3,066 children.
Atlanta children can obtain complete schooling from kindergarten
to college without going out of the city. Further co-operative plans
among the city's institutions are contemplated for Emory University,
Agnes Scott, and Georgia Tech. Actual realization of this plan will
definitely establish Atlanta as the leading educational center of the
South.
Newspapers
T
AH
,HE history of Atlanta's early newspapers is a
series of enthusiastic beginnings followed almost immediately by fail-
ures. Newspaper publishing too often was regarded as a mere avocation
for the entrepreneur with a little idle money, with the result that
many papers served no other purpose than to express the personality
of the owner or to report news limited in interest to one particular
group in a town too small to support even a paper of general appeal.
Many of these early papers were largely one-man affairs, owned,
edited, and published by a single individual. It mattered little that
these men had no previous journalistic experience; word had but to
be passed around that a Washington hand press and an ink roller were
available at the sheriff's sale and some self-appointed molder of public
opinion would be there with his bid. Within a few days dog-eared
manuscripts of long-cherished editorials would be set up in type and
another paper was launched. These ventures, however poorly con-
ceived and directed, nevertheless served to accustom the people to the
regular appearance of a newspaper and to create a demand for printed
news.
Historians disagree as to which of the early Atlanta newspapers
began publication first. C.R. Hanleiter, an early newspaperman, said
in 1 86 1 that he was in doubt as to the order in which the first three
newspapers were established but that he thought the Enterprise was
the first; years later he stated without qualification that the Democrat
was the first. Most historians, however, credit the Luminary with
being the earliest, saying that it appeared in 1845 about the time the
Georgia Railroad reached the city. But doubt is cast on this date by
a news item in the Athens Banner of July 21, 1846, commenting on
the first number of the Luminary, "... a capacious and handsome
newspaper . . . published at the new town of Atlanta, by Messrs.
Baker & Wilson. . . ."
The Reverend Joseph Baker used a Washington hand press for
printing the Luminary, and indications are that it was really a small,
94
NEWSPAPERS 95
crudely printed sheet consisting chiefly of religious items Bible les-
sons, moralizing editorials, and the like. Because of its limited appeal
subscribers were few, and within a short time Baker was forced to
sell his paper. The new owners, J.B. Clapp and L.W. Bartlett, made
drastic changes in the format, and a commentator of 1847 writes that
the December 9 edition "came out in a blaze of glory with four columns
of original matter, a poem, and odds and ends." Early in the follow-
ing year Clapp's interest in the paper was bought by Charles L.
Wheeler and the name was changed to the Tribune. The venture
failed, however, and publication was suspended before the year was out.
The Democrat, it is said by most of the local writers, was the city's
second paper. Dr. William Henry Fonerden set up a little hand press
in 1846 in the upper half-story of a building at the junction of the
Peachtree and Marietta roads and began printing the paper as a
weekly. But after a few months he moved his family to Spring Place
near Dalton, Georgia, and, changing the paper into an educational
journal, continued publication there.
The Enterprise, another weekly, was published in the fall of 1846
by W.H. Royal and C.H. Yarbrough in an office just a few doors
south of Alabama Street on Whitehall Street. In the same year,
however, the paper was discontinued and the material and equipment
sold to C.R. Hanleiter, who in 1847 moved to Atlanta with his
Southern Miscellany, which he had been publishing for six years in
Madison, Georgia. The paper asserted itself to be "A Weekly Family
Newspaper Devoted to Literature, Education, Agriculture, Mechanical
Arts, News, Humor, and Politics." Of the nine subscribers, three
paid in money, one in candles, and five nothing at all. A copy of this
paper, dated December 4, 1847, gave four and a half of the six col-
umns on the first page to "A Selected Tale, from the Columbian
Magazine" entitled "Charity Begins at Home." A speech by Henry
Clay filled the remaining column and a half of the first page, the
entire second page, and a half of the third page. The remainder of
the third page was devoted to national political news. Henry Clay
was endorsed for President and John McLean for Vice President.
In keeping with the custom of the day, no local news was pub-
lished. Aside from the town's small size, which rendered this unnec-
essary, it was considered a confession of failure for an editor to be
forced to fill his pages with local happenings. If civic undertakings
demanded newspaper comment or support, the custom was to publish
separate handbills for distribution in order that they might be in no
way associated with the regular issues. If regular issues failed to
appear after one of these handbills exhausted the week's supply of
paper and ink, it was politely overlooked by subscribers who were also
the editor's friends. Another taboo of the day was the mention by
96 ATLANTA
name of any citizen except by way of a business advertisement. Not
for several decades yet was such mention to be regarded as anything
but a serious breach of good taste.
True to form, the Miscellany's only indication, (aside from the
masthead) that it was published in any specific place was found in the
advertisements on the fourth and last page. Here it was announced
that the Washington Hotel was under new management; that Major
Wyllys Buell, the portrait painter, was recommended by the editor;
and that Jonathan Norcross had a new supply of "fine hardware and
dry goods selected in New York" and was quoting attractive prices on
"meats and feathers."
Hanleiter continued publication of the Southern Miscellany until
the fall of 1849, when he was forced to discontinue the paper because
of a raging smallpox epidemic that made it impossible to secure workers.
The type and press were purchased by four men, one of whom was
Jonathan Norcross, the town's foremost merchant and later its mayor.
The name of the paper was changed to the Intelligencer and, after
several other changes in ownership, came into the possession of John
Duncan and Colonel Thomas C. Howard in 1855.
Two years previously the Daily Examiner, Atlanta's first daily,
had appeared under the editorship of J.H. Steele and J.W. Dowsing.
It consisted of one sheet "devoted to the advocacy of democratic prin-
ciples." After four successful years it was purchased by John Duncan,
who had become sole owner of the Intelligencer. He merged the two
papers and continued publication under the name of the Atlanta Daily
Intelligencer and Examiner.
During the decade of the fifties no less than 28 papers appeared in
Atlanta. These included the Herald, the Weekly Republican and
Democrat, the Christian Advocate, the Olive Tree, the Knight of
Jericho, the Georgia Blister and Critic, the Southern Blade, the Disci-
pline, the Literary and Temperance Crusader, the National American,
and the Medical and Literary Weekly. The circulation of these jour-
nals was limited because of restricted appeal or hidebound dogma, or
their columns were devoted too exclusively to political propaganda,
with the result that they survived but a few months.
Although the dawning sixties brought the threat of war nearer,
there was no abatement in the appearance of new sheets on the streets
of Atlanta. During the first year of the decade five papers were estab-
lished, the Educational Journal & Family Magazine, the Georgia
Weekly, the Temperance Champion, the Daily Locomotive, and the
Gate City Guardian. During the four-year period of the conflict 15
newspapers were published at various times. Three of these were
papers which were moved to Atlanta from other besieged towns, the
Memphis Appeal, the Knoxville Register, and the Chattanooga Rebel.
Education and Welfare
I-I i
CANDLER SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY, EMORY UNIVERSITY
MEDICAL STUDENTS, EMORY UNIVERSITY
MACHINE SHOPS, GEORGIA SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY
TOWER OF ACADEMIC BUILDING, GEORGIA SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY
STUDENT PRINTERS, OGLETHORPE UNIVERSITY PRESS
AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE
jjjjjjjjm I m MWf-
- T^S-'i
^
ART STUDENT, ATLANTA UNIVERSITY
LABORATORY AT THE MUNICIPAL GRADY HOSPITAL
RECREATIONAL CENTER FOR ENLISTED MEN
HENRIETTA EGLESTON HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN
HILLSIDE COTTAGES
MARIST COLLEGE CADETS
MODELING AIRPLANES IN TECH HIGH SCHOOL SHOPS
NEWSPAPERS 97
The Gate City Guardian changed its name to the Southern Confeder-
acy as "a more appropriate title" in 1861 and claimed a circulation of
5,000. This was undoubtedly surpassed by the old Intelligencer, which
was still carrying on under a constant change of management. The
amazing number of less important papers may be partly explained by
the law that exempted newspaper editors and workers from military
service.
Wire service was supplemented by letters from correspondents and
soldiers at the battle fronts, and contact was maintained with the tele-
graphic offices of the railroads for any additional news concerning
activities of the fighting forces. Some of the most dramatic scenes of
the war period occurred in the streets before the newspaper offices, as
reports of another battle brought distraught crowds for news of rela-
tives and friends. Office boys and printers' devils were kept busy
running up and down stairs delivering hurriedly printed lists, still wet
with ink, as fast as they were taken from the presses. Grief-stricken
hysteria often hung upon the spelling of a name and, because of the
probability of errors in the hastily compiled lists, tension was heightened
by people pushing into the offices to check the original spelling.
With the beginning of the siege of Atlanta, the presses of the
Intelligencer were moved aboard a freight car, where publication con-
tinued. Since supplies were cut off from the besieged city, papers were
printed on any acceptable material that came to hand. Issues appeared
on wrapping paper, wallpaper, and even cardboard. When it became
evident that the Confederate forces could no longer hold the city and
that Federal occupation was imminent, the car containing the press of
the Intelligencer was pulled out of town and for the duration of the
war was shifted about the State, papers being irregularly published
wherever circumstances permitted. This was the only Atlanta paper
to survive the war.
During the period of Reconstruction many new papers appeared.
Most important among these were the Daily Commercial Bulletin and
the Ladies Home in 1866; the Daily Opinion and Adairs Georgia
Land Register in 1867; the Constitution in 1868; the Weekly Repub-
lican, the Sunny South, and the Southern Advance in 1874; and the
Daily Tribune in 1875. Many others, like the Acanthus ("Devoted
to the True, the Beautiful and the Good") had an ephemeral exist-
ence.
Only two papers inclined toward Northern sympathies during the
Reconstruction Period. The first of these was the Daily New Era,
which was acquired by Dr. Samuel Bard in 1866. In retrospect Bard's
allegiance seems to have been more to supporting the Constitution than
the Federal regime, but even this was unpopular among a defeated
people living under military rule. In the first issue of the paper Bard
98 ATLANTA
outlined his policy of accepting the reconstruction methods of Presi-
dent Johnson and advised a conservative political course that he
believed would result in an ultimate union with full restoration of the
South's rights under the Constitution. Adhering to his conservative
principles, he refused to comment on the Sherman Reconstruction Bill.
This caused much bitter censure, and finally the paper was forced to
declare that it was accepting the Reconstruction Bill unconditionally
and was determined to co-operate with the United States authorities.
Subscriptions were immediately canceled and the Daily New Era was
scathingly denounced by other papers as a Republican sheet. Never-
theless, the New Era survived and began an attack on the irregularities
of the carpetbag administration of Governor Bullock in Georgia, which
Bard so effectively exposed that Bullock was forced to silence the
paper by purchasing it for $25,000 in 1870. He neglected, however,
to insert a clause in the deed of transfer prohibiting Bard from begin-
ning another paper. The result was that Bard, now armed with the
additional weapon of the facts of the sale, opened an office across the
street from the New Era and began publishing the Daily True Geor-
gian. More than any other individual, this resourceful editor was
responsible for the defeat of Governor Bullock and his ultimate res-
ignation from office.
On November 17, 1870, the Daily True Georgian announced that
in acting with the Republican Party in support of measures for the
restoration of the Southern States it had discharged a duty to the people ;
it declared sympathy with the National Democratic Party, believing the
principles of that party guaranteed the best interests of the people.
Thus, having defeated the Bullock administration and returned to the
Democratic fold, Bard discontinued the publication of the Daily True
Georgian early in 1871.
The Intelligencer, which had admirably spurred Atlanta's citizens
in the work of reconstruction, likewise passed out of existence in 1871,
but the work was carried on by the new sheets. Most prominent of
these was the Atlanta Constitution, a morning daily founded by Colonel
Carey W. Styles in 1868. The Constitution led the fight for the
re-establishment of State government under the rule of its own people
while it was still under the military control of the Federal regime.
Because of this courageous stand the paper became instantly popular,
a regard which was justified when it proved itself the most conspicuous
newspaper factor in the complete triumph of 1871 when the native
white people succeeded in recapturing the State and routing the scala-
wags and carpetbaggers.
Styles maintained his connection with the paper for only a year
and was succeeded by G.H. Anderson, who took into partnership his
son-in-law, William A. Hemphill, a young Confederate veteran then
NEWSPAPERS 99
teaching school in Atlanta. Following Anderson's retirement in 1871,
Colonel E.Y. Clarke became associated with Hemphill, and the two
were chief owners of the paper until 1876. Clarke then sold his
interest to Captain Evan P. Howell. A few years later Henry W.
Grady, a young man who later became the South's most outstanding
orator, bought one-fourth interest in the paper and was made man-
aging editor.
Some knowledge of the type of reading matter contained in the
papers of this period may be learned by a review of an 1882 issue of the
Constitution. It consisted of eight pages of six columns each. The
first column of the front page was allotted to advertisements. The
second column contained two ghost stories and an article on the
"Treacherous Thirteen," dealing with the superstitious regard of this
number. The third and fourth columns were given over respectively
to Ben Hill's and ex-Governor Colquitt's speeches. The fifth column
was a travelogue in the Burton Holmes manner entitled "Life and
Nature in the Far Northwest." But the most striking notice on the
first page was the last column headed "Women's Feet," in which the
avid reader learned that "Mme. Patti has the plumpest of legs that
hang over her trim little boots," while "the spindle limbs of Bernhardt
borrow rotundity from bull red, block blue and dull pink stockings."
The inner pages contained news items with such captions as "Cruelly
Deceived A Young Woman Made Crazy by the Neglect of a Faith-
less Lover" and "The Evils of Drink Drunken Young Man Arrested
for Loitering Confesses He Has Led Many Young Girls Along the
Road to Ruin." The "Personal Intelligence" column contained such
confidences as "the season in the deer forests of Scotland is now pretty
well over" and "The elevated railroads in New York are being re-
painted."
The reporter of the day pictured himself not as Mercury but as
Aesop. In any news story concerning unfortunate persons every pos-
sible opportunity was taken to squeeze out the utmost of sentiment
and to point out the most telling moral. Story captions were stand-
ardized, and "The Wages of Sin" led the lot. The line drawn
between conceivable news and actual fiction was hardly discernible.
Although the Constitution excelled in the approved reportorial lush-
ness of the day, it also plunged candidly and dynamically into critical
controversial problems. Because of its courageous policies, it soon
became the most important paper in the South, and its editorial offices
were a training school for a number of men who later became impres-
sive figures in the world of journalism and literature. Among these
were Joel Chandler Harris, whose first "Uncle Remus" stories appeared
in the columns of the paper; Major Charles Smith, whose homely
philosophies and dry witticisms were published under the pseudonym
100 ATLANTA
of "Bill Arp"; and Frank L. Stanton, whose poems expressed in dis-
tinctive style the "soil and soul of America" in a column known for
years as "Just From Georgia." Wallace P. Reed and Lucian Lamar
Knight, two other reporters on the early staff of the Constitution,
became noted historians of Atlanta and Georgia.
For many years the Constitution was undisputed leader of the city's
daily newspapers. Then, in 1883, its predominance was challenged by
the appearance of the Atlanta Journal. In its first issue the Journal
proclaimed, "Our editorial department will be under the exclusive
control of those who are 'to the manor born,' and, therefore, our
patrons need not fear that any offence will be given through ignorance
of Southern sentiment or lack of sympathy with it. In politics the
Journal will be Democratic, though not so loosely buckled in the
harness that it will unthinkingly yield to the party lash in the hands
of those who may assume the right to rule."
The four-page paper was founded by Colonel E.F. Hoge, a lawyer
and legislator. While it caught the public interest immediately, the
journal's future was assured by a chance occurrence which made it the
talk of the town and the State and proved more effective than any
planned publicity stunt. This was the issuance of an extra covering
the burning of the Kimball House, at that time the largest hostelry in
the South, a favorite haunt of legislators, the center of many territorial
conventions, and the symbol of Atlanta to thousands of travelers. The
fire broke out at 4:30 on the morning of August 12, 1883, after the
day's issue of the Constitution was off the press. The Journal called
in its workers and hastily composed the extra, which was quickly
rushed onto the streets. Other copies were sped to trains for distribu-
tion in cities throughout the State.
The extra, an almost unheard of innovation, caused more excite-
ment than the fire. Commenting on its tour de force the next day, the
Journal stated, "The extra edition of the Journal yesterday was a
phenomenal success. Long before the paper went to press the side-
walk in front of the office was crowded with people eager to secure an
early copy. The regular carrier force of the Journal numbers twenty-
one boys, and as it was impracticable under the circumstances to notify
them of the extra edition, it was, of course, out of the question to
attempt a delivery to the regular subscribers. The demand for the
papers continued until dusk, and fully five hundred enterprising boys
were kept busy selling papers all over the city and in the suburbs. In
the neighboring towns the afternoon trains were besieged by people
clamoring for the Journal and thousands of copies were disposed of in
this way."
But as though to demonstrate that it could take such success in its
stride without undue excitement, the very next item in the column
NEWSPAPERS IOI
showed a return to the great tradition: "Among the society women of
London is an old lady eighty-three years of age, who is quite a wonder.
She has a very youthful figure, and across the room would be taken for
a woman of thirty."
Until 1906, the Journal and the Constitution had the newspaper
field in Atlanta virtually to themselves. Only seven other papers
appeared during the quarter century after the establishment of the
Journal and four of these were for Negroes. Of the remaining three,
two, the Peoples' Party Paper and the Daily Press, were published
by the fiery Tom Watson, State representative and United States
Senator. The Peoples' Party Paper was established in 1891 and
achieved a moderate circulation among Watson's political followers.
Encouraged by the success of this weekly, Watson brought forth the
Daily Press in 1894 which was intended to have a more general ap-
peal. The new sheet, however, soon began to show the old Watson
trait of biased news, and although Watson's followers were numerous
enough to support a political weekly, the general public refused to
subscribe to a daily paper largely given over to the self-glorification
of its publisher. The Daily Press, therefore, was discontinued within
the year, but the Peoples' Party Paper continued in publication until
1898.
The Daily News, which had been published since 1902, was bought
in 1906 by F.L. Seely who merged it in the establishment of a new
paper, the Atlanta Georgian. Six years later the Georgian was taken
over by the powerful Hearst interests, and for almost 30 years it con-
stituted a serious rival to the Journal in circulation. The Constitution,
being a morning paper, was not directly involved in this struggle.
John Temple Graves, a South Carolinian who began his newspaper
career on the Rome Daily Tribune and was later editor of the Atlanta
Journal and the New York American, was the first editor of the
Georgian. His oratorical brilliance equalled that of Henry W. Grady,
and his eloquence in political debate led to his first appointment in
newspaper work. Under his direction the Georgian conducted suc-
cessful drives against open saloons and the convict lease system and
championed the passage of child labor laws. But the odds were
against the Georgian, and it never quite attained the circulation of
the Journal.
In 1900 the controlling interests of the Journal had passed into
the hands of James A. Gray, under whose astute guidance the Journal
introduced many features. It was the first Southern paper to feature
business, agricultural, and educational news; the first to give sports
the prominence of major news; and the first to issue a magazine
section (1912). In 1917 Gray died, but, although Major John S.
Cohen succeeded to the presidency, the Gray family retained their
IO2 ATLANTA
stock ownership and their personal interests in the paper. Major Cohen
continued to establish precedents. In 1919 the Journal became the
first Southern paper to publish its own rotogravure section; in 1922
the first to construct a radio station, WSB; in 1929 1:he first to employ
teletype mechanism in sending news direct from the source to the
editorial room; and in 1935 the first to introduce wire-photo service.
In 1937 tne Journal opened its second radio station, WAGA.
On December 15, 1939, James Cox, thrice governor of Ohio, made
a flying visit to Atlanta and announced that he had bought both the
Journal and the Georgian. The deal included* full possession of the
Journal's 5O,ooo-watt radio station WSB and a 40 per cent interest in
the less powerful WAGA. The total cash payment was approximately
$3>5OO,ooo. Within a week the Georgian suspended publication and
many of the workers and features of the paper were added to the
Journal. The addition of the Georgian's subscribers now probably
gives the Journal the largest circulation of all papers in the South,
150,000 copies daily and 200,000 on Sunday.
Atlanta has had several Negro papers, both weekly and daily. The
earliest, the Weekly Defiance, was published in 1881 but quickly
failed. It was followed by the Atlanta Age, established in 1893 an d
discontinued in 1908. More successful was the Atlanta Independent,
a weekly founded in 1903 by Benjamin Jefferson Davis who was a
prominent Republican and officer in the Order of Odd Fellows. The
paper was published until 1932 when Davis discontinued it in order
to devote more time to his political and fraternal activities.
The Atlanta World, a weekly, was founded in 1928 by William
Alexander Scott, a young, well-educated Negro. The paper was an
immediate success and in 1930 was made a semiweekly. In 1931 it
became a triweekly and in 1932 a daily, the name being changed in
this year to the Daily World. The paper maintains its own wire
service and features a full page of comics drawn by Negro artists and
a Sunday rotogravure section. It is the only Negro daily published
in the country. A newspaper syndicate founded by Scott owns or con-
trols 34 newspapers appearing in various Eastern cities.
Radio
i
,T is estimated that early in 1922 there
were about 1,000 homemade radio receivers in Atlanta and its vicinity.
At that time, however, there were no broadcasting stations in the
South, and radio fans of the region had to content themselves with
the reception of alternate whisperings and squawks which indicated
that the broadcasts of some of the up-East seaboard stations had
wandered within range of their makeshift tube and crystal sets.
Then, on the evening of March 15, 1922, these hopeful listeners
were thrilled to hear the by no means overpowering strains of a jazz,
band rendition of the "Light Cavalry Overture" coming through their
earphones and loud-speakers. This surprise broadcast was the initial
program of the Atlanta Journal's radio station, a station just authorized
by a telegram received that same afternoon from the acting Secretary
of Commerce and operating under the call letters formerly assigned
to a ship's wireless in the Pacific Ocean WSB.
With this broadcast WSB set the first of many precedents which
were to establish it as one of the leading stations in the country. Even
before entering the field of broadcasting the Journal had published
many articles instructing amateurs how to build receiving sets. A
sound truck equipped with receiving apparatus cruised the city, and
loud-speakers were set up in Piedmont and Grant Parks.
With the inauguration of its own station, the Journal immediately
began a series of important innovations. WSB was the first station in
America to adopt a slogan, "The Voice of the South," and early in its
career it originated a mechanical effect for station identification, the
famed chimes intoning the first three notes of "Over There." A
musical signature was later adopted by the National Broadcasting Com-
pany. Night programs were not given in those early days, but WSB
took the initiative here by introducing a 10:45 P.M. transcontinental
broadcast. The Journal's station also led the field in employing radio
as an educational medium by effecting a city-wide installation of radio
receivers in the public schools and transmitting daily programs as an
103 *
104 ATLANTA
integral part of school work and also by establishing "WSB's Uni-
versity of the Air," a daily schedule of broadcasts conducted by the
faculties of Georgia Tech, Emory University, Agnes Scott College, and
Cox College. Radio broadcasters and listeners were on more informal
terms in 1922 than is the case today, and WSB, always alert to please
its fans, organized radio's first fraternity of listeners, the "WSB
Radiowls."
The fact that all of these "firsts" were originated before its initial
year of broadcasting was completed is indicative of the progressive spirit
of the station's general manager, Lambdin Kay, known as "The Little
Colonel" throughout the world of radio. Kay persuaded many celebri-
ties to make their first radio broadcasts over WSB microphones.
Among these were Otis Skinner, Efrem Zimbalist, Alma Gluck,
Rudolph Valentino, and Rosa Ponselle. Miss Ponselle, after singing
two numbers during an informal broadcast, was so awed and excited
by the new medium that she heartily joined the studio audience's ap-
plause, explaining that it was "the first time I have ever had the chance
to applaud myself and not seem immodest." Henry Ford, Octavus
Roy Cohen, and Roger W. Babson are a few of the other noted
personages who made their acquaintance with radio at WSB in the
early years of broadcasting.
WSB entered the field of commercial broadcasting when it became
affiliated with the National Broadcasting Company in 1927. This was
a definite recognition of the station's accomplishments in the radio
world, and WSB is now regarded as one of the most important links
in this national chain of stations.
The amazing growth of WSB since its opening in 1922 in hastily
constructed and cramped quarters on the roof of the Journal building
to its present status in capacious studios in the Biltmore Hotel is marked
by its increasing wattage. On March 15, 1922, its broadcasting power
was a mere 100 watts; on June 13, 1922, this was raised to 500 watts;
on July 13, 1925, to 1,000 watts; on February 8, 1930, to 5,000 watts;
and on September 9, 1933, to 50,000 watts.
The station operates 18 hours a day on a regional frequency of
750 kilocycles and transmits its broadcasts via a 65o-foot vertical
antenna, the tallest man-made structure in the State, which is located
near Atlanta at Tucker. Although known as "The Voice of the
South," WSB's reception range extends far beyond the territory which
gives it its slogan. Not only has WSB been heard in every part of
the United States, but, because of occasional "freak" conditions of the
atmosphere, it has been reported from South Africa, Australia, New
Zealand, and numerous Central and South American countries.
WGST, Atlanta's and the South's second radio station, opened
March 17, 1922, just two days after WSB's initial broadcast. At
RADIO 105
that time the station's charter was owned by the Atlanta Constitution,
and its first program, a news broadcast, was transmitted through the
radio plant of the Georgia Railway & Power Company under the
signature of 4-F.T. When the Constitution built its own station
within the year, it began broadcasting as WGM with a power of
250 watts.
In 1929 Clark Howell, owner of the Constitution, gave the sta-
tion to the Georgia School of Technology so that the students might
have the opportunity to study radio engineering. At that time the
station acquired its present designation of WGST. The following
year the station was leased by the school to the Southern Broadcasting
Stations, Inc., and became a member of the Columbia Broadcasting
System.
WGST has the distinction of being one of the few stations in the
United States which was heard by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd
at the South Pole on his first expedition in 1929. The studios are on
the ninth floor of the Forsyth Building and the station operates
1 8 hours a day on an assigned frequency of 920 kilocycles, with a
power of 5,000 watts during the day and 1,000 watts at night.
WATL was established in 1931 as WJTL by Oglethorpe Uni-
versity, and for years its broadcasts consisted solely of educational pro-
grams designed to offer the public complete extra-mural instruction
on university subjects. In 1935 the station was purchased by a private
organization; the call letters were changed and studios were opened
in the Shrine Mosque. These were later moved to the Henry Grady
Hotel.
The majority of the station's programs in the past have been elec-
trical transcriptions, although a unique arrangement existed whereby
the station broadcast programs originating in the studios of WLW
in Cincinnati, WLS in Chicago, and WSM in Nashville. In January
of 1940, however, this arrangement with added features was given
permanency when the station became a member of the Mutual Broad-
casting System.
Although a station of small power (100 watts day and night),
WATL is especially popular with Atlanta's younger set because of its
recorded programs of dance music on Saturdays. A notable feature
of the station is its broadcasts of "news on the hour every hour" dur-
ing the 1 8 hours of daily operation. WATL's frequency is 1400 kilo-
cycles.
WAGA, like WSB, is operated by the Atlanta Journal, but it is
owned by the Liberty Broadcasting Company. The need for its estab-
lishment arose from the difficulty with which WSB was faced in at-
tempting to choose between programs emanating from both the Red
and Blue networks of the National Broadcasting Company. For
106 ATLANTA
eight years WSB had to broadcast an alternation of Red and Blue
programs, with the result that many of the better offerings of both
schedules were blocked. To overcome this difficulty, station WAGA
was opened on August I, 1937, to carry the Blue network programs,
leaving WSB free to transmit the broadcasts scheduled on the Red
network.
Known as "Atlanta's Wave of Welcome," WAGA operates on
a frequency of 1480 kilocycles with a power of 1,000 watts during
the day and 500 watts at night. Its studios are located in the Western
Union Building and its transmitter is at Sugar Creek, three miles from
the heart of Atlanta.
Atlanta's police department maintains a two-way contact with all
of its cruising cars, an installation that has proved indispensable for
efficient police service. All messages are broadcast in code which is
changed monthly in order to prevent the public from crowding around
scenes of fires, accidents, and similar spectacular happenings when
private radios pick up the police wave length.
In addition to the city's commercial and police radio stations are
the scores of sending and receiving sets operated by wireless fans who
maintain nightly contacts with others of their kind throughout the
western hemisphere.
Certainly no medium has contributed more in recent years to the
education and entertainment of the public, not only in Atlanta but in
the entire Southeast, than this city's radio stations. Complete cover-
age of all local and national events in the fields of news and amuse-
ment are assured by the four commercial stations. On occasion,
programs of national importance originate in the various Atlanta studios
and are broadcast via the networks throughout the country, while
the music of various noted orchestras playing engagements in Atlanta
hotels is almost a nightly feature of the Eastern radio chains.
Sports and Recreation
o
N THE land where Atlanta's tallest
buildings now stand, Cherokee tribes once fished, hunted, and played
a kind of lacrosse with a flattened wooden bat and a ball made of
stuffed deerskin. The first white men's sports on record were intro-
duced early in the 1830*8 by the militia on muster day at Whitehall
Tavern. After the brief drills had been finished, the air crackled with
rifle fire as the men carried on their keen trials of marksmanship, con-
tests that sometimes ended with fist fights and bloody noses. More
often, however, the occasion ended in a hilarious feast. The winner's
prize, a yearling heifer, was roasted and eaten on the spot, washed
down with mighty drams from the tavern's whisky barrel.
During these pioneer days, the railroad men and sawmill workers
brought not only gambling and card games but some lusty athletic
sports. Among the most popular were wrestling, cock-fighting, and
turkey or gander pulling in which the prize, a live fowl, was hung
by its feet while the mounted contestants galloped very fast beneath
it and tried to snatch off the head.
The wives who soon came to the settlement could not immediately
abolish these elementary and often brutal games, but they gradually
broke down their popularity by substituting more genteel forms of
entertainment. An amusing account of a dance in 1844 is given by
"Cousin John" Thrasher, contractor for the Monroe Railroad. Ac-
cording to the story, Mrs. Mulligan, the wife of Thrasher's Irish
foreman, refused to move into her cabin until a puncheon floor had
been installed. When she moved in, this dynamic lady was so de-
lighted by the elegance of her new abode that she immediately invited
the workmen and their wives to a ball and insisted that Thrasher lead
the first dance with her. Although he stumbled and had the heel of
his boot wrenched off by the rough boards, he contrived to hop through
the figure, and the ball was a great success the forerunner of the
innumerable brilliant social affairs for which Atlanta has since become
famous.
107
108 ATLANTA
Despite strong opposition from some strict church-goers, dancing
quickly became popular. The Atlanta Intelligencer of November 18,
1857, notes that "Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Leonard, together with Prof.
Duesberry, will open their Dancing Academy today at Hayden's Hall
. . . being in every way qualified to teach the most fashionable, plain
and fancy dances of the day." As the town grew, the people also
began to find entertainment in devices of the kind later offered by
amusement parks. A ten-pin bowling alley did a lively business in
the 1 850*8 and at about the same time Antonio Maquino advertised his
confectionery shop by a large wooden Ferris wheel upon which his
customers were given free rides. Housewives brought their cakes and
preserved fruits to the fair sponsored by the Southern Central Agri-
cultural Society.
During the early i86o's, Confederate soldiers were put into bar-
racks in the city, and these men, many of them from the farms, often
worked off their energy in wrestling and fist fights. They were not
left very much to their own devices, however, for the ladies of Atlanta
kept them busy with bazaars, tableaux vivants, balls, picnics, and
barbecues. Despite the bitterness of the Reconstruction Era that lasted
into the following decade, Atlanta continued to regale itself with the
theater and with many evening parties graced by music and amateur
theatricals. The church, from the first an important social factor,
now strengthened its hold on the impoverished but undaunted people,
and on Sunday afternoons the dusty thoroughfares were gay with young
couples carrying on their courtships on the way from Sunday school.
Although this period had so many dark aspects, there are records of
many gayeties of the entertainments of the volunteer fire companies,
of people visiting the summer resort at Stone Mountain and climbing
the great granite mass, of roller skating on an upper floor on Forsyth
Street, and of merry parties pedalling their way around the hall of
the velocipede rink at Marietta and Forsyth Streets.
The rapid growth of the city brought many newcomers merchants,
insurance salesmen, real estate promoters, soldiers in the Federal army
of occupation who introduced new forms of entertainment. A Ger-
man society, the Turn Verein, organized an Atlanta unit in 1873.
Its members were required to participate in gymnastic exercises twice a
week; and on Sundays, with music and beer, they entertained their
families with exhibitions of skill at their hall on Broad Street.
By a trade with the Macon & Western Railroad, the city acquired
a land plat bounded by Whitehall, Pryor, and Alabama Streets and
the Western & Atlantic Railroad, and for about 15 years these grounds
were rented out to circuses, medicine shows, auctioneers, and fortune
tellers. These fakirs, shouting up their evening trade in the flare
of kerosene torches, caused the block to be locally christened Humbug
SPORTS AND RECREATION
Square. Here in 1868 there was erected the bush arbor at which
crowds were stirred by the oratory of Robert Toombs, Howell Cobb,
Benjamin H. Hill, and Raphael J. Moses.
During the 1870*5 when baseball became popular, the young men
of Atlanta made up their own nines with the exception of pitchers and
catchers, who usually were engaged from professional ranks. Matches
were arranged not according to a regular schedule but simply by chal-
lenging the teams of neighboring towns, and no admission charge was
made until July 25, 1884, when Atlanta defeated Augusta in the year's
first professional game. This was played in what is now Peters Park,
where a new diamond had recently been laid out with grandstand
and bleachers and enclosed by a high wire fence. It is worthy of note
that only about half the spectators were men, for women were be-
ginning to interest themselves more fully in public sports, though
still as onlookers rather than participants. In the following year
Atlanta won the pennant for the first year of the Southern League,
which was composed of cities of Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee.
It was not until some years later that the Atlanta team took its present
name of the Atlanta Crackers.
With recovery definitely assured, Atlanta soon developed a gra-
ciously worldly society that learned to enjoy more varied recreations.
Croquet was a favorite game with the young ladies and gentlemen,
and lawn tennis also came in soon to be developed for clay rather
than grass courts because of the abundance of red clay soil in this
region. More dancing academies opened and flourished. A few of
the city's older citizens remember one of the earlier ones held in
Jones Hall on Whitehall Street, where Professor Nichols of Marietta,
a tall, gaunt man wearing cloth gaiters with patent leather tips that
gleamed as he danced, instructed Atlanta children in the waltz, schot-
tische, mazurka, polka, and Virginia reel. Young people of slightly
more advanced years enjoyed the dancing and roller skating at Ponce
de Leon Springs. A great pleasure of summer evenings was to board
the electric car for a ride past the dark woods and fragrant meadows
of the nine-mile belt.
Atlanta society was still of a size to gather comfortably in its own
homes, where the entertaining often was sumptuous. The city's most
prominent men and women would assemble to honor some debutante
who stood to receive them with an armful of red roses held against
her white silk and lace. The guests would waltz for a time and then
be seated on gilt chairs to eat a buffet supper of cold turkey, chicken
salad, beaten biscuit, oysters in molds of ice, and ice cream with cake.
A young belle and her escort could drive to a dance unchaperoned in a
hired landau if another couple accompanied them. They attended the
balls at the Kimball House, the Girls' German Club monthly dances
110 ATLANTA
at Concordia Hall, or the Germans of the newly organized Nine
O'Clock Club, where they received favors of papier-mache figures,
feather fans, and little barrels of candy. New Year's visiting was
popular; groups of young men would start walking at opposite ends
of the city, stopping for visits as they went and finally meeting at
some central home to enjoy eggnog and fruit cake.
The first football game in the State was played at Piedmont Park,
February 10, 1892, between the state university and Auburn (Ala-
bama Polytechnic), which won n-o. Georgia Tech's first football
team was organized in the following year by Leonard Wood, who at
that time was assigned to duty at Fort McPherson as a lieutenant.
Wishing to play the game but having no players, Wood enrolled for
two courses at Tech and organized a team there. Tactics consisted
principally of line bucking and the famous flying wedge. One of
Tech's first football games was in 1893 with St. Albans of Virginia.
On this occasion the student body met on the campus and followed
the team to Piedmont Park, where the game was to be played. It
was on this march that the well-known ' 'wreck Tech" yell was com-
posed.
Beginning about 1895, Atlanta people flocked to Lakewood Park
for the harness races, in which horses pulling sulkies were driven very
fast around the one-mile track. More than one record was established
here during the Grand Circuit races. The horse Single G paced the
three fastest beats on record in a regular race. Scott Hudson, a
prominent sportsman of Atlanta, is said to hold a world's record, that
of being the only man to drive all six winners on the same card in
one afternoon.
Golf in Atlanta first appeared very inconspicuously in 1896, when
the city's first course, with seven holes, was laid out by the Piedmont
Driving Club. No lessons were given by .the first professional, Jamie
Litsner, whose principal duties were the supervision of caddies and the
repairing of golf sticks. The game soon attracted more attention,
however, and by 1906 the Atlanta Athletic Club had provided a better
course. The first professional was Alec Smith, the second was Jimmy
Maiden, and the third was his brother Stewart Maiden, who became
internationally famous as Bobby Jones' first coach. Soon other clubs
were providing facilities, but the game had not attained even a small
part of its present popularity. In 1911, when Bobby Jones at the
age of nine won the city Junior Championship Cup, only a compara-
tively small proportion of the population was interested.
Atlanta citizens of the early twentieth century found their recrea-
tion in tennis and baseball, in hunting and fishing in the nearby woods,
in swimming at the indoor natatorium on Capitol Square, and in watch-
ing the dazzling feats of Bobby Walthour, Atlanta's famous bicycle
SPORTS AND RECREATION III
racer. Widespread public interest in automobiles was first aroused by
a show in 1909, and soon large crowds were watching races on the
old Hapeville oval, a two-mile dirt track. The gayer social set gave
more sophisticated entertainments dances, whist and bridge parties,
Saturday night poker games, and opulent Sunday morning breakfasts
with champagne cocktails and Potomac herring roe.
A system of integrated parks and playgrounds was inaugurated
in 1905. Little supervision of recreation was given at first, but in
1907 four supervised playgrounds for children were set up by the
Associated Charities of Atlanta under the direction of Joseph Logan.
Funds for this service were included in the budget of the charities for
several years until this function was absorbed in the general jurisdic-
tion of the city park authorities. With the growth of the park system,
recreation facilities also expanded to include more attractions for both
children and adults. For a number of years golf links, tennis courts,
baseball diamonds, and swimming pools have been provided under
municipal auspices.
During the war period of 1917-18, Atlanta streets once again were
thronged with soldiers, this time the men in khaki who were in train-
ing at Camp Gordon and Fort McPherson. Like the Confederates
in the i86o's these men were given the best hospitality the citizens
could afford, and during their hours of leave they went to many dances
and theatrical entertainments. Motion pictures were shown at the
municipal auditorium on Sunday afternoons ; after the show the soldiers
uproariously sang such favorites as "Over There" and "K-k-k-katy."
At the cantonment the YMCA took charge of sports, which included
boxing, wrestling, football, baseball, and various relay contests and
races. Often the young soldiers were brought to town to swim in the
indoor YMCA pool.
The war over, Atlanta people flung themselves wholeheartedly into
recreations of every sort, particularly the lavish and showy spectator
sports. Football games became great events, especially after Georgia
Tech and the University of Georgia had resumed their severed athletic
relations in 1925. Atlanta became the scene of the regularly scheduled
automobile races approved by the American Automobile Association.
These contests were held on the Pace's Ferry Track, laid out in 1929,
which was regarded as the fastest half-mile oval in the country.
The post-war years brought prominence to many Atlanta golfers.
Alexa Stirling won the women's national championship in 1916, 1919,
and 1920. Bobby Jones, after years of taking lesser awards, in 1930
made his "grand slam" capture of the four highest golf trophies
the American Amateur, American Open, British Amateur, and British
Open regarded as one of the greatest feats in sports history. Charlie
Yates was a member of the Walker Cup Team in 1936 and again in
112 ATLANTA
1938, the year in which he won the British Amateur Tournament.
Also in 1938 Howard Wheeler was winner of the Negro national golf
championship. Frequently Atlanta golfers have held the State cham-
pionship and been contenders in national meets.
Atlanta athletes have also won honors in the swimming pool, on
the tennis court, and in the boxing ring. In 1932 Louisa Robert was
national junior backstroke swimming champion. Bryan ("Bitsy")
Grant, whose small stature caused him to be known as "the mighty
atom of tennis," has carried off the championship in an imposing list
of tournaments, including the United States Clay Court Champion-
ship in 1930, 1934, an d J 935 Third place was accorded him in the
national ratings in 1936, and the following year he was a member of
the Davis Cup Team. Among the Negroes famous in sports are
"Tiger" Flowers, who won the world's middle-weight championship
in 1926, and Ralph Harold Metcalf, who established new track records
in the Olympic Games of 1932, 1933, and 1936.
The depression of the I93o's did not permanently curtail attendance
at large athletic tournaments ; indeed, in many instances, greater crowds
than ever were attracted. By putting on more spectacular shows with
bands in gay uniforms and high-stepping drum majors, the high schools
have greatly increased attendance at their football games. The popu-
larity of baseball also has increased enormously since floodlights have
been installed on the field of Ponce de Leon Park so that the Atlanta
Crackers and their opponents are now enabled to play night games.
Leisure for greatly increased numbers of people has created a new
spectator public which is interested in a much broader variety of sports
than were the crowds of the post-war boom era.
But a still more significant trend has been shown in the greater
numbers who take part in recreation not as onlookers but as participants.
Various industrial organizations support baseball and basketball teams
for their workers. A more widespread general interest in such ac-
tivities has been furthered by the co-operation of municipal agencies
and the Work Projects Administration. For supervised recreation and
playground equipment, the city contributes an average of $330 a month
and the Work Projects Administration an average of $6,000 a month,
of which approximately half covers Fulton County activity. In 1939
the city created a distinct branch of the Parks Department known as
the Recreation Division, with funds allotted under the annual munici-
pal budget to administer Atlanta's supervised playgrounds for children
and a system of athletic leagues with regularly scheduled games. Of
these 33 playgrounds, 8 are exclusively for the use of Negroes. Dur-
ing J 939 public basketball facilities were used by about 700 players,
while 1,200 men and women team members played softball on public
diamonds in leagues supervised by the Greater Atlanta Softball As-
SPORTS AND RECREATION 113
sociation. More than 1,000 boys under 16 years old played baseball
on the supervised sandlot diamonds of the city. The Recreation
Division, during this year, presented numerous dramatic and musical
performances including an amateur production of the Gilbert and
Sullivan operetta Pinafore with a cast of 40 children and 20 adult
singers.
Large crowds watch football at Grant Field of Georgia Tech
and at Hermance Stadium of Oglethorpe University; boxing, wrestling,
and basketball at Ponce de Leon Park; and Sunday afternoon polo
matches at Fort McPherson. The Golden Gloves Boxing Tourna-
ment, conducted by the Atlanta Journal, also draws a large attendance.
The city has 88 municipal tennis courts and many private ones, 10 pri-
vate golf courses and 5 municipal links (4 nine-hole and i eighteen-
hole), six municipal swimming pools (5 for white and I for Negroes),
12 or more private or club pools, and many gymnasiums and basketball
courts. There are 83 parks comprising almost 1,600 acres. Of these
Lakewood (leased to the Southeastern Fair Association) is the largest
with 370.9 acres, Piedmont Park second with 185 acres, and Grant
Park third with 144 acres. There is good provision for bowling,
ping-pong, roller skating, badminton, riding, and numerous other sports.
Atlanta, a busy and crowded commercial city, is only beginning
to utilize its many natural advantages for recreation. These advantages
include well-wooded rolling lands, abundant water resources, and a
mild yet invigorating climate that permits outdoor sports the year
around. With such natural facilities combined with many prosperous
and energetic citizens, the community is well able not only to maintain
but to enlarge the scope of such activities. Atlanta has no pretensions
to being a resort town, but in the natural course of its development
it is learning to concentrate on the recreational phases that both attract
tourists and add to the well-being of permanent residents.
Architecture
A
.TLANTA is renowned for the taste and
sumptuousness of its residences in their green setting of trees, shrubbery,
and sweeping hills. The audacious variety of its architecture sets it
apart from older cities of the South. Here are no quiet streets of
columns and magnolias although both of these are seen sometimes
but humming thoroughfares where Gothic, Renaissance, Tudor, Roman-
esque, Southern Colonial, and modern dwellings are blended with
harmony and vivacity.
Yet this notable architecture has developed from an origin of
pioneer crudeness within only a century. Before the city was founded,
the only substantial building in the vicinity was Whitehall Tavern,
erected early in the iSso's. When John Thrasher, contractor for the
Monroe Railroad, came in 1839 to the site of the terminus, the only
dwelling he found was a rude structure of logs. Similar dwellings
were quickly erected for the railroad workmen, huts of two rooms
with sometimes a lean-to added. These huts were made of puncheons,
logs roughly sawed in half, with the smooth side turned in and the
cracks daubed with mud. At first the floors were only of earth, but,
as soon as the railroad workmen began to bring their families, puncheon
floors were installed.
The first builders, uncertain of the future for their little com-
munity, erected no substantial buildings until the City of Atlanta
had been incorporated on December 29, 1847. Two months before
that date Dr. William N. White, who had come from New York to
teach school, noted: ". . . the woods around are full of shanties, and
the merchants live in them until they can find time to build." He
further added: "Atlanta so far has not a good house in the place
except the hotel."
After the city was incorporated, however, conveniences and even
decorative details were not long in appearing. The Greek Revival had
passed from its pure beginnings into an era of departure from the
classic perfection of its friezes, cornices, and columns. Some such de-
114
ARCHITECTURE 115
tails there were in early Atlanta houses, but they were seldom of the
finest. In near-by Roswell, Barrington Hall, Bulloch Hall, and
Mimosa Hall showed the fine simplicity of this classical influence;
Atlanta was built too late to receive it. By the beginning of the 1 850*8
the first unpainted two-room huts were being replaced by geometrically
trim white plank dwellings with two rooms on each side of a hallway,
sometimes with a stairway leading to a second story. Fireplaces were
usually set flush with the inner walls, and the brick chimneys towered
above each end of the peaked shingled roofs. The Huff House, built
1854-5, is one of the few surviving buildings of this period.
Builders began to use brick also in the main body, frequently
mortising the outer walls with lime and the inner ones with mud.
In 1852 Patrick Lynch, an Irish stone mason, erected on Gilmer Street
Atlanta's first brick house. A fine example of brick construction dur-
ing this period was the compact two-story city hall and courthouse
erected in 1855. Dignity and strength were implicit in the unpre-
tentious lines of this edifice, with its central cupola, balconied Doric
entrances, and high windows with plain lintels and louvered green
shutters. The red brick of the courthouse was matched in the posts
of the encircling fence of white wooden palings. Also erected during
this period were the Central Presbyterian and First Baptist churches,
substantial brick structures with wooden spires that stood west of the
courthouse. A still more striking achievement of the fifties was the
red-brick depot, one of the first in which the train could be taken
under the shed.
Other buildings of the late ante-bellum period were constructed
of rock from the near-by granite quarries, a novel example being the
Calico House built by Marcus Bell in 1860 and later used by General
Sherman as his first headquarters during his occupation of the city.
The rock surface was covered with plaster, which was painted gayly
in blue, red, and yellow in imitation of the marbling process used
inside book covers. Most of the domestic architecture, however,
whether the material was wood, brick, or stone, followed more academic
designs. The variety among Atlanta residences a year or so before
Sherman destroyed them is shown in Margaret Mitchell's Gone With
The Wind: "Scarlett picked them out as old friends, the Leyden
House, dignified and stately; the Bonnells', with little white columns
and green blinds; the close-lipped red brick Georgian home of the
McLure family, behind its low boxwood hedges."
During the fighting around Atlanta most of the houses were shat-
tered by exploding shells or burned by Federal soldiers. After peace
was declared the citizens, their cash rendered worthless, had to rebuild
and repair largely by their own labor. Sometimes, when only the four
walls of a dwelling were standing, shelter would be provided by merely
Il6 ATLANTA
laying on a roof. Some formerly fine residences presented a tragic
appearance with their clapboards patched with roughly dressed lumber,
and it was some years before the survivors of the siege had sufficient
money to improve their habitations.
But at this time history changed the course of Atlanta's architectural
development. After the war the bustling railroad city was crowded
with Northern soldiers, merchants, and speculators, many with ample
cash to build for themselves. The services of architects were de-
manded, and William H. Parkins, probably Atlanta's first practicing
architect, came to the city early in 1868, soon followed by Calvin Fay,
who had lived here before the war but had not practiced. Both these
men and others now opened offices. In 1869 Parkins designed the
brick Gothic Church of the Immaculate Conception, which still serves
an active Roman Catholic congregation.
Building operations, vitalized by capital from outside, began to
push out in all directions and to develop new sections out of the sur-
rounding forest and pasture lands. The features of the rebuilt city
were being changed by a type of architecture that was the antithesis
of the old. Even as early as 1868, the new four-story building that
was begun as KimbalPs Opera House and later used as the capitol,
despite the classical work on its ground floor exterior, presaged the
coming romantic trend in its cupola and mansard roof. Sometimes the
two styles were combined incongruously, and Corinthian columns
stood in grotesque juxtaposition to scrollwork and towers. In Atlanta
as elsewhere the seventies and eighties constituted a period of reaction
against the simplicity of the Greek Revival, so that both commercial
and domestic architecture took on the characteristics of what has since
been christened the "gingerbread era" balustrades, scrollsaw banisters,
snuffbox turrets, broken roof lines, leaded glass windows. During the
last two decades of the century the Romanesque Revival brought cir-
cular windows, clustered pillars, sweeping arches, and heavy asym-
metrical masses.
Northward out Peachtree Street spread miles of this fanciful dec-
oration executed in wood or brick or stone, but the houses it adorned,
despite some overcrowding of details, often presented a handsome
appearance with their ivy and softening shrubbery. The stern colors
of stone and iron made a fine background for the vital green of
the grass lawns that were supplanting the bare yards and tangled
gardens of the sixties. Some of the older Peachtree residences still
standing are excellent examples of this period, such as the brick and
brownstone Silvey-Speer House and the stone houses of Mrs. Samuel
M. Inman, Sr., and A.G. Rhodes (now Rhodes Memorial Hall).
The public edifices of the time include the Kimball House, the Atlanta
Constitution Building, and Sacred Heart Church.
ARCHITECTURE II?
From the turn of the century to the World War, Atlanta archi-
tecture was greatly affected by the rise of speculative builders, who
bought entire blocks, divided them into lots, and erected small dwel-
lings. The architecture of these houses was often a conglomerate,
for the builders sought to combine on a small scale the characteristics
they deemed most arresting in more expensive dwellings. Sometimes
utility was lost in adaptation to a new material. The broad Roman-
esque arch, for example, had been a structural unit of masonry, but
in wood it became a mere decorative detail. The new bungalows,
long and low, were admirably suited to their narrow city lots; but
later examples were despoiled of the early attractive simplicity by
the crowded impression of turrets and other "gingerbread" features.
A little dignity was gained when these features were applied to two-
story dwellings, but the effect generally was not pleasing. Innumerable
houses of this time may still be seen along Juniper Street, Piedmont
Avenue, and many other sections that developed near the beginning
of the ^.twentieth century. The most attractive section that developed
during this time was Ansley Park, with its streets running in intricate
circles. Although few of the Ansley Park dwellings are of distin-
guished style, their builders avoided the worst decorative offenses, and
the impression as a whole is agreeable.
Some of the churches were well executed, especially the simpler
modernized Gothic ones such as All Saints' and St. Luke's. Likewise
there was good ornamentation in some early skyscrapers. The Candler
Building, the first of these in Atlanta, is somewhat overburdened with
classical decorations, but later office buildings showed a more dis-
criminating simplicity. The Healey Building is a good example of
"business Gothic" architecture, and the old post office shows the good
taste of the architect in adapting the Italian Renaissance style to com-
mercial purposes. From the first days of its tall buildings, the Atlanta
downtown section has presented difficulties to architects because of
the irregular shape of its lots; but these lots have been utilized with
increasing ingenuity.
In 1915, when the first buildings of the new Emory University
were erected, the material and style were considered daringly ex-
perimental. In contrast to the nondescript buildings characteristic
of older colleges in this region, the Emory structures are of pink
Georgia marble in Italian Renaissance style modernized to plane sur-
faces and simple lines. In their setting of pines and shrubbery these
buildings now stand as an appropriate as well as a striking example
of school architecture.
After the first World War the real estate boom developed new resi-
dential areas, where the more expensive homes began to show the
harmony of building and landscaping for which Atlanta is known.
Il8 ATLANTA
Crowning the boldly curved lawns of the Druid Hills and Pace's
Ferry sections arose houses as dissimilar as they were handsome; but,
although Gothic, Cotswold, Tudor, neoclassic, and all phases of the
Renaissance and Colonial styles followed one another -indiscriminately,
they usually were set far enough apart to avoid architectural dis-
harmony. No single type was noticeably predominant. The Spanish
influence that became nationally popular with the Florida boom was
generally thought too austere for Atlanta's irregular landscape and
softly massed shrubbery; but a few good examples, such as the White-
head-Riley House and the Rogers-Haverty House, remain to show
this trend. Types still rare in Atlanta are exemplified in such struc-
tures as the J.B. Home House, which is Tudor executed in white
brick with Cotswold cottage inspiration showing in the sharp roof
lines and casement windows; and the Norman farmhouse Roper-Riley
House, with its red-tile roof and half-timbered white brick facade.
A type much more popular during the 1920'$ was the green-shuttered
white frame house of balanced masses, with Colonial influence show-
ing in its slanting roof and fan-lighted doorway. This style was some-
what standardized for less expensive dwellings, but most of them
present an attractive if not striking appearance.
One of the strongest influences of the war and post-war eras was
brought by the architect Neel Reid, whose previous studies abroad
found expression in numerous houses of fine fidelity to European
classical patterns. Reid's execution was not limited to any particular
style, but his talent was shown most frequently in houses of Renais-
sance or Georgian inspiration. Among the distinguished examples of
his work are the Case-Martin House, a limestone edifice of eighteenth-
century classical style with Renaissance details, the front facing on
a cobbled courtyard and a limestone wall ; the Andrew Calhoun House,
of Italian baroque in sunburned stucco with pale green shutters; the
Georgian white stucco Edward Inman House, flanked by tall Egyptian
obelisks; and the gray stucco Cooper-Brooks House of Italian Renais-
sance style. Reid was only in his prime at the time of his death
in 1926, but he had lived long enough to inspire other talented
architects who have insisted on purity of detail in their work.
The most important trend of the 1930'$ has been the stronger
affirmation of good taste in smaller houses, several of which have re-
ceived national notice. A good example is the Harold Bunger House
in Decatur, of French Provincial design executed in red brick with
a mansard roof and long green shutters. The great improvement in
the smaller dwellings is due in part to the rise of functionalism with
its greater simplicity and utility and in part to the long-term loans of
the Federal Housing Administration and the strict architectural re-
quirements attendant on such loans. Atlanta has only recently be-
ARCHITECTURE 119
come acquainted with what is known as "modernistic" architecture
in its dwelling houses, and this influence is still negligible.
One of Atlanta's many paradoxes is that its Southern Colonial, or
Greek Revival, architecture did not come in the mid-nineteenth cen-
tury, as it came to other Southern cities, but in the 1930'$ as a new
and modified second revival. The old form of interior planning has
been altered to suit modern conditions, but many classical decorations
are being employed with grace and distinction. There are no examples
of the pure Greek temple type, but many of the finer new houses show
columns, chaste friezes, and well-proportioned porticoes. Among the
best examples of new houses showing the later classical influence are
the Hal Hentz, Robert Alston, and Hugh Nunnally houses.
Atlanta contains both good and bad examples of modern design
in stores, office buildings, and industrial plants. The two leading
department stores are admirably arranged for commercial purposes,
and their unadorned surfaces Rich's of brick and limestone and
Davison's of red brick are agreeable and restful to the eye. The
newest skyscrapers also have been modeled on the plan of a shaft with
unbroken lines; and the William-Oliver Building and Rhodes-Haverty
Building, with their long lines and simple fenestration, exemplify the
modern trend away from cornices, consoles, and virtually all exterior
decorations not strictly necessary to functional purposes. The new
Coca-Cola bottling plant, a broad low building of brick and limestone
with clear glass windows, also combines functionalism with attractive,
unpretentious decorative features. Several large slum areas in various
parts of the city have been replaced by the long low brick or stucco
buildings of Federal Housing projects.
An article by Marguerite Steedman in the Atlanta Journal, Decem-
ber 15, 1935, presents an acute observation on modern downtown
Atlanta: "The ground floors of many buildings . . . have been altered
repeatedly for the benefit of progress or a new tenant. But the upper
stories often remain as our mothers and grandmothers knew them
. . . one glances up, past modern plate glass and chromium, to dis-
cover overhead windows still shadowed by sculptured arches or old
signs and dates which form integral parts of the walls themselves and
so have escaped removal. Dates running from 1875 to 1890 are often
found, half hidden in the shadow of a chimney or a steep, fancifully
plastered gable . . . many Atlanta buildings still boast their chimneys,
relics of the day when every ofHce had its small coal grate or air-tight
stove. . . . One structure, at the corner of Alabama and Broad
Streets, has second story windows which are shadowed by thick over-
hanging 'eyebrows' of molded terra cotta, wrought into wreaths of
fruit and flowers."
Atlanta's irregular downtown pattern, with its slanting, narrow
I2O ATLANTA
streets, makes congestion inevitable in this area. Its best office build-
ings are not seen to best advantage, for they frequently are obstructed
by other edifices. The residential sections, however, are justly noted
for their beauty. The antiquarian in his journey over the South may
miss the flavor of time in Atlanta architecture, but he will find con-
trast, beauty, and vitality.
Art
i
N 1847, the year in which Atlanta was
incorporated, there appeared in the columns of the Southern Miscellany
and Upper Georgia Whig an advertisement of Major Wyllys Buell,
portrait painter. The editor recommends him and urges readers to
have likenesses made of wives, sweethearts, and children. This notice,
which is among the earliest records concerning art in Atlanta, in-
dicates that there was at least a small measure of artistic appreciation
in the community even when it was little more than a frontier settle-
ment. It seems that Buell did not let art interfere with political
affairs, however, for he became mayor of the city in 1850, and nothing
further is found about him as a portrait painter.
Indeed, the bustling, practical citizens of Atlanta were working
too hard for a living to support an artist group. Probably they shared
the conviction of most of the United States that a little elegant paint-
ing and embroidery were desirable for young ladies but that painting
pictures was no job for a virile young man. Boys were seldom urged
to scribble or strum or paint. Yet there are numerous indications that
the arts had their admirers, as is shown not only in the advertisements
of "photographs, ambrotypes, and oil paintings" that continued to ap-
pear in the newspapers but in the practical measures that occasionally
were taken to stir appreciation and encourage talent. In 1850, at the
fifth annual fair presented by the Southern Central Agricultural
Society, there were "five beautiful oil paintings by Orgali, an Italian,"
lent by an Atlanta citizen, while two Atlanta ladies were commended
for their own paintings as follows: "By Mrs. V. Foster . . . land-
scape, horses, domestic animals, & c. executed in India ink. An
elaborate and beautiful picture. Premium $3. Also two pieces of
Flowers and Fruits. . . . By Miss Guthrie . . . two Monochromatic
Drawings. Landscape, Domestic animals, & c well executed. Honor."
The Intelligencer even ran an article in 1858 minutely describing
the paintings on the splendid new fire engine of Atlanta Fire Com-
pany No. i. One of these pictures showed the classic race of the
121
122 ATLANTA
redoubtable huntress Atalanta and her suitor Meilanion, who won both
the race and the huntress by casting golden apples before her, and
"the paintings are all very spirited, and finished most exquisitely, doing
credit to the genius of the artist, M.J. Shreeves, of" Philadelphia."
During the i86o's the creative impulse sometimes seemed almost
extinguished as the civilians of Atlanta, with the rest of the Con-
federacy, strained every effort to the breaking point. With the blockade
runners loading their cargoes with food, medicines, and most strangely
fashionable ball gowns, artists' materials were scarce. Neverthe-
less, the women's defiant gayety was shown in the silk flags they made
to float, proud in their fringed gold and scarlet, above the lines of
fighting regiments. Atlanta women also directed their instinct for
design into the making of screens, fans, feather-and-beeswax flowers,
and all sorts of embroidered articles that were sold at bazaars to aid
the Confederate cause. When the supply of thread failed, human hair
was used to execute the skillful embroidery stitches.
The harsh days of Reconstruction did nothing to awaken the im-
pulse. In January 1869, an Intelligencer reporter "visited two art
galleries in the city . . . and saw some nice pictures and excellent
likenesses. We regret that it is true . . . that in a great measure
the arts are looked upon as useless or supernumerary." The people
had little money to buy pictures, although it is remembered that one
Atlanta citizen, who later amassed great wealth, earned a little cash
by peddling the popular Currier and Ives prints of the American scene.
From the early iSyo's on, the number of professional artists in Atlanta
increased steadily. C.W. Motes set up a studio, where he took photo-
graphs, instructed in miniature painting, and entertained his friends
by exhibiting his life sketches and paintings done while he was on the
march with Confederate forces. Among his visitors was Horace
Bradley, later to attain some celebrity as a painter and still remem-
bered by a few old citizens as having demonstrated his youthful talents
by painting designs on the belts, caps, and bats of a baseball club to
which he belonged.
When Atlanta began to work back toward a normal prosperity,
art became popular and the number of instructors rapidly grew. In
1882 the Art Loan Exposition, under the auspices of the Young Men's
Library Association, brought to the city a large collection of paintings
from all sections of the United States. So great was public interest
that excursion trains were run from several Georgia towns in this
region. The Constitution notes: "'The Deliverance' by E.H. Blash-
field, of Boston, is a large canvas and occupies a central position,
around which cluster contributions from . . . other distinguished
artists. Each picture is full of refined interest, and will delight the
eyes of all who see them. ... Mr. J. Carroll Beckwith sends his
ART 123
lovely ideal face of 'Azalia', which is beautiful in flesh color and
exquisite drawing. . . . Mr. W.E. Herring, of this city, has kindly
loaned 'Midsummer Night's Dream' by Ang. Riedel . . . this picture
is valued at $10,000, and is one of unusual appearance, it being a
little Cupid gracefully reposing upon a cloud and surmounted by three
owls. ... In the upper portion of the picture burns a beautiful flame,
perfectly painted, which lights the figures dimly. The lights and
shadows are perfectly managed and" one may well believe! "pro-
duces a wonderful effect."
During these years there were not many instructors in Atlanta
who taught their pupils to paint from the living model. Usually the
students copied from calendars and other pictures or at most did still-
life oil or water color paintings from arranged fruits and flowers.
Miniature painting was made so popular by the young ladies of Atlanta
that often photographers employed painters to do this work, usually
from photographs. Such miniatures of famous people are on permanent
exhibition in the Department of Archives and History in Rhodes
Memorial Hall.
Also on display at Rhodes Memorial Hall, as well as at the State
capitol, are numerous portraits of Georgia statesmen produced by
Atlanta artists who were popular during the last two decades of the
century. Some of these canvases show an honest realism; others have
a pompous rigidity, as though the clothes had been painted in first
and the face inserted to order afterward. In at least one instance
boldness and influence proved to be acceptable substitutes for talent :
anecdotes are told of a woman who became locally known as a portrait
painter by soliciting commissions from prominent citizens, hiring hack
workers to copy the portraits from photographs, and signing her name
to the portraits before they were delivered. This same lady also
earned her living as a teacher, although her pupils state that after
distributing materials she set them to work on elaborate lamp shades
trimmed with roses and * beehives without ever imparting a word of
instruction. A far greater number, however, earned their way by
honest work. Some of these, such as Adelaide C. Everhart, are still
popular painters. Lucy May Stanton, who painted in Atlanta for a
time, later won the medal of honor at the Pennsylvania Society of
Miniature Painters Exhibition for her miniature of Joel Chandler
Harris.
Sculpture during these years was for the most part rather elementary
and imitative. Stonecutters produced much ornamental work in marble
or granite in tombstones and in various memorial shafts and statuary.
Oakland Cemetery has a striking example in T.M. Brady's Lion of
Atlanta inspired by the famous Lion of Lucerne and erected in 1894
by the Atlanta Ladies Memorial Association to honor the unknown
124
ATLANTA
Confederate dead. Bronze or marble busts of notable men constituted
another popular form of art. Orion Frazee, a native of New York who
came to Atlanta in 1885 a d became well known both as a painter and
sculptor, executed death masks of Jefferson Davis, .Robert Toombs,
Henry W. Grady, and other Southern celebrities. In the opening
years of the twentieth century a Swedish sculptor named Ocherberg,
who lived for a time in the city, carved numerous busts, including one
of Joel Chandler Harris, upon which the famous writer is said to have
placed his hat when he entered the house.
During the i88o's William Lycett came to Atlanta and opened an
art school on Whitehall Street, where he and his wife gave lessons in
oils and water colors and in china painting. The painting of plates
and dishes was for years a popular pastime with Atlanta housewives,
and examples of their white-and-gold handiwork still may be seen in
many a cupboard and china closet.
An important step in the development of art in the city was taken
when the Atlanta Art Association was chartered in 1905. This or-
ganization conducted an art school, gave funds for traveling exhibits,
offered prizes, and arranged for lectures by nationally known artists.
Meetings were held in bank offices and in various homes, while dis-
plays were set up in empty stores. In 1924, with the assistance of the
Chamber of Commerce and of a member of the Art Association,
J.J. Haverty, this organization secured its first exhibition of note from
the Grand Central Galleries of New York. It was not until 1926,
when Mrs. Joseph Madison High presented her home to be used as a
museum, that the association acquired permanent quarters. A school
to teach both fine and commercial art was opened immediately. In
the following year a loan exhibit from Atlanta homes was sponsored
by the association, and for the first time the public saw how many works
of famous artists were in the city. Romney, Gainsborough, John Opie,
Ralph Blakelock, Franz Von Lenbeck, Thomas Sully, Phillip Wouver-
man, George Inness, Ribera, Le Sidoner, Harpignies, David Tenier,
and Jules Du Pre were among the artists represented. Since then loan
exhibitions from various galleries have been arranged frequently at
the High Museum by the director, Lewis Skidmore.
A strong influence on Atlanta art is exercised by several instructors,
among the most important of whom are Ben E. Shute and Robert S.
Rogers of the High Museum School of Art. Talented and progres-
sive, Shute and Rogers have retained flexibility of expression by con-
stant experimentation with fresh techniques, so that their work is as
varied as it is dextrous. Ralph Britt, head of the Britt School of Art,
is known not only for the soundness of his own craftsmanship but
for his teaching. Maurice Seigler, instructor of drawing in the archi-
tecture department of the Georgia School of Technology, is known
ART 125
as a fresco worker, a portrait painter, and an outstanding draftsman
of the human body. Although the prevalent green and purple tones
are the most vivid feature of his paintings, even his work in oils is
notable for the firm draftsmanship beneath the paint. Private in-
dividuals also have had vital influence. George Ramey, an architect
and a gifted painter, has rendered invaluable service to art circles by
the exhibitions which he has periodically arranged at the Carnegie
Library.
One of Atlanta's best portrait painters is Marjorie Conant Bush-
Brown, who works in an excellent traditional technique with modern
expression. By careful under-painting, Mrs. Bush-Brown succeeds in
rendering flesh tones of a glistening transparency, especially in her
Negro studies, and her portraits are notable for their backgrounds
which are boldly colorful yet kept subordinate to the subject. Elizabeth
Paxton Oliver, too, has won honors for her Negro portraits, as well
as for her animated and realistic bird paintings.
The favors of the public are well distributed among both the
artists of longer standing and the newer ones. Charles F. Naegele
has worked for many years at his portrait painting and has gathered
a large following. Kate Edwards has long enjoyed widespread popu-
larity for her portraits in oils; she has also received enthusiastic praise
for her excellent drawings in white point. One of the most celebrated
of the younger painters is Claud J. Herndon, who has excellent taste
and a fine sense of decorative values in his portraits. Within the
bounds of the strictly decorative, Athos Menaboni is eminent. Work-
ing on plaster, glass, or canvas to execute his brilliant murals, he in-
tentionally keeps his figures flat, but they are vital because of their
colors and the admirable arrangement of the patterns. Menaboni's
bird paintings, which combine the delicate detail characteristic of
Japanese work with a strongly anatomical quality, ,are in frequent de-
mand for exhibitions by nationally known organizations.
Other examples of interesting work recently produced by Atlanta
artists are Kitty Butner's colorful portraits, Wilbur G. Kurtz' illustra-
tions of historic episodes, Cornelia Cunningham's pencil sketches,
Catherine Nunnally's sensitively realized yet substantially executed
figures, Mrs. A. Farnsworth Drew's striking murals and pleasing sea-
scapes, Leroy Jackson's well composed water colors, Julian Binford's
portraits and landscapes, and Lamar Baker's lithographs that are as
widely celebrated for their strong social recognitions as for their finely
patterned technique. Strongly contrasting work has been done by a
talented daughter and mother. The faces in Mary E. Hutchinson's
portraits have strength and dimension while retaining a decorative
character almost equal to that of formal designs in a frieze. Her
mother, Minnie Belle Hutchinson, paints abstractions with a gayly
126 ATLANTA
satiric realization, evoking an ironical emphasis by her seemingly in-
nocent use of clear primary colors.
In Negro art Hale Woodruff is the most prominent instructor as
well as one of the most original and powerful craftsmen. Painting in
an uncompromisingly modern technique with a lavish use of strong raw
colors, Woodruff has done memorable work in depicting the peasantry
of Mexico and of his own people. His pupil Robert Neal has also
been praised for the rhythm and gayety of his work even when he
selects squalid backgrounds to render.
The statuary and monumental work of Fritz Zimmer, Steffen
Thomas, and Joseph Klein have received wide notice, as have the
sympathetic plastic studies of Mrs. Edward Donnelly. Outstanding
in sculpture is Julian Harris, who in his work returns to the archaic
principle of treating sculpture not dramatically but as an art of masses
and their relation. Harris has made an important contribution to
Atlanta art by his insistence on the close association between architec-
ture and sculpture, and his bas-relief panels on the new State Office
Building are indicative of this renascence.
Under the stimulus of growing public interest, Atlanta painters
in recent years >have been aroused to performances that express their
own individual conceptions. The native characteristics of the State
have been more zestfully realized in both landscape painting and
portraiture, and the result has been productions that are more supple,
informal, and audacious. Not only has new subject matter been dis-
covered but newer techniques have been applied to the portrayal of
old scenes with vigor and vivacity. Atlanta art is like a growing plant,
strong, vital, and branching off in many directions.
The Arts
JULIAN HARRIS, ATLANTA SCULPTOR, AT WORK
"KATIE LOU," BY BEN SHUTE
MAGNOLIAS AND MUSHROOMS," BY ROBERT S. ROGERS
THE BREAKFAST, BY ROBERT S. ROGERS
I/"
II 1!
ATLANTA THEATER GUILD PRODUCTION OF "THE BARKER*'
GEORGIA TECH AND AGNES SCOTT STUDENTS IN GILBERT AND SULLIVAN'S
"H. M. s. PINAFORE"
11
OUR TOWN," PRODUCED BY ATLANTA UNIVERSITY SUMMER THEATER
BIG BETHEL CHOIR
t f t t
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EMORY UNIVERSITY GLEE CLUB
HARMONY CLASS AT THE GEORGIA CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
I
STATUE OF GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON ON THE STATE CAPITOL LAWN
CLASS AT THE HIGH MUSEUM SCHOOL OF ART
!L mm
LITERARY AUTOGRAPHING TEA AT DEPARTMENT STORE
THE WREN S NEST, HOME OF JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
Music
A
.LMOST the first music in the Atlanta
vicinity came from the lusty throats of the railroad construction men
in such simple airs as, "Joe, Crack Corn." Their only accompani-
ments were bird cries and the thud of axes, but when they went home
in the evenings they sometimes twanged mouth organs or scraped
fiddles. A little later, when wives and daughters came, these same
fiddles were used for square dances. On Sundays the woods rang with
old favorite hymns of Charles Wesley and others and with the Negro
slaves' spirituals that presented a mixture of biblical and African
imagery. Soon the musical and dramatic ingenuity of the people was
aroused by local incidents a log-rolling, a feud, or a romance to the
making of ballads, new verses being constantly added by different
groups. Ballad making was popular until the War between the States
brought a new collection of martial and sentimental songs, and even
at present ballad singing is a regular feature of the annual fiddlers'
convention at the city auditorium.
The settlers, though busy from daybreak to dark with their rail-
roads, stores, and sawmills, were ambitious that their children should
have better cultural opportunities. In 1857, ten years after the in-
corporation of the city, Mrs. J.A. Wright opened a school for young
ladies where music was taught, and in the same year Carl F. Barth
held music classes, and the firm of Barth and Nicolai sold pianos and
stringed instruments. Instruction was principally for the girls of a
family; a boy who played the piano had to be adept with fists as well
as fingers if he escaped the charge of effeminacy. Vocalizing was more
permissible, and many a manly baritone joined the sopranos in the
evenings to render the sad love songs of the fifties.
By 1860 the Atlanta Amateurs, a mixed choral organization, was
appearing before large audiences. Soon after the war broke out, this
group was not only performing in its own city but, with the aid of
free transportation offered by the Atlanta & West Point Railroad,
was making trips to other Southern towns in order to raise funds for
127
128 ATLANTA
the Confederacy. Atlanta ladies, proud in Georgia homespun, were
escorted by ragged soldiers home on leave to the old Athenaeum to
hear these singers begin with the "Southern Marseillaise," continue
with "Banks of the Blue Mozelle," "Cottage by the Sea," and other
sweet songs, and wind up with the broadly satirical ditty on Abraham
Lincoln, "Root, Hog, or Die." Sometimes benefits were given for a
specific fighting force such as Captain (later General) John B.
Gordon's "Raccoon Roughs." When General John M. Morgan
escaped from his Union captors and came to the city, the Atlanta
Amateurs gave him two benefits that netted him $250.
One of the most popular musical performers of the sixties was
the pianist Blind Tom from Columbus, Georgia. Described as the
"most amazing wonder of the age" and "a second Beethoven," Tom
gave several concerts annually at the Athenaeum. Although virtually
an idiot and knowing nothing of notes, he had amazing imitative powers
and was able to reproduce perfectly any composition, however complex,
which was played within his hearing. The most brilliant of his feats
was the rendition of three compositions simultaneously.
After the war vocal music continued to be popular, but the new
martial airs created a demand for brass bands. Stringed music also
began to find a larger place mandolin and guitar clubs and lady
harpists delighted their audiences. When the impoverished citizens
began to make enough money to refurnish their parlors, more of them
began to include the piano as a necessary fixture. Atlanta music was
not silenced even during the most humiliating days of Reconstruction
and Northern military rule. Choral concerts were given at the Bell-
Johnson Hall on Mitchell Street, and the Fulton Brass and String
Band made the street crowds tap their feet in rhythm. In 1869
Will F. Clark is advertised as "giving instructions on the violin, guitar,
harp, piano, and various other instruments." Clark, leader of the Gate
City Silver Band, provided music for "parades, balls, private parties,
serenades, etc., at reasonable rates."
Some of Atlanta's finest religious music during the iSyo's was
presented by the choir of old St. Philip's Episcopal Church, directed
by Ludwig Harmsen, an accomplished Scandinavian pianist who had
been in the city during the war. Old directories reveal that this decade
brought many music teachers. In 1872 the city's first white orchestra
was brought by Ferdinand Wurm, a man of remarkable linguistic and
musical attainments, who had formerly taught at the university in
Munich. Professor Wurm, who had taught Sidney Lanier to play
the flute, performed on almost all instruments. His orchestra, the
original members of which were the professor and his four sons, con-
sisted of a first violin, second violin, bass violin, clarinet, and cornet.
It was later enlarged, but for some years, in accordance with general
MUSIC I2 9
musical custom, there was no piano. For more than 40 years Wurm's
Orchestra played at weddings and receptions and on all kinds of public
occasions. Sunday concerts were given in the dining room of the
fashionable Kimball House, but only sacred music was played.
During this decade musical organizations were formed under the
names of famous composers. The first of these, the Beethoven Society,
met on the third floor of the old Georgia Railroad Depot at the foot
of Alabama Street. Here this mixed group rehearsed choral selections
with instrumental accompaniment, but public performances were pre-
sented in DeGive's Opera House on Marietta Street. Gaslight from
chandeliers danced over brilliant audiences of men in tails and women
in satins and velvets with long white gloves; the gas footlights flared
on the tiers of singers, who were seated pyramid fashion with the
various "leads" strategically distributed. The general taste of the
time ran to songs about gravestones and severed hearts, but these choral
societies insisted upon rendering good music. Although social prestige
counted for something in these societies, they caused the breakdown
of many old barriers. A strict father might protest when his delicately
nurtured daughter was called upon to sing soprano to a bartender's
tenor but in the name of music it was usually allowed.
The Beethoven Society contented itself with solos, choruses, and
occasional single scenes from grand opera; but the Rossini Club, or-
ganized in 1876, presented two or three entire operas, beginning with
Balfe's Bohemian Girl in November of its first year. A few years
later the Mendelssohn Society was established by a young Italian pianist,
Alfredo Barili, who came to the city in 1880. A nephew of the famous
singer Adelina Patti, he was for many years among Atlanta's leading
music teachers and most distinguished musicians. As a composer he
became known for the songs "There Little Girl, Don't Cry" and
"Cradle Song" and for the piano compositions "Modern Minuet,"
"Miniature Gavotte," and "Butterfly Waltz."
The number of Atlanta's local musicians increased during the last
years of the century. Brass bands and mandolin clubs continued to
flourish, and a fiddlers' convention was inaugurated in 1885. More
cultivated tastes were pleased by the concerts given by the Prather
Home School for Girls and the Women's Exchange. But a perpetually
increasing number of citizens demanded to hear the best internationally
known musicians available. In 1883 alone, Atlanta audiences heard
Minnie Hauk and Company, the Duff Grand Opera Company, Grau's
English Opera Company, and the Theodore Thomas Orchestra. In
1895 Atlanta singers and pianists performed at the Cotton States and
International Exposition, which drew great crowds to the hilly acres
that later became Piedmont Park. Sometimes scores of gray-uniformed
veterans burst into the rebel yell after "Dixie" or "Tenting Tonight"
130 ATLANTA
had been sung. The Damrosch Opera Company made Atlanta better
acquainted with the heavy, dramatic Wagnerian pieces by the presenta-
tion of Lohengrin and Siegfried, and the New Orleans Opera Company
gave the French musical dramas Les Huguenots and Romeo and Juliet.
In 1898 the Atlanta Concert Association brought such famous artists
as De Pachman, Rosenthal, Bloomfield-Ziegler, Mark Hambourg,
Lillian Nordica, and Nellie Melba. Eleven years later, when the
municipal auditorium-armory was opened, this body became the Atlanta
Music Festival Association.
In the first year of the new century the Klindworth Conservatory
was opened by Professor and Mrs. Kurt Mueller in the then fashionable
residential section of Courtland Street near Cain. The Muellers soon
became salient figures in the musical receptions that were given in the
homes of Mr. and Mrs. John Pappenheimer and Colonel and Mrs. Wil-
liam Lawson Peel lavish, brilliant affairs at which Atlanta's aristoc-
racy mingled with the aristocracy of the music world. In 1905 the
Muellers achieved an outstanding success when the conservatory pre-
sented a program of Brahms selections, then considered odd and diffi-
cult by most Atlanta audiences. Offering a 36-week scholastic year,
the Klindworth Conservatory served Atlanta for years by capably teach-
ing not only vocal and instrumental music but regular academic courses.
In 1909 it was combined with the Atlanta Conservatory of Music,
which had been formed two years previously, and under the latter
name the combined organizations continued to function until 1938.
Another group that was active in the formation of sound musical taste
in the city was the Atlanta Musical Association, organized in 1908
with 15 or 20 charter members under the leadership of Bertha Har-
wood. In the following year the Schleiwen String Quartette, formed
from the symphony orchestra of this association, made Atlanta still
more widely known as a musical center when it toured under the
Atlanta Lyceum Bureau.
That good music was becoming important to increasing numbers
here is shown by the construction of the new $200,000 auditorium-
armory, with a seating capacity of more than 5,000. In May 1909,
shortly after its completion, the auditorium was opened by the most
dazzling musical event up to that time the Atlanta Music Festival,
featuring Olive Fremstad, Geraldine Farrar, Giovanni Zenatello,
Antonio Scotti, Ricardo Martin, and the Dresden Philharmonic Or-
chestra with its young stars Mary Lansing, contralto, and Albert
Spalding, violinist. Five hundred local singers formed the chorus,
and the four concerts were attended by more than 25,000. The Atlanta
Music Festival Association installed a large pipe organ in the fol-
lowing year and presented Edwin H. Lemare in the opening concert.
Percy Starnes, later selected as municipal organist, inaugurated regular
MUSIC I 3 I
Sunday afternoon concerts which were continued by his successors,
Edwin Arthur Craft and Charles Sheldon, Jr. Other well-known
organists who gave recitals were Joseph Bonnet and Clarence Eddy.
The success of the festival of 1909 led the Atlanta Music Festival
Association to the audacious plan of having an entire week of opera
by the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York City as the
festival of the following year. Despite the guarantee of more than
$40,000 demanded by the company, this plan was carried out with
overwhelming success. The greatest star of this week was Caruso,
who sang in Alda and Pagliacci, but enthusiastic homage also was
rendered to Farrar, who had won great popularity at her Atlanta
debut the year before. Homer, Gadski, Amato, and other famous
singers added to the luster of the occasion. At the end of the week
the manager stated that "never before had the Metropolitan Opera
Company sung to so many people or such an amount of money in one
week." Until 1931 Atlanta was the only Southern city to feature the
Metropolitan in a week of grand opera annually. After the success
of the performances in Atlanta's Metropolitan Opera revivals of 1940
and 1941, it is believed that opera week will again become a regular
date on the Atlanta calendar.
During the World War years, while the city auditorium was packed
with young men in khaki shouting "Over There" at Sunday afternoon
rallies, the serious music groups were working to bring the best vocal
and instrumental performers to the city. In 1916 the Atlanta Music
Club, organized the year before as the Woman's Choral Club, began
its concert series, and two years later a succession of concerts that
subsequently became the All-Star Concert Series was initiated. The
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Association was formed in 1922. A series
of civic concerts with solo and orchestral selections was opened by
the music club in 1927, and this organization has now joined with the
Atlanta Philharmonic Society, formed in 1930, in sponsoring an annual
series of these presentations.
In the first year of the new decade, Evelyn Jackson, then president
of the Georgia Federation of Music Clubs, established the MacDowell
Festival to honor the famous American composer Edward MacDowell.
This festival was adopted by the entire Nation, the proceeds of the
performance being used to provide funds for the Peterborough artists'
colony founded by MacDowell. These years were notable also for
the improvement of church music throughout the city. Charles A.
Sheldon, Jr., organist at the Temple, became known for his traditional
Jewish sacred music; Mrs. Victor B. Clark, at the Peachtree Christian
Church, was the organist and director of the only Protestant antiphonal
and chancel choir in the city; Joseph Ragan, organist and choir director
at All Saints Episcopal Church, attracted large crowds by his Easter
132 ATLANTA
choral celebrations; the choir of St. Luke's Episcopal Church became
known especially for the coloratura solos of Minna Hecker; and the
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church became still more widely cele-
brated for its midnight mass music on Christmas Eve. These are only
a few of the churches that still provide sacred music of good quality.
Both talent and appreciation for fine music are now abundant in
Atlanta, although the city badly needs a greater number of capable in-
structors and strong leadership for fusion of the divergent factors. The
All-Star and Atlanta Music Club concerts provide the two best regular
annual musical series. Atlanta is known for at least two fine voices
Minna Hecker, coloratura, and Edward Kane, tenor. The Emory
University Glee Club, less than 20 years old, has become celebrated
under the direction of Malcolm H. Dewey for its excellent choral
programs. Especially notable are its Christmas carol singing and its
presentations of Negro spirituals, which are sung by the chorus with-
out effort to emulate Negro mannerisms but simply as good music.
Among the first college organizations to dispense with mandolin clubs
and jazz bands, this group has made numerous successful tours in-
cluding two in England. In 1940 this glee club, assisted by the Emory
Little Symphony Orchestra, combined with the Agnes Scott Glee Club
to present two successful performances of the Gilbert and Sullivan
opera lolanthe.
Atlanta offers numerous facilities for a sound musical education.
The Griffith School of Music, organized in 1890 by Mrs. Mary Butt
Griffith, has been continued by the same family for half a century.
Providing instruction in virtually all branches of instrumental music,
this school makes a specialty of classes in the Italian harp. The At-
lanta Conservatory closed in 1938, but many of its former instructors
are now teaching independently. The Georgia Conservatory of Music,
which was opened in Atlanta in 1940, was short-lived, closing after
only one year of operation. Well known among Atlanta's music teach-
ers are Hugh Hodgson and Earle Chester Smith in piano, Elinor
Whittemore King in violin, and Margaret Hecht in voice. Ruby
Chalmers has served as an accompanist for several visiting artists.
Annie Grace O'Callaghan, director of music in Atlanta high schools,
has rendered excellent service to the city by her courses in general
music and by periodic student performances of special choral, instru-
mental, and orchestral groups, and Ruth Weegand directs the grammar
schools in a similar program of work. The WPA Music Project
assists by giving frequent concerts in the schools.
Among numerous composers, Jane Mattingly, Elizabeth Hopson,
and William O. Munn have received recognition for their children's
music; Nan Bagby Stephens for songs for DuBose Heyward's play
MUSIC 133
Porgy and her own Negro drama Roseanne; and Bonita Crowe for
her songs and piano pieces.
Atlanta in recent years has become known for Negro music, espe-
cially for Heaven Bound , written and performed by members of the
Big Bethel Methodist Church. Utilizing many of the old spirituals
in the form of the miracle play, this piece has attracted large crowds
in many performances. Kemper Harreld, director of music at More-
house College, has done notable work with orchestras and glee clubs
in various Negro schools and in the field of Negro folk music.
The Theater
A
.TLANTA'S early citizens had but little
time for pleasure; work and sleep constituted a routine that was sel-
dom broken. Cultural recreation, especially in the form of the theater,
was not even remotely considered. By the early forties, however, the
town had taken on some elements of permanency and citizens were
beginning to have a few daily leisure hours. Word quickly spread
along that "grapevine system" which has ever been the characteristic
gossip medium of the show world and at once a stream of Punch-and-
Judy shows and street performers were attracted to Atlanta. Local
music clubs were organized and concerts of a sort were given. By
1850 a newspaper was already complaining that "concerts and sleight-
of-hand performances have become stale from the frequency of their
occurrence."
In 1854 Parr's Hall, located on the third floor of a brick building
at the corner of Whitehall and Alabama Streets, was opened for the
accommodation of traveling shows. Here William H. Crisp and his
talented family began their first attempts at portraying the drama. In
the same year Crisp persuaded James E. Williams, later mayor of
Atlanta, to remodel the second floor of his feed store, between Pryor
and Peachtree Streets on Decatur, into a theater. The resulting audi-
torium was called the Athenaeum and was reached by a narrow flight
of stairs, at the top of which was a little box office. There were
enough rude chairs and benches in the "parquette" and gallery to seat
700 persons, although Williams advertised the capacity as being over
1,000. The rear of the hall was given over to a shallow stage, the
sliding curtains of which stopped just short of the walls to afford a
little "dressing room" privacy. There was no back door and it was
often necessary for the hard-put actors to make precarious rear en-
trances and exits by means of a long ladder which barely reached one
of the windows. Candles gave the only illumination, and patrons en-
dured uncomplainingly the odors of the feed grains stored in the lower
floor, the snorting of horses in adjacent stables, and the acute dis-
134
THE THEATER 135
comfort of sitting for hours on rough, uncushioned benches. Never-
theless, it held all the mystery and enchantment that is the theater,
and at every performance the house was packed by citizens who wept
over high tragedy and laughed uproariously at low comedy. The
Athenaeum became headquarters for Crisp and his family as well as
for the traveling shows of the day.
William Choice, another amateur actor, organized the Murdock
Dramatic Club in this same year and the company sprang into imme-
diate popularity. Choice was an energetic and sensitive young man of
exceptional talent who excelled in tragic roles. "As gentlemen," he
stated in speaking of the aims of the club, "we promise we will not
pander to perverted tastes, but the noblest thoughts of noblest men
shall be presented." Typical plays were The Gladiator, Pizarro, and
William Tell, all with strong male leading roles which provided
Choice with excellent opportunities. The organization was exclusively
male, but for such plays as Poca-hon-tas (The Gentle Savage) and
The Wife professional actresses were employed. On occasion the
Murdock Club supplemented the ranks of traveling companies which
appeared in Atlanta. Among these were the companies of Maggie
Mitchell who presented Mazeppa, and of the great tragedian Neafil,
who appeared in The Corsican Brothers. Although he was immensely
popular, Choice's career was brought to an untimely end when he
murdered a creditor and was committed to the Milledgeville insane
asylum in 1860.
Crisp and Choice followed the precedent established by traveling
shows, that of presenting a serious drama followed by a short comedy,
and drama or comedy alike carried explicit subtitles. Thus were com-
bined such double features as Lucretia Borgia or The Female Poisoner
and The Happy Man or Paddy Among the Orientals. So firmly en-
trenched was this pattern that the companies did not dare ignore the
public expectations, but the comic relief was often cut to proportions
which made it a mere sop to satisfy custom. Thus one billing of the
day announced "Shakespeare's Beautiful Tragedy MACBETH in
five acts, to conclude with MINNA, a Comic Song."
Comedy, however, was by no means eclipsed. On the contrary the
Fulton Minstrels, the Campbell Minstrels ("The Campbells are Com-
ing!"), or the Atlanta Amateurs could put on an entire evening's
show of fun. Shortly after the disbanding of the Murdock Dramatic
Club, William Barnes, who had played juvenile roles in Choice's com-
pany, founded the Atlanta Amateurs, an organization that seems to
have been given more to musical extravaganzas than to plays, although
short dramatic skits occasionally were given in the course of an eve-
ning's entertainment. Barnes' company became the most popular
troupe of the era in Atlanta and, during the War between the States,
136 ATLANTA
almost completely dominated the stage of the city. Scarcely a week
went by without a benefit performance for the soldiers, and the fame
of the Amateurs spread throughout Georgia and neighboring States.
So popular was the troupe that newspapers fairly gushed their praises,
and one enthusiastic critic overshot his meaning by declaring that
"these exhibitions are in every way z/wexceptional."
During the course of the war, William Crisp, then a major in the
Confederate Army, became lessee and manager of the Athenaeum as
well as operator of theaters in Mobile and Montgomery, Alabama.
His company, headed by his wife, continued to present plays, and
Major Crisp himself occasionally enacted roles while home on fur-
lough. Once during his absence the city council threatened to close the
theater as a precautionary measure when the opposing armies ap-
proached too close to Atlanta and stray shells were falling in the city.
Mrs. Crisp, with ready acumen, immediately announced that hence-
forth every performance would be a -benefit for the soldiers, a move
which so appealed to the patriotism of the citizens that council dared
not carry through the proposal.
During the war traveling companies seldom appeared in Atlanta,
but individual entertainers often contrived to get into the city. Thus
the Athenaeum billed such performers as "Mr. Nash Butler, in his
inimitable Comic Song"; "Mr. Dan May, The Ethiopian Deline-
ator" ; "Madame Amelia Celeste, Rope Ascentioniste and Danseuse" ;
and "Wm. E. Yeaman, Blind Slack Wire Performer." The war aided
the growth of the theater in Atlanta rather than seriously deterring
it, and every company or individual was hard put to supply the demand
for entertainment. If, as rarely happened, one of the professional
groups was not putting on a nightly show, churches, social clubs, and
relief organizations would take advantage of the opportunity to call
on everyone who could sing or recite and put on a "benefit." Many
a shy maiden was thrust upon a stage on these occasions by ambitious
"mammas" and made to sing:
Here's to the boys in Confederate gray,
Vive la Compagnie
Who never their country nor sweethearts betray,
Vive la Compagnie. . . .
and so on for as many verses as fond relatives and friends could im-
provise. In those war-mad years the inevitable result was wild in-
discriminate acclaim, and it is not surprising that numbers of these
susceptible girls were dazzled by their easy success and believed them-
selves "stars." Ten years after the war many of these "Sweethearts
of the South" or "Dixie Darlings" could be found traveling the cheap
vaudeville circuits with little change in their routine, still singing
THE THEATER 137
"Vive la Compagnie" and "The Girl I Left Behind Me," still trying
to establish themselves by appealing to a fast-fading pseudo-patriotic
emotionalism, still goaded on by stage-mothers who refused to recog-
nize the fact that their daughters never had had, nor ever would have,
any talent.
The behavior of the audiences during the latter years of the con-
flict hastened the closing of the Athenaeum. Soldiers on furlough,
deserters, exchange prisoners, sports, and hoodlums filled the gallery
at the Athenaeum and dictated the manner in which the shows should
be run. They hissed, hooted, swore, hurled insulting remarks to the
players, and generally upset the house. One of their favorite diver-
sions was reaching out and tilting the candle chandeliers so that hot
tallow poured down upon the heads of the parquet audience. For a
while the Crisp family, the Waldron family, and such old experienced
players as Edwin R. Dalton were able to carry on in the face of such
rudeness. The papers took up the issue and council placed policemen
on duty at each performance. The audiences, however, went from bad
to worse, the police were hopelessly outnumbered, and arrests often
led to bloody rows. The billing degenerated into cheap vaudeville
catering to the vulgar audiences, and the theater was finally closed by
order of the mayor, who called the place a "den of vice." The build-
ing was ultimately destroyed in the burning of Atlanta.
Within a year after the close of the war, Davis Hall was opened on
Broad Street between Hunter and Mitchell. The stage of the hall
had drop curtains and kerosene footlights, and the seating capacity of
the auditorium was more than 4,000. For an entire summer the hall
was managed by John Templeton, who played leading roles in his own
stock company. Templeton's talents extended over a wide field from
tragedy to broad comedy and it was nothing for him to step from the
melancholy role of Hamlet to the slapstick character of Toodles, a
comic afterpiece, in the course of an evening.
The popularity of Davis Hall was overshadowed in 1867 by the
opening of the Bell- Johnson Hall on the northeast corner of Broad and
Alabama Streets. This hall was used by various amateur groups,
church societies, and fraternal organizations, as well as occasional pro-
fessional troupes. One amateur group which often put on plays in
this hall was the Concordia Association, composed of Jewish citizens
who raised money for their many charities through these performances.
Various other little halls were opened in the town during the next
few years, but all were completely eclipsed by the grandeur of the
DeGive Theater, built by Laurent DeGive and opened in 1870 on the
northeast corner of Broad and Marietta Streets. It was the first
building to be constructed specifically for theatrical purposes and im-
mediately became a show place of the city. The facade featured tall
I3 8 ATLANTA
iron columns placed flush with the edge of the sidewalk and supporting
a broad iron balustraded veranda in the French manner, upon which
the theater's patrons gathered between acts for refreshments. The
management brought all of the currently popular plays and operas to
the theater, and many famous actors and actresses appeared in response
to Atlanta's demand for a higher type of entertainment. Sarah Bern-
hardt played La Tosca here, Fanny Davenport starred in Cleopatra,
and Joe Jefferson performed his famed Rip Van Winkle. Edwin
Booth, Richard Mansfield, Julia Marlowe, the famed Polish trage-
dienne Modjeska, and the comedians Al G. Fields and Lew Dock-
stader were among other celebrities who walked the DeGive boards.
Many amusing incidents are told concerning the noted players of
those days. On one occasion Richard Mansfield had been requested to
present a double bill featuring parts of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and
Parisian Romance. Strong-willed genius that he was, Mansfield de-
clared that he would not mutilate the plays but would present them
both in full. He did, the curtain going up at eight in the evening and
coming down at two in the morning. During a presentation of
Richard III the act was disrupted by the appearance on the stage of
an unexpected character in the person of a large Negro woman who
waddled over to an amazed queen and announced, "Lady, here's yo
wash !"
The name of the DeGive Theater was early changed to the more
dignified one of DeGive Opera House. The building was the town's
most popular show place for two decades, a period that old timers
regard as the golden age of the theater in Atlanta. The city was in
a strategic position, "breaking" the circuit from New York to New
Orleans, and virtually every important company played the various
theaters. The "star system" was becoming more the order and im-
presarios, such as Charles and Daniel Frohman, were taking leases on
theaters throughout the country. Thus the DeGive Opera House
and two newer but smaller houses, the Orpheum and the Edgewood
Theaters, were assured of year-round bookings through their various
lessees. The most popular plays of the i88o's were The Lady of
Lyons, Toodles, Camille, The Spectre Bridegroom, East Lynne, Slasher
and Crasher, Jenny Lind, Under the Gaslight, Ten Niffhts in a Bar-
room, and all of Shakespeare. French tragedies never failed to attract
a full house and were surpassed in popularity only by American come-
.dies. This, too, was the heyday of chautauqua and of the big tent shows
or circuses, one of which, in 1882, brought to Atlanta the first electric
light to be exhibited in the city.
The Crisp family had grown in local favor and was still holding
forth after a most successful tour of the West. Several other ama-
teur groups had come into being. Foremost of these was the Atlanta
THE THEATER *39
Dramatic Club, which is still remembered for its unique presentation
of Julius Caesar at DeGive's. After ninety rehearsals the actors still
lacked much in stage presence and timing, and the audience was treated
to such incidents as a belated clock striking the hour several seconds
after one of the conspirators had remarked upon its chiming, the col-
lapse of a section of scenery carrying to the floor with it a grief-striken
supernumerary weeping for the dead Caesar, and another confused
"supe" referring to Brutus as "a noble vessel full of beef instead of
grief. Cassius, in reply to his question "Am I not stayed for, Cinna?"
received the answer, "You bet your sweet life !" Caesar himself seems
to have suffered the most indignities, however, for an over-enthusiastic
Anthony stepped on his stomach during the famed oration. A few
minutes later when Anthony was broken-heartedly pointing out the
wounds on Caesar's body to another character, he inadvertently touched
Caesar's neck, whereupon that deceased gentleman, being posthumously
ticklish, burst into laughter and convulsed an already hysterical audi-
ence.
In 1893, Laurent DeGive surprised Atlanta by building the Grand
Theater on Peachtree Street. Despite predictions that the venture
would bankrupt the DeGive fortunes and the objection that the build-
ing was too far from the center of town (then around Alabama
Street), the theater was an immediate success and became the leading
house for celebrities of the day. The galaxy of headliners included
Sir Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Maude Adams, John Drew, Anna
Held, Lillian Russell, Maxine Elliott, Otis Skinner, and William
Faversham.
With the opening of the Grand Theater the old DeGive house
rapidly fell to second place. Jake Wells obtained control of it and
renamed it the Bijou. There he brought Little Chip, Mary Marble,
the Fanchonettis, Hoffman, and a host of others who afterwards be-
came celebrities in the theatrical world. He also established a stock
company that was very successful for a time. But the better patronage
soon deserted the old theater for the attractions of the Grand, and the
stock company gave way to cheap vaudeville and burlesque. Censor-
ship stepped in and the house was often closed. Around the turn of
the century an attempt was made to re-establish a stock company, but
the venture failed, the property was sold, and finally the Bijou was
torn down to make way for an office building.
Meanwhile Atlanta had grown to a town of more than 100,000
people. More and more shows were coming South on the New
Orleans-Texas circuit, and new theaters for their accommodation were
built. Two of the most important of these, the Lyric and the Forsyth
Theaters, were "big time" vaudeville houses, presenting such "head-
liners" as Anna Held, Eddie Foy, and the young Buster Keaton. The
140 ATLANTA
Atlanta Theater, opened in 1911, was strictly a legitimate house,
bringing to the city stars of the caliber of George Beban, Robert Man-
tell, and Minnie Maddern Fiske.
The rapid development of the cinema industry on a large scale
between 1905 and 1915 resulted in the erection of many motion pic-
ture houses. Atlanta's first movie had been shown at the Cotton States
Exposition in 1895, but the venture was a complete failure. With
the turn of the century, however, the improved technique of making
and projecting films captured the public interest, and several motion
picture houses were opened. Many Atlantans remember the years
Dave Love and his orchestra held forth at the Criterion Theater, dur-
ing which time he introduced the playing of classic overtures between
showings of the feature picture, an entertainment pattern that was
copied by other Atlanta theaters and maintained for more than a
decade. During this period, too, the Metropolitan Opera, which had
made its first appearance in the city auditorium in 1910, was returning
annually for a week's presentation of the greatest operas. Atlanta was
becoming famed as the musical, as well as the theatrical, center of the
South.
The Howard Theater, later known as the Paramount, was opened
in 1920 as the first "million dollar theater" to be erected in the
South. Though ornate, the decorative details were in good taste and
exhibited but little of that rococo garishness which characterized later
Atlanta theaters. For years the Howard orchestra, conducted by
Enrico Leide, staged elaborate prologues and overtures with Virginia
Futrelle as prima donna and danseuse.
During this decade the Atlanta Theater became the leading outlet
for the legitimate stage in Atlanta. Virtually every theatrical celeb-
rity of the day appeared here. In addition to occasional road shows
presenting the current New York plays, there were several successive
stock companies which kept the house open throughout the year.
Louise Hunter appeared here for several summer seasons of light
opera.
The Metropolitan, the Georgia (now the Roxy), and the Capitol
were also erected during the I92o's, Atlanta's boom period. In 1926
the management of the Atlanta Theater built the Erlanger, which
immediately became the city's leading legitimate theater and took over
the presentation of the better road shows and stock companies. For
several years virtually all the other theaters ran on a year-round
schedule, featuring both stage and screen entertainment. DeGive's
Grand was leased by the Marcus Loew interests as a house for that
vaudeville chain, the old Forsyth featured big time Keith-Albee vaude-
ville which was later moved to the new Georgia Theater, while the
Paramount presented the spectacular Fanchon-Marco shows. Every
THE THEATER 14!
house maintained its own orchestra, playing not only in the pit but
often as a part of the entertainment unit on the stage. Even the
legitimate theaters were almost continually open.
Then came the depression with its disastrous effects upon the en-
tertainment industries. All legitimate houses were dark, stage shows
were discontinued and orchestras were dismissed, and the "canned
music" of the talkies took their place in the few movie houses which
remained open. The Metropolitan Opera discontinued its annual ap-
pearance at the auditorium and theater patronage reached an all-time
low. For a time the Fox Theater, an elaborate house erected at the
beginning of the depression, was able to maintain a fair imitation of the
former spectacular stagings of the 1 920*5, but it quickly fell into the
depression pattern and became solely a movie house.
Strangely enough, the lean years, which had drastically curtailed
all other stage entertainment in Atlanta, gave new impetus to the
amateur theatrical movement. Several of these groups had been or-
ganized prior to the depression. These included the Blackfriars Dra-
matic Club of Agnes Scott College organized in 1915, the Playcrafters
and the Little Theater Guild in 1924, the Emory University Players
and the Drama Guild of the Studio Club in 1928, the Atlanta Uni-
versity Players (Negro) in 1929, and the White Barn Theater in
1930. Of these, the Blackfriars, the Emory Players, and the Atlanta
University Players were the most successful and are still producing.
The Blackfriars won third place in competition with other university
theaters in 1924 and, in 1928, won first prize in the International
Little Theater Tournament of unpublished plays held in New York
City. The group covered the field of drama from early Greek litera-
ture to plays with modern plots and backgrounds. The Emory Players,
who have obtained an enviable position among local amateur groups,
specialize in the presentation of contemporary plays. The Atlanta
University Players have received national recognition through many
favorable notices in stage publications. Their repertoire runs the
gamut from Greek drama to modern plays of Negro life, spanning
the gap with an occasional Shakespearean production.
Newer groups include the Atlanta Children's Theater Guild, or-
ganized in 1934 by the Junior League; the Children's League of the
Studio Arts Club, founded in 1935; the Atlanta Players Club, formed
in J 935 J and the Atlanta Theater Guild, which staged its first pro-
duction in 1936.
In January, 1937, the local unit of the Federal Theater Project
presented its first play at the Atlanta Theater under the auspices of
the Works Progress Administration. In the fall of 1938 it moved to
the Erlanger Theater. During the two and one-half years of its
existence the Federal Theater Project offered a wide variety of plays
142 ATLANTA
ranging from Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus to such contem-
porary drama as Boy Meets Girl and Excursion. From time to time
professional actors were sent from the central casting office in New
York to strengthen the presentations of the local unit.
In the past few years there has been a surprising increase in the
number of neighborhood motion picture houses in the city and there
are two open-air theaters for motorists who do not wish to leave their
cars. Vaudeville has returned to a few houses, and even those thea-
ters which seldom present stage shows are offering double-feature movie
billings in an effort to stimulate patronage. The Erlanger is Atlanta's
only legitimate house today. In the past two years many New York
successes have been presented here, starring such celebrities as Kath-
arine Cornell, Maurice Evans, Tallulah Bankhead, Alfred Lunt and
Lynn Fontanne, Katharine Hepburn, and Victor Moore.
Literature
A.
.TLANTA, less than a quarter of a century
old at the outbreak of the War between the States, had virtually no
literary life before that time. The older and quieter Georgia cities
with their aristocratic plantation tradition regarded this community
as a lusty parvenu, a hearty, pushing, rapidly growing railroad town
whose citizens knew nothing of the arts. Nor did the energetic rail-
road builders and merchants take exception to this opinion, for they
were too busy in the pursuit of prosperity to have much time for
books.
In 1864 the besieged city fell before General Sherman's Union
forces and was left in ruins. From that time until well into the
iSyo's, any incipient literary growth was atrophied by the poverty and
humiliation of the Reconstruction Era. Yet these disasters brought
enrichment, for they razed barriers between the social classes and thus
not only cleared broader vistas for writers but removed many inhibit-
ing customs, so that dilettante authors ceased to scribble and became
professional craftsmen. Of even greater immediate importance was
the wealth of subject matter provided by the war, which many had
experienced at first hand. In the last quarter of the nineteenth cen-
tury, Atlanta writings on war and reconstruction ranged from the
eloquent conciliation addresses of Henry W. Grady to the sincere
but sometimes embittered accounts of Myrta Lockett Avary, whose
Dixie After the War has had a recent reissue.
Talent had to take a practical turn. Writers, forced to work for
a subsistence, did not write for their own pleasure but became affiliated
with newspapers or political publications. From its beginnings, At-
lanta literature has been vitalized by its journalists. In the i88o's
and iSgo's several gifted columnists brought forth work that later
became a permanent part of the city's literature. The gentle, diffident
Joel Chandler Harris adapted his enormous store of African lore to
his Uncle Remus tales in which the aged Negro tells the little boy of
delightful animals Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox, Sis' Cow, and the won-
143
144 ATLANTA
derful Tar Baby. Bill Arp (Major Charles Smith) got out his
column of humorous, designedly rustic common sense. William Henry
Peck, after long journalistic experience in New York, moved to At-
lanta in 1875 and wrote news articles and also numerous novels of the
romantic cloak-and-sword variety. While not inventing machines Ben-
jamin Franklin Sawyer wrote editorials and novels, his domestic chron-
icle David and Abigail reaching a large audience. Francis R. Gould-
ing, living at Roswell 12 miles from Atlanta, wrote The Young
Marooners, a popular book for 'boys that became the forerunner of the
newer juvenile stories by Atlanta writers such as Madge Alford Big-
ham, Eva Knox Evans, and Elizabeth Downing Barnitz.
Although there was still much verse of the autograph-book type,
some poets began to bring in a more individual quality. James Bar-
rick's sonorous stanzas may seem old-fashioned now, but they do not
lack dignity. Of more lasting popularity was Frank L. Stanton, who
was of the homespun school of Eugene Field and James Whitcomb
Riley, Stanton's friend and correspondent. Known most widely for
his words to such popular songs as "Mighty Lak a Rose" and "Just
A-Wearyin' For You," Stanton occasionally wrote verse about Georgia
life that was virile and even grim. The erudite, solitary Thomas
Holley Olivers lived in Decatur near Atlanta, corresponding with Poe,
charging him with plagiarism, and brooding over his own metric in-
novations that were to last longer than his poems.
During the early years of the new century, Atlanta brought forth
no new writers of first rank. Apparently the city had found its eco-
nomic footing and had rebuilt itself into a thriving commercial
community with little creative impulse. Cultural groups studied the
European writers, and less serious readers also seemed to prefer stories
about foreign lands if the narrative was colored by a light, pleasing
romance. Neither realism nor regionalism was popular in fiction.
Atlanta verse also, like that of the Nation, was on the whole lifeless
during these years. The only spark was lighted by the national drama
league, which awoke considerable enthusiasm for the writing and pro-
duction of plays. The force of this movement was shattered by the
First World War, but some of its Atlanta workers became celebrated
playwrights after the war.
This war, although far away in material distance, had powerful
intellectual and moral effects. During the 1920'$ Atlanta literature
entered a relentlessly analytical era. New standards of form and style
were established, but first the old values were scrutinized and some-
times discarded. Cynical and violent the new writers sometimes were,
but they were attaining a refreshing pungency. Laurence Stallings,
injured in the war, caused a Broadway sensation with his play What
Price Glory, whose lusty humor and outspoken language revealed the
LITERATURE 145
author's scorn for all romantic idealization of warfare. Dramatists of
a gentler outlook awakened to the abundant subject matter near to
hand and began to write plays whose principal theme turned on folk-
lore or rustic convention. Nan Bagby Stephens' Roseanne, dramati-
cally sound and psychologically arresting, challenged hitherto indif-
ferent Eastern audiences to interest in the Southern Negro. Lula
Vollmer had a successful New York run with her mountaineer play,
Sun-Up. Novelists also became sympathetically aware of Georgia's
peasantry, as did Fisewood Tarleton, who lived near Atlanta and wrote
of passionate, primitive men and women in his Some Trust in Chariots
and Bloody Ground.
The critical faculties of the post-war writers sometimes veered
toward satire. Frances Newman, who had won distinction as a book
reviewer, published The Hard Boiled Virgin, the highly stylized and
ironic study of a frustrated woman, and Dead Lovers Are Faithful
Lovers, equally polished in technique and depicting a modern triangle
love story. Isa Glenn's early novels, such as Heat and Little Pitchers,
also are full of an amused and not wholly severe disillusionment. With
Cora Potts, Ward Greene began to publish a series of savagely natural-
istic but engrossing novels of Southern life in the bootleg age. Draw-
ing on his abundant reportorial experience, Greene frequently selects
as his main characters the denizens of the underworld and police court.
Other journalists, some of whom paused only briefly in the city, put
analysis and dissection into newsprint. Of this number were Pierre
Van Paassen, William Seabrook, Don Marquis, Roark Bradford, W.E.
Woodward, Morris Markey, Ward Morehouse, and Roy Flannagan.
Equally striking was the poetic renascence that sprang up late in
the igao's. A very young Atlanta poet, Ernest Hartsock, nettled by
H.L. Mencken's jeers at the South as a "Sahara of the beaux arts"
joined with his friend Ben Musser in establishing the magazine Bozart
Contemporary Verse and began to publish the work of local and na-
tional poets. The standard of acceptance was very high. Interest
was heightened by Thornwell Jacobs, president of Oglethorpe Uni-
versity and himself a writer of verse, who created a chair of poetry at
his college and appointed Hartsock to occupy it, which he did until
his untimely death in 1930. Some of the group who were writing
verse at that time have since become widely known, and three of them
Ernest Hartsock, Daniel Whitehead Hicky, and James Warren, Jr.
have won the annual award of the Poetry Society of America.
No commentator has advanced a completely satisfying reason for
the large number of poets in this city. Ruth Elgin Suddeth's anthol-
ogy, An Atlanta Aryosy, shows the work of more than 30, but there
are many more writing verse. The anthologist Richard Moult has
stated that of all American cities only New York has contributed as
146 ATLANTA
many poems to his pages as Atlanta. It has been suggested that this
large number has risen in half-conscious rebellion against the prevail-
ing commercial atmosphere. Others account for it by mentioning
Atlanta's hills, trees, and streams that are so readily adaptable to
nature poetry.
But Atlanta's leading poets are not nature poets in the restrictive
sense. Ernest Hartsock, generally recognized as Atlanta's most dis-
tinguished modern writer of verse, was concerned with philosophic
rather than visual recognitions, and his best known work, "Strange
Splendor," is so full of the excitement of cosmic speculation that ab-
stractions seem to swirl into tangible, dazzling material shapes. Mar-
guerite Steedman also contemplates the mysteries of faith and creation
in poems that are somber but frequently full of imaginative power.
Daniel Whitehead Hicky and Gilbert Maxwell, pre-eminently lyric,
are concerned with nature not in a purely descriptive sense but in
relation to the moods of man his love, his spiritual isolation, his
awareness of his own mortality. Minnie Kite Moody, Mary Brent
Whiteside, and Anderson Scruggs use earth and sky as a background
for meditative utterances, and Agnes Gray's delicately fashioned son-
nets have an emotional import beyond the clear images themselves.
Lola Pergament, who constantly seeks new technical forms to embody
her thoughts, is notable for the intellectuality of her workmanship,
especially in her use of the intrinsic, not the loosely derivative, value
of words. James E. Warren, Jr.'s, verse, though deeply felt, is very
scholarly, often with a foundation of history under its impressions. It
is interesting to note that these writers are arrested by different aspects
of Georgia's landscape Hicky by the coast, Scruggs by bare autumn
fields, Mrs. Moody by city lanes and back yards, and Maxwell by
the hidden, sometimes menacing, drama in the small towns. Most of
this group were writing verse in the 1920*5 and are writing now; most
of them have at least one published volume.
In recent years Atlanta has produced almost every kind of prose
writings. Outstanding examples of non-fiction are Walter Cooper's
histories of Fulton County and of Georgia, Hay wood Pearce, Jr.'s biog-
raphy of Benjamin H. Hill and Vann Woodward's of Thomas E.
Watson, Walter Millis' relentless exposure of propaganda, Road to
War, and Arthur Raper's two fearlessly liberal inquiries into Southern
social conditions, The Tragedy of Lynching and A Preface to Peas-
antry. Virginia Pettigrew Clare has written an admirable critical
biography of the South Carolina poet Henry Timrod in Harp of the
South. The Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration
has prepared guide books of the state and of several Georgia cities.
A number of prominent newspaper writers have published their
experiences and observations in book form, Mary Knight in On My
LITERATURE 147
Own and Mildred Seydell in Chins Up. Mrs. Seydell has also
written a novel of marital and parental responsibilities, Secret Fathers.
Thomas Ripley has been highly successful in his chronicle of Western
"bad men," They Died With Their Boots On. Fire in the Sky,
Tarleton Collier's novel of a woman's development, contributes a view
of sharecropper life, which, instead of employing the traditionally
brutal realism in its technique, is rather compassionate though clear-
sighted. Thomas Stokes, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished
American reporting in 1939, presents a vivid picture of the Atlanta of
his boyhood in Chip Off My Shoulder.
Fiction has slid imperceptibly from a period of criticism into one
of creative abundance. The novel covers an almost illimitable range:
from Parker Hord's novel of the biblical King David, A Youth Goes
Forth, to the clever, urbane mystery stories of Alice Campbell, Linton
C. Hopkins, Dorothy Ogburn, Beatrice Jefferson, and Medora Field;
from Thornwell Jacobs' romance of old Charleston, Red Lantern on
St. Michael's, to Don Prince's satiric fantasies, Tom and Swoop. In
Fox in the Cloak Harry Lee uses his gift of dispassionate, clear-cut
narrative to reveal another picture of Atlanta, a city of department
stores, beer parlors, movies, and middle-class homes, amid which the
young artist struggles for the right to create according to his own
standards. Samuel Tupper, Jr., and Minnie Hite Moody have
written novels of the domestic type, Tupper gayly or dramatically
and Mrs. Moody with the haunting quality of emotion that distin-
guishes her verse. Tupper's Some Go Up and Old Lady's Shoes are
both about Atlanta society, but Mrs. Moody 's more numerous books,
including Death Is A Little Man and Towers With Ivy, cover Amer-
ican life from the South to the Middle West. Her latest book, Long
Meadows, is an ample, well-documented chronicle of her own family,
beginning with its immigration from the Netherlands in the eight-
eenth century and ending with its participation in the War between
the States.
In 1936 a young Atlanta woman published a historical novel that
broke all previous sales records, won the Pulitzer Prize, and found
what is generally agreed to be a permanent place in universal litera-
ture. Numerous qualities of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the
Wind explain its extraordinary popular success. Although the story
is told from the viewpoint of noncombatants, it is a shrewd and
graphic account of the campaign leading to the destruction of Atlanta
by General Sherman's Federal troops in 1864. By skillful distribution
of battle pieces throughout the narrative, the author never lets them
interrupt the superb sweep of her long story from beginning to end.
Most important of all, she has created two characters of such vitality
that they promise to be known permanently: Scarlett O'Hara, the
148 ATLANTA
heroine, who emerges embittered but dauntless from many tragic epi-
sodes of war and reconstruction; and Rhett Butler, the debonair and
ruthless man who loves her. These two are not only compelling as
individuals, but to many people they embody the indomitable spirit of
Atlanta that lifted it to growth and riches after the war.
The success of this book has stimulated Atlanta authors to further
strenuous efforts that already have shown remarkable results. Although
the writers in the city are constantly becoming more numerous, they
do not form a group or attempt to establish any particular school of
writing. Each follows his own aspirations and the result is an ani-
mated variety. Most of them have been writing too short a time to
have had more than one book published, but others are following
rapidly.
Atlanta literature, like Atlanta, is young and vigorous. Its writers
have few models of their own section to set them a regional tradition,
and most of its best historical works have been produced in the twen-
tieth century, with a keen, modern viewpoint turned upon historical
events. Unlike the older Southern cities, it cannot look back deeply
into the past, but it has an exciting present sustained by many writers
historians, novelists, dramatists, poets who have made it one of
the leading Southern centers for books and writers. The present period
of fertility is too new for anything but surmise regarding its perma-
nence. It is significant, however, that in recent years several large
Eastern publishing houses have established branch offices here. Literary
traditions are not being followed, but made.
Most of the Negro writers who have lived in the city have been
members of the Atlanta University group. Their race has strongly
influenced their literary development, and their writings have been
predominantly on racial, social, and educational problems. But, al-
though their field is less broad than that of the white writers, they have
frequently performed with intensity and penetration within the range
of their chosen subjects. In recent years some of them, the poets in
particular, have written with a graceful and whimsical lightness. The
greater part of the group, however, has continued to treat the racial
question with a serious, often somber, dignity.
Walter F. White, known nationally for his efforts for the improve-
ment of Negro political and social conditions, first received literary
notice for his novel The Fire in the Flint, which depicted the struggle
of a sensitive, talented Negro physician to practice in an intolerant
community. This was followed by Rope and Fay got, a sincere and
uncompromising study of lynching. William E. Burghardt DuBois
also is known principally for his social writings, and such books as his
The Souls of Black Folk are remarkable for their richly ornamental
style and their tragic power of emotion. Edward Randolph Carter
LITERATURE 149
writes of the Negro from a decidedly theological and educational view-
point in Our Pulpit and Black Side of Atlanta. Helen A. Whiting
has brought wide knowledge and keen discernment to her fictional and
non-fictional studies of the Negro.
The poets, though less intense, sometimes show a greater variety.
Alexander Henry Jones' verse has a pastoral and religious tone;
Georgia Douglas Johnson, while writing about her own race in her
poems and in her play Blue Blood, has a strong sense of its amusing
side; and Thomas Jefferson Flanagan writes verse whose appealing
charm is often flavored with humor. Maude McGehee, a Negro
nurse, has become known for her pleasant short verses about everyday
Negro affairs.
One of the most distinguished Negro writers' who has ever lived in
Atlanta is the critic and anthologist William Stanley Braithwaite, now
an instructor in Atlanta University. Braithwaite, who won the
Spingarn Medal in 1918, has produced criticism of poetry and prose
and has become celebrated for his books of essays. The Book of
Georgian Verse and The Book of Victorian Verse are good examples
of his work.
The number of Negro writers in Atlanta is constantly increasing,
and there is some indication that better social conditions are bringing
a more broad and serene outlook as well as a greater boldness of utter-
ance. The Negro writers in Atlanta have risen too suddenly to have
attained the gracious ripeness that is indicated for the future, but their
work is full of vitality and skill.
Part Two
POINTS OF INTEREST
Points of Interest
(Numbers coincide with those on pocket map.)
I. The STATE CAPITOL (open Mon.-Fri. 8-4; Sat. 8-12),
occupying the block bounded by Capitol Ave. and Washington,
Mitchell, and Hunter Sts., is an imposing structure modeled after the
National Capitol, with domed cupola, Corinthian entrance portico,
and broad balanced masses. Contrasting with the gray Indiana lime-
stone is an encircling green lawn planted with many trees, and in sum-
mer white magnolia blossoms give out a heavy perfume. On the lawn
are various bronze statues of men prominent in the State's history:
G. Moretti's and I. Dean Dumley's full-length figure of Joseph E.
Brown, Georgia's hot-headed governor during the War between the
States, here shown with his wife in a tranquil daguerreotype pose;
Joseph Klein's statue of the fiery agrarian Senator Thomas E. Watson,
with upraised fist in an attitude of oratorical eloquence; and Solon
Borglum's graceful, spirited equestrian figure of General John B.
Gordon, a member of Robert E. Lee's staff and later the first Georgia
governor to hold office in the present capitol. Surmounting the dome
is a bronze female figure, holding a torch in one hand and a sword
in the other and, from the ground, somewhat resembling the Statue of
Liberty.
Inside, the various State offices are arranged about a galleried
rotunda finished in white Georgia marble and rising three full stories
to the dome. Throughout the interior are placed numerous statues
and memorial plaques including busts of Benjamin H. Hill, one of
Georgia's most notable Confederate statesmen, and Moina Michael,
originator of the "Poppy Day" method of soliciting funds for the
benefit of the World War veterans. Flags, documents, and other
relics of the War between the States are displayed on the lower floor
by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, while exhibits of the
State's resources are shown in the corridors of the upper floors.
When the legislature is in session the capitol swarms with life.
In the chambers of the senate and house, galleries are crowded with
farmers, businessmen, and members of various civic groups, while below
them on the floor debates are thundered forth. By the soft drink stand
in the third floor corridor other listeners stand before the radio loud-
speaker to hear the broadcast of the debates.
153
154 ATLANTA
Atlanta in 1868 became the fifth capital of Georgia after this
honor had been bestowed successively upon Savannah, Augusta, Louis-
ville, and Milledgeville. The city agreed to provide the State with
office space free of charge for ten years, and after considerable con-
troversy an unfinished opera house on the southwest corner of Forsyth
and Marietta Streets was rented from Edwin N. Kimball to be used
as a capitol. This building was a handsome brick structure with man-
sard roof, marble vestibule, and walnut-banistered marble stairs. The
first legislative session in this building convened on January 10, 1869.
Several weeks later a lavish reception was given here by the Kimball
brothers, among the guests being Rufus Bullock, the extravagant
carpetbag governor who had advanced Kimball $54,500 for the in-
stallation of heat, lighting, and furnishings. From their quiet homes
along Marietta Street, conservative citizens looked on in helpless resent-
ment as the carriages clattered up to the brilliantly lighted entrance.
Later in the year Edwin N. Kimball transferred the capitol prop-
erty to his brother H.I. Kimball, who proposed that the State purchase
it from him. After turbulent debates in the senate a transaction was
made whereby Kimball was to receive $250,000 in State bonds and
$130,000 in municipal bonds, making a total price of $380,000. When
the purchase was agreed upon in October, 1870, the general assembly
required the appointment of a committee to see that the $54,500 ad-
vanced by Bullock was returned. But the committee appointed in
1872 to investigate Bullock's administration did not find that this was
ever done. Kimball, when deeding the property to the State, de-
clared it to be unencumbered. The committee of 1872 found in the
executive department files, however, an agreement by Kimball guar-
anteeing payment of a $60,000 mortgage held by the Northwestern
Mutual Life Insurance Company and indicating that he had given
Bullock as security the certificate for the $130,000 in city bonds.
Refusing to pay off the mortgage, the legislature promised agitation
to secure return of the capital to Milledgeville, whereupon the city
paid it and the interest. The mortgage was then transferred to the
city and held uncancelled until the State made plans for the erection
of the present capitol. This affair and other charges of extravagance
and corruption were contributory causes of Governor Bullock's resigna-
tion and flight from the State in 1871.
At the time the capital was removed from Milledgeville to At-
lanta, there was considerable dissatisfaction in some sections of the
State because it had been accomplished when the Federal military
regime and Republican government were in power. In 1877, after
the Democrats had regained control, it was decided by referendum
that Atlanta should remain the capital. Immediately the legislative
body began to discuss plans for a new building, for KimbaH's opera
house, handsome as it was, was inadequate for the increasing number
of legislators. Because of the excesses of the Bullock administration
financial committees were cautious, and debates on appropriations went
on for years. After many bids had been submitted, Edbrooke and
POINTS OF INTEREST 155
Burnham, of Chicago, were chosen as architects, and construction was
begun on the city hall lot which Atlanta had given to the State for a
capitol site. The cornerstone was laid on September 2, 1885, and the
capitol was completed on June 15, 1889, one of the few buildings of
such scope to be finished within the amount appropriated.
The STATE LIBRARY (open Mon.-Fri, 9-4; Sat. 9-12; books must
be used in Library), on the third floor, contains a large collection of
Georgia material. The 79,000 volumes in the library include many
rare books and an excellent historical collection, the nucleus of which
was bequeathed to the State during the i88o's by Edward DeRenne,
son of the founder of the famous library now a part of the University
of Georgia in Athens.
2. The STATE OFFICE BUILDING, Mitchell St. opposite the
capitol, is a six-story edifice of marble, granite, and cream brick, de-
signed by Augustus E. Constantine. In striking contrast to the white
marble facade are six bronze relief figures, historical and symbolic,
embossed on black marble spandrels. These figures are the work of
Julian Harris, a well-known Atlanta sculptor.
Housed here are the State departments of education, labor, health,
and public welfare. The capitol had become so overcrowded in recent
years because of expansion in governmental services that some of the
departments had been forced to take over old dwellings on the square
for working space. With the aid of a Federal grant of $365,000, the
new building was completed in 1939 at a total cost of $815,000.
3. The ATLANTA CITY HALL (open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. except
Sat. afternoon and Sun. Observation tower open Q to u a.m. and
2 to j p.m.), SW. corner Mitchell and Washington Sts., stands out
boldly on Atlanta's skyline, a commanding edifice that towers above
a broad expanse of smooth green lawn. Erected in 1929 at a cost of
more than $1,000,000, the 1 4-story building follows the modern "busi-
ness Gothic" design embodying the setback architectural principle with
the shaft tapering upward from a broad base to the small observatory.
Marble, granite, brick, and terra cotta, all of which are Georgia prod-
ucts, have been used in the exterior construction; and when the sun-
light is bright, the terra cotta imparts a pale amber hue to the entire
mass. The lobby, with its ceiling of elaborately carved and gilded
wood, is finished in travertine and marble in varicolored effect. In the
rear are four bronze elevators. Inscribed on each elevator door is the
seal of the borough of Atlanta, a phoenix representing the city's valiant
rise from the ashes, and the inscription "Resurgens, 1847-1864, At-
lanta, Ga." G. Lloyd Preacher & Company, Inc., were the architects.
Atlanta's first city council meeting on February 2, 1848, took place
in a store, since no official quarters had been selected. Further meet-
ings were held in commercial buildings rented or borrowed for the
occasion until 1854, when Atlanta's first city hall was constructed.
The site chosen was the block now occupied by the State capitol. The
first city hall, which also provided space for county offices, was a brick
building of two stories, fronted by Doric columns and topped by a
156 ATLANTA
cupola and weather vane. Citizens in homemade fancy dress costumes
came to the ball that was given to commemorate the opening.
In 1879 Atlanta presented the State with this lot as a capitol site.
Considerable time elapsed before plans for the capitol were completed,
but in October, 1884, the municipal government made way and moved
its quarters to the Chamber of Commerce Building at the northeast
corner of Pryor and Hunter Streets. The first floor of this four-story
brick structure was occupied by the city officials as tenants until 1901,
when the entire building was acquired by paying $7,500 to the Cham-
ber of Commerce for its equity and assuming a $30,000 mortgage.
This structure continued to serve as the city hall until 1910, when
Atlanta bought a four-story brick building, formerly used as a post
office, at the northwest corner of Marietta and Forsyth Streets. Mayor
Robert Maddox, wealthy and public-spirited, financed this purchase by
giving in full payment his personal check for $70,000, which was re-
paid him within the following two years. Here the departments of the
city government were housed until 1929, when the present building
was erected.
4. The CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION,
SE. corner Central Ave. and Hunter St., is the oldest church building
in Atlanta, a landmark of the formerly handsome residential section
around Capitol Square. Constructed of painted red brick, the building
is of Gothic design with a square tower and a three-arched main en-
trance topped by a balustrade. The vaulted interior gives an effect of
restful beauty because of its excellent proportions and because of the
soft light filtered from outside through stained-glass windows. The
dominant feature is a white marble altar, installed by the women of
the parish in 1879.
The first members of the congregation, Irish laborers who were
brought here to construct the railroads, received mass from missionary
priests from the Savannah diocese. The earliest entry in the records
of the parish is that of a baptism administered on August 9, 1846,
probably in a member's home, for the first Catholic church was not
erected until 1848. When General Sherman's Federal troops de-
stroyed Atlanta in 1864, they were about to burn this building; but the
priest, Father O'Reilly, walked boldly to the head of the line and
announced that if his church was fired every Roman Catholic in Sher-
man's army must leave the ranks. Since the regiment was composed
largely of Catholics, the church was spared. The small frame struc-
ture on this site, though damaged by shells that had exploded about it
during the siege, continued in use until 1869, when the present build-
ing was erected.
Each year on April 28 the Church of the Immaculate Conception
is crowded by the Irish Hors6 Traders and their families, who come
to Atlanta on that date to hold funeral services for those of their
number who have died during the year. The first of these families,
mistakenly believed by some to be of gypsy origin, came to America in
the iSso's and set up a livery stable in Washington, D.C. The first
Downtown
STATE CAPITOL
BROAD STREET IS IN THE MIDST OF THE CROWDED BUSINESS DISTRICT
MILES OF RAILROAD TRACKS RUN BENEATH THE VIADUCTS OF THE
BUSINESS SECTION
NARROW STREETS FORM A ZIGZAG PATTERN PEACHTREE AND IVY STREETS
1
r -f r ?
S T?^ ;
STATE CAPITOL 1 868
ATLANTA DURING CIVIL WAR
THE CITY HALL TOWERS HIGH AND MODERN A BLOCK FROM OLD CAPITOL
SQUARE
THE POST OFFICE ANNEX SHOWS THE NEWER ARCHITECTURAL TREND
BUSINESS OFFICES STAY OPEN LONG AFTER DARK
AT MARIETTA AND FORSYTH STREETS STANDS A MONUMENT TO HENRY W.
GRADY, PERSUASIVE ADVOCATE OF AN INDUSTRIAL "NEW SOUTH"
WHITEHALL STREET AT RAILROAD TRACKS 1865
LOOKING TOWARD FIVE POINTS 1867
.Hi
3w-
sHtf
POINTS OF INTEREST 157
traders prospered, and others followed until eight families were estab-
lished in America: the Rileys, McNamaras, Carrolls, Sherlocks, Gar-
mons, Costellos, Dartys, and O' Haras. As time passed, some of them
became itinerant traders, ranging over the country in covered wagons
with their horses and mules on leads.
One such band, led by Pat O'Hara, first halted to establish head-
quarters at Nashville, Tennessee, but these restless Irishmen soon
changed their minds and pushed southward. Settling for a time in the
new, bustling city of Atlanta, they purchased large tracts of land and
sometimes made fortunes as property values expanded with the rapidly
growing municipality. Later most of them moved on, but the burial
of John McNamara, a leader of the clan, in Oakland Cemetery in
1 88 1, had established a strong tie that resulted in the custom of bring-
ing their dead here each year for burial. When Oakland Cemetery
became overcrowded, lots were purchased in the newer and more spa-
cious West View. The memorials to their dead are usually massive
and ornate, bearing decorations that range from stately guardian
angels in marble to the inset photographs of a deceased trader and his
still surviving widow.
The descendants of the eight original families, numbering about
10,000, now travel by automobile with household goods in trailers and
horses in large vans. But, despite such modern appurtenances, many
old customs prevail. Encampment is made in tents, as in the early
days. In order to preserve their cherished tribal entity, the traders have
made strict rules to keep marriage within the bounds of the original
families, and only rarely have these rules been disobeyed. Neverthe-
less, they justly pride themselves on being good American citizens and
have proved their loyalty by always enlisting readily in time of war.
Except for Nashville, Atlanta is the only city to which the clans
come for their annual reunions, which are held for business conferences
and betrothals as well as funerals. On the morning of April 28 the
Church of the Immaculate Conception is a scene of unforgettable con-
trast. The dim gray background of the old church, the solemnity of
the Roman Catholic service, the reverence of the worshippers, and the
black veils of the widows throw into high relief the cries of restless
children and the vigorous beauty of black-haired, blue-eyed Irish girls
in the finery of bright dresses and costume jewelry.
5. A STONE MILEPOST marked zero, surrounded by railroad
ties beneath the Central Avenue viaduct, designates the eastern terminus
of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, which the State legislature author-
ized to be built in 1836 to connect Georgia by rail with Tennessee
and the West. The original surveyor's stake driven in the fall of 1837
was probably somewhere near the Broad Street viaduct, and it was not
until 1842 that the dense, swampy undergrowth was cleared and the
track extended to the point where the marker stands.
On July n, 1842, Samuel Mitchell, who owned Land Lot 77,
donated five acres to the State for the use of the Western & Atlantic
Railroad. When streets had been laid out, this tract, which came to be
158 ATLANTA
known as the State Square, was bounded by Alabama, Pryor, Decatur,
and Loyd (Central Avenue) Streets. In 1844 the Georgia Railroad
acquired a tract adjoining the State Square at Pryor Street, and in
1846 Mitchell deeded to the Macon & Western Railroad additional
land adjacent to both the Georgia Railroad block and the State Square.
These three tracts formed a plot two city blocks square in the heart
of town, and thus the three railroads met at one point.
In the first years of Atlanta's existence as a city, the Western &
Atlantic Railroad office stood on the northern section of the State
Square between Decatur Street and the tracks. Sometime after the
union passenger depot was erected early in the 1850*8, this building
was removed, and the city and State decided to convert the unused
plaza into a public park. Since failure to use the property for railroad
purposes might cause it to revert to the Mitchell heirs, a dummy track
was laid into the middle of the plot. Sand walks were laid out, grass
and shrubs were planted, rustic benches were placed under the trees,
and a high white fence was built.
During the Battle of Atlanta, when the n hospitals were over-
flowing, this park was used for the care of the wounded. Large tables
for surgical treatment were set up under the trees; the wounded were
brought in and stretched out on the grass until Noel D'Alvigny and
other overworked doctors could tend them. On the edge of the park
General John B. Hood sat his horse in readiness for action while he
received reports from the battlefields and gave orders to aides who
dashed away on swift horses toward the sulphurous smoke clouds over-
hanging the eastern part of the city.
During the Reconstruction Era the Mitchell heirs sued on the
grounds that the land was not being used for railroad purposes. By a
compromise in 1870 the heirs paid $35,000 to the State and received
title to the greater part of the property, and in the same year the park
area was divided into city lots and sold.
6. The FULTON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, SE. corner Pryor
and Hunter Sts., is a nine-story building constructed of terra cotta
and Georgia granite, with a row of fluted engaged columns that rise
to the height of five stories above the three arched entrances. Fulton
County maintains here seven branches of the Superior Court, five
branches of the Civil Court, two branches of the Criminal Court, and
one Court of Ordinary, in addition to the various administrative offices
of the county agencies. The marble halls of the interior are usually
crowded with white and Negro citizens making tax returns, attending
sessions in one of the 15 courtrooms, securing licenses, recording trans-
actions, or idly standing in groups discussing politics.
Plans for the construction of this courthouse were made as early
as 1907, when a tax was levied and produced more than $100,000.
Additional funds were raised in subsequent years, and A. Ten Eyck
Brown, an Atlanta architect, was engaged to make a study of court-
house construction in the leading cities throughout the country. Brown
later drew the design in collaboration with Morgan & Dillon, a local
POINTS OF INTEREST 159
architectural firm. The building, which cost more than $1,500,000
complete with furnishings, was begun in August 1911, and was ready
for occupancy in August 1914.
Fulton County covers an area of 548.25 square miles along the
Chattahoochee River, with an extreme length of 60 miles and a width
varying from 2.5 to 20 miles. Although it ranks twentieth in size, a
population of 392,886 makes it the most thickly settled county in the
State. In addition to Atlanta, the county contains eight incorporated
towns (Alpharetta, College Park, East Point, Fairburn, Hapeville,
Palmetto, Roswell, and Union City) and many thickly populated sub-
urban areas. Administrative affairs are directed by a board of five
commissioners who are chosen for four-year terms by popular vote.
Outside the environs of industrial and commercial Atlanta, there
is in Fulton County an extensive agricultural region of red-clay soil
interspersed with ridges and bottoms of fertile gray loam. On more
than 3,000 farms 4,500 growers, 65 per cent of them tenants, raise
"everything from cotton to orchids." The county ranks twelfth in the
State in the production of cotton, which is the leading money crop.
Corn, covering the greatest acreage, is second in importance, while
truck produce ranks third. Dairy products and poultry find a ready
market in Atlanta, and, in order to provide food for livestock, many
acres are planted in peas, alfalfa, velvet beans, and other hay-producing
crops. There are still many wooded tracts, although the development
of residential suburbs has been rapid.
Most of the land included in Fulton County was opened to settle-
ment in 1821, when the chiefs of the Creek Nation ceded this territory
to the Federal Government in a treaty signed at Indian Springs. The
following year the area was included in the newly created DeKalb
County, and a few men cleared land for widely scattered farms. In
order to encourage settlement further, the inferior court ordered roads
cut through the region to connect these isolated settlements with estab-
lished trading posts.
After building houses and planting crops, the first activity of the
early citizens was the organization of churches. The first was the
Mount Gilead Methodist Church, organized in the southern part of
the county on April 24, 1824, and the second was the Utoy Baptist
Church, organized near what is now Fort McPherson on August 15
of the same year. The Utoy Church joined the Yellow River Baptist
Association in 1825 and immediately became prominent in the affairs
of that religious body.
During the 1840*5 the settlement around the terminus established
for the railroads grew rapidly. Immigrants came from other sections
of Georgia, from North and South Carolina, and even from such dis-
tant States as Pennsylvania and Maine. Many of these were industrial
men who lived in town and bought near-by farms to supplement their
business enterprises, while others were farmers who settled well away
from the railroads.
This influx of people soon created the need for a county seat more
l6o ATLANTA
accessible than Decatur, which was reached with difficulty over poor
roads. Consequently Fulton was created from DeKalb by a legislative
act approved on December 20, 1853, and amended on February 21,
1856, when one land lot was transferred back to the parent county.
Atlanta was made the seat of the new county. The commissioners,
without funds to build a courthouse, acquired administrative offices in
the city hall which was at the time being erected on the site of the
present State capitol.
Fulton County shared little in the antebellum civilization that
prevailed in the plantation belt of the coastal plain. Urban life was
primarily commercial and centered about the railroads. The rural sec-
tion was settled chiefly by owners of small farms and by tenants who
cultivated the farms of the townspeople. The first census of the county
(1860) reported a population of 14,427, of which only 2,955 were
slaves.
After the War between the States the population increased at a
phenomenal rate. Business enterprises multiplied as Northern capital-
ists recognized the commercial advantages of Atlanta, and the transfer
of the State government from Milledgeville in 1868 attracted still
more newcomers. By 1880 the population was 49,137, and the county
officials, cramped by limited quarters in the city hall, felt that the
county was sufficiently prosperous to erect a courthouse. Consequently,
a red-brick structure was begun on the site of the present courthouse
in 1 88 1 and completed the following year.
Industry and commerce far outstripped agricultural development
despite the fact that a series of land transfers greatly augmented the
area of the county. The first such boundary change was made in 1872,
when 6 land lots were added to Fulton from Campbell County; a
second was effected in 1916 by the addition of n more lots from
Campbell; and a third was made in 1927 when 35 lots were trans-
ferred from Milton County. The most substantial increase, however,
took place on January I, 1932, when all of Campbell and Milton
were absorbed into Fulton County. This merger so isolated the Ros-
well district of Cobb County that it too was incorporated in Fulton
during the latter part of the same year. The total acreage gained was
361.25 square miles: 21 1 from Campbell, 145 from Milton, and 5.25
from Cobb.
Throughout this period industrial development continued at a rapid
pace. Many factories were built and assembly and distribution plants
were established within Atlanta and its suburbs. Although the court-
house had been fashioned to "serve forever," the enlarged functions of
government soon made the facilities of the building inadequate. In
1911 the county records were moved into rented offices in the Thrower
Building and remained there until the present courthouse was erected
on the site of the old.
Recommendations have been made in recent years for combining
certain city and county departments to avoid duplication of services,
POINTS OF INTEREST l6l
but no such changes have been made. The two governments operate
as entirely separate entities in their neighboring buildings.
7. An OLD LAMP POST, NE. corner Whitehall and Alabama
Sts., has stood in this same location since it was first lighted with
gas on Christmas Day, 1855. It is one of the original 50 ornamental
iron street lamps which the city ordered installed that year at a cost
of $21 each. During the siege of Atlanta in the summer of 1864, the
first shell that exploded in the business section of the city struck this
post, piercing its base and breaking the shaft into three pieces. The
pieces were preserved, and the post was later repaired.
A bronze tablet, relating the history of the post, was placed on
the base in 1919 under the auspices of the Old Guard and the Atlanta
Chapter of the U.D.C. In December of 1939, for the world premiere
of Gone With the Wind, a gas connection was again installed so that
the old lamp might burn with a perpetual flame as a memorial to the
traditions of the South.
8. The KIMBALL HOUSE, 33 Pryor St., SW., a large stone-
trimmed brick hotel extending the entire breadth of the block between
Decatur Street and the railway viaduct, is an arresting landmark of
old Atlanta. A rambling edifice of 440 rooms built at a cost of
$650,000 in 1885, tne Kimball House was once the largest hotel in
the South and a symbol of Atlanta's hospitality. Its turrets, vari-
shaped windows, and flat Saracenic ornamentation are characteristic of
this lavish, ornate decade when prosperity was first beginning to return
to war-ravaged Atlanta.
In the marble lobby is an old silver water cooler and a table which
survived the burning of the former Kimball House. Rising to the
top floor is an open banistered well, an architectural feature charac-
teristic of many buildings erected in the past century but now almost
obsolete. Much of the woodwork is of solid mahogany, and its dark
rich tone lends an impressive dignity that is heightened in some of the
rooms by stained-glass windows. Several public halls contain elaborate
chandeliers one with more than 50,000 pieces of cut glass and have
beautiful inlaid floors. A brick fireplace with an enormous mahogany
mantel extends almost the entire width of the ballroom.
In recent years a few interior and exterior details have been altered,
but in all essential respects the hotel appears as it was when first
opened. The "Presidential Suite" has been maintained almost as it
was when occupied by Presidents Cleveland and McKinley. Old reg-
isters show the names of other distinguished visitors who have enjoyed
the hospitality of the Kimball House, and for many years this hotel
provided the background for the most important social and public
gatherings of the city.
Since 1846 this site has been used for inns. In that year Dr.
Joseph Thompson erected on the lot the town's first real hotel a two-
story brick structure and named it the Atlanta Hotel. The building
stood diagonally across the street from the railroad depot and quite
naturally attracted every visitor to the city. President Millard Fill-
162 ATLANTA
more was a guest here in 1856. The Atlanta Hotel was destroyed in
1864 by General Sherman before he left the city to begin his march
to the sea.
During Reconstruction Atlanta's quick expansion attracted the
attention of many Northern capitalists. One of these was H.I. Kim-
ball, a native of Maine who had made his fortune as an associate of
George M. Pullman, the railway car magnate, in Chicago. Kimball
came to Atlanta in 1868. A born opportunist, he quickly became the
city's leading financial figure. As a promoter, real estate operator,
financier, and semiofficial agent of the notorious post-war Governor
Bullock, Kimball had interests so extremely complicated by apparently
conflicting motives of philanthropy and personal profit that it was diffi-
cult to judge his aims.
He was quick to urge the legislature to move the seat of State
administration from Milledgeville to Atlanta, and, when the move was
made, was equally quick to sell the State his newly erected opera house
for a capitol. He led the movement to convert the central city park
into a business block, arguing that the sale of the lot and the tax on
improvements would swell the municipal treasury. When the opposi-
tion gave in, he bought the park area himself and began the construc-
tion of business houses. In the meantime he bought the Atlanta Hotel
site, planning to erect a new hotel, and immediately set about agitating
for the construction of a new Union Depot which would be a credit
to the city and which, incidentally, would be located across the street
from his proposed hotel. In addition to these activities, Kimball found
time to promote seven railroads in various parts of the State. His
philanthropies were many and he contributed large sums to educational
and charitable institutions.
In 1870 he opened the first Kimball House, a magnificent $500,000
six-story brick structure which at that time was the largest hotel in the
South. Dominating the city's skyline, the Kimball House soon became
to many a synonym for Atlanta. The hotel was particularly favored
by the members of the Georgia legislature who gathered in its rooms
for informal night sessions, and it was commonly said that more bills
were really passed in the Kimball House than in the State capitol a few
blocks away.
But the tide of KimbalPs fortunes turned. He lost controlling
interest in the hotel even before it opened and, in 1872, because of
over-expansion and a growing Nation-wide depression, the rest of his
Southern financial empire collapsed. Virtually bankrupt and in failing
health, he returned to Chicago, the scene of his early successes, but
here he met another disaster in the great fire that swept the city and
destroyed his property holdings.
Businessmen of Georgia and the South, who had lost money in
the Kimball ventures, arose to accuse him of the illegal manipulation
of State and privately owned bonds. Kimball's background, political
affiliations, and financial associates, all of which had been overlooked
POINTS OF INTEREST 163
so long as his enterprises paid large dividends, now were made added
points of condemnation.
Suddenly in 1874, with his health restored and at least part of his
fortunes regained, Kimball reappeared in Atlanta to defend himself.
At his request Governor James Milton Smith appointed Judge Linton
Stephens to investigate his activities. The judge cleared Kimball, and
a grand jury, convened to sit on the case, refused to indict him although
several of his business associates were brought to trial. A vindication
ball planned in Kimball's honor by leading Atlanta citizens was called
off when he refused to attend, stating that he could not accept any
public demonstration of trust and respect until the people of Georgia
were entirely convinced of his innocence. Inasmuch as there had been
no legal indictments made, there was no possible legal redress or vindi-
cation.
Time, however, did what his friends and the processes of law could
not do. So great was his personal magnetism and executive ability
that within a few years Kimball was again directing civic enterprises.
He purchased Oglethorpe Park as a fair ground for the city and got
himself appointed director general of the International Cotton Expo-
sition which was held there in 1881. He established the annual North
Georgia Fair on this same site, organized the Atlanta Cotton Factory,
secured the International Commercial Convention for the city, and took
part in many other ventures.
At 4:40 on the morning of August 12, 1883, the Kimball House
caught fire and burned to the ground in one of the most spectacular
fires in the city's history. Virtually everyone in town left his bed and
rushed to the scene, standing in dumb horror as the symbol of a city
was destroyed before their eyes. Fortunately no lives were lost nor was
anyone seriously injured, but the sight of the blackened ruins cast a
pall of depression over the city.
Kimball, who was in Chicago at the time of the fire, immediately
returned to Atlanta and organized a stock company to undertake
rebuilding. In this he was successful and the present Kimball House
was opened in 1885. Kimball, completely restored to public favor,
made his home in Atlanta until his death in 1895.
9. The JOEL HURT PARK, occupying the block bounded by
Gilmer and Courtland Sts. and Edgewood Ave., is a vivid green
triangle in this section of high buildings and crowded traffic. Twenty-
one full-grown trees, including live oaks, magnolias, sugar maples,
willows, and water oaks, have been placed about the grounds, as well
as scores of evergreen shrubs. A large fountain is illuminated at night
by a battery of multi-colored lights that play constantly over the spouts
and veils of water. The combination of changing water patterns and
colors from lilac and blue to rose complete their cycle in about 20
minutes.
The site of this city park and a sum of $50,000 were acquired in
1940 in exchange for the old city hall property at Marietta and For-
syth Streets. The park was constructed with the aid of funds from
164 ATLANTA
the Work Projects Administration and the Hurt Memorial Associa-
tion. William C. Pauley landscaped the park as a setting for the
Joel Hurt Fountain, designed by the Atlanta sculptor Julian Harris
and presented to the city by the Emily and Ernest Woodruff Foun-
dation.
10. The MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM, NE. corner Courtland
and Gilmer Sts., now (1942) faces the street with a bare three-story
brick wall streaked and blackened by a fire that destroyed the entire
front of the building on the evening of November n, 1940. In the
gutted portion were Taft Hall, a convention room with a seating capac-
ity of 500, and the assembly rooms and armory for the State military
forces. A temporary walkway bridges the ruins and leads to the
doorway of the auditorium.
The main hall, which has a seating capacity of 5,163, was virtually
undamaged and is still in use. Its horseshoe-shaped arena is surrounded
by boxes, a dress circle, and a balcony, all reached by broad ramps
leading up from the foyer. The console of the large Austin organ,
which was installed by the Atlanta Music Festival Association in 1911,
is at the rear of the stage, but the 6,000 pipes, ranging in length from a
few inches to 32 feet, are entirely hidden in the ceiling. The sound
is emitted through grilles 80 feet long above the orchestra pit.
Plans for the structure were begun in the fall of 1906, when the
abandonment of a projected exposition left unexpended the public
funds that had been raised for sponsoring it. At a mass meeting a
resolution was adopted to urge the building of a city auditorium, and
a committee of 25 was appointed to present the proposal to the mayor
and council. Since the city charter prohibited officials from assuming
obligations that would extend beyond the year in which they were
made, the Atlanta Auditorium-Armory Company, a private corpora-
tion, was organized on February 7, 1907, to issue bonds in the amount
of $175,000. These were sold to an insurance company, and the city
was then able to assume the contracts annually and redeem the bonds
from surplus funds in the treasury. The plain red-brick building was
completed in 1909 at a cost of $192,000.
During the years 1936 to 1938, more than $600,000 was spent by
the city and the Works Progress Administration in completely remodel-
ing and redecorating the theater part of the building. John Robert
Dillon, the Atlanta architect who designed the building originally,
drew the plans for the remodeling.
Since its erection the auditorium has served as the setting for a
v^ide variety of entertainment and for many colorful events in the
history of the city. Recorded on its calendar are concerts, operas,
political rallies, flower and automobile shows, graduation exercises, box-
ing and wrestling matches, basketball tournaments, roller skating
derbies, dances, and even circuses sponsored by local organizations.
The capacity of the building has been taxed many times. From
1910 until 1930 the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York
produced annually at the auditorium a series of operas, and an audience
POINTS OF INTEREST 165
of more than 5,000 at a performance was not unusual. When Caruso
sang in Atlanta for the first time in 1910 in a presentation of Aida, he
faced an audience of more than 7,000, for all available standing room
was sold before the crowds could be turned away from the box office.
Another unusually large crowd was that which assembled to hear
Franklin D. Roosevelt speak during the presidential campaign in 1932.
Among other events that have attracted large numbers were the meet-
ings of the Baptist World Alliance in the summer of 1939 and the
ball celebrating the premiere of the film production of Gone With the
Wind in December of the same year.
11. WOODROW WILSON'S LAW OFFICE, 44^ Marietta St.,
is a small, second-story room at the head of a narrow flight of stairs
that leads directly from the street. Wilson's occupancy is commemo-
rated by a bronze tablet on the Forsyth Street wall of the building
and a framed feature story from the Atlanta Journal on the wall of
the office.
Here, in the summer of 1882, immediately after he had received
his license to practice as an attorney-at-law, Wilson was admitted to
partnership with E.I. Renick, under the firm name of Renick and
Wilson. But clients were scarce, and the young intellectual whiled
away many empty hours watching from his office window the crowds
that milled about the temporary State capitol across the square. Some-
times he sat in the galleries of the house and listened to the debates
on the floor, afterward describing the representatives in letters to his
friends as "country lawyers, merchants, farmers, politicians, all of them
poor, many densely ignorant. . . ." In September 1882, Walter Hines
Page, who was traveling throughout the South for the New York
World, called at Wilson's office, and the two men were attracted to
each other instantaneously by the similarity of their ideas and tastes.
It was Page who excited Wilson with enthusiasm for study at Johns
Hopkins, and in the fall of 1883 the young lawyer gladly left "slow,
ignorant, uninteresting Georgia" for the more congenial atmosphere of
the university.
12. The HENRY GRADY MONUMENT, Marietta and Forsyth
Sts., was unveiled on October 21, 1891, as a memorial to Henry
Woodfin Grady, renowned throughout the Nation as an orator and
journalist. The ten- foot bronze statue, posed as if delivering an
address, stands upon a massive pedestal of Georgia granite, which is
inscribed with quotations from the orator's speeches. Draped female
figures seated on each side of the pedestal represent Memory and
History.
Henry Woodfin Grady, born in Athens, Georgia, on May 24,
1850, was only a schoolboy when his father was killed near Petersburg,
Virginia, in the early days of the War between the States. He was
graduated from the University of Georgia in 1868 and spent the two
succeeding years studying law at the University of Virginia, where
he won many honors for his oratory. When he returned to Georgia
he married his boyhood sweetheart, Julia King of Athens, and moved
l66 ATLANTA
to Rome, where he began his newspaper career on the Rome Courier.
Soon he became owner and editor of the Rome Commercial, but the
town was hardly large enough to support more than one newspaper,
and the Commercial went into bankruptcy. Grady then moved to
Atlanta and bought an interest in the Atlanta Herald, a paper that
soon became very popular because of its expensive advertising stunts.
Too much money was invested in this venture, however, and Grady
lost heavily when the paper failed. After another failure on the
Atlanta Capital, he secured an appointment as Southern correspondent
for the New York Herald, a position that he filled brilliantly for five
years. In 1880 he bought one- fourth interest in the Atlanta Consti-
tution and developed this paper into a strong political factor not only
in Georgia but in the entire South.
Handsome, emotional, and eloquent, Grady was a powerful force
in the political and social life of the South. The dominant theme in
all his writing and speaking was the rehabilitation of the Southern
States through industrialization, and he popularized the term New
South to emphasize the difference between the industrial economy that
he championed and the old agrarian order. His magnetic personality
and his moving pleas for a reunited Nation were influential in over-
coming much sectional bitterness and restoring friendship between the
North and the South in the years after the war. The speeches that
brought Grady most acclaim were "The New South," addressed to the
New England Society of New York City in 1886, "The South and
Her Problem," delivered at Dallas, Texas, in 1887, and "The Race
Problem" before a Boston audience shortly before his death on Decem-
ber 23, 1889.
Soon after his death a fund of $20,000 was raised by voluntary
contributions from all parts of the country, and Alexander Doyle was
commissioned to design a monument. Governor W.J. Northen of
Georgia and Governor David B. Hill of New York presided over the
impressive ceremony of unveiling the statue before a crowd estimated
at 50,000.
13. The CANDLER BUILDING (open), 127 Peachtree St., NE.,
built 1904-06, was Atlanta's first skyscraper. So impressive were its
17 stories of Georgia white marble, rising high above the surrounding
buildings, that "as tall as the Candler Building" was for several years
a popular local simile.
Economy was apparently no item in the plans for a structure that
was intended to be the finest and best equipped office building in the
South. Excavations prior to laying the foundation required six months
of blasting into the stratum of solid granite which underlies a large
part of Atlanta. Installed in the first basement were luxurious baths
and a swimming pool 20 feet long by 16 feet wide. The second base-
ment contained a hydraulic power plant which for many years provided
the current for the building.
The ornamentation is elaborate even for a period that was charac-
terized by lavishness in architecture. For the execution of the artistic
POINTS OF INTEREST 167
details Candler imported sculptors from Italy, France, England, and
Scotland.
Marble was used for wainscoting and floors throughout all the
corridors, and the two 26-foot pillars at the Houston Street entrance
were cut from single blocks. A series of panels carved across the three
sides of the building represents sculpture, art, literature, music, natural
history, astronomy, statesmanship, agriculture, and steam power.
Plaques bear the portraits of famous men carved in high relief, and
marble atlantes support the imposing arch on both the Peachtree and
Pryor Street entrances.
From the lobby a grand staircase constructed of Amicalola marble
winds upward to the second floor and downward to the first basement.
The broad marble rail ends with a flourish in the form of a dolphin.
The elaborately carved frieze along the stairway portrays in high relief
Alexander H. Stephens, Charles J. Jenkins, General John B. Gordon,
General Joseph E. Wheeler, Sidney Lanier, Joel Chandler Harris, and
Eli Whitney. In two niches are busts of Asa G. Candler's parents.
Interesting embellishments include the marble alligators above the
drinking fountains, the bronze birds that support the marble stairway,
the bronze mailboxes bearing Latin mottoes, and the grillwork on the
stairway that leads through the upper floors.
The southern portion of the lot on which the Candler Building
stands is the site of old Wesley Chapel, a small structure of sawn
planks that was erected in 1848 by the trustees of the First Methodist
Church. During the War between the States the Confederate Govern-
ment confiscated the northern part of the lot as a location for the
headquarters of the Confederate Commissary Department. When the
United States Government sold the captured Confederate property
after the war, the congregation of the First Methodist Church pur-
chased this adjacent site and in 1870 began construction of a tall-spired
brick and stone edifice, which for many years was one of the leading
houses of worship in Atlanta. About the turn of the century the
expanding membership and the encroaching commercial houses of the
growing city prompted the congregation to buy land farther out Peach-
tree Street and erect a larger church. The Candler Investment Com-
pany acquired the property in 1903 and engaged George E. Murphy
to draw plans for the office building. Several changes have since been
made in the lower floors to meet the needs of tenants.
14. The GRAND THEATER (open), 157 Peachtree St., NE., is
the oldest theater building now standing in Atlanta, Soon after the
War between the States several theaters were opened and operated
successfully, but they were all completely outmoded when Laurent
DeGive opened his elaborate Grand Theater on February 10, 1893,
with a presentation of Men and Women by DeMille and Belasco.
Atlanta society in full dress attended the opening performance, ap-
plauded enthusiastically the laudatory speeches of prominent citizens,
and praised the luxurious appointments of the new opera house, "one
of the finest theaters in the world." The cost of the building, which
l68 ATLANTA
was designed by McElfetrick & Sons of New York, was estimated at
$250,000, and its seating capacity of 2,700 made it the third largest
theater in the United States. Among the decorations particularly
noted in the columns of the Constitution were the marble-tiled entrance,
the stained-glass doors, the frescoes in pink, blue, and gold with many
cupids and flowers, a picture in the dome of "lassies dancing and twining
floral chains," the curtain portraying Shakespeare reading a play to
Queen Elizabeth, and the silver rails and rich golden-brown velour
draperies of the 22 boxes. More practical equipment included electric
lights, a central heating plant, a check room for coats, and lounges for
men and women.
Laurent DeGive, a distinguished Belgian, came to Atlanta in 1860
as a young man and in 1870 opened a successful opera house on Mari-
etta Street. When he began building the Grand, many people predicted
that he would lose his fortune in so extravagant a venture, saying that
it was too large for Atlanta and too far from the heart of town, which
was then centered around Alabama Street. On the contrary, the Grand
had an immediate success and retained its pre-eminence over a long
period despite the competition offered by later theaters.
It was here that the illustrious Sir Henry Irving appeared as Shy-
lock in the Merchant of Venice, with Ellen Terry as Portia and Ethel
Barrymore as Jessica. Julia Marlowe, E.H. Sothern, and Robert
Mantell also played Shakespeare here, and Maude Adams starred in
Barrie's immortal story Peter Pan. Joe Jefferson in Rip Van Winkle
brought tears and laughter across the footlights, and William Faver-
sham pleased his audiences in the old melodrama, The Squaw Man.
Other celebrities who appeared at the Grand included John Drew,
Fanny Davenport, Anna Held, Lillian Russell, Otis Skinner, Emma
Calve, and Maxine Elliott.
When the Erlanger Theater was built farther out on Peachtree
Street in 1926, legitimate drama was booked there, and the Grand
was leased for 60 years by Loew's, Inc., as a motion picture house.
This severed the DeGives' long connection with the theater in Atlanta.
During the summer of 1932 the entrance and auditorium of the old
building were completely remodeled and redecorated in modern design
by Thomas W. Lamb, Inc., New York architects. The first floor
facade and the doors are made of aluminum, and the walls are lined
with marble. The passage from the street to the foyer is laid in squares
of rubber matting, made of brightly colored strips pressed into a geo-
metrical design.
On December 15, 1939, the Grand witnessed a brief return of its
former glory when the premiere of Gone With the Wind was shown
here. Again Atlanta society, in full dress, attended the old theater in
company with cinema stars and other visiting celebrities to applaud the
film production of the famous book and to pay honor to its Atlanta
author, Margaret Mitchell.
The seven-story brick office building, through which the foyer of
the theater runs, was erected in front of the auditorium building and
POINTS OF INTEREST 169
opened for occupancy in 1894. Nixon and Lindsey were the architects.
The name DEGIVE and the family coat-of-arms are carved across
the front of the building, which shows Romanesque influence in its
arched bay windows and the elaborate ornamentation of its stone trim.
For many years the DeGive family lived in an apartment on the second
floor.
15. The CARNEGIE LIBRARY (open weekdays 9-9, children's
department 9-6; Sun., reading room only, 2-6), 126 Carnegie Way,
NW., is housed in a rectangular, two-story building of Georgia marble
designed by Akerman and Ross of New York and opened to the public
in 1902. Tall engaged double columns with Ionic capitals frame the
recessed entrance, which is arched to match the large windows across
the facade. Beneath the dentiled cornice the names of classical writers
are cut into the stone. From the lobby a broad marble stairway curves
upward to the second floor. Covering the entire south wall of the
reference room is a large mural, The Dawn of Learning, painted by
Mrs. Farnsworth Drew, an Atlanta artist.
Prior to the War between the States Atlanta had no regular library
service, although a few booksellers lent volumes at a low weekly rental.
In December 1866, when Atlanta's young men had little money for
entertainment, a group of them petitioned in the Atlanta Daily New
Era for a reading room that would afford them intellectual improve-
ment along with bodily warmth. The plan for a subscription library
originated with Darwin Jones, a teller of the Georgia National Bank
who had recently come south from Milwaukee. Citing examples of
such institutions in Northern cities, Jones aroused other public-spirited
young men, and a meeting was called in July 1867, which led to the
formation of the Young Men's Library Association with an original
membership of 47. A small room on Alabama Street was rented for
$3 a month, and $15 was spent on shelving.
Unceasing financial difficulties were met with the proceeds from
concerts, bazaars, lectures, and even spelling matches. Some additional
income was realized in 1873, when young women were first admitted
to membership. Funds were checked vigilantly; one librarian was
asked to resign because of "faulty bookkeeping" as well as his candid
habit of annotating the financial status of members on the books which
were later read by the indignant subjects themselves. In 1883 an art
loan exhibition, sponsored by the association, aroused unprecedented
local enthusiasm for painting and brought a profit of $800. Lighter
entertainment on this occasion was provided by tableaux vivants and a
chess game with live pawns. Though never forgetting the high pur-
pose of their enterprise, the members kept up their spirits by many
gayeties, including frequent oyster suppers at Pease's Bar on Decatur
Street.
The library was moved several times as it grew more popular and
required more commodious quarters. In 1892, Eugene Mitchell, the
president of the organization, suggested plans for securing a gift from
Andrew Carnegie. In 1899 the famous philanthropist gave $100,000
170 ATLANTA
for the construction of a building with the stipulation that the city
provide a site and maintain the library at not less than $5,000 a year.
In 1902 the Carnegie Library of Atlanta, the eleventh such institution
to be established on the Carnegie plan, was opened in its present build-
ing. Anne Wallace, the first librarian under this system, was founder
of the Georgia Library Commission, which extends service to rural
areas.
In 1924 the Young Men's Library Association was officially dis-
solved and its records given to the Carnegie Library. Despite the
depression of the I93o's, old services have been extended and new ones
introduced. The library now owns approximately 190,000 volumes
and maintains ten branches, two of which are for Negroes.
1 6. MARIST COLLEGE, junction Peachtree and Ivy Sts., is a mili-
tary day school conducted by the Marist Order of the Roman Catholic
Church. The plain, stone-trimmed red-brick building stands adjacent
to the Sacred Heart Church with its Romanesque arches and elaborate
clustered pillars. Priests and dark-robed nuns are familiar forms in
this neighborhood, a sober contrast to the lively Marist boys in their
horizon-gray uniforms. During school hours long lines of cadets drill
on the level parade ground, and sometimes the sharp crack of rifles is
heard from the target practice range.
Established in 1901, the school has no college department but offers
courses in its junior and senior high schools providing sound prepara-
tion for entrance into any college or scientific school. Although the
school functions under the auspices of the Marist Order, it is non-
sectarian in its operation and its 200 students come from many denomi-
nations, j
Cadets are under military discipline from assembly to dismissal, and
a minimum of five hours a week is required for drill and military
exercises. Under the command of a retired officer of the United
States Army, this department offers the course of training prescribed
by the War Department for junior divisions. Since 1917 a Reserve
Officers' Training Corps unit has been established here, thus enabling
graduates to obtain army commissions after four years in Marist Col-
lege and one season in an R.O.T.C. camp. Another popular feature
of this department is the band, which is composed of volunteer cadet
musicians.
Marist maintains an excellent record in sports, and its football,
baseball, basketball, golf, and swimming teams are prominent in all
local interscholastic meets.
17. BALTIMORE BLOCK, Baltimore Place between West Peach-
tree and Spring Sts., is a row of brick houses which, occupied as resi-
dences by fashionable society during the eighties and nineties, has
recently become a miniature Greenwich Village for Atlanta artists and
writers. The three-story dwellings were erected in 1885 by a Balti-
more investment corporation known variously as the Baltimore Land
Company and the Atlanta Land and Annuity Company. According
to the old Baltimore real estate system, the land was leased from its
POINTS OF INTEREST
original owner for 99 years and houses sold for the duration of the
lease. Construction followed the Baltimore pattern of joining separate
units in one continuous front set flush with the sidewalk.
Although the carved white cornice extending across the joined
facades gives the impression of a single building, the dwellings are
actually separate, with 18 inches of air space between the brick walls.
The uniformity of the stoops and deeply recessed entrances is relieved
somewhat by minor variations: some of the stoops have stone steps and
others have brick steps with iron railings; some of the glass transom
lights above the doors are rectangular, while others are fan-shaped.
Grilles protect some of the basement windows, and the ironwork is
repeated in a second-floor balcony that runs the width of several of the
middle houses.
Early in the i88o's commerce had broken into the formerly desir-
able residential sections around Capitol Square, causing many of
Atlanta's leading families to move farther north to Peachtree and its
side streets. Some of them, attracted by the trim, compact dwellings
of a type so new to the city, established themselves on Baltimore Block
and made it a fashionable neighborhood.
Each house was occupied by only one family; the first floor was
taken up by a dining room and a large and a small living room, while
the second and third floors each had two large bedrooms, adjoining
dressing rooms, and a large apartment used either for storage or by
the seamstress on her biennial visits to deck out the ladies of the house-
hold. Following the plan of English town houses, the kitchen was in
the basement, with back stairs leading up to the dining room. A
system of central heating, one of the first in the city, was effected by
placing a Baltimore heater in each fireplace on the lower floor with
vents running to the rooms above. The plan for each house was iden-
tical except for "pairing off" by opposite arrangements of hallways and
fireplaces.
Into the new century this row remained the habitat of the leisurely
and elegant generation which had made it popular. Every afternoon
of pleasant weather smart carriages clattered over the stone blocks of
this street, for it had one of the first cobblestone pavements in the
town. So arresting was this line of Georgian facades that Atlanta
showed it to visitors as one of the leading sights.
But, as the twentieth century advanced, new commercial buildings
closed rapidly about Baltimore Block and drove its residents still
farther northward. Asa Candler, the affluent and public-spirited Coca-
Cola king, attempted to buy the entire block for the establishment of
a medical center, but this project failed because one owner refused to
sell. In the years immediately following, the units were rented for
various purposes to short-term tenants, but quality continued to decline
until some of the houses stood vacant, their gaping doors inviting only
vagrants to the shelter of the cobwebbed rooms.
During the depression a group of artists, in search of inexpensive
quarters, rented space here and opened studios. Rent was low and
172 ATLANTA
remodeling had to be done at the tenant's own expense; some made
only minor necessary changes, while others decorated with gay colors,
painting the fronts white and the doors deep blue or Chinese red.
Window boxes and trellised morning glories further enlivened the
plain brick facade. The block soon became crowded with antique
shops, photographers' studios, landscape architects' establishments, and
the workrooms or living quarters of artists. A tearoom, patronized
periodically by most of the occupants, became a factor of fusion for the
community spirit.
Since four of the houses at the Spring Street corner were razed to
make way for an oil company, only ten dwellings now remain in the
block, and only one of the original families still owns the property
here. But Baltimore Block has again become a leading sight of
Atlanta, both because its architectural style is unique in the city and
because it is the home of persons prominent in Atlanta's artistic life.
1 8. The GEORGIA SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY, North Ave.
between Williams and Luckie Sts., occupies a 55-acre campus in a sec-
tion of Atlanta that is rapidly changing from residential to commercial.
Along North Avenue old-fashioned frame dwellings, now serving as
lodgings, are interspersed with small shops that cater to student trade.
Near the south entrance of the campus the severely modern brick
buildings of a housing project replace a former slum region, while to
the west is the distant smoke of factories and railroad yards. The
entire scene is constantly animated by the life of the students in blue
and khaki uniforms hurrying to the drill field, or with levels, rods,
and chains busily absorbed in surveying the campus plots and adjacent
streets. Several gayly painted "jalopies" usually stand at the curbs,
bearing on their sides lopsided letters spelling out words of the school
song "I'm a ramblin' wreck from Georgia Tech."
Grouped compactly within this area, the 32 buildings are dominated
by the administration building, conspicuous for its tall spire with the
word TECH emblazoned in electric lights on all four faces. The
older halls are plain red-brick structures with little adornment, but the
newer ones, designed by faculty members of the architectural depart-
ment, have limestone trim and other decorative details in Collegiate
Gothic style.
This institution, maintained by State appropriations, tuition fees,
and the income from a $574,000 endowment, is the technological school
of the University System of Georgia. Courses leading to bachelors'
degrees are offered in aeronautical, ceramic, chemical, civil, electrical,
general, mechanical, public health, and textile engineering and also in
architecture, chemistry, and industrial management. In addition the
college grants masters' degrees in architecture and in aeronautical,
ceramic, chemical, civil, electrical, and textile engineering. The grad-
uate department, which was organized in 1922, is still small. During
the year 1939-40, the school registered only 41 graduate students but
had 3,767 undergraduates, including those in the evening and summer
POINTS OF INTEREST 173
schools. The faculty numbered 165 professors, 37 graduate assistants,
and several student assistants.
The Co-operative Plan, introduced in 1912, permits students to
co-ordinate theory and practical experience. Those who are accepted
in this department spend alternate quarters of five entire years attend-
ing school and working in such industrial firms as construction, rail-
road, and electrical companies and with such manufacturing plants as
steel, textile, and paper mills. Degrees are offered in chemical, civil,
electrical, mechanical, and textile engineering, and students are fitted
for positions in designing, production, and sales departments of indus-
tries in these engineering fields.
Extension work is conducted on the campus by the Evening School
of Applied Science. This department, organized in 1908, offers two-
year courses in various technical fields, including automobile engineer-
ing, building construction, heating, ventilating, and radio. Credits are
not applicable toward a degree, but certificates are issued upon com-
pletion of the requirements.
The State Engineering Experiment Station, the engineering research
unit of the university system, is operated on the campus and is affiliated
with the various teaching departments. The purposes of this agency,
which was founded in 1934, are to aid industry by developing the
resources of the State, to integrate agricultural and industrial activities,
and to support scientific research, both fundamental and applied, in the
numerous university institutions. Here the varied facilities of numer-
ous laboratories and the services of technically trained men are available
in an academic atmosphere. The studies are financed by the State in
co-operation with private enterprises, government agencies, or technical
foundations, and the results are made public through bulletins and
circulars. During the school year 1939-40, experiments were conducted
on such problems as the more efficient processing of cotton, analysis of
the proper types of industry for Georgia and the Southeast, the devel-
opment of a new kind of aircraft, the finding of new uses for pecan oil,
improvements of the properties of rayon, and the processing of domestic
flax to suit cotton mill methods.
Both a military and a naval unit of the Reserve Officers' Training
Corps are maintained at the Georgia School of Technology. The army
unit, established here in 1920, is the successor of the Citizens* Military
Training Corps, which was organized as a war measure in 1917. The
War Department provides a staff of officers and equipment for instruc-
tion in four divisions infantry, artillery, signal corps, and ordnance;
these courses in military science and tactics are more extensive than
those offered at any other school in the State. Georgia Tech was among
the six colleges selected by the Navy Department in 1926 for the
establishment of Naval R.O.T.C. units to train students in navigation,
seamanship, naval ordnance and gunnery, and naval engineering. En-
rollment in the naval unit is limited, and graduates may receive appoint-
ments as Ensign in the Supply Corps of the U.S. Navy or as Second
Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps.
174 ATLANTA
In addition to the physical equipment of the laboratories and shops,
five engineering departments have reading rooms where books and
magazines of special technical significance are kept. Writings of a
more general nature are housed in the main library. . In all, the college
possesses 45,000 bound volumes, 5,000 unbound pamphlets, and many
periodicals.
An informal collegiate atmosphere prevails in the writing and edit-
ing of four publications: the Technique, a weekly newspaper; the
Yellow Jacket, a monthly humorous magazine; the Georgia Tech
Engineer, a serious magazine published four times during the school
year; and the Blue Print, the college annual. A more professional
attitude, however, predominates at the meetings of such local and
Nation-wide technical organizations as the Architectural Society, the
American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institute of Chem-
ical Engineers, and the American Ceramic Society. The college chap-
ters of these associations meet frequently to hear prominent lecturers,
to see motion pictures on technical subjects, to make inspection tours
of industrial plants, to plan displays, or to entertain practicing engi-
neers.
Sports, under the supervision of the Georgia Tech Athletic Asso-
ciation, occupy a prominent place in student life. Since intramural and
intercollegiate contests are scheduled in many sports, including tennis,
swimming, fencing, golf, track, rifle shooting, baseball, basketball, and
football, more than 50 per cent of the Tech men participate in some
form of exercise. The sport best known outside the college halls is
football. Tech's football team, the "Yellow Jackets," has steadily
increased its popularity since its organization in 1893 by Leonard
Wood, student and coach, and has distinguished itself in games
throughout the United States. After the successful 1928 season, the
Tech team defeated the University of California in the Rose Bowl
game at Pasadena on New Year's day. The 1939 season culminated
in an invitation to play in the Orange Bowl at Miami, where Tech
defeated the University of Missouri in the New Year's Day game.
Georgia Tech was founded in that period when the general cry for
industrialization was finding a response in the establishment of engi-
neering schools in all parts of the Nation. A need for such a school
in Georgia, first voiced by W.T. Hanson, editor of the Macon Tele-
graph and Messenger, was also ardently advocated by Henry W. Grady
in the Atlanta Constitution. As a result, N.E. Harris of Macon, later
governor of Georgia, introduced before the legislature a resolution to
consider the establishment of a technical school in Georgia. This reso-
lution was passed on November 24, 1882, and Governor Alexander H.
Stephens immediately appointed a commission of ten men to visit and
study the leading engineering schools of the United States. On the
recommendation of the committee the general assembly in 1885 appro-
priated $65,000 for the establishment of the Georgia School of Tech-
nology.
One of five competing cities, Atlanta made the high bid of $130,000
POINTS OF INTEREST 175
in land and money for the site of the new school. Professor M.P.
Higgins, of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, was engaged to super-
vise the organization, and in 1887 construction of the first buildings
was begun on a five-acre tract purchased from the Peters Land Com-
pany. Later Richard Peters donated an additional tract of four acres.
Dr. Isaac Stiles Hopkins, who had instituted the first technological
course in the South at Emory College in 1884, was chosen the first
president. School was opened on October 3, 1888, with 84 students,
and four days later formal installation services were held at DeGive's
Opera House on Marietta Street.
Growth was steady from the beginning. After the first eight years,
during which the only degree offered was that of mechanical engineer-
ing, other courses were added to the curriculum with the aid of State
appropriations, private endowments, and gifts from scientific founda-
tions. When textile engineering was introduced in 1899 an d ceramic
engineering in 1924, these were the first such courses in the South. A
period of rapid expansion followed the Greater Tech Campaign of
1920, when funds were raised for buildings and equpiment. The build-
ing program was accelerated during the 1930'$ by funds from the
various Federal public works agencies.
In 1931 the general assembly passed a law requiring the reorganiza-
tion of the State institutions of higher learning and the creation of the
University System of Georgia. During that year the school lost its
individual board of trustees and a few courses in business and com-
merce that were duplicated at the State University. Since January I,
1932, when the measure became effective, the control of the Georgia
School of Technology, like that of all the State colleges, has been
vested in a central board of regents, appointed by the governor.
The GUGGENHEIM SCHOOL OF AERONAUTICS BUILDING, corner
North Ave. and Cherry St., is constructed of red brick with concrete
trim, its facade ornamented with figures of Pegasus, the winged mytho-
logical horse, and of the American eagle. In the building are an
exhibit room and a drafting room for the designing of model aircraft,
a machine and woodworking shop for construction, and laboratories,
including two wind tunnels, for testing. The course in aeronautical
engineering, the only one in the South, is open only to students who
have received a degree in civil, electrical, general, or mechanical engi-
neering. It was added to the curriculum in 1930 with the aid of a
grant of $300,000 from the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promo-
tion of Aeronautics. The founding was the result of a previous survey
made by Emory Land, a United States naval aeronautics authority,
who was the vice president of the foundation. Because of its high
scholastic standards, Georgia Tech was chosen from 27 Southern col-
leges and universities for the location of the school.
BRITTAIN HALL, on Techwood Drive between North Ave. and
Third St., was completed in 1928 and dedicated to Marion Luther
Brittain, who has been president of the Georgia School of Technology
since 1922. With its square central tower and loggia with pointed
176 ATLANTA
arches, this structure shows a more marked Gothic influence than the
other buildings on the campus. It is set well back on a deep lawn
and is flanked by dormitories placed almost flush with the sidewalk.
The interior of the dining hall with its high gabled ceiling reflects the
architectural style of the exterior. A large four-pointed stained-glass
window of Tudor design in the right wing contains 14 panels, sym-
bolizing the various activities of the school. The design, chosen from
plans submitted by the graduating class of 1928, was made by Julian
Harris, who has since achieved distinction as a sculptor and become a
faculty member of the department of architecture. The .panels were
executed by the J. and R. Lamb Studios of New York.
GRANT FIELD, corner North Ave. and Techwood Drive, is the
major athletic arena of the Georgia Tech campus. Here in the fall,
the "Yellow Jackets" meet the teams of rival colleges and universities
to the accompaniment of frenzied cheering and the music of bands. The
games played here every alternate year with the "Bull Dogs" of the
University of Georgia are of unusual local interest because of the
intense traditional rivalry between these two leading schools of the
university system. Here, also, the churches hold Easter sunrise services
and the city schools present pageants. Charles Lindbergh spoke here
October u, 1928; Winston Churchill on February 23, 1932; and
Franklin Roosevelt on November 29, 1935. The field, 800 feet long
and 400 feet wide, is named in honor of Hugh Inman Grant, the son
of John W. Grant, who made possible the purchase of the tract. The
U-shaped stadium, completed in 1925 at a cost of about $350,000, seats
more than 30,000 spectators.
The NAVAL ARMORY (open daily g-4 during school term), SW.
corner Techwood Drive and Third St., is headquarters for the
R.O.T.C. Naval Unit, the Atlanta Naval Reserve Unit, and the
Georgia Tech Athletic Association. The two-story main hall, which
is 196 feet long and 60 feet wide, is equipped with a complete ship's
bridge for instruction in steering and compass computation and with
various instruments for training in seamanship and naval warfare. In
the entrance hall hangs a print in low relief of the frigate Constitution,
which was framed in the woodworking shop with timber from the
original boat.
This structure, completed in 1934, is a severely plain rectangular
building of two stories, stuccoed to blend with the adjacent stadium.
A four-foot bronze eagle in a niche above the entrance once formed a
part of the massive figurehead on the bow of the U.S.S. Georgia, a
battleship built in 1906 and scrapped as a result of the 1921 Washing-
ton Disarmament Conference. The grilled doors were designed by
Julian Harris and made from the heavy bronze scrollwork originally
attached to the eagle. On the lawn, across the driveway to the right
of the building, hangs a bell, also from the battleship Georgia. Two
four-inch cannon that stood for several years on the lawn were re-
moved in 1941, to be used in arming United States merchant ships.
The AUDITORIUM-GYMNASIUM, facing Third St. between Tech-
POINTS OF INTEREST 177
wood Drive and Fowler St., is constructed of reinforced concrete to
harmonize with both stadium and armory. The sharp modern lines of
the facade are relieved only by ornamental concrete grilles above the
double doors, which open onto a terrace a few steps above the street
level. The auditorium is used for commencement exercises and the
student lecture series, which is open to the general public. When the
removable seats are stored beneath the permanent spectators' galleries
along each side, a gymnasium floor is provided for contests in basket-
ball, fencing, and badminton. A wing on the south side contains a
large tile swimming pool and also a spectators' gallery.
Laboratory work in process in many of the departments is of
interest to the technically trained. In the Ceramics Building are
exhibited the various clays native to Georgia and wares that have been
made from them.
19. PIEDMONT PARK, embracing 185 acres bounded by Tenth
St., Piedmont Ave., Westminster Drive, and the Southern Railway,
is Atlanta's largest municipal park. Within this area are a lake, swim-
ming pool, golf course, polo field, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, and
a supervised playground for children. The rolling terrain has proved
readily adaptable to landscape work, which has resulted in the steep
slopes, high terraces, and climbing roadways that give so bold and
spacious an aspect to the scene. Throughout the grounds wind asphalt
driveways and gravel walks shaded by many trees: oaks, sycamores,
elms, beeches, poplars, magnolias, and weeping willows, as well as
imported varieties less common to this section. Many of the trees
have been classified and marked with identification tags by the WPA.
During all seasons of good weather the park is full of life
bicycling schoolboys, children with their nurses feeding the ducks,
elderly ladies with leashed dogs, boys and girls in white tennis clothes,
fishermen dangling their lines for black bass. On summer nights lamps
glow softly upon the strolling couples and cast reflections of jagged
brightness along the lake.
The present area of Piedmont Park was contained in a grant issued
to Samuel Walker in 1834. This holding remained intact in the pos-
session of his descendants until 1887, when Walker's large stone house
and a i89-acre tract were purchased by the Gentlemen's Driving Club.
This smart, newly formed organization bought the land for the forth-
coming Piedmont Exposition, for which Henry Grady, the famous
orator and journalist and a member of the club, provided publicity in
the pages of the Constitution.
The exposition was opened on October 10, 1887, with a parade
and an address by the handsome, popular Governor John B. Gordon,
who had become a Confederate idol for his services on General Robert
E. Lee's staff. A week later President Grover Cleveland addressed a
crowd of 50,000 here. During the 12 days of the exposition great
crowds viewed exhibits demonstrating: the advancement of the modern
South and derived entertainment from parades, sham battles, bicycling,
clay pigeon shooting, and fireworks displays.
178 ATLANTA
In 1889 the Gentlemen's Driving Club sold all but four acres of
the tract to the exposition company, which during the following years
held small fairs on the grounds. In 1894, alter a charter had been
drafted for the Cotton States and International Exposition, it was
proposed that this land be purchased by the city for this occasion, but
the proposal was vetoed by Mayor John B. Goodwin, who declared
that the site was too far out in the country. The exposition company
went ahead with their plan, however, and the lake was dug and sev-
eral large buildings erected.
The Cotton States and International Exposition was opened on
September 18, 1895, when President Cleveland in the White House
pressed a telegraphic key and a loo-gun salute was fired. Many States
throughput the Nation had displays here, while European and South
American countries were well represented. The most striking State
exhibit was Pennsylvania's Liberty Bell brought from Independence
Hall in Philadelphia. Music was provided by the bands of Victor
Herbert and John Philip Sousa and by Theodore Thomas' orchestra
from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. The lake was used for
aquatic events, the first time such sports had been publicly demon-
strated in Atlanta.
Among the celebrated men who attended the exposition were Gen-
eral George W. Schofield, the Federal commander whose troops had
invaded Georgia more than 20 years earlier; Jeff Cain, the engineer of
the General when it was captured by Andrews' Raiders in 1862; and
Booker T. Washington, the Negro educator, who made a stirring
address on the opportunities of his emancipated race.
During the exposition Atlanta business boomed and the city received
world-wide publicity. After its close various proposals were made for
future disposition of the land, but all were rejected and on May 23,
1904, the park was purchased by the city for $93,000. All connection
was now broken between Piedmont Park and the Gentlemen's Driving
Club, which had become the Piedmont Driving Club. The park,
becoming constantly more popular, was improved from year to year by
additional recreation facilities and scenic beautification.
The most important event here in recent years was the brief address
by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his visit to Atlanta in
November 1935. Although the day was chill and sunless, an enthusi-
astic crowd gathered to pay homage and receive the President's warm
words of greeting and encouragement.
The PEACE MONUMENT, centering the driveway at Fourteenth
Street entrance, is a massive bronze group depicting a Confederate
soldier kneeling with lowered gun while the Goddess of Peace extends
an olive branch. This sculpture, the work of Allen Newman of New
York, was presented to Atlanta by the Gate City Guard and unveiled
before a large crowd on October 10, 1911. In commemoration of
peace, blue-coated Union veterans mingled with Confederate veterans
in gray uniforms at the ceremony.
20. The HIGH MUSEUM OF ART (open weekdays 9-5; Mon.,
POINTS OF INTEREST I?9
Wed., Fri., 7-9 p.m.; Sun. 2-5), 1262 Peachtree St., NE., is housed in
a two-story brick and stucco building, the former residence of Mrs.
Joseph Madison High who, in 1926, presented it to the city for use
as an art gallery. The lower floor is occupied by the offices of the
Atlanta Art Association, chartered in 1905, and by the museum's large
permanent exhibition of paintings, sculpture, and furniture; on the
upper floors are the classrooms of the High Museum School of Art,
which provides instruction in commercial and fine arts to approximately
175 pupils. The school was formed in 1925 by the Atlanta Art
Association.
At frequent intervals the museum arranges for a display of loan
collections both from local artists and from well-known galleries in
other cities. The permanent collection, which is constantly growing,
now covers a broad range of periods and techniques. The early Italian
painters are well represented. A large canvas, Lucretia and Tarquinius,
remarkable for its dynamic action and for the rich red color charac-
teristic of the Venetian School, has been identified as being probably
the work of the famous Luca Giordano. This painting contrasts with
the equally large Offerings of the Matronali by Giovanni Battista
Tiepolo, with its cooler tones and majestic figures. Other Italian pic-
tures of note are the Madonna and Child of Cristoforo Caselli and a
landscape of Salvatore Rosa.
The paintings by French and English artists are few but excellent.
Maxine E.L. Maufra's Chateau Gaillard is a fresh, vivid example of
French post-impressionism, while Catherine Lusurier's Portrait of a
Little Girl with a White Cat skillfully demonstrates the manner of a
later French school. Je Vous Salue, Marie by Oliver Merson, after
being first exhibited in Atlanta at the Cotton States Exposition in 1895,
was purchased by the Piedmont Driving Club and presented years later
to High Museum. The two most famous of the English portrait
painters whose work is on exhibition here are Sir Joshua Reynolds and
Sir Henry Raeburn.
The work of distinguished American painters, both past and con-
temporary, forms a large part of the collection. The Portrait of the
Reverend George Houston Woodrough by Thomas Sully is the earliest
representative of the American school, and A Glass with the Squire
by Eastman Johnson is a good example of early nineteenth-century
painting. Prominent in the modern group are portraits by Wilford
S. Conrow, N.R. Brewer, and Frank Duveneck; etchings, lithographs,
and the painting Isle of $hoals by Childe Hassam, a noted exponent
of French impressionism; the fanciful Moon Magic by Ralph Blake-
lock; and two works of striking contrast in subject and method by
Thomas Moran, Fin gals Cave and Pueblo of A coma, New Mexico.
John McCrady's Woman Mounting a Horse has caused much discus-
sion by its vigorous modernistic departure from realism in treatment.
Other pictures showing a strong modern trend in color and execution
are Ernest Lawson's Harlem River at Highbridge, Robert Brockman's
The Bathers, and Frederick Carl Frieseke's Girl in Blue Arranging
180 ATLANTA
Flowers. In the Dressing Room by Louis Kronberg shows the in-
fluence of the French painter Degas. Portrait of Scarlett O'Hara by
Helen Carleton is of particular interest to Atlanta citizens because it
was presented to the museum by the Hollywood^ producer David
Selznick after the Atlanta premiere of the motion picture Gone With
the Wind.
In addition to its many paintings the museum contains sculpture,
antique furniture, sketches by Rembrandt and Whistler, and water
colors by the Hindu philosopher and poet Rabindranath Tagore.
MEMORY LANE, a gallery constructed on the south side of the
museum building in 1941, was the gift of Mrs. Thomas K. Glenn and
contains only pictures given as memorials. A biographical plaque of
the individual is placed beneath each picture. A number of pieces of
fine furniture have also been given to Memory Lane.
21. RHODES MEMORIAL HALL or THE GEORGIA DE-
PARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY (open Mon.-
Fri., 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Sat. 8 a.m.-i2 ra.), 1516 Peachtree St., NW.,
is the repository for Georgia's official documents and historical collec-
tions. A commanding edifice of Stone Mountain granite with massive
pillars and pointed turrets, the house was erected in 1900 at a cost of
about $1,000,000. Most of the 23 rooms are finished in the ornately
handsome manner of the period, each being floored in hardwood with
a different design in mahogany. The Rose Room is particularly strik-
ing because of its hand-painted ceiling, walls covered with old rose
damask, and original draperies and portieres trimmed in handmade
lace. Two imported gold-leaf cabinets and three circular glass-topped
tables are all part of the original furnishings.
Over the carved mahogany stairway a series of Tiffany stained-
glass windows depicts The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy. These
windows, costing $40,000, were installed when the house was built
by its original owner, A.G. Rhodes, who made a great fortune from
his furniture store and from early transactions in Atlanta real estate.
The story is told that Rhodes, who had served in the Confederate
army, sent the submitted design of the windows back several times
to be altered. The panel showing General Robert E. Lee's farewell
to his troops was rejected because Lee had his hat on "and he was
too much of a gentleman to tell anybody good-bye without taking off
his hat." The Battle of Manassas panel irritated Rhodes still more
because the Federal troops were not retreating fast enough "and we
had those Yankees running till their coattails were standing out."
The historical collection, subdivided into State and county records,
is composed of approximately 1,000,000 unbound original documents
and 50,000 books and pamphlets. Private papers pertaining to the
State and its citizens are also kept on file. Pictorial items in Rhodes
Memorial Hall include miniatures, daguerreotypes, paintings, and
photographs. The museum displays relics that portray Georgia life
from its early days, including furniture, china, battle flags, and weapons.
Of particular interest are the long "Joe Brown pikes," named for
POINTS OF INTEREST lol
Georgia's pugnacious wartime governor and used by Confederate troops
in battle.
Among the recent additions is an exact reproduction of the shrine
of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United
States. The shrine, one of a limited number made in honor of the
i5Oth anniversary of the signing of the Constitution, was presented to
the State by the Davison-Paxon Company, in whose large department
store it was unveiled and dedicated January 6, 1938.
The Department of Archives and History was created by legislative
act, August 20, 1918, to keep the State's official records. Lucian
Lamar Knight, author of the popular Georgia and Georgians and
other historical works, was the first director of the department and
first State historian. The department was housed in the State capitol
until 1930; at that time it was moved to Rhodes Memorial Hall,
which had been presented to the State by the heirs of A.G. Rhodes.
Records are now sent from every State department, and rooms in the
house are reserved by various historical organizations for display of
their collections.
22. WASHINGTON SEMINARY, 1640 Peachtree St., NW., has
long been Atlanta's most fashionable school for girls. Facing Peach-
tree Street from the crest of a broad rolling lawn is the dormitory,
a white clapboard building with Corinthian columns extending all
the way across the front. An unpretentious building in the rear con-
tains classrooms, administrative offices, and an auditorium with a stage
for dramatic presentations. With a faculty of 30 and a student body
of 300, Washington Seminary offers courses ranging from the nursery
school through high school. The high school pupils, which make up
the larger part of the student body, are divided about equally between
the general and the college preparatory courses. Most of the enroll-
ment is from Atlanta, but accommodations are provided for 25 boarders,
and these are always reserved well in advance by girls from various
sections of the United States.
The institution was opened in 1878 by the three Misses Washing-
ton, lateral descendants of the famous George. While visiting in
Atlanta these aristocratic ladies had been struck by the need of a good
private school in the city, which was taking its first difficult steps
toward recovery from carpetbagger domination. Having no money
for a building or equipment, the sisters borrowed the use of a parlor in
a Cain Street home and began with eight children to teach the usual
elementary subjects. First as the Misses Washington's School for
Girls, later as Washington Seminary, the school flourished through
the eighties and nineties, moving several times into larger quarters and
adding more advanced courses. On fair days the young ladies could
be seen practicing their archery and elegant Delsarte calisthenics, which
were added to the childish games of the first pupils. Administration
passed from the Washingtons successively to Mrs. Emily Park, Mrs.
Alice Chandler, L.D. Scott, and Miss Emma Scott.
The present dormitory building was erected in 1890 as the resi-
l82 ATLANTA
dence of the affluent, widely traveled General Clifford Anderson, whose
wife had collected decorative ideas from Europe, Africa, and Asia
before the house was built. W.T. Downing, the architect, succeeded
in embodying most of Mrs. Anderson's suggestions on the inside, which
belies the "Southern Colonial" exterior. The long reception hall is
opulent with Pompeiian red walls and cream-colored woodwork form-
ing a background for the bronze statuary, brass jardinieres, and heavy
carved teakwood furniture. The vaulted ceiling, studded with many
plaster rosettes, is centered by a goldleaf dome. This room and the
adjoining dining room give views of a patio encircled by a pillared
arcade in the Spanish style.
Miss Emma Scott, the present (1942) principal, speaks with amuse-
ment of a great plaster dragon, resplendent in gold and Chinese red,
its claws ending in a cluster of electric bulbs, which adorned the wall
of a bedroom. For years the girls delighted in the dragon room,
proudly showing it off to visitors and pleading with their principal to
leave it intact. Miss Scott complied until she found a Cuban student
in tears, looking up at the ceiling and crying in broken English, "I
have great fear!" The next day the dragon was removed.
23. The NATIONAL STOCKYARDS, Marietta St. and Brady
Ave., NW., an area given over to ten independent dealers and one
large commission firm, is the largest mule market in the country. Cows,
hogs, and sheep are also important in the business of the market, and
three large packing plants are operated near the yard. The rush season
is from September through May, but wholesale auctions are held every
Monday throughout the year and independent sales are negotiated every
day in the week. Average annual sales are about 80,000 animals,
representing a value of more than $10,000,000. The market brings
more buyers to the city than any other Atlanta industry.
Lining both sides of Brady Avenue are the stables, large rambling
structures of brick or frame, occasionally painted outside with pictures
of prancing horses. All day trucks rumble in and out with loads of
mules being brought in for sale or taken out to new owners. This
delivery is supplemented by railroads, which have spur tracks leading
into the yards. The auction barn, always filled with the smell of straw
and sawdust, is a brick building, whitewashed inside, with a high ceil-
ing broken by many skylights. The main floor is given over to stalls,
while upper compartments built along the side walls are loaded with
bales of hay and sacks of feed.
The auctions are noisy and exciting. Frisky young mules, led by
attendants with long whips, prance into the arena before an auctioneer
who stands on a raised platform. Buyers crowd in a semicircle around
auctioneer and animals, breaking their ranks only to avoid being
trampled by a too lively mule. As an animal is brought in, a ring-
man checks to see that identification numbers are glued to its halter
and flank and announces the mule's age, weight, and other charac-
teristics, as well as calling attention to any defects such as cuts and
bruises. The ringmaster states a basic bid ; then the auctioneer, beating
POINTS OF INTEREST 183
time on the counter, breaks into a chant that is almost unintelligible to
newcomers. Voices are drowned in the chant, the crack of whips,
and the stamping of hoofs, as buyers indicate their bids by nods or
winks. As they are usually experts who know exactly what they
want, the auction proceeds at a rapid pace about one mule a minute
and as many as 800 mules have been sold in a single day. When a
sale is closed, the information is conveyed through a speaking tube to
a man who records the deal on a ledger and sends the animal to a
specified stall.
At the time Atlanta was founded there was a great demand for
mules in Georgia and other sections of the agricultural South, and the
town's advantage as a distributing center early established it as a live-
stock market. Tanyards and slaughter pens were operating as early
as 1848, but the first definite record of mule transactions is the listing
of three "livery and sales" stables in the city directory of 1859. In
1866 the leading citizens of Marietta persuaded Jeremiah Huff to
erect stables and pens around his house just off Marietta Street and
to provide for owners and drovers bringing livestock to Atlanta for
sale. At that time the mules were not shipped by railroad but were
brought down on the hoof from the north Georgia mountains.
One of the most successful dealers of the years after the War
between the States was John A. Miller, who set up his stables on
Alabama Street and later moved to Marietta Street where he estab-
lished the Miller Union Stock Yards. After his death in 1903 his
associate, T.B. Brady, purchased more than 30 acres of land between
Marietta Street and Howell Mill Road. A street was cut and named
for Brady, and a large frame hotel was erected to accommodate buyers
and drovers. Shortly afterward, J.W. Patterson, prominent in the
horse and mule business in Lexington, Kentucky, came to Atlanta and
joined the firm.
In 1933 the J.F. Huyton Company moved here from Memphis,
Tennessee. This long-established firm had held exclusive contracts to
furnish horses and mules to the British Government during the Boer
War and to the United States Government during the World War.
The coming of this company to Atlanta, in addition to similar con-
cerns already operating here, definitely established the city as the
country's largest mule market.
24. The SITE OF JOHNSTON'S HEADQUARTERS, Marietta
St. and Lewis Ave., NW., is marked by a pyramid of cannon balls on
a concrete base. Here, on July 18, 1864, General Joseph E. Johnston,
in compliance with orders from President Jefferson Davis, transferred
his command of the Army of Tennessee to General John B. Hood.
From the town of Dalton, Georgia, Johnston had made a gradual and
orderly retreat before the vastly superior numbers of General Sherman,
choosing his positions shrewdly and falling back to avoid costly losses
of men in open battle. Dissatisfaction with these tactics increased
among the civil authorities, however, until Johnston was relieved of
184 ATLANTA
his command, a move that is generally regarded as a serious military
blunder in the Atlanta campaign.
25. The HUFF HOUSE (private}, 70 Huff Rd., NW., one of
Atlanta's oldest buildings, was erected in 1855 upon the foundations of
a former dwelling built in 1830. A small clapboard structure with a
double front gable and brick end chimneys, the cottage stands incon-
spicuously upon a hill overlooking the Inman railroad yards. Although
the house has caught fire twice, its appearance has remained virtually
unchanged.
The house is still (1942) occupied by Miss Sarah Huff, who has
lived here all her life except for the four months in 1864 when she
was a war refugee. In her booklet My Eighty Years In Atlanta she
recounts her childhood experiences during that stirring summer when
General Sherman's Federal troogs were forcing the Confederate de-
fense lines to fall back to Atlanta. At that time her father, Jeremiah
Huff, a courier for Stonewall Jackson, was fighting in Virginia, and
his wife and children had no protection against Confederate marauders
who forcibly took their supplies. At last the family was forced to
take flight with other refugees.
While the retreating army was massing for a last stand, the house
became headquarters for Major Charles T. Hotchkiss, and the Con-
federate flag was raised over its roof. When the Union troops ad-
vanced, General George H. Thomas, commander of the Army of the
Cumberland, established his headquarters here under the United States
flag. When Sherman's men began to set fire to the city, George
Edwards, a resourceful Scotch neighbor, saved the house by saying
it belonged to an Englishwoman and running up the Union Jack.
Thus the Huff House became known as the House of Three Flags.
When the family returned just before Christmas of 1864, they
found the place abandoned except for hordes of hungry cats howling
dolefully. Until the cottage could be made habitable again, Mrs. Huff
and her children took shelter in the kitchen, which stood separate from
the house. Here the indomitable woman not only set up her own
household but dispensed hospitality to itinerant refugees who were
trying to reach their own homes.
26. SUTHERLAND, 1940 DeKalb Ave.. NE., is the former home
of General John B. Gordon, Georgia's celebrated Confederate leader
and statesman of the Reconstruction. The present structure was
erected in 1899 on tne si te f an earlier residence built shortly after
the War between the States and later destroyed bv fire. Set far
back from the street in a grove of oaks and superb magnolias, the
white clapboard house now (1942) stands vacant, badly dilapidated
but still showing in its handsome classical facade some vestige of its
former grandeur. Eight massive Ionic columns support the second-
story roof and frame the simple palladian doorwav with its over-
hanging balcony. The fine appearance of the interior in its heyday is
indicated bv the ample proportions of the octagonal dining room,
galleried two-story reception hall, and tall French windows. Re-
POINTS OF INTEREST 185
peated efforts have been made by civic and patriotic organizations to
secure the house and restore it as a memorial to the famous Con-
federate general, but present plans are uncertain.
John B. Gordon (1832-1904) was born in Upson County in
central Georgia and attended the State University, from which he
was graduated with highest honors in the class of 1853. At the out-
break of the War between the States he was engaged in the promotion
of coal mine activities in the mountains of northwestern Georgia.
The resourceful young man quickly organized a company of mountain
men who, known as the Raccoon Roughs, later caused excited com-
ment in Atlanta when they marched about in their homespun jackets
and coonskin caps. This company joined the Sixth Alabama Infantry
and took vigorous part in the Virginia campaign. Gordon, moving
from one military promotion to another, commanded a wing of Gen-
eral Robert E. Lee's Army at Appomattox and at the end of the war
bore the rank of lieutenant-general. Besides Appomattox he took part
in the fighting at Malvern Hill, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsyl-
vania, and Petersburg. Throughout the war he was closely followed
by his courageous wife, who nursed him when he was wounded.
After peace was proclaimed he came to Atlanta, opened a law
office, and soon joined the energetic group that became known as the
vanguard of the South. With Joseph E. Brown, Henry W. Grady,
and other practical progressives he strongly advocated wholehearted
return to the Union and development of industrial resources. His
handsome and eloquent presence soon became familiar on the political
scene; in 1868, in the thick of reconstruction strife, he ran as a Demo-
cratic gubernatorial nominee against the carpetbagger candidate, Rufus
Bullock, but was defeated because of the disfranchisement of many of
his own adherents. Constantly fighting for the end of the Northern
military rule in Georgia, he became State head of the original Ku
Klux Klan, the secret order that did much to restore white supremacy
in the South. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1873
and again in 1879 but resigned the following year to raise funds for
the Georgia Pacific Railway. Because of his adherence to the new
spirit of conciliation and because of his extensive interest in Northern
commercial developments, he sometimes came into conflict with the
conservatives, of which Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens
were the chief spokesmen, and later with the agrarian group under
the leadership of the fiery Thomas E. Watson. Nevertheless, his
popularity increased; he became Governor of Georgia in 1886, was re-
elected in 1888, and again went to the United States Senate in 1890.
Declining a second term, he returned to Atlanta to devote himself to
his business interests until his death in 1904.
27. OAKLAND CEMETERY, bounded by Oakland Ave., Memorial
Drive, Boulevard, and the Georgia Railroad line, lies peaceful and
quiet within the brick walls that separate it from a busy industrial
section. In this old cemetery, owned and well cared for by the city,
the weathered tombs and monuments are crowded close together, the
186 ATLANTA
somber whiteness of their irregular shapes accentuated against the
dark green of the shrubbery and the magnificent old magnolia and
oak trees.
Atlanta's first cemetery was a small plot at the corner of Peach-
tree and Baker Streets. As early as October of 1849, however, the
little town of Atlanta had grown to such an extent that it became
necessary to find a cemetery site farther removed from town and
consolidate the public and private burial plots. Several "graveyard
committees" were appointed by the city council to find a suitable
location, and on June 6, 1850, six acres of wooded land were pur-
chased in what is now the southwest corner of the cemetery. Addi-
tional tracts were bought from time to time until the area covered
85 acres.
Promptly after the purchase of the first six acres the bodies were
removed from the old plots to the new cemetery. On February 21,
1851, the city council elected a sexton and instructed a surveyor to
lay off lots and build a suitable enclosure around the grounds. One
of the items listed in the city treasurer's report on January I, 1853,
was a hearse purchased by the city for $129.50. In 1896 the ground
was enclosed by a red-brick wall, and the gates were built at the
Oakland Avenue and Fair Street (Memorial Drive) entrances. From
1907 until 1932, when Oakland was placed under the direction of
the park board, the affairs of the cemetery were regulated by a com-
mittee of five lot owners elected by the city council. This committee
published a book of rules, among other things prohibiting the burial
of animals in the cemetery, the erection of fences around lots, and
the decoration of graves with shells and other small ornaments.
Since no more lots are available, the cemetery is considered full
and only a few interments are made in spaces reserved in old family
lots and mausoleums or where an exhumation has been made. In the
northeastern corner, across from the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills,
an apparently vacant grassy area of about two acres is filled with
unmarked graves. Now that there is no longer any income from the
sale of lots, the maintenance of the cemetery is provided entirely by
an annual city appropriation.
Many mausoleums and monuments bear the names of pioneer
settlers of Marthasville and Atlanta and citizens who have figured
prominently in the history of the State. A large block of native granite
marks the grave of Martha Lumpkin Compton, daughter of Governor
Wilson Lumpkin, in whose honor Atlanta was once called Marthas-
ville. In the northwest corner is the grave of Julia Carlisle Withers,
who was the first baby born in the little settlement, and in another
part of the cemetery is buried Benjamin Franklin Bomar, Atlanta's
second mayor. Near the sexton's office stands a granite monument
erected by the cemetery commission in 1916 as a memorial to Atlanta's
first mayor, Moses W. Formwalt, who took office in 1848. Near by
is the grave of James Russell Barrick, Atlanta's first poet and first
editor of the Atlanta Constitution.
Sports and Recreation
GRANT PARK LAKE
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SWIMMING, GRANT PARK
TENNIS, PIEDMONT PARK
GOLF, BROOKHAVEN COUNTRY CLUB
PLAYGROUND, WASHINGTON PARK
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BASEBALL, PONCE DE LEON PARK
FOOTBALL, GRANT FIELD AT GEORGIA TECH
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PARADE OF THE OLD GUARD
BARBECUE, LAKEWOOD PARK
SOUTHEASTERN FAIR, LAKEWOOD PARK
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DANCING, RAINBOW ROOF
BOWLING IN A DOWNTOWN ALLEY
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MAY DAY AT WASHINGTON SEMINARY
ARCHERY, AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE
POINTS OF INTEREST 187
Near the geographical center of the cemetery, in a section set
aside for Confederate soldiers, rises a 65-foot shaft of granite blocks
erected in memory of the Confederate dead in 1873 by the Ladies'
Memorial Association. Also prominent among the low headstones is
the Lion of Atlanta, which was unveiled on April 26, 1894, by the
same organization to honor the unknown soldiers who fell fighting.
The figure of the dying lion reclining upon broken guns and a furled
Confederate flag was inspired by the famous Lion of Lucerne and
carved from a single block of Georgia marble by T.M. Brady, of
Canton, Georgia.
Not far away from the Confederate shaft are the graves of General
Clement A. Evans and General John B. Gordon. Other prominent
men buried in Oakland Cemetery include Benjamin H. Hill, William
J. Northen, Hoke Smith, General William A. Wright, and Captain
William Allen Fuller, who led the party that pursued and overtook
the engine General when it was stolen by Andrews and his Union
raiders. Seven of Andrews' men, who were hanged as spies in Atlanta
in June 1863, were first buried in Oakland and later removed to the
national cemetery in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Alexander H. Stephens,
Vice President of the Confederate States, was interred here in 1883,
but his body was later moved to his old home at Crawfordville.
Many of the monuments are interesting because of their eloquent
inscriptions or unusual design. Besides the conventional carved pillows
and draperies, there are many stone lambs, cherubim, and angelic
heralds, and several mausoleums look like miniature cathedrals, with
their spires and pointed stained-glass windows. Among the oddities
is a statue of Jasper N. Smith seated above the door of his mausoleum.
Because he never wore a collar or tie, Smith had these omitted from
the statue, which he ordered carved and placed on the mausoleum
some time before his death. When a vine grew up and entwined the
neck of the statue concealing its bareness, he forthwith ordered it cut.
The smallest plot in the cemetery contains the grave of "Tweet," a
pet mocking bird that died in 1874. As the stonecutter was unable
to carve the figure of a mocking bird, Tweet's mistress had to content
herself with a lamb on the tiny monument.
Like most old cemeteries, Oakland has its share of graveyard
legends concerning nocturnal phenomena weird drum beats heard in
the Confederate section, sobbing, harsh metallic gratings like vault
doors opening, and mysterious knockings. Perhaps some of the stories
were inspired by a sensational occurrence at the first burial service held
in the cemetery, that of James Nissen in the fall of 1850. Obsessed
with the fear of burial alive, Nissen had requested his surgeon friend,
Dr. Charles D'Alvigny, to sever his jugular vein just before his body
was lowered into the grave, and this service was performed, to the
horror of witnesses.
28. GRANT PARK, covering a tract of 144 acres bounded by
Cherokee Ave., Atlanta Ave., S. Boulevard, Park Ave., and Sidney St.,
is the oldest park in the Atlanta park system. Many miles of shady
188 ATLANTA
walks and broad paved driveways wind through this gently rolling
land, which still bears traces of the breastworks that were built for
the defense of Atlanta in 1864. In winter the park is quiet, its broad
spaces peopled only by strollers in the sun; but in summer the scene
is animated with sun-blistered boys and girls in white drill, sauntering
and gayly swinging tennis rackets or wet bathing suits. Recreational
facilities include tennis courts, baseball diamonds, a pony ring, a swim-
ming pool, a lake with rowboats, a picnic ground equipped with a
pavilion, and a natural amphitheater for band concerts and plays.
Gardens and greenhouses supply all the shrubs and plants for the other
parks in the city.
The park is named for Colonel Lemuel P. Grant, who planned the
fortifications for Atlanta in the spring of 1863. Grant donated the
original hundred acres to the city in 1882, a time when Atlanta had
recovered sufficiently from the turmoil of reconstruction to give more
attention to civic enterprises. With the aid of a topographical map,
development of the natural advantages of the wooded area was begun
almost immediately, an expenditure of $3,611.70 being reported for
the year 1883 by the first park committee appointed by city council.
A natural ravine formed by Willow Brook, which flowed through
the center of the area, was used for construction of a small lake in
1886, and the following year the larger Lake Abana was completed
and boats placed on it. Since Lake Abana could not utilize all the
water of Willow Brook, Lake Loomis was built adjoining it in 1888
and later was merged with it. Constitution Spring, which rose clear
and cold from the ground near the lake, was surrounded by a picnic
pavilion and became a popular gathering place. The lake was en-
larged again in 1901, but soon afterwards the contamination of the
water resulted in the abandonment of Constitution Spring and Willow
Brook, and since 1906 the lake has been filled with water from the
city reservoir.
An extension of the park area was made on April 4, 1890, when
the city purchased 44 additional acres of land. The large concrete
swimming pool, 500 feet long and 200 feet wide, was constructed in
1917, with a low, curving wall through the center to divide the shal-
low section from the deep. Extensive improvements have been made
in recent years throughout the park by workers of the Work Projects
Administration.
The GRANT PARK Zoo (open daily 7-6) was begun in March
1889, when G.V. Gress, a wealthy merchant of Atlanta, presented
to the city the menagerie of a bankrupt circus which he had bought
in order to secure the heavy horse-drawn wagons for use in his lumber
business. Gress also erected the first shelter to house the animals
and their keeper. To this early collection, which was at first known
as the Gress Zoo, additions were made from time to time, the most
popular being the elephants Clio and Maude, who as long as they
lived remained favorites with Atlanta children.
The addition that made Grant Park Zoo the most outstanding
POINTS OF INTEREST 189
in the Southeast, however, came in 1935 when Asa G. Candler, Jr.,
gave his valuable private collection to the city. For three years Candler
had been assembling fine species of wild animals and birds for a
zoological garden on his estate on Briarcliff Road. But suits and in-
junctions by neighbors, who objected to having a menagerie so close
to their homes, and the heavy taxes demanded by the county made
this hobby both excessively expensive and embarrassing. Rejecting a
bid by the City of New York as too low, Candler offered his vigorous
and well-kept specimens to. Atlanta as a gift provided suitable quarters
were erected to house them. Volunteer contributions of dimes by
school children and other public donations provided the necessary
funds for the new quarters, and the following year 84 animals and
almost 100 birds were transported to their new home.
The most spectacular of the animals in the zoo is Jimmie Walker,
a Royal Bengal tiger reputed to be the largest in captivity, whose
ferocious claws tore to death a valuable black leopardess in a fight
through the bars of their adjacent cages. Large crowds are always
attracted to the bears in the cages along the side of the lake, especially
the two friendly Himalayans that constantly go through comical ex-
hibitionist antics. The recent arrival of two trained Canadian brown
bears lends further appeal to this colony. Another newcomer owes
her domicile here to the defense program, for Alice, an 1 8-year-old
elephant that had been trained to pull the big disc harrow on a South
Carolina plantation, was brought to Grant Park when her master
was called for military service.
FORT WALKER, on Dabney's Hill near the Boulevard and Atlanta
Ave. entrance to Grant Park, is a restoration of the Confederate
battery that formed the southeast salient angle of the defenses encircling
the city in the summer of 1864. The guns and ammunition wagons
have been replaced in their original commanding position at the crest
of the hill. The fortification was named in memory of General
W.H.T. Walker, who was killed in the Battle of Atlanta on July 22,
1864.
The CYCLORAMA OF THE BATTLE OF ATLANTA (open daily 8 a.m.-
10 p.m.; adults $0$, children 25$; lectures according to attendance;
no cameras allowed}, is housed in an impressive building near the
center of Grant Park. The front section of the building, which is
situated on a broad paved terrace, is constructed of white, stone-flecked
terra cotta in neoclassic design, its recessed entrance dominated by
two-story Ionic columns. The facade is decorated by two long bas-
relief panels symbolizing peace and reconstruction. The rear section
is of white stucco, especially constructed in a circular design to fit the
dimensions of the great canvas.
The approach to the painting is by means of a tunnel, which leads
to a platform in the center of the circular section of the building.
The position of the platform is above the tracks of the contested
Georgia Railroad and consequently between the main bodies of the
opposing forces.
190 ATLANTA
The great circular painting portrays the Battle of Atlanta which
occurred on July 22, 1864, when General Sherman, with approximately
106,000 Union troops, stormed the defenses of Atlanta in an effort to
wrest the city from its 47,000 dogged Confederate defenders. Fight-
ing began in the morning and continued until nightfall, with heavy
losses on both sides. The dramatic moment perpetuated in the
cyclorama took place at about half past four in the afternoon, when
General Benjamin F. Cheatham's Corps broke through the Federal
line and the Union forces made a counter attack to retake their posi-
tions. Scores of dead and wounded lie scattered over the battlefield,
clad in the blue uniform of the Union or in the shabby gray or brown
homespun that clothed the weary soldiers of the Confederacy. In
the distance lies Atlanta, soon to be leveled to ashes, and in the hazy
air far above the exploding shells of the battle, soars Abe, the eagle
mascot of Union Company C, who was later memorialized on the
silver dollar.
The painting, which is 50 feet high, 400 feet in circumference,
and weighs more than 18,000 pounds, was produced in the studios of
the American Cyclorama Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, under
the direction of William Wehner of Austria. The staff that executed
the painting included a corps of German artists and many Americans,
among them Theodore R. Davis, who had accompanied General Sher-
man to Atlanta in 1864 to make drawings for Harpers Weekly
Magazine. So thorough was the research and so accurate the repro-
duction that veterans of the battle not only recognized the scenes but
were able to identify many of the combatants.
In 1887 the cyclorama, completed at a cost of $40,000, was first
shown in Detroit, Michigan. From there it was sent to various cities
in the country for display until 1891, when Paul Atkinson bought
it from the Indianapolis Art Exhibit Company for $2,500 and brought
it to Atlanta for exhibition. Later Atkinson sold the painting to
H.H. Harrison of Florida, who planned to exhibit it at the Chicago
World's Fair in 1893. When this project failed, the great canvas
was sold for $1,100 at an auction on August I, 1893, to the East
Atlanta Land Company, owner of the Edgewood Avenue building
where the painting had been displayed. Ten days later the newspapers
carried a notice that the picture had been sold again for the auction
price to George V. Gress, who displayed it at Grant Park to raise
funds for the aid of the poor children of the city. In 1898 Gress
presented the painting to the City of Atlanta, and it has since re-
mained on permanent exhibit at Grant Park.
Until 1921, when the present fireproof building was erected, the
painting was housed in a flimsy wooden structure, where it became
badly streaked because of leaks in the roof. This damage was repaired
in 1937, when the Works Progress Administration completed a project
for the renovation of the painting. Under the direction of Victor
Llorens, artists and workmen not only cleaned and retouched the
POINTS OF INTEREST
canvas but extended the action of the picture onto the groundwork to
give a realistic three-dimensional illusion.
More than 1,500 tons of Georgia clay in various shades of red
were hauled in to recreate the irregularity of the battlefield within the
circular area between the platform and the painting. Tree trunks
were dynamited and treated to produce a shell-torn effect; grass was
made with excelsior tinted green; bushes and small trees, some with
eight to ten thousand handmade leaves, were built of wire and plaster
and embedded in the clay. An irregular concrete siding built close to
the canvas was used as a foundation for the plaster modeling that
joins the action of the picture to the scene in the foreground. To the
legs of a dying man, drawn up in agony at the edge of the picture,
the upturned face and shoulders have been added in plaster; an
ambulance is partly painted and partly modeled in plaster; and the
railroad tracks that appear in the picture have been extended with
graded rails across the groundwork to the opposite side. The illusion
of reality is heightened further by a special lighting system that gives
the appearance of daylight.
The painting of the Battle of Atlanta is now valued at more than
$1,000,000. According to an artist on the staff of the American
Cyclorama Company, two paintings of this battle were made at the
studio, but it is thought that the second one disintegrated in Baltimore
in 1897. Two companion pictures, portraying the Battle of Gettys-
burg and the Battle of Missionary Ridge, were both destroyed, the
former by fire and the latter by cyclone.
The RAILROAD ENGINE TEXAS (admission free) is kept in the base-
ment of the Cyclorama Building in memory of Andrews' Raid, one of
the boldest and most thrilling exploits of the War between the States.
At Marietta, on April u, 1862, James J. Andrews, a Union spy, and
21 volunteers mingled among unsuspecting passengers and boarded
a train drawn by the engine General and headed for Chattanooga,
Tennessee. When Conductor William A. Fuller stopped the train
at Big Shanty, now Kennesaw, so that the passengers and crew could
get off for breakfast, Andrews' men quickly uncoupled the engine and
three cars and made off with them, intending to destroy every rail-
road bridge they passed over and thus cut a vital supply line between
the Confederate armies in Virginia and Mississippi. But Conductor
Fuller and his crew started off on foot in hot pursuit of the marauders.
At Moon's Station, about a mile up the road, they found a handcar
and appropriated it for the chase. Fortune favored the Confederates,
for when they reached the bridge over the Etowah River, there on
a side track with a full head of steam was the Yonah, a switch engine
of the Cooper Iron Works. Seizing this, they were able to press the
pursuit with more speed until they found themselves blocked at the
junction at Kingston by some freight cars, which had delayed Andrews
also. Without wasting time in movine the cars, Fuller abandoned
the Yonah and took the William R. Smith, a faster engine; but he
was stopped again a short distance north of Kingston by a break in
192 ATLANTA
the tracks made by the fleeing raiders. Again the pursuers had to
proceed on foot until, near Adairsville, they met the Texas, the fastest
engine in the Western & Atlantic service, and commandeered it for
their purpose. Running in reverse, the Texas gained rapidly on the
raiders, who had been too hard pressed all the way to destroy bridges
and tracks as they had planned. In desperation, Andrews and his
men attempted to block the path of the Texas by tossing wood onto
the tracks, but this only exhausted their fuel without appreciably
delaying their pursuers. Finally, within five miles of Chattanooga,
the raiders abandoned the stalled General and scattered through the
woods in an effort to escape.
Within a week Andrews and all of his men were captured and
brought to trial before the Confederate authorities in Chattanooga.
After their conviction they were sent to Atlanta, where Andrews and
seven members of the group were executed by hanging and the others
were imprisoned. In October 1862, eight made their escape, and the
remaining six were sent to Richmond, Virginia, where they were
exchanged on March 18, 1863.
The Texas, built by Danforth and Cook, was placed in freight
service on the Western & Atlantic Railroad in 1856. After the war
it was converted to a coal burner and continued in active service until
1907, when it was sent to the Atlanta railroad yards to be scrapped.
The pressure of public opinion, however, caused it to be preserved
as a historic relic, and in 1911 the City of Atlanta put it on display
in Grant Park. In 1937 it was cleaned and repainted by employes of
the Works Progress Administration.
A MUSEUM (admission free}, left of the foyer in the Cyclorama
Building, houses such unrelated objects as Confederate money and
weapons, Indian arrowheads, beadwork from Constantinople, paddles
from South America, stuffed birds and animals, a swordfish, a vampire
bat from Sumatra, a Patagonian shrunken skull, and a Spanish halberd
found near Atlanta.
A large room to the right of the foyer contains eight enlarged
photographs taken by Sherman's official photographer. Seven are
pictures of Federal trenches, breastworks, and artillery, and one is a
view of downtown Atlanta after the fall of the city.
29. The McPHERSON MONUMENT, corner Monument and
McPherson Aves., NE., a large cannon standing on end, marks the
spot where the Union General James Birdseye McPherson lost his
life at the hands of Confederate sharpshooters on July 22, 1864. The
monument is encircled by an iron railing, and a bronze plaque relates
the particulars of the incident.
Shortly after the battle began on the morning of July 22, General
McPherson rode from the summit of Copenhill, Sherman's head-
quarters, to the Georgia Railroad tracks near what is now Candler
Street. He then passed to the rear of his troops along Moreland
Avenue en route to the main portion of his army that was stationed
at Glenwood and Flat Shoals Avenues. Traversing a road cut through
POINTS OF INTEREST 193
the forest, he galloped into the advancing line of General Cleburne's
skirmishers and was shot from his horse. His body was recovered
after a Confederate retreat, carried to Sherman's headquarters, and
sent under escort to Clyde, Ohio, for burial.
30. The WALKER MONUMENT, on Glenwood Ave. i>4 miles
from Moreland Ave., NE., an upright cannon in a granite base, marks
the site where the Confederate General W.H.T. Walker was slain
by a Federal picket on the morning of July 22, 1864. General Walker
commanded a division of Hardee's Corps, which was moving across
the territory in a northwesterly direction to attack the rear of the
Federal iyth Corps. While he was reconnoitering to see that his
men were in position, his horse mired in a swamp northeast of this
point and he risked returning to the main road for faster traveling.
Soon after he reached the road, he was shot from his horse by a musket
ball. General Walker is buried at Augusta.
31. The ROBERT BURNS COTTAGE (admission free), Alloway
Place, SE., maintained by the Atlanta Burns Club, is a reproduction
of the famous poet's birthplace in Alloway, Scotland. The low rec-
tangular gray stone structure is surrounded by nine acres of wooded
land, which in spring is covered by the white blossoms of dogwood
trees. The interior plan of the Alloway cottage has been closely fol-
lowed except for the addition of a small modern kitchen at the rear.
The long cattle room, which adjoins the cottage at a slight angle,
serves as an assembly hall for the club, which meets once a month
for a dinner and program. The kitchen-bedroom more closely re-
sembles the corresponding room in the original Burns house; here
the stone-flagged floor, stone fireplace, and curtained, recessed bed
carry an authentic suggestion of an austere Scottish farmhouse. Nu-
merous books, pictures, and documents are other tangible reminders of
the poet.
The Atlanta Burns Club, organized in 1896, erected this memorial
building in 1911. In 1914 the local organization became a member
of the Burns Federation, which functions in almost every country
in the world. Although the principal purpose of the meetings is com-
memoration of Burns and his works, other writers are frequently the
subject of conversation, and sometimes topics of current interest take
the place of literary discussions.
32. The FEDERAL PENITENTIARY (open only to immediate
relatives of prisoners and to those having business to transact), Mc-
Donough Rd. and South Boulevard, SE., housing an average popula-
tion of 3,000 inmates, is one of 30 similar institutions in the United
States Prison System. The building, constructed of granite cut from
Stone Mountain by prison labor, stands gray and massive behind its
fence of tall iron pickets. The central main building was completed
for use in 1902, the east and west wings being added in 1915 and
1918. The reservation comprises 28 acres of land enclosed by a wall
4,178 feet long, between 28 and 37 feet high, and varying in thick-
ness from 2 to 4 feet.
194 ATLANTA
Penologists have often praised the excellent equipment of the peni-
tentiary, which includes a hospital, a library of about 20,000 books,
and a school with required attendance for prisoners who have not
completed the third grade. The prisoners, who occupy four five-tiered
cellhouses, work at various occupations. Several hundred are em-
ployed in maintenance shops, while more than a thousand work in a
textile mill, the only one in the United States that manufactures
government mail sacks.
A wide variety of vocational and occupational training is provided
in the industries and maintenance shops, ranging from textile manu-
facture to the various specialized types of construction work. Fore-
men-instructors, selected from civil service lists on the basis of their
ability to provide supervision, guidance, and training for prisoners, are
in charge of the shop work. A placement service is operated to find
employment for released prisoners who have equipped themselves by
training and given evidence of plans to take advantage of job op-
portunities.
Sixty-nine per cent of the prisoners take part in the program pro-
vided by the education department of the institution. The curriculum
and general educational program is specially adapted to the training and
rehabilitative needs of these men and is co-ordinated with the entire
prison program. Illiterates capable of education are required to take
elementary courses. Those further advanced are given opportunity
to pursue studies which will aid them in their job training and general
rehabilitation.
33. LAKEWOOD PARK (open May to October), Lakewood Ave.,
SW., a rolling wooded area of 370.9 acres, is an amusement park and
fair ground with permanent exhibit buildings, midway attractions, a
race track, and a large artificial lake. Lakewood was formerly the site
of the city waterworks, and the lake was a reservoir created by dam-
ming the South River. Soon after the present waterworks on the
Chattahoochee River was completed in 1893, this site was leased
to the Lakewood Park Company and converted into an amusement
center. Since 1915 Lakewood has been under lease to the South-
eastern Fair Association.
During the summer the midway attracts thousands of pleasure
seekers. The Whip and the Shoot-the-Chute afford the more thrilling
rides, but the Old Mill and the Merry-Go-Round remain perennial
favorites. A dirt track encircling the lake is the scene of exciting
automobile, bicycle, and sulky races. Many racing celebrities have
established records here in their various mediums. "Lucky Teeter,"
with his famed "Hell Drivers," frequently stages an auto-hazard show
on the track. Motorboat races are held on the lake.
Barbecue pits and picnic tables dot the grounds, and delegates
of virtually every convention held in Atlanta are entertained with a
barbecue or watermelon cutting here. Band concerts, roller skating,
and dances complete the summer program. The park is closed during
the winter.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The Southeastern Fair (first week in October, no fixed admission
price), Atlanta's largest annual event, attracts more visitors from over
the entire Southeast than any other city enterprise. In the three perma-
nent buildings, large concrete structures built along mission lines, are
displayed exhibits of farm products, agricultural machinery, preserved
and canned foods, needlework, and handicrafts. The exhibit of live-
stock and poultry is one of the most important showings in the South.
During the week of the Fair, when the permanent carnival attrac-
tions are augmented by those of a traveling show, the midway is
packed with people eating hotdogs and cotton candy and drinking
soda pop. Lucky winners at the game booths come away loaded with
tinselled dolls, bright "Indian" blankets, gaudy lamps, and other
gewgaws, while others purchase balloons, swagger sticks, and various
noise-makers.
Special days are designated in honor of various groups, but the
farmer who brings his showings of cattle settles down for the entire
week with his family in a near-by tourist camp and spends every day
on the grounds. The changing program features keep the crowds
rushing from grandstand to exhibit buildings to the midway during
the day, but at night all wind up again at the grandstand to witness
the spectacular fireworks display across the lake.
34- GAMMON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, McDonough Rd.
and Capitol Ave., SW., occupies four red-brick buildings on a campus
of 25 acres. Near by are six frame residences for members of the
faculty and ten small cottages for married students. The brick build-
ings to the left of the driveway, now leased by the Atlanta Board of
Education and used by the Federal Government for NYA projects,
formerly were occupied by Clark College, which moved to its new
site on Chestnut Street in 1941.
Gammon is one of nine theological schools maintained by the
Methodist Church and private contributions. With an endowment
of $500,000, it is one of two Negro seminaries approved by the
American Association of Theological Schools. In 1941 the enroll-
ment of full-time students was 64 and there was a faculty of nine,
augmented by visiting lecturers from other schools The curriculum
is broad for so small a school, and the students have the further
advantage of being permitted to register for special courses at any
of the schools affiliated with the Atlanta University System.
A department for training women workers accepts students with
two years of college credits and prepares them to become lay leaders,
pastors' assistants, religious education directors, and social workers.
This course, established through co-operation with the Woman's Home
Missionary Society, is particularly popular with the wives of the
theological students. The Department of Christian Missions is sup-
ported by the Stewart Missionary Foundation for Africa, which was
established here in 1894 by the Reverend William Fletcher Stewart
with an endowment of $100,000. This corporation also maintains
ATLANTA
contact with active missionaries and publishes the Foundation, a quar-
terly religious magazine.
The seminary was founded by Bishop Henry White Warren, who
made Atlanta his official residence in 1880 and became interested in
the welfare of Clark University (now Clark College). Enlisting the
aid of Elijah H. Gammon, a retired Methodist clergyman who had
become wealthy through his manufacturing interests, Warren induced
him to give $200,000 to endow a chair of theology at Clark Uni-
versity and to pledge $5,000 for a theological building. This donation
was made on the condition that Warren raise an equal amount for the
building. The bishop was quickly successful; a building was con-
structed on a nineteen-acre campus adjoining the university, and the
first classes were held on, October 3, 1883.
In order that the department of theology might be expanded to
serve all the schools of the Freedmen's Aid Society in Atlanta, Gammon
offered to give the Methodist Episcopal Church an endowment of
$200,000 to establish a separate theological school. The donation was
accepted, and a charter for the Gammon School of Theology was
granted on March 24, 1888. The institution was given its present
name the following December. Through subsequent years Gammon
gave additional help by building the residences for faculty members
and frequently by paying their salaries. Upon his death the endow-
ment was more than doubled by provisions of his will.
The GILBERT HAVEN LIBRARY, situated on the left of the campus
at the head of the walkway, is a small red-brick structure with a front
bay window and an arched entrance portico. Its 26,000 volumes are
listed in the Union Catalogue being compiled at Emory University
(1942). In the African collection, which relates to Negro slavery
and to African history, missions, and languages, are Bibles and hymn-
books in native African dialects. There are also several English
Bibles and scriptural tests, some published as early as the seventeenth
century. On the walls are framed letters from Harriet Beecher Stowe
and John Greenleaf Whittier, as well as several manuscripts of Whit-
tier, who wrote a motto for the library.
The library opened in 1887, when Elijah Gammon purchased
many books from H. Bannister, of Garrett Biblical Institute. During
the following year, D.P. Kidder, secretary of the Methodist Board of
Education, offered to give his personal collection when a library build-
ing should be completed. Construction was soon begun and the com-
pleted building was dedicated on May 26, 1889. The number of
volumes has been increased from time to time by other donors.
35- The STATE FARMERS' MARKET (open day and night),
occupying a i6-acre plot of State-owned land at the junction of
Murphy Ave. and Sylvan Rd., SW., is one of a system of eight markets
built and operated by the Georgia Department of Agriculture since
1936. This State-directed marketing is part of a concerted effort to
encourage a diversification of Georgia's farm produce, to lower con-
POINTS OF INTEREST IQ7
sumer costs, and to solve the problem of distribution. For this reason
operations are confined to the wholesale selling of foodstuffs only.
Although the market was established primarily for the distribution
of Georgia products, trucks from almost every State in the Union,
and even from Mexico, bring vegetables and fruits here for sale. The
market has been operated on its present site only since April 1941,
having first been set up on a smaller tract at Courtland and Gilmer
Streets. Within the market area the streets are named for State officials
such as Eugene Talmadge, present (1942) Governor of Georgia, and
Thomas E. Linder, Commissioner of Agriculture. Large open sheds
are used by the farmers and truckers, who spread their produce in
rented stalls on both sides of the long concrete runways. The brokers
and wholesale dealers occupy low brick buildings with open fronts,
over which hang signs bearing the names of the proprietors. Oc-
casionally there is a name such as "J ar( h'na" or "Cerniglia," and some-
times among the sun-reddened impassive faces there appears a dark,
mobile face indicating Greek or Italian ancestry.
Trucks loaded with produce pull in at all hours of the day and
night. All activities are directed by a market master who, with the
aid of several assistants and a loud-speaker system, keeps the market
in smooth operation. Much of the trading is done by barter, one
kind of foodstuff being traded for another. Produce so acquired is
sold by the truckers on return trips to their home districts. The
biggest trading period occurs during the first days of the week, when
the lot teems with activity. The piles of vegetables, the net bags stuffed
with oranges, and the hanging bunches of green bananas form a color-
ful background for the shifting figures of the buyers who pass back
and forth examining the produce. As buying slackens, the truckers,
dressed in clothes which vary from ordinary overalls to near-cowboy
outfits, gather in little groups to smoke, play checkers, or discuss the
weather and crops. Others shuffle around the lot joking fellow drivers
about the quality of their produce while urging buyers to look at their
own foodstuffs. A few stretch out in their trucks or on the platform
for a brief nap after an all-night drive, leaving a companion or a
watchful dog on the alert to give notice of approaching buyers. All,
however, keep a listening ear cocked for the raucous instructions and
announcements which blare sporadically from the loud-speakers in-
stalled throughout the grounds.
The ^season from Thanksgiving to Christmas and New Year is
one of intense activity. The number of trucks roaring in and out
is greatly increased and wholesale buyers throng the lot. Foodstuffs
are sold quickly and packed in crates, bushel baskets, and gunny sacks
to make room for the constantly incoming loads.
More than 200,000 trucks visit the market annually, while the
yearly volume of trade amounts to approximately $15,000,000. The
venture has proved so successful that the idea has been adopted by
several other States.
36. WREN'S NEST (open weekdays 9-5; 25^ children ioj), 1050
198 ATLANTA
Gordon St., SW., was for many years the home of Joel Chandler
Harris, whose Uncle Remus stories are world famous for their humor-
ous interpretation of Negro folklore. The two-story frame house,
with many gables and elaborate scrollwork eaves, is now maintained as
a public memorial to the author, and a number of his personal pos-
sessions are on exhibition here.
The place was given its name after a wren had built a nest in
the mailbox; Harris refused to have the bird disturbed and let the
broods be hatched there year after year. The writer, diffident and
retiring at the height of his fame, often wandered off alone to observe
the animals and birds on the surrounding land, which he called Snap
Bean Farm. After his death in 1908 plans were made to purchase
the house as a memorial, and funds were collected from various con-
tributors including Theodore Roosevelt and Andrew Carnegie, both
friends of Harris. In 1914 Wren's Nest was formally dedicated by
the Uncle Remus Memorial Association, its present owners. A walk-
way of pink Georgia marble, whose first stones were put down in
1932, has been laid to honor Harris and other Georgians who have
become known for their writings.
Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908) was born on an old plantation
in Putnam County near Eatonton, Georgia. He passed his boyhood
in poverty but, with much assistance from kindly neighbors, attended
the local academy and in 1862 became printer's devil on The Country-
man, a weekly newspaper just established by Joseph Addison Turner
on his plantation. The 1 4-year-old boy soon began to slip paragraphs
of his own into the paper, thus winning the interest of Turner, who
began to school him in the writing of sound English prose. En-
couraged by Turner to find his material close to home, the young
writer closely observed the animals and the Negroes in their cabins,
which he later presented in a combination that made him famous.
At the close of the War between the States The Countryman
ceased publication and Harris began a wandering career, forming con-
nections with several newspapers. A co-worker on the Savannah
Morning News describes his first sight of Harris : ". . . of small stature,
red-haired, freckle-faced, and looked like a typical backwoodsman. . . .
But that night when his copy came out, we knew he was a writer."
In 1876, when he was working on the Atlanta Constitution, the
editor, Evan P. Howell, gave him the assignment of writing a daily
story in Negro dialect. These sketches formed the nucleus of his
first book, Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings, published in 1880.
Other books followed, and the stories became famous not only for
their dialect and Negro humor but for their permanent contribution
to the study of African folklore. Thus the memory of Harris is kept
alive both by children and by learned scholars.
37- The ATLANTA UNIVERSITY SYSTEM, occupying three
separate areas between Ella and Hunter Sts., SW., includes Atlanta
University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and the Atlanta
School of Social Work. These schools, though occupying virtually
POINTS OF INTEREST IQ9
adjoining campuses and doing work of much the same general nature,
were originally separate institutions. By an affiliation in 1929 More-
house became the liberal arts school for men and Spelman for women,
while Atlanta University was made the graduate school. In 1938 the
Atlanta School of Social Work, the only exclusively Negro institution
of its kind, also became an affiliate. The reorganization has voided
much duplication of work, reduced administrative and faculty costs,
raised the standard of the individual schools, and extended co-operation
to other leading Negro colleges in the city.
Each institution in the system has a separate board of trustees,
the chairmen of these bodies forming the controlling board of the
whole. In addition to the four main institutions, there are a nursery
and a laboratory school covering the grades from kindergarten through
high school. Thus the system previous a complete education from
the nursery through professional and graduate work with a master's
degree.
Total enrollment under the Atlanta University System varies be-
tween 1,500 and 2,000. The endowments of the several colleges, along
with their 31 buildings and 91 acres of land, represent an investment
of $10,000,000.
ATLANTA UNIVERSITY, covering two separate blocks on Chestnut
St. between Greensferry Ave. and Hunter St., is situated on a campus
designed along formal lines with smooth expanses of lawn and angular
walkways bordered by straight rows of elms and water oaks. Since
Atlanta University is the graduate school of the system, its enrollment
is rather small, usually numbering about 100 students.
The institution grew out of a small school established in 1865
for freed slaves, the first quarters being the Jenkins Street Church
and the "Car Box," a railroad car purchased in Chattanooga and
brought to Atlanta for this purpose. Edmund Asa Ware, who came
to Atlanta in 1866 under the auspices of the American Missionary
Association, aroused interest in the institution and secured $25,000
from the association for enlarging it. The school was chartered as
Atlanta University in 1867 and was moved two years later to a 5O-acre
tract bounded by Walnut, Tatnall, Hunter, Beckwith, and Chestnut
Streets. Under the leadership of Ware, the first president, the school
was remarkably successful.
After its affiliation with Morehouse and Spelman in 1929, Atlanta
University acquired a portion of the Morehouse grounds for a central
campus and erected there a new administration building, opened in
1932. On the western end of the older campus, two dormitories and
a dining hall, the million-dollar gift of an anonymous donor, were
completed in 1933.
The ATLANTA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY (open weekdays 9:30-9:30},
corner Chestnut St. and Greensferry Ave., is a red-brick-and-limestone
structure in the classic tradition and is surmounted with a graceful
cupola. Erected in 1932 through donations of the General Educa-
tion Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, the library has served as
200 ATLANTA
a model for the construction of similar institutions throughout the
country. The building was erected on the Atlanta University campus
with the stipulation that it was to be used by all other Negro institu-
tions of higher education in the city. The stacks now contain 60,000
volumes with additional space for twice that number.
The ATLANTA UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, 223
Chestnut St., is a brick and limestone edifice of Georgian Colonial
design. Both the front and rear have columned porticoes, and on the
roof is a cupola topped with a gilded dome. The building, completed
in 1932, houses seminar rooms, a conference chamber, administration
offices, and a commissary.
The ATLANTA SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK, Chestnut St. between the
library and administration building, is a red-brick structure with a
simple, Doric-columned portico surmounted with an ornamental grille
balustrade. For several years after its organization in 1920, the school
borrowed classrooms and office space, as well as the part-time services
of a professor of sociology, from Morehouse College. In 1925 an
appropriation from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial made it
possible for the school to function as an independent institution in
rented quarters.
In addition to training Negroes for the profession of social work,
the school has also become recognized as a promotional agency for
welfare work among Negroes throughout the South. Some of this
work has developed through the school's extracurricular activities, while
other services have been rendered through the medium of studies and
surveys made by the students under the supervision of the research
department. The faculty is constantly called upon to consult with
executives of public and private social agencies on questions involving
social planning for the entire community. Special projects in which
the school has participated include a tuberculosis institute, a WPA
old age survey, a WPA population study, a regional conference of
student health workers, and a summer camp for Negro children. Be-
cause of its high scholastic standards the institution is today the only
Negro member of the American Association of Schools of Social Work.
Enrollment numbers about 100 students.
MOREHOUSE COLLEGE, covering 12 acres adjoining the main campus
of Atlanta University, is composed of the college of arR and sciences
and the school of religion. The two are housed in seven red-brick
buildings and have an enrollment of more than 400 students.
Morehouse was organized in Augusta in 1867 as the Augusta In-
stitute by the American Baptist Home Mission Society. In recogni-
tion of Atlanta's growing importance as a Negro educational center,
the school was moved to the city in 1879 and renamed the Atlanta
Baptist Seminary. In 1897 it became known as the Atlanta Baptist
College, and in 1913 the name was changed again to Morehouse
College in honor of the Reverend Henry L. Morehouse, who was
then corresponding secretary of the mission society and a prominent
benefactor of the Negro race. From 1906 to 1931 Morehouse had
POINTS OF INTEREST 2OI
as its president Dr. John Hope, an outstanding Negro educator and
leader, who also became president of the entire university system when
it was organized in 1929.
SPELMAN COLLEGE, bounded by Ella St., Leonard St., Greensferry
Ave., and Culver St., occupies a campus of 25 acres with 14 brick
buildings grouped about a quadrangle. The level greensward, densely
shadowed by magnolias, is particularly beautiful in spring when the
oaks, elms, and weeping willows are in full leaf.
Spelman College was founded in 1881 by two New England women,
Sophia B. Packard and Harriett Giles. Miss Packard, sent by the
Women's American Baptist Home Mission Society to study the con-
ditions in the South, was impressed by the need for education among
Negro women. She solicited the aid of Miss Giles, and, with $100
provided by the Mission Society, the two opened a school in the base-
ment of Friendship Baptist Church, using even the coal bins as class-
rooms.
Just prior to the opening of the seond term, Miss Packard and
Miss Giles went North to secure additional funds for the school.
In Cleveland, Ohio, they spoke in a church of which John D. Rocke-
feller was a member. Rockefeller was present, and, in keeping with
his custom, he put every cent he had in his pockets into the collection
plate. Then he approached Miss Packard. "Are you going to stick?"
he asked the astonished lady. He went on to explain, "You know,
there are so many who come here and present their work and get
us to give money. Soon they are gone and we don't know where they
are or where their work is. Do you mean to stick? If you do, you
will hear from me again."
Back in Atlanta, Miss Packard set about looking for a new loca-
tion for the school. The American Baptist Home Mission Society
had secured an option on the present property, which had been used
as barracks and drill grounds for Federal troops after the War be-
tween the States. This they transferred to Miss Packard on con-
dition that she raise the balance due of $15,000.
With little money but unbounded faith, Miss Packard moved the
school to the five frame buildings on the new site in February 1883.
Her faith was justified. The enrollment increased rapidly and teachers
volunteered their services, while missionary societies and other groups
and individuals in the North sent gifts of clothing and supplies. The
Negro Baptists of Georgia gave $3,000, and other Negro friends
raised $1,300 more. Even after the time for payment had been ex-
tended twice, however, less than half the needed funds had been
raised.
In April 1884, Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, their two
children, and Mrs. Rockefeller's mother and sister visited the school.
So favorably impressed were they with the work of the institution
that Rockefeller immediately gave enough money to clear the title to
the property and to provide additional facilities. Miss Packard there-
upon changed the name of the school from the Atlanta Baptist Female
202 ATLANTA
Seminary to Spelman Seminary in honor of Mrs. Lucy Henry Spelman,
the mother of Mrs. Rockefeller.
With the aid of Rockefeller and other individuals and groups,
Spelman expanded greatly. At the time of Miss Packard's death in
1891, the school had 800 pupils. As the city system of public educa-
tion for Negroes grew, however, Spelman gradually eliminated its
elementary classes in order that the resources of the institution might
be concentrated on college work. The student enrollment of Spelman
College today is about 375.
ROCKEFELLER HALL, on the east side of the quadrangle, the first
permanent building of the school, was erected in 1886 from funds
donated by Rockefeller during his visit in 1884. Formerly a chapel
and dormitory, the building is now used for administrative purposes.
The assembly room on the second floor has been converted into a the-
ater for the school of dramatics. This building is probably better
known to the white people of Atlanta than any other on the campus
for many plays, ranging from Greek tragedy to modern high comedy,
are presented to the public here.
SISTERS' CHAPEL, near the Ella St. entrance, is a red-brick build-
ing patterned along classic lines. Six large Doric columns support a
massive entablature and a severely plain pediment. Erected in 1926
and named in honor of the mother of John D. Rockefeller and her
sister, the building has a seating capacity of 1,500 and is used for
concerts, commencement exercises, and daily chapel services.
The SPELMAN NURSERY SCHOOL, occupying a half-timbered brick
structure on a triangular block east of the Ella St. campus entrance,
provides modern training for approximately 100 children of preschool
age. The youngest children, from 18 months to 3 years, have separate
facilities for games, lunches, and naps. The older children are fur-
nished with equipment for such constructive work as modeling, block-
building, drawing, painting, paper-cutting, and woodworking. Adequate
indoor play rooms are available for use in inclement weather, and
there are spacious, well-ventilated sleeping rooms as well as large
porches for sun-bathing. The older children have access to a well-
equipped library and are given special training in language, music,
story-telling, and dancing.
The parent education program operated in conjunction with the
work of the school gives parents the opportunity of co-ordinating train-
ing techniques used in the school with those used in the home.
MORRIS BROWN COLLEGE, Tatnall and Hunter Sts., NW., occu-
pies four of the old red-brick buildings and a portion of the campus
that formerly were used by Atlanta University. Essentially a liberal
arts college, it is controlled by the African Methodist Episcopal Church
and has a strong theological department called the Turner Theological
Seminary. Approximately 500 Negro men and women are annually
enrolled at the institution.
Morris Brown is not a unit of the Atlanta University System but
is one of three institutions that co-operate with the larger organiza-
POINTS OF INTEREST 203
tion, the other two being Clark College and Gammon Theological
Seminary. The colleges have a plan of mutual assistance, whereby the
Atlanta University Library is open to all their students, a combined
summer session is held, and teachers are exchanged. Junior and senior
students of one college may register for courses at the other institutions.
The movement to found Morris Brown was begun at Big Bethel
Church in 1881, when the North Georgia Annual Conference of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church passed a resolution to establish
a school in Atlanta. It was not until 1885, however, that a charter
was secured and that the institution was opened on a lot at the corner
of Houston Street and Boulevard. The school was named to honor
Morris Brown, a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Only high school courses were offered for several years, but in 1894
the trustees organized the liberal arts college and established the depart-
ment of theology. The institution has since maintained a continuous
growth. In 1932 the preparatory school was abolished, the Williams
Business College was made the commercial department, and the school
was moved to its present location.
CLARK COLLEGE, 240 Chestnut St., SW., occupies four modern
red-brick buildings with limestone trim. The school, a member of the
Association of American Colleges and the American Council on Edu-
cation, has been rated Class A by the Southern Association. It is
authorized to confer on Negro men and women the Bachelor of Arts
and Bachelor of Science degrees. An endowment of $550,000 enables
the college to maintain low tuition charges and to extend opportunities
to deserving students. For the school year of 1940-41 the enrollment
was more than 400, including the students registered in evening classes.
With courses in literature, languages, natural sciences, mathematics,
social sciences, and the arts, the curriculum lays emphasis on both
academic and practical aspects of liberal arts training. The department
of business administration places particular stress on adaptation of the
student to employment in Southern commercial enterprises, while the
department of home economics, aided by the Woman's Home Mission-
ary Society, provides courses in all aspects of domestic science. The
department of music presents choral performances for public entertain-
ments as well as for the regular chapel exercises.
Like many other such institutions, Clark first opened as the result
of the enthusiasm for Negro improvement felt by Northern educators
and philanthropists in the years following emancipation. The college
is the outgrowth of a primary school for Negro children opened early
in 1869 by the Reverend J.W. Lee and his wife in Clark Chapel on
Fraser Street. In the following year this small institution was acquired
by the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
which was doing extensive missionary work among the Southern
Negroes. Then began a period of rapid development. In 1872 better
quarters were secured at Whitehall and McDaniel Streets, and in 1877
a charter was granted to elevate the school to the status of a university.
The enlarged institution was named in honor of Bishop D.W. Clark,
204 ATLANTA
who had been a strong friend of the Negro race during his period of
service in the South. Bishop Gilbert Haven, an abolitionist clergyman
who had become interested in the school during his official residence
in Atlanta, worked energetically to raise subscriptions throughout the
United States and purchased between 400 and 500 acres for a new
site at McDonough Road and Capitol Avenue. The first building
was erected in 1880 and in the following year was used both as recita-
tion hall and dormitory. In 1883 Elijah H. Gammon endowed a
chair of theology at Clark, and five years later this department was
chartered as the Gammon Theological Seminary, a separate institution
occupying an adjacent campus and co-operating closely with the older
school.
Through the generosity of various benefactors the institution con-
tinued to grow. For many years emphasis was placed on the teaching
of trades, but gradually this work was supplanted by courses in the
liberal arts. The academic work was further strengthened in 1941
when the school was moved to the education center that has developed
around Atlanta University.
The name was changed to Clark College in 1940. Removal to its
present site was made possible by donations from the General Educa-
tion Board, the Rosenwald Foundation, and Mrs. Henry Pfeifrer of
New York. These changes have not affected the separate status of
the institution. In its new location the school can more easily share
in the combined facilities of all the Negro colleges grouped around
Atlanta University. Through co-operative arrangement Clark offers
courses in physics to students of all the colleges in this center, and, in
turn, Clark students register for the courses emphasized in the other
colleges.
38. The BOOKER T. WASHINGTON MONUMENT, before
the main entrance of Booker T. Washington High School, SW. corner
Hunter and C Sts., SW., is a vigorously executed bronze group show-
ing the renowned Negro educator lifting a veil from the eyes of a
laborer, who is seated on an anvil with a plow at his side. On the
marble base is inscribed, "He lifted the veil of ignorance from his
people, and pointed the way to progress through education and indus-
try," and Washington's own words delivered in Atlanta, "We shall
prosper in proportion as we learn dignity and glorify labor and put
brains and skill into the common occupations of life." This memorial,
a replica of a monument designed by Charles Keck of New York and
now standing on the campus of Tuskegee Institute at Tuskegee, Ala-
bama, was erected in 1925 through contributions of white and Negro
citizens and of students and teachers of the Booker T. Washington
High School.
Booker T. Washington devoted his life to building Tuskegee Insti-
tute, where he served as principal for 34 years, but so great was his
contribution to the general betterment of the Negro race that he
exerted a vital influence on widespread educational enterprises. In the
spring of 1895 he was invited to accompany a group of Atlanta citi-
POINTS OF INTEREST 205
zens to the National Capital in order to secure a subsidy from the
Congressional Committee on Appropriations for the Cotton States and
International Exposition, which was to be opened in Atlanta the fol-
lowing September. Making his plea after the white speakers had been
heard, Washington spoke eloquently in praise of the exposition as a
means of improving interracial relations. The appropriation was made.
Washington was the only Negro invited to speak at the opening
of the exposition. In Atlanta he and his family were met at the sta-
tion by a group of Negro citizens, and on the following day he marched
in the parade to the exposition grounds at the present Piedmont Park.
There Rufus Bullock, who had been governor of Georgia during
Reconstruction, introduced him to a varied audience of Northerners
and Southerners, white people and Negroes. An arresting and dignified
figure, the tall, tawny-skinned educator then made an address so stir-
ring that the audience was aroused to wild acclamation. Washington,
refusing generous offers for professional lectures, remained in Atlanta
about a month longer as judge of awards for educational exhibits, then
quietly returned to his duties at Tuskegee.
39. The SAMUEL SPENCER MONUMENT, facing the plaza of
the Terminal Station, NW. corner Spring and Mitchell Sts., was
erected on May 21, 1910. The seated bronze figure is the work of
the renowned sculptor Daniel Chester French.
Spencer, who was born in 1847 in Columbus, Georgia, received a
degree in civil engineering from the University of Virginia in 1869
and immediately entered the field of railroading. His first position was
with the Savannah & Memphis Railroad, and within ten years he had
become president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. In 1894, when
the Southern Railway System was organized, he became its first presi-
dent and was consequently a vital influence in the economic develop-
ment of the South. Throughout his career Spencer was a leading
spokesman for all American railroads and he was noted for his fiery
opposition to legislative rate regulation. He was killed in 1906 in a
collision of two trains on his own railroad. The monument was
erected through funds contributed by employees of the Southern Rail-
way System.
Part Three
POINTS OF INTEREST IN
ENVIRONS
Points of Interest in Environs
(Numbers coincide with those on maps on inside back cover.)
40. FORT McPHERSON (no visitors), a few miles southwest of
Atlanta, is a permanent cantonment maintained by the United States
Army. From the highway only a few of the red-brick barracks are
visible through the iron picket fence; other rows of buildings can be
seen only by entering the grounds. In addition to the 236 acres of
this reservation, 1,500 acres in Clayton County are to be utilized by
the Quartermaster Corps Regional Supply Depot, designated in Sep-
tember 1940.
This post was first established in 1867 on the present site of Spel-
man College and named McPherson Barracks for General James
Birdseye McPherson, a Union commander who was killed in the Battle
of Atlanta. The land had then been used intermittently as a drill
ground for more than 30 years. A cartridge factory and barracks,
established there by the Confederate Government after the secession
acts, was destroyed by retreating soldiers when General Sherman cap-
tured Atlanta. After the war the difficulty of enforcing Union regu-
lations upon the conquered people led to the establishment of the
Third Military District in Atlanta. It was shortly afterward that
McPherson Barracks was set up as a ten-company garrison.
In 1875 an unfavorable inspection report of housing conditions
led to consideration of a new site for the post. During the i88o's the
land and buildings were sold to the American Baptist Home Mission
Society for the use of the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, which
later became Spelman College. Some of the barracks were repaired
and used for a time as dormitories. In 1885 the present site was
selected and construction work was begun. Four years later the post
was first garrisoned by the Fourth Artillery.
When the United States declared war on Spain in 1898, Fort
McPherson was designated as a depot to train recruits for the field.
A general hospital also was established on the grounds and in its year
of operation handled 1,342 cases. When the hospital was dismantled
in 1900, the frame buildings were moved intact on rollers and placed
in various new locations throughout the post.
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Leonard Wood,
then a lieutenant stationed here, joined Colonel Theodore Roosevelt's
209
210 ATLANTA
"Rough Riders" to fight in Cuba. Later he became a major general
under President Theodore Roosevelt's administration and served with
distinction during the first World War. Stanley D. Embick, who in
1899 was stationed at the post as a second lieutenant, returned here
in 1938 as its commanding general. In 1940 Lieutenant General
Embick was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as represen-
tative of the army on the joint defense board of the United States and
Canada.
From 1914 to 1917 the reservation was abandoned except for a
small detachment of quartermaster, hospital, and civil service corps
that served as caretakers. In 1917, however, a succession of events
quickened activities at the fort. The Federal Government set up a
base hospital and later an officers' training camp in which 2,500 civil-
ians were given 90 days' instruction and commissioned in the army.
During the summer of that year a war internment barracks was built
west of the fort. The first 800 German prisoners were men taken
from vessels interned in United States ports when war was declared.
A barbed wire enclosure was placed about the yard, and during the
summer Atlanta people often used to drive by and see the prisoners,
in sleeveless shirts and white drill trousers, walking aimlessly about
the grounds. At one time 1,411 men were interned here.
During the first World War and afterward a motor transport
general depot functioned at Camp Jessup, adjacent to the post and now
a part of it. In 1921 all Fort McPherson's available buildings were
cleared for use by the base hospital. Rehabilitation shops were set up
for instructing the disabled soldiers in useful trades, and it became a
common sight to see rows of khaki-clad men, crutches leaning against
the wall, applying themselves to the mastery of various trades and
handicrafts.
The decade of the I93o's was uneventful. Since the beginning of
the national defense program, however, the post has been in full action.
41.' EAST POINT (1,046 alt., 12,403 pop.), in Fulton County, six
miles southwest of Atlanta on US 29, is a separate municipality that
has become the leading industrial center of the vicinity. On the east
side of the principal street, which is paralleled by the Atlanta & West
Point Railroad tracks, rises an uneven line of industrial buildings with
their high tanks and smoking chimneys. Opposite this line of struc-
tures, on the western side of the street, is a row of stores beyond which
is a residential area with small parks, brick and frame cottages, and the
handsome red-brick city hall with tall white columns.
In the summer of 1864, the site of the town was important in the
defense of the Confederate supply lines to the besieged city of Atlanta.
The town, incorporated in 1887, was given its name because it was
at that time the eastern terminus of the Atlanta & West Point Rail-
road. A buggy works and a wagon factory formed its industrial
nucleus, which has grown to include cotton mills, saw works, machine
shops, and chemical companies.
In 1940 East Point came into national prominence as the scene of
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS 211
a series of night-rider floggings, one of which caused the death of a
victim. Although the men charged with implication in the outrages
were tried merely as individuals and no formal charges were made
against any organized body, the publicity resulted in a ruling by the
Ku Klux Klan that none of its members could appear in public masked.
42. COLLEGE PARK (1,060 alt., 8,213 pop.), in Fulton County,
eight miles southwest of Atlanta on US 29, is a suburb from which
many residents set forth each morning to work in Atlanta and the
factories of near-by East Point. College Park itself has no industries,
maintaining a pleasing residential character in its neatly kept, unpre-
tentious houses and in the plantings of grass and shrubbery along the
tracks of the Atlanta & West Point Railroad, which parallel the
highway.
The town, incorporated in 1891 as Manchester, received its present
name four years later when Cox College (formerly Southern Female
College) was moved here from LaGrange, Georgia. At that time the
academic note was further carried out by giving the avenues such
names as Oxford, Rugby, Harvard, and Princeton. In 1900 the
Georgia Military Academy was established here.
College Park continued to be the home of the two institutions until
1938, when Cox College ceased to function and its building was razed.
On the Cox College site a civic center and park have been planned,
and an auditorium and a high school are under construction. Now the
only college town atmosphere is given by the students of Georgia
Military Academy.
43. GEORGIA MILITARY ACADEMY, E. Rugby Ave., College
Park, is a boys' preparatory school with a standard of military training
that has earned it a high rating by the United States War Department.
The 12 red-brick buildings are grouped about a landscaped campus of
30 acres with athletic fields and a large parade ground. Each Sunday
afternoon a parade is held and the public gathers to watch the lines of
cadets, smart in their dress uniforms of blue-gray coats and white
trousers, marching to the music of the band.
The enrollment of more than 300 students includes boarders from
various States in the Union and foreign countries as well as day stu-
dents from the Atlanta vicinity. Four courses are offered: classical or
college preparatory, scientific or engineering, commercial, and special
preparatory for West Point or Annapolis. Only one period of 45
minutes a day is given to drill, the greater part of the school hours
being used for academic studies. Teams are coached in all the major
sports, and each student is required to take part in some athletic activ-
ity.
The school ^ was founded in 1900 after a number of College Park
citizens had initiated a movement to establish a military academy in
this vicinity. With only one assistant, Colonel James Woodward
opened his school to 40 students in the first building, the present
Founders Hall. Despite small beginnings, the school rapidly grew and
became popular. An inspection made in 1908, by order of the Presi-
212 ATLANTA
dent of the United States, revealed so high a standard of proficiency
that an army officer was detailed here as military instructor. The
War Department placed at the school a Junior Reserve Officers' Train-
ing Corps unit in 1916 and added a second instructor to the faculty;
three years later other officers were assigned here and a quantity of
military equipment was provided. From that time on, the school has
grown steadily in the favor of the War Department, which has desig-
nated it for the past 15 years as one of the honor military schools in
the United States.
44. HAPEVILLE (1,027 alt., 5,059 pop.), 6 miles south of Atlanta
on US 19 and US 41, was incorporated in 1891 when the Central of
Georgia Railway laid additional tracks in this vicinity and built a
depot here. One hundred and fifty people were then living within the
area of slightly more than two square miles about which the town
limits were set, and a school and a Baptist church had been estab-
lished during the previous decade. Since the citizens meant to keep
Hapeville a home community, they incorporated into their charter an
explicit prohibition of manufacturing enterprises.
As Atlanta business and industry spread southward, the town
experienced a normal growth as the residential center for employees of
these establishments, and many citizens went to work in the factories
of near-by East Point. This growth was sharply accelerated in 1925,
when plans were under discussion for the establishment of an Atlanta
airport in this vicinity. By 1929, when the airport was built, more
paved streets had been laid and many compact modern cottages erected
among the more commodious, old-fashioned houses that made up the
older Hapeville.
In the same year the restriction on industrial establishments was
removed by special act of the legislature, and soon afterward a lumber
mill and a textile plant were set up on the outskirts of the town. Since
then other small manufactories have found a place here, but Hapeville
has remained principally what its founders wished it to be a city of
substantial homes.
45. The ATLANTA MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, Virginia Ave.,
about one-half mile east of Hapeville, one of the largest of such sta-
tions in the United States, provides mail and passenger service for the
Eastern and Delta air lines. This property, formerly known as Candler
Field, was first developed as a flying field through private funds in
1925 and was purchased by the city in 1929. Later the work was
completed through municipal, county, and Federal appropriations.
Partly encircled by shops and hangars stands the severely simple
stucco administration building, which houses not only the executive
offices but mail and weather services, flight surgeon's headquarters, and
the inspection division of the United States Department of Commerce.
Ticket offices are maintained on the lower floor. When the large
airplanes land on the paved runways, the space in front of this building
becomes suddenly crowded with passengers, spectators, uniformed
attendants, and newspaper reporters. The Atlanta Journal broadcasts
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS 213
daily a radio program, in which alighting or embarking passengers are
interviewed in regard to their businesses and their impressions of the
city.
46. DECATUR (1,049 alt., 16,561 pop.), 6.5 miles east of Atlanta
on US 29, is a residential town of shady streets and many small, attrac-
tive modern houses. Although the city limits of Decatur and Atlanta
almost touch in places, the older town has stoutly held its separate
character and withstood absorption into the metropolis where many
of its citizens are employed. Because it is the seat of DeKalb County,
Decatur has a strong flavor of local politics. The business section is
dominated by the dignified granite courthouse with its massive columns,
and this square is often filled with farmers, white and Negro, who
have driven in from the surrounding county lands. Here, side by side
with the town residents, they purchase supplies, discuss current polit-
ical issues, and exchange news of their own affairs.
DeKalb County covers an area of 272 square miles and has a
population of 86,942. Within its boundaries are eight incorporated
towns (Avondale Estates, Chamblee, Clarkston, Decatur, Lithonia,
North Atlanta, Pine Lake, and Stone Mountain), several unincorpo-
rated villages, a section of Atlanta, and several residential suburbs of
that city. Because of this proximity to the large Atlanta markets,
numerous truck farms, poultry farms, and dairies are operated through-
out the rural section of the county. More extensive farm tracts are
cultivated in cotton, corn, and hay-producing crops. Although DeKalb
County is primarily an agricultural section, there are several well-
developed industrial enterprises, of which the principal ones are textile
manufacturing and granite quarrying.
The land now included in DeKalb County was ceded by the Creek
Indians to the United States through a treaty signed at Indian Springs
on January 8, 1821. The area was made a part of Henry County
during the latter part of the same year and was subsequently opened
to settlement by a land lottery. Small farmers poured into the region
from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Settlement was
so rapid that within a year the legislature deemed it necessary to create
a new county from a part of Henry. By an act approved on Decem-
ber 9, 1822, DeKalb was created and named for Baron Johann DeKalb,
a Bavarian-born officer of the French army who had come to America
with LaFayette and had died fighting for the cause of American inde-
pendence. In establishing the boundaries of the new county, it was
found necessary to include small portions of Gwinnett and Fayette.
Fourteen days after the creation of DeKalb, the legislature named
William Jackson's house on what is now McDonough Road as a tem-
porary site for the election of officers and the holding of court sessions.
The county commissioners who were appointed by the legislature pur-
chased Land Lot 246 near the center of the county, and on July 28,
1823, the inferior court issued an order declaring that a county seat
would be permanently established on this site. The town was named
214 ATLANTA
in honor of Stephen Decatur, a distinguished naval officer of the War
of 1812.
The county commissioners were also authorized to purchase land
for the site of a courthouse and a jail. Accordingly, a log cabin was
erected on the north side of the public square to serve as a temporary
courthouse. Another log structure served as the first jail; the entrance
to this building was a flight of stairs that led to the second floor, the
first floor being a sort of dungeon that could be reached only through a
trap door. Both these log buildings continued in use for several years
until better quarters could be established. A brick courthouse, built
at the seemingly enormous cost of $5,100, was erected in 1829 on the
site of the present courthouse, where it stood until it was destroyed by
fire in 1842. A granite jail was erected in 1849.
Strict laws and customs governed the conduct of all public officers.
A sheriff upon taking oath of office was required to swear that he "had
not since the 1st day of January, 1819, been engaged in a duel . . .
in this state." One justice, Walter T. Colquitt, opened every sitting
of his superior court with a prayer as he knelt on the judge's bench.
But, despite the strong influence of religion and the customary strict
rules for daily conduct, there were some who enjoyed their grog.
Among the first commercial houses was a grocery store where spirituous
liquors were also sold, chiefly corn liquor and brandy made of apples or
peaches.
Having formed their government and built their dwellings, DeKalb
and Decatur citizens set about the establishment of schools and
churches. The first school was the DeKalb County Academy, estab-
lished under a resolution of the general assembly approved on Novem-
ber 10, 1823. Since all county academies at the time were considered
members of the State university system, the legislature provided finan-
cial assistance. On December 26, 1823, a lottery was authorized by
this body to raise $3,000 for the academy, which was opened in
Decatur during 1825. Further aid from the State was limited, and
the school was forced to charge tuition and to function to some extent
as a private institution. Other academies were opened in the outlying
sections of the county during the 1830'$.
As the county increased in population, many private schools were
opened, often by teachers and ministers in their own homes, but finan-
cial difficulties made most of these short-lived. Tuition fees were low;
one statement submitted to a patron shows that the total amount due
was based on a charge of $%< a day for each pupil. It was not until
after the middle of the nineteenth century that efforts were made to
provide more advanced courses. The Hannah Moore Female Colle-
giate Institute was chartered on December 22, 1857, and was opened
soon afterward under the direction of the Reverend John S. Wilson,
first pastor of the Decatur Presbyterian Church.
The land had hardly been opened to settlement before missionaries
and evangelists began to organize congregations throughout the county.
The first Presbyterian congregation in Decatur was that of the West-
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS 215
minster Church, which was formed on October 29, 1825, by a pastor
from Gwinnett County and incorporated by legislative action two years
later, when its name was changed to the Decatur Presbyterian Church.
The Decatur Methodist Church, now the First Methodist Church, was
organized at about the same time. The Baptists worshipped at the
rural churches except for a short time following December 7, 1839,
when a few members of the Hardman Church, two miles north of
Decatur, seceded and formed the Decatur Baptist Church. The church
in town apparently proved unsatisfactory, for two years later the meet-
ing place was moved three miles east of the city and the name was
changed to the Indian Creek Church. The Decatur Baptists continued
to worship at the Indian Creek Church or with the other denomina-
tions until the present Decatur Baptist Church, now the First Baptist
Church, was formed in 1861.
The congregations of the early churches were not long in erecting
houses of worship. The Decatur Methodist Church was built in 1826.
In order to hasten the construction of other religious, edifices, the gen-
eral assembly in 1832 passed an act authorizing the inferior court to
grant lots to the Presbyterian and Baptist congregations. The Presby-
terians soon availed themselves of this offer, but the Baptists did not
build their church until 1871.
The galleries of several early churches were set aside for the use
of Negro slaves, and contemporary sources show that many masters
gave them religious instruction. Although DeKalb was never a section
of large slave-holders, the 1850 census listed 2,942 Negro slaves, about
2O per cent of the total population.
Evidences of another form of servitude are found in the minutes
of the inferior court, which indicate that custom permitted the leasing
at public outcry of anyone dependent on the county for support. In
1846, Old Suck or Sookey, a female pauper, was obtained in this
manner for a salary of $5.87 a month, the bidder being required to
give her care and food. Sookey apparently became more decrepit, for
three years later the bid was only $3-75 a month.
In 1845 Decatur was selected, alternately with Macon, as a meet-
ing place for the third district sessions of the State supreme court,
which had been established during that year. After ten years this
honor was bestowed upon Atlanta, which had grown rapidly about the
terminus of the railroad. For a time Atlanta's sudden development
as a railroad center caused DeKalb to lose much valuable land and
many citizens, for Fulton County was created from its area in 1853
with Atlanta as its seat. Federal census reports show that the number
of citizens decreased from 14,328 in 1850 to 7,806 in 1860 a loss of
almost half the population in the county.
As a whole the citizens of this area were in favor of preserving
the Union, but with the secession of Georgia sentiment changed and
the entire county cast its lot with the Confederacy. Prior to this time
there had been only one military organization, the Volunteer Light
Infantry Company, formed in 1835. With the outbreak of the war,
2l6 ATLANTA
however, extensive activity began. During the four years of conflict
the county produced ten companies with such names as the Murphey
Guards, the McCullough Rifles, and the Bartow Avengers. In all,
136 officers and 1,220 men marched o# to battle from Decatur, and
many men joined companies from other sections of the State. The
county was away from the line of battle until 1864, when the western
portion along the Georgia Railroad was devastated during the Battle
of Atlanta. Two major generals, W.H.T. Walker of the Confeder-
acy and James B. McPherson of the Union, were killed within the
boundaries of DeKalb on July 22 during the progress of that battle.
After the war more farmers began to settle on the DeKalb County
lands, and by the end of the century the county had more than regained
the population lost as a result of the creation of Fulton. The court-
house that had been completed in 1847 was too small to house the
increased number of county officers and the accumulation of records.
Consequently this building was torn down in 1898 and replaced by
another two years later. This courthouse served the county until 1916,
when it was destroyed by fire. The present granite edifice, the fifth
in Decatur, was erected 1917-18 at a cost of $110,000.
Although the county was getting back its lost population, the town
grew very little until after the first decade of the new century. In
1900 Decatur, overshadowed by Atlanta, had a population of only
1,418. The only public school was the poorly equipped DeKalb County
Academy, which had become a grammar school called the Decatur
Male and Female Academy. During the following year Decatur citi-
zens voted to tax themselves for educational purposes. In organizing
their public school system they took over the old academy and began
its operation under their own board of trustees in January 1902.
Since Decatur had no public high school, pupils in the upper grades
were dependent upon such private institutions as Agnes Scott Institute
and the Hillyer School. They also sent their sons to the Donald
Fraser School, which had been opened in 1889 by Donald Fraser,
pastor of the Decatur Presbyterian Church, and operated as a promi-
nent boarding and day academy for boys of all ages. In 1909, when
the owners saw that many of the younger pupils were attending the
public school, they decided to close their academy; but upon the request
of patrons they promised to continue operation until a public high
school could be opened. It was not until 1912, however, that the city
board of education consented to maintain a high school, and this was
upon the condition that 64 boys and girls attend and pay a fee of $6
a month. The required patronage was quickly secured, and the public
high school was opened in September of that year in the Donald Fraser
building.
Even as late as 1907 the streets of Decatur were unpaved, the
stores were of the old-fashioned general-merchandise type, and the
school system possessed only one building. The town was lighted with
electricity, but it was not until that year that water works were con-
structed. The period of greatest civic improvement started in 1911,
Around Atlanta
DOGWOOD BLOSSOMS ATLANTA'S SPRING SNOWFALL
STONE MOUNTAIN
MIMOSA HALL, ROSWELL
THE CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER
COVERED BRIDGE AT SOAP CREEK
EAST LAKE
DAIRY FARM NEAR ATLANTA
BACK- YARD GARDEN, DECATUR
CYCLORAMA BUILDING
DECATUR FROM COURTHOUSE SQUARE
DRESS PARADE INSPECTION AT THE GEORGIA MILITARY ACADEMY, COLLEGE
PARK
INSPECTION AT FORT MC PHERSON
.
UNTA
I J
i
ATLANTA AIRPORT, HAPEVILLE
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS 217
when 35 citizens organized the Decatur Board of Trade, now sup-
planted by the DeKalb County Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce.
That body immediately undertook the modernization which soon made
Decatur desirable as a residential town. As a result, the population
began to increase rapidly and rose to 6,150 in 1920.
In order to further their civic enterprises the Decatur citizens voted
on November 17, 1920, to change their established system of political
administration by electing five commissioners, who in turn would
choose a city manager. This meant a reversion to the original com-
mission form of government which had been superseded in 1882 by
the mayor and council type. On January 3, 1921, the commissioners
held their first meeting and elected P. P. Pilcher as city manager. The
continued growth of Decatur and the consequent improvement in finan-
cial conditions soon enabled the commissioners to build a new city hall,
construction of which was begun in 1925 and completed in 1926.
In 1922 the DeKalb County Centennial Association was organized
to commemorate the founding of the county. During the celebration
on November 9 great crowds in Decatur watched the presentation of
an historical pageant and listened to an address of Charles Murphey
Candler, a prominent citizen. The Decatur Public Library Associa-
tion was formed on February 6, 1925. Its members immediately set
about acquiring books through gifts and subscriptions and opened a
small library on April 13. The number of volumes has increased from
a few hundred on the opening date to 17,000 at the present time. The
association maintains not only the main library on the second floor of
the city hall but four branches, two in the county and two in town
including the one in the high school auditorium building. A traveling
librarian, in an automobile fitted out for carrying books, extends the
service of the association to remote sections of the county.
Since 1938, the DeKalb County Chamber of Agriculture and Com-
merce has sponsored an annual Harvest Festival, held near Decatur.
Each fall pageants, addresses, produce exhibits, and livestock shows
attract citizens, farmers and business men, from all sections of the
county.
47- AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE, W. College Ave., Decatur, one
of the most highly^ rated Southern colleges for women, is housed in
more than 30 buildings on a well-wooded campus. In accordance with
the tradition of school architecture of the i89o's, the older buildings
are substantial red-brick structures with broad white-banistered porches.
The newer buildings follow the more modern Collegiate Gothic trend
of brick construction with limestone trim. The library, costing
$230,000, is notable for its modern facilities, which include cubicles
for individual research, a room for art exhibitions, a projection room
for motion pictures, and a terrace equipped with weather-proof furni-
ture and gayly colored umbrellas for outdoor study. Presser Hall,
completed in 1940 at a cost of $285,000, is used for instruction in
music, and has a well-equipped auditorium and a chapel that may be
used both for religious services and dramatic performances.
2l8 ATLANTA
The school was established as the Decatur Female Seminary by
members of the Decatur Presbyterian Church, with their pastor, Dr.
F.H. Gaines, as its head. In order to finance the undertaking, the
trustees had provided in the charter for selling shares at $50 par value
to raise a minimum capital of $5,000, and the stock was quickly sub-
scribed. Classes met for the first time on September 24, 1889, in an
old rented residence, the work covering only elementary and grammar
school grades. The first enrollment numbered 60 day students and
3 boarders.
The following year Colonel George F. Scott, a wealthy manufac-
turer who had bought $2,ooo worth of the capital stock, offered to
erect a building provided the school should bear the name of his mother,
and the name was changed by charter amendment to Agnes Scott
Institute. This building, equipped with all the latest conveniences
and completely furnished, cost $82,000 and attracted wide attention
because it represented the largest individual gift that had been made
in Georgia for the cause of education. Later Scott bought all the
outstanding stock and cancelled it. At the time of his death in 1903,
his contributions to the institution totaled $175,000.
In 1906 the first college degrees were conferred and the preparatory
school was given the name of Agnes Scott Academy. In 1913 the
academy was discontinued and Agnes Scott became an institution solely
for college work. In 1920 the Association of American Universities
rendered recognition, and in 1921 graduates became eligible to the
Association of Collegiate Alumnae. The college was invited in 1922
to make application for membership to Phi Beta Kappa and received
the Beta Chapter of this honorary fraternity.
Liberal endowments were made from time to time by the Carnegie
Foundation, the General Education Board, and various well-known
philanthropic organizations, and total assets and endowments are now
valued at more than $3,500,000. Although the school is not under
ecclesiastical control, the charter provides that only members of the
Presbyterian Church are eligible for election to the self-perpetuating
board of trustees. From the first enrollment of 63 the student body
has now increased to approximately 500, while the early elementary
studies have been replaced by excellently conducted courses in the lib-
eral arts. The four student publications are popular, and Agnes Scott
is widely known for the performances of its Blackfriars Dramatic Club
and also its glee club, which in 1940 combined with the Emory Glee
Club to render a highly successful presentation of the Gilbert and
Sullivan opera lolanthe. A large number of Atlanta and Decatur
people attend lectures by famous writers and commentators that are
given at frequent intervals in the Agnes Scott auditorium. Athletic
activities among the students include golf, swimming:, and archery.
48. COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 701 Columbia
Drive, Decatur, is a historic Presbyterian institution housed in two
handsome, modern brick buildings. Entirely controlled by the synods
of Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, the
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
school in 1940-41 had an enrollment of 77, the largest in its history.
Courses in biblical, historical, systematic, and practical theology lead
to the degree of bachelor of divinity, and the master's and doctor's
theological degrees are also conferred. In the study of practical theol-
ogy, a recording machine is used, enabling the students to discover and
overcome faults in the delivery of sermons. The library, it is said,
contains the largest and most extensive collection of theological litera-
ture in the South.
Chartered in 1828, the institution first opened at Lexington,
Georgia, as the Theological Seminary of the Synod of South Carolina
and Georgia. Only five students were registered for the first courses,
and the only instructor was the learned Dr. Thomas Goulding, pastor
of the Presbyterian Church. Two years later, Goulding, with his
family, his slaves, and a few of his students, moved to the First Pres-
byterian Church Manse at Columbia, South Carolina. On January
25, 1831, the school was transferred to the plant acquired for the
seminary.
In the commodious, white-columned buildings the institution soon
began to spread its influence widely, while the problem of financial
insecurity was met by larger endowments and increased enrollment.
The school has been closed for several brief periods: once during the
War between the States; again in the early i88o's; and a third time,
1886-87, because of the loss of patronage resulting from the well-known
controversy which ensued when a seminary teacher, Dr. James Wood-
row, frankly expressed his views on evolution. The seminary carried
on its work at Columbia for almost a century. During the earlier
years of this period Francis Goulding, son of the minister and later
a popular novelist, passed part of his boyhood there, and in later years
young Woodrow Wilson made his first profession of faith at a devo-
tional service in the chapel. Later, as President of the United States,
he said: "I have heard much eloquent speaking but on the whole the
best speaking I ever heard in my life was in the little chapel."
As the years passed, other Southeastern synods joined in control of
the seminary. In 1924 a plan was advanced for moving the school to
Decatur, and a campaign for $500,000 for endowment and equipment
was launched. The charter was amended in 1925 increasing the board
of directors to 21 and officially giving the school its present name. Two
years later the first classes were held on the present site a rolling,
wooded campus of 57 acres.
49. AVONDALE ESTATES (1,025 alt., 535 pop.), Sy 2 miles east
of Atlanta on US 78, is a subdivision of trim parkways and well-kept
houses, the prevailing type of which is the steep-gabled, brick and half-
timber structure characteristic of Tudor Gothic architecture. Even
the stores, all fronting together along one block, follow this style, with
sharply sloping roof and second-story overhang. As the highway passes
this commercial section it widens to include a broad central parkway,
on the opposite side of which are the residences with their shrubbery
and well-clipped lawns.
220 ATLANTA
This suburb, for which the land was purchased by G.F. Willis in
1924, offers its residents many advantages of modern community life.
Adult recreation is provided by a clubhouse with tennis courts, a golf
course, a swimming pool, and an 8o-acre lake with rowboats, and the
children of the community are accommodated by three large play-
grounds distributed over the several hundred acres that make up Avon-
dale Estates. A fireproof grade school is operated municipally, while
the high school is part of the DeKalb County system. Although the
houses are characterized by certain uniform structural and decorative
details, they range in size from six-room bungalows to spacious two-
story dwellings.
50. STONE MOUNTAIN, 16 miles east of Atlanta on US 78, is
known to geologists as the largest granite monadnock in North Amer-
ica and to the general public for the partly completed Confederate
monument carved on its sheer northeastern wall. From the highway
the mountain appears bare except for a few dark spots of scrubby pine
growth. The gray color of the stone is faintly tinged with the green
of moss and lichen that covers it, and the surface is broken by deep
cracks that run in long jagged lines down the slopes. Here and there
are darker streaks formed by iron oxide and organic matter washed
down from the summit.
Stone Mountain is elliptical in shape, with an axis 2 miles long.
It rises 1,686 feet above sea level and 650 feet above the surrounding
piedmont plain, measures more than 7 miles around the base, and has
an estimated weight of 1,250,000,000 tons, although it is believed that
the exposed section is only a small part of the entire mass. The moun-
tain was formed perhaps two hundred million years ago as a molten
mass underground. Further scientific research indicates that it ap-
peared above the surface of the earth not by upheaval but by the
gradual erosion of the soil and softer rocks that once overlaid the
granite. The mass slowly cooled, its surface breaking into crevices
with contraction, and a few hardy shrubs began to take root.
The sheer side on which the carving is shown is almost goo feet
high. The scope of the original plan for the sculpture is scarcely indi-
cated by the work that has been begun. Actually, the memorial gives
the appearance of a gigantic sketch, with Augustus Lukeman's projected
figures showing barely in outline. The heads of Jefferson Davis,
President of the Confederacy, and General Stonewall Jackson are only
faintly suggested, but the majestic form of General Robert E. Lee on
his horse Traveller emerges more definitely. From the crown of the
general's hat to the horse's hoof the distance is 130 feet, the height of
an average lO-story building. The granite chips scraped out by the
stonecutters form a scattered pile on the ground below the monument.
A clearer conception of the finished memorial can be had from the
photographs and plaster molds on exhibition at the museum across the
highway. These working models provide an interesting studv of the
problems that confronted the sculptors while working, for the great
figures had to be rendered with a proportionate change of scale from
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS 221
head to foot, as the feet are so much nearer the view of spectators
below. In order to give a just illusion, Lee's aquiline nose was shown
as upturned.
The southern slope of the mountain can be climbed ; although there
is no road, the ascent is not difficult for a reasonably active climber.
From the flat summit is a clear panoramic view of the surrounding
countryside with its wooded slopes, green pastures, and clusters of
houses.
The mountain was probably used by prehistoric Indians as a refuge
from the gigantic animals that were forced south by glaciers. When
the first white settlers came to this region in the latter part of the
eighteenth century, they found Indians using the mountain as a van-
tage point for sending smoke signals. A number of boulders laid in
regular formation were probably the remains of a fortress or a sacri-
ficial altar. These rocks were not moved until work was begun on
the Confederate monument.
In 1790 Alexander McGillivray, a half-breed chieftain of the
Creeks, met here with a band of tribesmen to discuss plans for selling
the mountain to the Federal Government. Shortly after this confer-
ence he went with a selected group to New York, and the entire
mountain was sold for a pony and a gun. Nor did the early white
owners set an inordinate value on their mammoth acquisition, for it is
recorded that E.V. Sanford, a plantation proprietor who later pur-
chased it, was annoyed because the mountain stood in the path of his
plowing and sold it for a five-foot flintlock rifle.
In due course the property, after passing successively into the hands
of several private owners, was developed as a popular summer resort.
By 1825 there were a stagecoach terminus and a hotel at the base of
the mountain. A long observation tower, 175 feet high, built on a
4O-foot base and having a winding interior stairway, was erected on
the summit in 1836. Three years later the village of New Gibraltar,
later Stone Mountain, was established. During the 1850*8 the town
came into considerable local prominence when the Southern Central
Agricultural Society, which later grew into the State Department of
Agriculture, held its first four fairs here.
Although the mountain itself had no part in the War between the
States, important troop movements were effected in the vicinity during
the summer of 1864, when Atlanta was under siege. Here the Fed-
eral troops, bent on destroying Confederate communications, took up
the iron rails of the Georgia Railroad and rendered them useless by
heating them and bending them around trees.
Between 1845 and 1850 some efforts were made to quarry the stone
from the partly disintegrated ledges, but these enterprises had little
success. The first systematic effort at quarrying the granite was made
in 1869, when John T. Glenn, S.M. Inman, and J.A. Alexander, of
Atlanta, chartered the Stone Mountain Granite and Railway Com-
pany. Their output was small, however, and the property was pur-
222 ATLANTA
chased in 1880 by Samuel Venable, who for many years quarried the
granite for use in bridges, buildings, and roadways.
The huge mass of solid granite was a remarkable enough sight to
attract many tourists even before 1914, when William Terrell, an
Atlanta lawyer, suggested the plan of carving a Confederate monu-
ment on the perpendicular side. In the following year the United
Daughters of the Confederacy invited the well-known sculptor Gutzon
Borglum to submit a design, which was accepted. The northeastern
side of the mountain was donated by Venable, his sister Mrs. Frank T.
Mason, and his nieces Mrs. Priestly Orme and Mrs. Walter G. Roper,
a gift valued at approximately $1,000,000. The site was dedicated on
May 20, 1916. Although no sculptural work was done before the end
of the World War, Borglum aroused considerable excitement through-
out the country by his lectures on the memorial plan.
During the early years of the 1920*5, public enthusiasm mounted
high. The carving was begun, much of it done by Borglum himself
suspended by cables over the mountainside. The outlines for the fig-
ures were set forth by a projection an acre in size cast from a two-inch
stereopticon slide by means of a specially prepared triple-lens projection
lamp. General Lee's sculptured head was unveiled on his birthday,
January 19, 1924. During this time the Stone Mountain Memorial
Association raised funds by the sale of memorial 50$ coins at $i each.
Soon after the Lee head was unveiled, a dispute over the proper
distribution of these coins caused the association to break into bitter
factions. Borglum left the project after destroying his working models
except for the completed figure of Jefferson Davis, giving as his reason
his unwillingness to have his work completed by a successor. Another
sculptor, Augustus Lukeman, was engaged. Borglum's head of Lee
was blasted away, and Lukeman began directing the carving of another
memorial. Funds were soon exhausted, however, and public approval
had been chilled by the acrimonious controversy. The work was sus-
pended in 1930. Plans were advanced in 1941 for completing the
memorial, and Julian Harris, an Atlanta sculptor, has been selected
for this work.
51. The main campus of EMORY UNIVERSITY, bounded princi-
pally by Oxford, North Decatur, Clifton, and Briarcliff Rds., NE.,
covers more than 400 acres in the wooded, rolling residential section
of Druid Hills. The 17 university buildings, constructed of vari-
colored Georgia marble in a simplified Italian Renaissance design, are
grouped about the cleanly landscaped lawns of the main quadrangle
and other cleared plots. On Fraternity Row, a circular drive west of
these, are the handsome red-brick and white-brick houses of the 12
Greek letter fraternal organizations at Emory. Encircling these areas
is a dense natural growth of pine and hardwood trees, brightened in
spring by dogwood and flowering shrubs.
Although Emory is owned by the General Conference of the Meth-
odist Church, it is nonsectarian in its administration. The university
is made up of Emory College (the college of arts and sciences), the
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS 223
School of Business Administration, the Graduate School, the Candler
School of Theology, the School of Medicine, the Lamar School of
Law, the Library School, and the School of Nursing. The curriculum
of the liberal arts college includes courses in journalism, education,
fine arts, and chemical and electrical engineering. Except for the
School of Nursing, the institution is primarily for men, but women
are admitted to the graduate, theological, law, and library schools. The
only women students in the undergraduate college of Emory are en-
rolled from Agnes Scott College in Decatur through a system per-
mitting approved junior and senior students of either institution to
register for courses given at the other. In addition to the schools on
the Druid Hills campus, the university maintains the clinical division
of the medical school in connection with Grady Hospital in downtown
Atlanta, the Emory Junior Colleges in Valdosta and Oxford, Georgia,
and the Emory University Academy, operated in conjunction with the
Oxford institution.
As a whole, the institution has a faculty of more than 350, a stu-
dent enrollment of more than 2,000, and an endowment and trust
funds exceeding $6,000,000. Among the large donors have been Asa
G. Candler, Sr., Samuel Candler Dobbs, and other members of the
Candler family. In 1939 the institution was offered a $2,000,000
grant by the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation
with the provision that double that amount be raised by Emory. The
purpose of the grant is to further co-operation with other institutions
in the State and to develop a comprehensive program of higher educa-
tion, especially on professional and graduate levels, and the completion
of this program will strengthen the school materially.
Many extracurricular activities are carried on under the control of
the Student Activities Council. The Emory Wheel provides weekly
news of undergraduate enterprises, while the more literary Emory
Phoenix presents articles and short stories by the students. The Emory
Players produce each year a number of standard and original plays.
Interscholastic debates are an important feature of university life, and
in years past student debating teams have met others from the leading
universities of the United States and England. Emory men do not
participate in intercollegiate athletics. In accordance with an extensive
program of physical training, the university emphasizes intramural
sports and schedules contests between classes, schools, fraternities, and
other groups.
The student organization that is best known off the campus is the
Emory University Glee Club. Under the direction of Malcolm H.
Dewey, who has been in charge since 1920, the mandolin clubs and
jazz bands of former days have been superseded by a standard choral
organization, which has attained a widespread reputation by making
annual concert tours to the larger cities of the Eastern States. The
singers have also appeared in Cuba (1923) and have made two Euro-
pean tours (1926 and 1928), including performances in English cities
and in Amsterdam, Holland. President Calvin Coolidge attended the
224 ATLANTA
concert in Washington in 1925, and eight years later President Frank-
lin D. Roosevelt heard the club sing on a program dedicating Georgia
Hall at Warm Springs. The glee club is especially well known for its
rendition of Negro spirituals and for its annual Christmas carol pro-
gram, presented at Glenn Memorial Church in the -dim light of burning
tapers.
Two other important groups are the Emory University Orchestra
and the Student Lecture Association. The orchestra, organized in
1921 and called the Little Symphony, annually presents several Sunday
afternoon concerts of classical music. The lecture association offers
to both the student body and the general public a series of lectures by
celebrated men and women. The association occasionally sponsors a
musical program, a monologuist, or a group of players.
At a session in Washington, Georgia, in 1834, the Georgia Meth-
odist Conference was asked to aid Randolph-Macon College in Virginia.
The only dissent came from "Uncle Allen" Turner, who stoutly
insisted that Georgia Methodists needed a college of their own.
Turner's suggestion was overruled, but the conference decided to
establish an academy in which literary instruction would be supple-
mented by manual labor. As a result the Georgia Conference Manual
Labor School was chartered on December 18, 1834, an d was opened
the following March on a large tract west of Covington. Students
worked three hours a day on the farm, their pay, usually four cents an
hour, being applied on their tuition. But the institution was burdened
by constantly increasing indebtedness.
Meanwhile Ignatius Few, chairman of the board of trustees, was
seriously considering a plan for expanding the manual labor school
into an institution of higher learning. On January 18, 1836, he
induced the conference to apply to the legislature for an extension of
the charter for this purpose. Although a new charter was granted on
December 19, 1836, the trustees of the academy became the trustees of
the college, and some of the faculty members were later transferred.
Emory College, named for Bishop John Emory of the Methodist
Church, was opened with Ignatius Few as president in the fall of
1838 on land donated by the academy and for a time was conducted
along the manual labor plan. Soon the institution owned 1,452 acres,
bn which both the farm and the town of Oxford were laid out. Two
years after the college was opened, its board of trustees closed the
manual labor school and assumed its assets and liabilities.
Until 1914 Emory College was owned by the Georgia Methodists
alone, but in that year it was taken over by the General Conference of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which was seeking to establish
two universities, one west and one east of the Mississippi River. The
educational commission appointed by that body then decided to accept
the offer of $500,000 from the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and a
$1,000,000 endowment from Asa G. Candler, Sr., and to establish a
university in Atlanta with Emory College as the school of liberal arts.
The charter of Emory College was consequently extended to care for
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS 225
its functioning as a university. Bishop Warren A. Candler, a former
president, became chancellor of the enlarged institution and directed
its organization until his retirement in 1922. The office was then dis-
qontinued and authority vested in the president.
The first division to be opened in Atlanta was the Candler School
of Theology, named for Bishop Candler who had begun a preachers'
training course at Oxford in 1894. Hastily organized to receive stu-
dents in the fall of 1914, this school held classes in the Wesley
Memorial Church on Auburn Avenue until the first building on the
campus was completed in 1916.
The subsequent development of the university was rapid. On June
28, 1915, the Druid Hills campus was acquired, and on the same day
the trustees of the Atlanta Medical College deeded its property to
Emory University to serve as a medical division. The Lamar School
of Law, opened on the campus during the fall of the following year,
introduced into Georgia the case study method of instruction and held
a practice court twice a week. In 1919 the entire college was moved
up from Oxford, and both the School of Business Administration and
the Graduate School were founded. The School of Nursing, which
had been established in Atlanta with Wesley Memorial Hospital in
1905, was moved with the hospital to the Emory campus in 1922, and
three years later it too became a part of the university.
The youngest of the university divisions is the Library School, an
outgrowth of an apprentice class formed in 1889 by Anne Wallace to
train assistants to help her in the management of the newly organized
Carnegie Library of Atlanta. The school, officially organized in 1905,
when Andrew Carnegie provided $4,000 a year for its maintenance,
offered a one-year course patterned after that of the Pratt Institute
School of Library Science, and, since there were few library commis-
sions in the South and no other library school in the State, the institu-
tion was an important factor in training assistants and planning build-
ings for many libraries throughout Georgia. The larger cities of several
other Southern States also called upon its services. At first the institu-
tion was called the Southern Library School, but in 1907 it was in-
corporated as the Carnegie Library Training School of Atlanta. Al-
though it became affiliated with Emory in 1925, it remained in the
Carnegie Library in Atlanta until 1930, when it was transferred to
the university campus. A college degree is required for admission.
The complicated story of the School of Medicine includes the his-
tories of the Atlanta Medical College, the Southern Medical College,
the Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Atlanta School
of Medicine. The parent institution was the Atlanta Medical College,
chartered in 1854 and opened the following year under the guidance
of Dr. John G. Westmoreland. Dr. Alexander Means, a professor
of chemistry ^ at Emory College, Oxford, also taught at the medical
school, and his merciless satire was influential in freeing Georgia medi-
cine from superstition. A summer session held classes from May i
to September I and continued to do so for many years. Students
226 ATLANTA
listened to five lectures daily and attended several clinics each week
but failed to get adequate practical experience because bedside instruc-
tion was prohibited by the hospitals of the city. Since there was no
law permitting medical schools to have unclaimed corpses, students
and teachers alike had many exciting experiences obtaining cadavers.
One professor who had robbed a grave was overtaken by daylight
before he could deposit his burden in the college building. Undaunted,
he placed the body in a sitting position between himself and the driver
of his vehicle and boldly rode along the street until he reached his
destination.
Beginning with the term of 1862, the college was closed for three
years, its building being used as a Confederate Army hospital. Dr.
N. D'Alvigny, one of the medical instructors, was placed in charge
of the hospital on the day when Atlanta was evacuated. As soon as
he learned that this building was on the list of those to be burned by
General Sherman's order, he formulated a plan to save the structure
and plied his hospital attendants with liquor. On the night of the
burning he approached a Union officer and angrily demanded if the
hospital was to be burned before its inmates were removed. The offi-
cial curtly replied that the wounded soldiers had been taken away and
that the building would be destroyed immediately. The doctor there-
upon led the way to the hospital, threw open the doors, and revealed
the room where his attendants lay groaning amidst straw and kindling.
He was given until morning to care for the men, but by that time the
invading army had started southward and the period of danger had
passed.
Although much of the equipment had been ruined during the war,
the Atlanta Medical College continued as formerly from 1865 until
1878, when a group of doctors withdrew to form the Southern Medical
College. This second institution advanced the quality of medical
instruction by establishing the Providence Infirmary for clinical work,
but after a period of 20 years it became evident that one institution
would be stronger than two rival colleges. Committees worked out
plans and on November 9, 1898, a charter was granted for the com-
bined institution under the name of the Atlanta College of Physicians
and Surgeons. The school prospered and strengthened its dental and
pharmaceutical department, but it was not long before another group
became dissatisfied with its administration. The result was a second
offspring, opened in 1905 and called the Atlanta School of Medicine.
Soon this college had its own hospital and offered increased facilities
for practical demonstrations. During the ensuing year both institu-
tions struggled hard to meet the rising standards of medical education
and in 1913 decided to unite. The single institution, again called the
Atlanta Medical College, functioned as such until 1915, when its
trustees sought affiliation with Emory and decided to accept the uni-
versity's offer to appropriate a $250,000 endowment and to build a
hospital for more adequate teaching facilities. Since then the medical
college has been the Emory University School of Medicine.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS 227
The WILBUR FISK GLENN MEMORIAL CHURCH, intersection of
Oxford and North Decatur Roads, is a cream-colored stucco building
of Georgian Colonial design, a departure from the characteristic
Renaissance style of the other Emory buildings. Standing on the land-
scaped elevation at the entrance to the campus, this well-proportioned
church has a tall spire that springs from an Ionic portico and rises by
means of setback tiers to a delicately fashioned cupola. The Colonial
motif is emphasized inside by a row of Corinthian columns in each of
the side aisles and by the clear glass windows. The light ivory color-
ing of the wails is offset by dark red draperies, which are suspended
behind columns arranged in a Palladian design to form a background
for the choir. The church is so constructed that it can be transformed
from a religious edifice into a public auditorium. The columns of the
choir gallery when swung back on large hinges reveal a stage, and the
pulpit platform when rolled upon a steel track beneath the stage leaves
an orchestra pit. The hall is used for services by members of the
congregation, who come from the entire Druid Hills area, for chapel
exercises by the university, and for lectures, concerts, and plays pre-
sented by the student organizations. Designed by the Atlanta firm of
Hentz, Adler, and Shutze and erected in 1931, the building was given
to the university by Mrs. Charles Howard Candler and Thomas K.
Glenn in memory of their father Dr. Wilbur Fisk Glenn, a well-
known Methodist minister.
At the rear of Glenn Memorial is the CHURCH SCHOOL BUILDING,
designed by the same architects and completed in 1940. In addition
to well-appointed classrooms, offices, assembly halls, and lounges, there
is a small chapel inspired by the church of Saint Stephen Walbrook,
London, designed by Christopher Wren. The room is given its decided
character by the plaster ornamentation of the domed ceiling and the
delicate carving of the oak doorway and altar. The chapel has become
popular with Emory alumni and others for small weddings. The left
side of the Church School Building forms the background of an amphi-
theater with sodded terraces and a rostrum for outdoor services. The
bright green of the terrace is emphasized by the dark boxwood borders.
The LAMAR SCHOOL OF LAW BUILDING, east side of quadrangle,
is a two-story pink-marble edifice with recessed arched entrances rising
almost to its red-tiled roof. The structure is one of the first buildings
erected on the campus in 1916 from the designs of Henry Hornbostel
of New York. In the white marble lobby is a bronze bust of Judge
John S. Candler, benefactor of the school. Winding upward from the
lobby past the large arched window is a marble stairway of such
remarkable beauty that it is a favorite subject for photographers. The
School of Law was named for Lucius Q.C. Lamar, an Emory alumnus
of 1845 who pioneered in the case study method of instruction at the
University of Mississippi in 1867 and who later served as United
States Senator and as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme
Court.
The CANDLER SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY BUILDING, west side of
228 ATLANTA
quadrangle, similar in style to the law building, was also designed by
Henry Hornbostel and constructed in 1916. In the white marble
foyer is a bust of Bishop Warren A. Candler, for whom the School of
Theology was named, and at the rear are glass doors, which open into
a pink-marble chapel with a high red-pine wainscot.- This small room,
used for daily religious worship, is given an appearance of spaciousness
by its high ceiling. The wall sconces are shaded by pink-marble plaques
bearing bronze reproductions of early Christian symbols.
The WESLEY MUSEUM (open Mon.-Fri. 8-9 and Sat. 8-12 upon
application to the librarian of the theological reading room), right of
the theological school lobby, contains 2,615 books, a variety of docu-
ments, and many articles of historic interest to the Methodist Church.
The museum takes its name from the numerous books and objects that
concern John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism. This
Wesleyan collection, secured by Bishop Warren A. Candler, former
chancellor of the university, and supplemented by Charles Howard
Candler, is one of the most extensive and important in either America
or England. Two of the most treasured possessions are a portrait of
John Wesley, painted by Henry Eldridge when the noted divine was
88, and a prayer desk, made about 1740 and used by John 'Wesley
while he was preaching to the miners of Wales. Among the objects of
interest outside the Wesleyana are a roll of the Pentateuch, a collection
of letters of early Methodist ministers in the United States, and a
chair used by Bishop Francis Asbury when he held conference in
Chester, South Carolina.
The ASA GRIGGS CANDLER LIBRARY (open Mon.-Fri. 8-9; Sat.
8-12), north end of quadrangle, is a white-marble building designed by
Edward L. Tilton, of New York, in the characteristic architectural
style of the campus. The structure, erected in 1926, houses more
than 100,000 bound volumes and 60,000 unbound pamphlets, the prin-
cipal part of the university collection. The books in the departmental
reading rooms of the Schools of Law, Theology, and Medicine bring
the total number of bound volumes up to 170,000. Among the excel-
lent bibliographical resources in the main library is the card catalogue
of the Library of Congress, and among the special collections are the
Tracy W. McGregor Americana and the Keith M. Read Confederate
manuscripts and printed sources. The JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
MEMORIAL ROOM contains the greater part of the manuscripts of the
noted author of the Uncle Remus stories together with first editions
and other literary relics.
The EMORY UNIVERSITY MUSEUM, a large room on the main floor
of the Candler Library, contains several varied collections ranging
from present-day natural history specimens to ancient coins, ornaments,
and artifacts. The objects are displayed to emphasize the curios from
Egypt, Babylon, and Palestine, including three mummies and repro-
ductions of ancient monuments. This collection was begun in 1921
by the Reverend William A. Shelton, then a member of the Emory
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
faculty, while he was on an archeological expedition with men from
Chicago and Yale Universities.
52. The STATE GAME FARM (open 10-5), Briarcliff Rd. about
12 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, is devoted at present to rear-
ing quail for distribution in Georgia areas where the native stock has
been depleted either by over-shooting or by lack of food. On the
35-acre tract of wooded land the loud, clear bobwhite call rings like
a frequently repeated echo. From the entrance gate a driveway leads'
past caretakers' cottages to the breeding pens, incubators, and brooder
houses. Here 650 hens lay about 2,700 eggs a week during the season.
Domesticated quail are used for breeding. Because they are not
allowed to set, they lay an average of about 80 eggs a season ; wild birds
under the same conditions lay only an average of from 35 to 40. One
domesticated hen laid 121 eggs in a single season. When the birds
are from 10 to 12 weeks old, they are released to individuals and
groups who promise that no hunting will be permitted on restocked
land for at least 12 months. Plans have been made to give the excess
eggs to 4-H Clubs, the Future Farmers of America, and similar or-
ganizations, the eggs to be hatched under bantam hens and the young
to be placed in depleted areas. The young club members will be given
instructions in the conservation of wild life, and, if the program is
successful, only eggs will be distributed in the future. About 7,000
quail and 16,000 eggs were released in 1940.
Experiments have been conducted with the chukar, an Asiatic par-
tridge that is faster, hardier, and four times as large as the Georgia
quail. From an original stock of three pairs, many chukars were
reared and distributed throughout the state, but these birds did not
prove to be adaptable to conditions in Georgia, since they were unable
to protect themselves from predators. The few remaining chukars
are displayed in pens.
The game farm was established in 1936 by the Georgia Game and
Fish Department, a part of the Department of Natural Resources.
The quail brood-stock was built up from an initial purchase of
Tennessee birds and from native Georgia quail. Plans are being
made to establish a fish hatchery here and also to enclose acreage for
the rearing of deer.
53. OGLETHORPE UNIVERSITY, on Peachtree Rd. about 12
miles north of downtown Atlanta, is a coeducational institution which
offers courses leading to the degrees of B.A., B.S., and M.A. Experi-
mental work in courses other than those usually included in a standard
liberal arts curriculum has earned for the school the title "The Unique
University." The enrollment for the year 1939-40 was about 600,
and the faculty numbered 35.
The extensive campus of the university covers more than 600 acres
of meadow and woodland, including 8o-acre Phoebe Lake, which is
used by the students for swimming, boating, and fishing. On the well-
landscaped quadrangle near the entrance are grouped the three main
buildings, the Administration Building, Lupton Hall, and Lowry Hall,
230 ATLANTA
all constructed of Georgia blue granite and white limestone in a Gothic
style. In the tower of Lupton Hall are an illuminated clock and
chimes on which concerts are given. Lowry Hall is a copy of old
Corpus Christi College at Oxford, England, the alma mater of General
James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia. Hermance Stadium,
not yet completed, is also being constructed of blue granite, trimmed
with carved limestone. The finished section seats about 5,000, only
one-ninth of the total seating capacity planned.
A complete radio broadcasting station, WJTL, was installed and
began operation at Oglethorpe on May 24, 1931, for the purpose of
offering college courses to people who were unable to attend classes
on the campus. The expense of offering free lecture courses, however,
proved to be too great, and the station was sold in 1935 to a private
commercial organization which operates it as WATL in downtown
Atlanta.
The Oglethorpe University Press owns a printing shop equipped
with a Babcock optimus press, linotype machine, and two job presses,
which are operated entirely by student labor. Besides college publica-
tions, the press has published novels and volumes of poetry.
A medical school was opened October I, 1941, and now has a
freshman class of about 75 students instructed by eight full-time faculty
members. Plans have been made to add more advanced work as the
present class proceeds and additional students are enrolled.
Oglethorpe University traces its history back to 1823, when at
a meeting of the Hopewell Presbytery a movement was begun to found
a manual training school. In 1835 this school became Oglethorpe
College, and a handsome building was erected for it on the outskirts of
Milledgeville, then the capital of the State. Among the distinguished
men who served on the faculty of the old college were Joseph LeConte,
a noted geologist, James Woodrow, a brilliant scientist, and Samuel
K. Talmage, an able minister and teacher. Its most famous graduate
was the poet Sidney Lanier, who received his degree in 1860 and
acted as tutor until the following spring, when he enlisted in the
Confederate Army with the Oglethorpe cadets. In 1862 the college
was closed and its buildings were used as barracks and a hospital until
they were destroyed by fire during the Federal occupation of
Milledgeville.
Although Oglethorpe's endowment had been lost with the failure
of Confederate bonds, an effort was made in 1870 to reopen the college
in Atlanta, but after a few sessions it was forced to close again for
lack of funds. It was not until 1912 that a movement was begun
for the present institution by Thornwell Jacobs, who toured the South
lecturing to raise funds for the enterprise. The charter was granted
in May 1913, and Jacobs was named president of Oglethorpe on
January 21, 1915, when the cornerstone of the first building was laid.
Classes met the following fall.
The CRYPT OF CIVILIZATION is a vault beneath the Administration
Building containing records and materials of twentieth-century civiliza-
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS 231
tion collected and stored with the hope of preserving them intact for
6,000 years. Four years were spent in assembling and preparing the
articles, which were treated in accordance with the methods of preserva-
tion recommended by the United States Bureau of Standards. In-
cluded in the collection are hundreds of books transferred to microfilm,
recorded music and speeches, motion picture films, a projector, a phono-
graph, a typewriter, a radio, an electric generator, a sewing machine,
and a microphone, as well as miniature models of mechanical inven-
tions and numerous articles of every-day use.
The crypt is 20 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 10 feet high, built
upon a ledge of granite near the surface of the ground. The granite
walls and ceilings are lined with vitreous porcelain enamel, and metal
shelves hold the receptacles containing the various articles. The door
to the chamber is of stainless steel.
On May 26, 1940, the vault was closed and the steel door welded
into place. A complete description of the crypt, giving its exact loca-
tion, has been translated into every known language and sent to
libraries in every country in the world. The date fixed for the open-
ing is the year 8113 A.D.
54. FLOWERLAND (admission free), Chamblee-Dunwoody Rd.
approximately 13 miles northwest of Atlanta, is the 138-acre estate
of Dr. L.C. Fischer, who bought the land in 1931 and immediately
began to cultivate it as the most spectacular rose garden of the Atlanta
vicinity. For two miles along the highway, fences and trellises are
covered with the climbing talisman, Paul's scarlet red, and Dr. Van
Fleet pink roses.
To the right of the entrance a path leads through a long arbor
covered with Paul's scarlet roses to the beds, where more than 600
varieties of bush roses are planted between terraced pathways. The
red, white, cream, yellow, and pale pink blooms glow brightly against
the clay-red waters of Nancy's Creek, which has been turned so that
it circles through the gardens.
Steps between the rose beds lead down to a path at the edge of
the creek that is bordered with lavender and purple rhododendron,
flame azalea, and pink and white mountain laurel. The path affords
a view of the opposite slope, which is covered with more roses, and
winds a short distance through cool woods fragrant with sweet shrub.
Banked around a long lily pond near by is a rock garden, where grow
forget-me-nots and other small flowers and plants. Flowering vines,
including the large blue clematis, climb the trees, and on tree trunks
throughout the garden are framed verses appropriate to the setting,
such as "Shared" by the Georgia poet Agnes Kendrick Gray:
Some things there be that are better shared
A cottage fire, a table spread;
A country road in the evening hush,
And gardens trellised and garlanded.
A bridge with hanging baskets of petunias, geraniums, and coleuses
crosses to a path at the foot of a steep embankment, planted in rhodo-
232 ATLANTA
dendron and mountain laurel. At the end of this path another bridge
crosses the creek where the sluggish waters suddenly come to life in
their rapid fall over a dam. Across the bridge is a large rock garden
colorful with the velvety hues of innumerable pansies.
On a high eminence overlooking the grounds is the Doric-columned,
red-brick residence of Dr. Fischer. Beyond the main entrance to the
gardens a long drive leads from the highway to the rear of the house.
Along this winding driveway are vivid plantings of multicolored roses,
poppies, irises, narcissi, and tulips. A clipped-privet dog and doghouse
in the plot just back of the house are popular with children who visit
the gardens.
55. UNITED STATES NAVAL RESERVE AVIATION BASE
(main roads only open to visitors: those with business to transact may
obtain permission to enter buildings by addressing the aide to the
executive officer), at Chamblee, occupies a soo-acre reservation.
56. The LAWSON GENERAL HOSPITAL (principal streets only
open to visitors; those with business to transact may obtain permission
to enter buildings from the adjutant), on Carroll Ave. between Hood
Ave. and US 23 (Buford Highway), is situated on a I4oacre reserva-
tion adjoining the naval base.
The hospital was named for Thomas Lawson, Surgeon General
of the United States Army before the War between the States. Con-
struction, begun on December 19, 1940, was completed the following
May at a cost of $3,500,000. About 900,000 cubic yards of dirt were
removed in leveling 4 red-clay hills before the building program was
completed.
The naval base and hospital are on the SITE OF CAMP GORDON,
one of the 35 cantonments established in the United States during
the first World War. At this camp, consisting of 1,200 buildings on
3,000 acres of land, it is estimated that 80,000 soldiers were quartered
at one time. The two most prominent units to be trained in the
cantonment were the 82d Division and the Base Hospital (Emory
University Medical) Unit 43. After leaving Camp Gordon in April
1918, the men of each of these units served as a body with the Amer-
ican Expeditionary Forces in France for the duration of the war. The
cantonment, established on July 18, 1917, and named for General
John B. Gordon of the War between the States, was abandoned
officially on December 13, 1919. After the government sold the land,
the area was given over to forests and farmland, but the section has
continued to be known locally as Camp Gordon.
57. The RUINS OF SOAP CREEK PAPER MILLS (ask direc-
tions at Sandy Springs on Roswell Rd.) lie along Soap Creek, a small
branch of the Chattahoochee River, 16 miles northwest of Atlanta.
The tranquil beauty of the spot has made it popular with picnickers
in spring and summer. Pine-covered hills slope down to the stream,
which flows rapidly over its shallow bed, its yellowish waters foaming
over many rocks. The ruins, extending along both sides, are high
granite walls, roofless and with bushes and small trees growing inside.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS 233
Spanning the creek on massive foundations of rubble stone is an old
covered bridge, one of the few remaining in the South. This struc-
ture, probably built in the late 1850*5, is a heavy lattice of hand-hewn
timbers secured by wooden pegs, enclosed by vertical planks, and
covered with a tin gable roof.
The creek was named for Old Sope, a Cherokee chief who re-
mained in this vicinity after his fellow tribesmen were driven out in
1838. Kindly and peaceable, the old man was beloved by the chil-
dren of this section, who gathered eagerly to hear his stories. After-
ward the name was corrupted to Soap Creek.
When the factory was incorporated as the Marietta Paper Mills
in 1859, Cobb County was rapidly developing as an industrial section
with saddleries, shoemaking shops, printing establishments, grist-mills,
and factories for cotton and woolen goods. In this mill, probably the
first paper manufacturing plant in the South, "tissue paper, writing,
printing, and wrapping paper were made . . . from cotton stalks,
wood, and rags." But industrial development was sharply interrupted
by the advance of Federal troops upon Atlanta in the summer of 1864.
On the night of July 8 General George Schofield's men, having
marched to the Soap Creek neighborhood from near-by Smyrna, carried
boats down the tree-covered slopes, loaded them with soldiers, and
launched them downstream under protection of heavy artillery fire.
The Confederates were unable to block this bold maneuver, which
brought the invaders nearer their goal. The buildings of the factory
were then burned by the fleeing Confederate troops.
Soon after the war the mills were rebuilt and again put into
operation, but a succession of disasters followed. Partly destroyed
by fire in 1870, they were rebuilt in the following year, but the
factory operated only a short time before the national panic of 1873
made collections impossible. The buildings were bought at public
sale by James R. Brown, who organized two companies, one to operate
the paper mill and the other to establish a cotton goods factory here.
For a number of years the paper manufacturing plant successfully
produced books, newsprint, and wrapping paper. In 1886 Saxon A.
Anderson, part owner of the establishment, built a wood-pulp mill in
addition to the rag paper mill. Three years later a paper twine factory
was begun. As there was only one other such concern in the United
States, prospects seemed bright for a profitable undertaking, but Ander-
son found that the machinery was patented and could not be pur-
chased. Undaunted, he and Jeff Land, the mill superintendent, per-
fected their own machinery.
By 1890 the mills were manufacturing the first blotting paper
made south of Richmond. For years the Soap Creek region provided
a busy scene, and the work of paper manufacturing was carried on into
the twentieth century. The buildings were abandoned when the estab-
lishment was moved to Marietta, where it was operated successfully
for a number of years.
58. ROSWELL ( 1,000 alt., 1,432 pop.), 21 miles north of Atlanta
234 ATLANTA
on US 19, one of the earliest Southern manufacturing towns, has lost
much of its industrial activity but has kept its tradition of old-fashioned
aristocracy intact in several fine historic houses. Though small in
population, the town stretches for two miles along the highway, its
rows of inconspicuous dwellings broken briefly by two small com-
mercial centers. A broad parkway centers the highway at the southern
end of the town. The environs fall away into cotton patches, corn
fields, orchards, and woodland stretches that in fall are tinted with the
rich hues of turning leaves. The most colorful season, however, is
early summer, when lawns are bright with the fluffy golden-pink
blossoms of many mimosa trees.
Settlement began here in 1837, tne same vear m which the first
railroad builders came to the near-by Atlanta area. Roswell King,
a wealthy planter and banker, stopped here while on a business trip
to the United States mint at Dahlonega, Georgia, and was much im-
pressed by the beauty of these rolling hills. Finding the climate
more bracing than that of his home at Darien on the Georgia coast,
he purchased a considerable land tract and made gifts of ten acres
each to seven of his friends from the Sea Island region. A Connecticut
artist, Willis Ball, brought here to plan their homes, designed Barring-
ton Hall, Mimosa Hall, Bulloch Hall, Great Oaks, and the Presby-
terian Church. The experiment was successful, and the village was
soon a center for several prosperous plantations. It was King's aspira-
tion, however, to establish industry as well as agriculture, and with his
son Barrington he set up the Roswell Mills for the manufacture of
cotton cloth. Soon afterward a woolen-goods factory and a flour mill
began operations, more settlers came, and the town was incorporated
under the first name of its founder in 1854.
In 1864, as General Sherman's army drew nearer to Atlanta,
many of the inhabitants of Roswell fled to points farther south for
safety. The mills were burned by the Union soldiers in order to
destroy Confederate sources of supply, but most of the houses were
spared, the most commodious being used as billets for the troops await-
ing the capitulation of Atlanta. When the owners returned after
the surrender, they found their homes packed by refugees from the
surrounding countryside.
After the war, factories were rebuilt, but Roswell was unable to
compete successfully with the richer industrial communities of the
new South. Only a few small industries now operate here, and the
town is preponderantly residential, chiefly noted for the architectural
excellence and historic interest of a few fine old houses.
BARRINGTON HALL (private), across the street from the southern
end of the park, is notable for its fine proportions and for the excel-
lence of its classical details of architecture. Set well back from the
street on a high hill, the two-story frame house is shadowed by a
grove of oaks, cedars, and fruit trees. A walkway leading to the
front porch is bordered by a low boxwood hedge, and more irregular
plantings of boxwood crowd the eastern side of the house. The old
Residential
* m
9
it i
litJ
^PllJBHHMr "9
THE EDWARD INMAN HOUSE, ON ANDREWS DRIVE, IS OF THE GEORGIAN
STYLE WITH EGYPTIAN INFLUENCE SHOWING IN THE TWO OBELISKS ON
THE LAWN
THE HUGH NUNNALLY HOUSE, ON BLACKLAND ROAD, IS A FINE EXAMPLE
OF THE NEOCLASSIC STYLE
THE ABREU HOUSE, PACE'S FERRY ROAD, IS NOTABLE FOR ITS BOXWOOD
BORDERED WALK LEADING TO A BALCONIED REGENCY ENTRANCE
THE JOHN M. OGDEN HOUSE, PACE'S FERRY ROAD, SHOWS A STRONG
NORMAN INFLUENCE
THE HOME OF MRS. SAMUEL M. INMAN IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THE
RICHARDSONIAN-ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE
THE OLDER PEACHTREE STREET RESIDENCES, MANY NOW BOARDING HOUSES,
SHOW AN ELABORATE COMBINATION OF DIVERSE ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS
TECHWOOD IS ONE OF SEVERAL WELL-EQUIPPED FEDERAL HOUSING PROJECTS
THE MODERN APARTMENT HOUSE OF FUNCTIONAL ARCHITECTURE AND
WITH PENTHOUSE GARDEN IS STILL RARE IN ATLANTA
rT I I
MANY ATLANTA PEOPLE LIVE IN MODERN SUBDIVISIONS
A LARGE CROSS SECTION OF ATLANTA LIVES IN TWO-FAMILY HOUSES IN
THE OLD SECTION NEAR THE CAPITOL
[I
!M
NEGRO SLUM AREAS ARE BEING REPLACED BY SUCH FEDERAL HOUSING
PROJECTS AS THE HENRY GRADY HOMES
NEGRO FAMILIES LIVE IN CROWDED SECTIONS THROUGHOUT THE CITY
1
ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL CHURCH
*
GLENN MEMORIAL METHODIST CHURCH AND SECOND-PONCE DE LEON
BAPTIST (SPIRE ABOVE) ARE TWO OF THE MANY CHURCHES OF THE
RESIDENTIAL SECTIONS
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS 235
mansion is encircled on three sides by a Doric colonnade with a pedi-
ment placed not at the front in the usual Greek Revival design but
on each side. The banistered "captain's walk" in the center of the
roof is a feature seldom incorporated in Southern houses, being more
characteristic of the New England coast where sea captains watched
their clipper ships from such eminences.
Harrington Hall was named for its first occupant, Harrington King,
son of the founder of Roswell. During the long period of construc-
tion from 1839 to 1842, the family made its home in a small struc-
ture in the rear; on the day of completion Mrs. King, carrying her
baby and followed by her small daughter with a little chair, walked
ceremoniously around to the front door and entered for the first time
as mistress of the mansion.
Until the War between the States Barrington King assisted his
father in the management of the Roswell Mills and maintained his
home in the luxurious and hospitable manner characteristic of planta-
tion days. After the war he returned and resumed his occupancy
of Barrington Hall until his death in 1866.
The house has always been occupied by descendants of the original
owner. One of these, Evelyn King, was a bridesmaid at the wedding
of Mittie Bulloch and Theodore Roosevelt in 1853, and in 1905, as
Mrs. W.E. Baker she entertained their son, the famous "Teddy,"
then President of the United States. In possession of the present owner
are many family pieces of china, silver, and furniture. Among the
manuscripts are a diplomatic document signed by President Millard
Fillmore and Daniel Webster and a letter from Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow praising the verses of a young man of the Baker family.
MIMOSA HALL (private), on an unpaved street extending west of
Roswell Park, has become nationally known as an outstanding example
of the neoclassic style that was prevalent early in the i84o's when it
was erected. Pictures of the two-story portico, with Doric columns
supporting a high pediment, have appeared in the leading architectural
publications. Built for Major John Dunwody, one of the original
settlers of Roswell, it has changed hands several times; one of the
more recent owners, Neel Reid, the well-known architect, acquired
the property in 1916 and immediately began extensive restorations.
After Reid's death his mother operated a tearoom on the lower floor.
From the street the facade is partly obscured by a dense growth
of oaks, mimosas, wisteria vines, and circular plantings of boxwood.
In other parts of the grounds the somber foliage of old cedars con-
trasts with the delicate blooms of roses and of valley lilies that were
planted by the original owner.
Like many of the residential structures of its period, Mimosa Hall
is fashioned of bricks covered with stucco marked off to simulate
stone blocks. The interior has been extensively altered from time to
time. The long drawing room with fireplaces at each end was created
by Neel Reid by removing the partitions of two smaller rooms. The
creamy yellow marble fireplace of the library was acquired from an
236 ATLANTA
old house in Macon when it was razed. In the dining room old
paintings show effectively against paneled walls of a pale green color.
An unusual interior feature is the small stage in the attic, used by some
of the earlier occupants for amateur theatricals.
BULLOCH HALL (private), beyond Mimosa Hall and closing the
western end of the street, was built by James Bulloch in 1842. Al-
though the old plantation outhouses have long been razed, the main
house has retained the dignity which characterized it from the first.
The front portico is unusually massive, with four Doric columns sup-
porting an attic gable. The rooms on the lower floor are 24 feet
square and 12 feet high.
In one of these spacious rooms, Mittie Bulloch was married to
Theodore Roosevelt on December 22, 1853. On this occasion the
house was ablaze with the light of candles in candelabra of brass and
silver, while fragrant cedar logs snapped in the fireplace. Holly and
mistletoe were placed against the walls, and vines were twisted about
the stair-rail. The bride, in white satin and long veil, descended the
stairs preceded by her bridesmaids in full-skirted, tight-basqued white
muslin dresses. Although Dr. Nathaniel Pratt performed the ceremony,
he apparently considered these costumes worldly, for he would not
permit his daughter to be a bridesmaid. After the ceremony the guests
were served a bountiful hot supper ending with ice cream made with
ice hauled from Savannah.
The son of this couple was Theodore Roosevelt who became Presi-
dent of the United States. Another son, Elliott, was the father of
Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The OLD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, east side of US 19 approximately
in the center of town, is a small, severely plain white clapboard struc-
ture with a Doric portico and a low, square bell tower. Simplicity
also characterizes the interior with its slave gallery and double-staired
pulpit, but the dead whiteness of walls and ceiling is relieved by the
warm red tone of the aisle carpet. Stained glass has been used in all
the windows.
The church, which recently celebrated its hundredth anniversary,
was erected in 1840 under the supervision of its first minister,
Nathaniel Pratt, who had come from Darien with his wife, a daugh-
ter of Roswell King. Dr. Pratt served as pastor for almost 40 years,
as is attested by a memorial tablet under the pulpit. After his death
he was succeeded by the Reverend W.E. Baker, who was married to a
daughter of Barrington King. The service of the Bakers is also
recognized by memorial inscriptions.
When Roswell was occupied by Federal troops in 1864, the church
was commandeered as a hospital. This occupancy is shown by a cabinet
door in the rear which was taken down and used as a checkerboard by
the patients. Members of the congregation saved the communion
silver from the invading army by concealing it in a basket of oats
and taking it to the home of Olney Eldredge. Later, when the search
for articles of value became more strenuous, it was decided to hide
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS 237
the silver in the residence of Miss Fannie Whitmire, which was less
likely to be searched because of the illness of her mother. Each day
baskets of dainties were sent to the invalid, inspected by the guard,
and allowed to pass. Apprehensively, the custodians of the communion
ware tried slipping a piece of silver under the food in the basket; this
passed the guard successfully and anomer was secreted the following
day. At last the entire service was smuggled into the Whitmire
house.
When word was received that this place was also to be searched,
the pieces were hastily put into a large dry-goods box filled with quilt
scraps which were being pieced by a group of girls. When the soldiers
came to search, Miss Whitmire held up some scraps and defiantly
advised them not to overlook this box. A cursory inspection failed to
discover the silver, which was then buried until the end of the war.
Later the congregation presented Miss Whitmire with a silver cup
for her bravery in hiding the communion service.
GREAT OAKS (private), across the street from the church, a red-
brick house showing Georgian influence, was built for the Reverend
Nathaniel Pratt soon after he came to Roswell in 1840 as pastor of
the Presbyterian Church. The young minister, at first planning to
have a columned Greek Revival dwelling in the prevailing plantation
style, had lumber and other material brought from Augusta at con-
siderable expense, but it was destroyed by fire before construction of
the house was begun. Pratt, who had already noted the abundance
of red clay in the Roswell vicinity, then decided to have a brick
dwelling and set about the building of Great Oaks. Although the
front has been remodeled, the house, with its mortised girders, heavy
hand-hewn beams, and walls of eighteen-inch thickness, is a fine ex-
ample of the enduring structural work of its day.
COLONIAL PLACE (private), end of Goulding St., was built in
J 857 by the Reverend Francis R. Goulding, author of several well-
known adventure books for boys. In this high, angular house of red-
painted brick with white-trimmed windows and Palladian doorway,
Goulding wrote his sermons, planned his eventful stories, and let his
mind range hopefully over the inventions with which he was de-
termined to make his fortune. His bold imagination, however, did not
readily adapt itself to practical details. Although he designed a sewing
machine some years before Elias Howe's invention was placed on the
market, he failed with his model because he did not place the eye of
the needle sufficiently near to its point. Barely missing eminence in
the mechanical field, he is now remembered for his writings, especially
for that adventurous tale of shipwreck and resourceful boyhood Young
Marooners.
Part your
APPENDICES
Chronology
1813 Lieutenant George R. Gilmer establishes fort near The Standing
Peachtree.
1821 January. By treaty at Indian Springs, Creeks cede territory later
included in DeKalb and Fulton Counties.
April-May. Henry and Fayette Counties (mother counties of De-
Kalb and Fulton) created.
1822 December 7. DeKalb County created.
1823 December 10. Decatur incorporated and made seat of DeKalb
County.
1826 Wilson Lumpkin and Hamilton Fulton survey railroad route
through section.
1836 Hardy Ivy builds cabin on Land Lot 51.
December 21. State legislature charters Western & Atlantic Rail-
road.
1837 Roswell King founds town of Roswell.
Abbott Hall Brisbane drives stake marking southeastern terminus
of Western & Atlantic Railroad.
1842 December 24. First train makes trial trip from the terminus to
Marietta on Western & Atlantic Railroad track.
1843 December 23. The terminus incorporated as Town of Marthasville
under commission form of government.
1845 Summer. Union School and Church erected.
September 15. First train from Augusta over Georgia Railroad
reaches Marthasville.
December 26. Town charter amended to change name to Atlanta.
1846 August 18. Macon & Western Railroad reaches Atlanta.
1847 December 29. Atlanta reincorporated as city under mayor and
council form of government.
1849 Western & Atlantic Railroad completed to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
1850 Population 2,572 (U.S. Census).
June 6. City buys tract of land for Oakland Cemetery.
1852 Atlanta & West Point Railroad completed to Atlanta.
1853 December 20. Fulton County formed from DeKalb, and Atlanta
made the county seat.
1854 City limits extended.
City Hall completed.
Atlanta Medical College chartered.
1855 December 25. City lighted by gas.
241
242
ATLANTA
1860 Population 9,554 (U.S. Census).
Chamber of Commerce organized.
1861 January 2. Fulton County delegates to Georgia Secession Con-
vention elected.
July 5. Governor Joseph E. Brown designates Atlanta as tem-
porary headquarters for Georgia State Military Affairs.
1862 June i. Atlanta made military post under command of Major A.
Leyden.
June 7. James J. Andrews, Union spy, hanged in Atlanta.
August II. General Braxton Bragg places Atlanta .under martial
law.
1864 May 23. Mayor James M. Calhoun orders all male citizens to
form home defense companies.
July 17. General John B. Hood replaces General Joseph E. John-
ston in command of Army of Tennessee.
July 20. Battle of Peachtree Creek.
July 22. Battle of Atlanta.
July 28. Battle of Ezra Church.
August 29. Federal forces cut vital supply line by wrecking Atlanta
& West Point Railroad at Red Oak and Fairburn.
August 31. Confederate forces defeated in Battle of Jonesboro
and Macon & Western Railroad line cut.
September 2. Atlanta surrendered.
September 7. General William T. Sherman orders evacuation of
citizens.
November 14. Sherman burns Atlanta.
December. Confederates reoccupy city.
1865 May 4. Confederate Colonel Luther J. Glenn turns over com-
mand of Atlanta Military Post to Federal Colonel B.B. Eggleston.
July 14. All ordinances differentiating between Negroes and white
people repealed.
1866 March 3. City limits extended to include territory within i^-mile
radius of terminus stake.
Miller Union Stock Yards established on Marietta Street.
1867 April ii. General John Pope, commander of Third Military Dis-
trict, establishes headquarters in Atlanta.
October. Atlanta University (Negro) incorporated.
December 9. State Constitutional Convention meets in city hall.
McPherson Barracks established.
1868 January 7. General George Gordon Meade replaces General Pope.
April 20-23. New constitution ratified. Atlanta made State capital.
June 16. Atlanta Constitution established by Colonel Carey W.
Styles.
July 22. Governor Rufus Bullock inaugurated and military govern-
ment removed next day.
July 23. Bush Arbor Meeting opens fight against carpetbagger
rule.
City leases Kimball's Opera House for State capitol.
CHRONOLOGY 243
1869 December 22. Military rule re-established, with General Alfred
H. Terry in command.
Clark University (Negro) opened as elementary school.
1870 Population 21,789 (U.S. Census).
1871 September. Street railway service begins.
October 23. Rufus Bullock flees from Georgia.
1872 January. City opens public schools.
1873 September 28. Atlanta & Charlotte Air Line Railroad completed
through efforts of Jonathan Norcross.
1874 City waterworks system built at Lakewood.
New city charter provides for bicameral council.
1876 All Federal troops removed from Atlanta.
November 28. Joel Chandler Harris begins writing Uncle Remus
stories in Atlanta Constitution.
1878 Washington Seminary opened.
1879 Augusta Institute (Morehouse College Negro) moved to Atlanta
and opened as Atlanta Baptist Seminary.
First telephone system installed.
1880 Population 37,409 (U.S. Census).
1881 Spelman College (Negro) founded as Atlanta Baptist Female
Seminary.
October 5-December 31. World's Fair and Great International
Exposition held at Oglethorpe Park.
1882 July i. First paid fire department established.
Colonel L.P. Grant donates 100 acres to city for public park.
1883 Atlanta Journal established by Colonel E.F. Hoge.
May 17. First Fulton County Courthouse dedicated.
Gammon Theological Seminary (Negro) opened as department of
Clark University.
November. Georgia Western, under control of Richmond & Dan-
ville Railroad, completed to Birmingham, Alabama.
1885 City limits extended to include Grant Park.
Morris Brown College (Negro) opened.
1886 May. J.S. Pemberton perfects formula for Coca-Cola.
1887 Southern Dental College established.
October 10-17. Piedmont Exposition held.
East Point incorporated.
1888 October 7. Georgia School of Technology opened.
City drills $50,000 well at Five Points.
1889 March. G.V. Gress presents zoo to city.
March 20. New State capitol opened.
May 4. Fort McPherson established near East Point as permanent
post.
September 24. Agnes Scott College opened in Decatur as Decatur
Female Seminary.
1890 Population 65,533 (U.S. Census).
1891 October 21. Unveiling of Henry Grady Monument attracts visitors
from all over the country.
244 ATLANTA
1891 Hapeville incorporated.
College Park incorporated as Manchester.
1892 January. West End included within city limits.
April 24. Georgia, Carolina & Northern Railroad reaches Atlanta.
May 25. Grady Hospital dedicated.
1893 City waterworks on Chattahoochee River begins operation.
1895 September i8-December 31. Cotton States and International Ex-
position held at Piedmont Park.
Peacock School for Boys established.
1898 G.V. Gress presents Cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta to city.
December 14-15. Peace Jubilee held to celebrate end of Spanish-
American War.
1900 Population 89,872 (U.S. Census).
Georgia Military Academy founded at College Park.
1901 June 3. Confederate Soldiers' Home opened.
October 10. City purchases Chamber of Commerce Building for
use as city hall.
Marist College opened.
1902 Federal Penitentiary completed.
Carnegie Library opened.
1903 Southern College of Pharmacy established.
1904 May 23. Piedmont Park purchased by city.
City limits extended to include Piedmont Park.
1906 September. Race riot occurs.
1909 Municipal auditorium-armory completed.
Atlanta Music Festival Association organized.
September. North Avenue Presbyterian School founded.
1910 Population 154,839 (U.S. Census).
May. Metropolitan Opera Company gives first Atlanta per-
formances.
1911 Southern Commercial Congress is addressed by President William
Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson.
October 10. Peace Monument unveiled at Piedmont Park.
1913 City charter revised.
1914 Sixth District Federal Reserve Bank established in Atlanta.
Emory University established.
Fulton County Courthouse completed.
1915 June 22. Martial law declared to protect Governor John M.
Slaton after he commuted death sentence of Leo Frank.
Oglethorpe University opened.
First Southeastern Fair held at Lakewood Park.
1916 May 20. Northeastern side of Stone Mountain dedicated for
carving Confederate memorial.
Georgia Power Company strike causes widespread disorder and
violence.
1917 Camp Gordon established as temporary war cantonment.
May. Great fire causes property loss of $5,000,000.
CHRONOLOGY 245
1919 September. Atlanta women vote for first time in city election.
Commission on Inter-racial Co-operation formed.
1920 Population 200,616 (U.S. Census).
Atlanta School of Social Work (Negro) opened.
1922 March 15. WSB begins broadcasting.
March 17. WGST begins broadcasting.
1923 Fourth Corps Area headquarters established in Atlanta.
1924 Municipal market opened.
Avondale Estates developed.
1925 City leases Candler Field for municipal airport.
Chamber of Commerce sponsors million-dollar campaign advertis-
ing Atlanta.
1926 High Museum of Art opened.
1927 Columbia Theological Seminary moved to Decatur from Columbia,
South Carolina.
1928 Atlanta World (Negro) founded as weekly.
January i. East Lake included within city limits.
1929 Twelve city officials and three private citizens convicted of graft.
Candler Field bought by city for municipal airport.
Rhodes Memorial Hall presented to State to house Department of
Archives.
Million-dollar City Hall completed.
1930 Population 270,366 (U.S. Census).
Order of Black Shirts organized in Atlanta to replace Negro laborers
with unemployed white workers.
Bobby Jones wins four golf championships the American Amateur,
American Open, British Amateur, and British Open.
1931 Atlanta Constitution awarded Pulitzer Prize for exposing graft
ring.
Evelyn Jackson establishes MacDowell Festival.
May 24. WJTL (WATL) established by Oglethorpe University.
1932 July. Angelo Herndon leads mass demonstrations protesting in-
adequacy of relief.
Campbell and Milton Counties and the Roswell area merged with
Fulton County.
1935 Asa G. Candler, Jr., offers private collection to Grant Park Zoo.
December 29. Ice storm does $2,000,000 damage.
1936 April. Annual dogwood festival inaugurated.
November. Employees of Fisher Body Company stage sit-down
strike.
1937 August i. WAGA established by Atlanta Journal.
1939 December 15. World premiere of Gone With the Wind.
1940 Population 302,288 (U.S. Census).
Bibliography
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144 p. illus., diagr.
American Illustrating Company, comp. Greater Atlanta Illustrated: the
Most Progressive Metropolis in the South. Atlanta, American Illus-
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Archer, W. P. History of the Battle of Atlanta: also Confederate Songs
and Poems. Knoxville, Ga., C.B.H. Moncrief, 1940. 35 p., incl.
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Atlanta. Fire Department. History of the Atlanta Fire Department.
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\ 247
248 ATLANTA
Candler, Charles Murphey. Historical Address: DeKalb County , Georgia,
Centennial Celebration at Decatur, Georgia. November 9, 1922. De-
catur, Ga., pub. by the centennial association. 32 p.
Carter, E.R. The Black Side: a Partial History of the Business, Re-
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lanta, 1894. 3 2 3 P- illus., port.
Gate, Wirt Armistead, ed. Two Soldiers: the Campaign Diaries of
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Index
Index
n case of titled essays and points of interest, the first number is the principal
reference)
Adair, George W., 53
Adair's school, T. O., 88
Agnes Scott Academy, 218
Agnes Scott College, 217-18, 6, 38, 91,
93, 104, 223 ; Blackfriars Dramatic
Club, 141, 218; Glee Club, 132, 218
Agnes Scott Institute, 216, 218
Airport, Atlanta Municipal, 212-13, 55
Alexander, J. A., 221
Alexander, J. F., 26
Alexander, J. W., 54
All-Star Concert Series, 38, 131, 132
Almshouse, 73
Alston, Robert, House, 119
Amalgamated Association of Street
and Electric Railway Employees of
America, 68
American Fascisti and the Order of
Black Shirts, 34, 68
American Federation of Labor, 69, 70
Anderson, Clifford, General and Mrs.,
182
Anderson, G. H., 98
Anderson, Saxon A., 233
Andrew, James O., 81
Andrews, James J., 187, 191-92
Angier's school, Nedam L., 87, 88, 89
Architecture, 114-20, 4, 234, 235, 236,
237
Arp, Bill, 99-100, 144, 169
Art, 121-26, 38, 167, 169, 172, 178-80,
180-81, 187, 189-91, 205
Ashburn Murder Trial, 27
Associated Charities, 76
Athenaeum Theater, 16, 134-35, X 36,
137
Athletic Club, Atlanta, no
Atkinson, Edward, 31
Atkinson, Paul, 190
Atlanta: Battle of, 19-20, 158, 161,
189-91, 216; Board of Education, 90,
91, 93; Board of Health, 13, 46;
Budget Commission, 46 ; burning of,
23 ; Chamber of Commerce, 29, 36,
38, 61, 124, 156, 224; charters, n, 13;
29, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45-46, 47, 90, 164;
Criminal Court, 45 ; fire depart-
ments, 16, 31, 39, 42, 45, 108, 121-22;
founding of, 8-13; gas plant, 16, 28,
47, 58, 161 ; League of Women
Voters, 37; Memorial Association,
24, 123, 187; motto, 155; naming of,
12; police, 15, 37, 42, 45, 46; siege
of, 17-23, 161; State capital, 27, 30,
154, 162; street railways, 29, 33, 43,
52-53, 54, 55, 59; waterworks, 29,
32, 36, 37, 44, 46, 47
Atlanta Amateurs, 127, 128, 135
Atlanta Art Association, 38, 124, 179
Atlanta Auditorium-Armory Company,
164
Atlanta Baptist College, 200
Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, 201-
02, 209
Atlanta Baptist Seminary, 200
Atlanta Benevolent Association, 73
Atlanta Boys' Club, 80
Atlanta Child's Home, 76
Atlanta College of 'Physicians and Sur-
geons, 225, 226
Atlanta Community Shop, 79
Atlanta Concert Association, 130
Atlanta Conservatory of Music, 130,
132
Atlanta Crackers, 112
Atlanta Dramatic Club, 138-39
Atlanta Federation of Trades, 67, 70
Atlanta Goodwill Industries, 78
Atlanta Grays, 16
Atlanta Hospital and Benevolent
Home, 73
Atlanta Hotel, 161-62
255
256
Atlanta Lyceum Bureau, 130
Atlanta Male Academy, 88
Atlanta Medical College, 28-29, 91,
225-26
Atlanta Music Club, 131, 132
Atlanta Music Festival Association,
130, 164
Atlanta Musical Association, 130
Atlanta Philharmonic Society, 38, 131
Atlanta Players Club, 141
Atlanta School of Medicine, 92, 225,
226
Atlanta School of Social Work, 91, 92,
198, 199, 200
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Associa-
tion, 131
Atlanta Theater, 139-40, 141
Atlanta Theater Guild, 141
Atlanta Tuberculosis Association, 76
Atlanta University, 198-200, 5, 6, 28,
91, 148, 149, 204; Library, 199-200;
Players, 141, 202
Atlanta University System, 198-204, 91,
195
Augusta Institute, 200
Austin, G. A., 88
Avary, Myrta Lockett, 143
Baker, Evelyn King, 235
Baker, Joseph, n, 94-95
Baker, Lamar, 125
Baker, W. E., 236
Bald Hill, 19
Ball, Willis, 234
Baltimore Block, 170-72
Barclay, John A., 74
Bard, Samuel, 97-98
Barili, Alfredo, 129
Barnes, William, 135-36
Barnitz, Elizabeth Downing, 144
Barrick, James Russell, 144, 186
Barrington Hall, 234-36, 115
Earth, Carl F., 127
Earth and Nicolai Company, 127
Bartlett, L. W., 95
Bartow Avengers, 216
Bate, W. B., 18, 19, 21
Battle Hill Sanatorium, 76
Battles: Atlanta, 19-20, 158, 189-92,
216; Ezra Church, 20-21; Jonesboro,
21-22; Peachtree Creek, 18-19
Beethoven Society, 129
Bell-Johnson Hall, 128-137
Bell, Marcus, 115
INDEX
Bettison's and Daniel's School, 88
Bigham, Madge Alford, 144
Bijou Theater, 139
Binford, Julian, 125
Blind Tom, 128
Bomar, B. F., 14, 186
Bonnet, Joseph, 131
Borglum, Gutzon, 222
Borglum, Solon, 153
Bozart Contemporary Verse, 145
Bradley, Horace, 122
Brady, T. B., 183
Brady, T. M., 123, 187
Bragg, Braxton, 17
Braithwaite, William Snyder, 149
Brisbane, Abbott Hall, 10
Britt, Ralph, 124
Britt School of Art, 124
Brittain, Marion Luther, 175
Brown, A. Ten Eyck, 158
Brown, General, 20-21
Brown, James R., 233
Brown, Joseph E., 18, 25. 26, 27, 153,
185
Brown, Morris, 202-03
Buell, Wyllys, 96, 120
Bulloch Hall, 115, 234, 236
Bulloch, James, 236
Bulloch, Mittie, 235, 236
Bullock, Rufus B., 26, 27, 28, 29, 65,
98, 154, 162, 185, 205
Bunger, Harold, House, 118
Burns, Robert, Cottage, 193
Bus Depot, 55
Bush Arbor Meeting, 27, 109
Bush-Brown, Marjorie Conant, 125
Butner, Kitty, 125
Cain, Jeff, 178
Calhoun, Andrew, House, 118
Calhoun, James M., 17, 22, 23, 24
Calico House, 115
Camp Gordon, 36, 61, 62, in, 232
Camp Jesup, 210
Campbell, Alice, 147
Campbell County, 39, 160
Campbell Minstrels, 135
Candler, Asa G., 60, 167, 171, 223, 224
Candler, Asa G., Jr., 189
Candler Building, 6, 117, 166-67
Candler, Charles Howard, 228
Candler, Mrs. Charles Howard, 227
Candler, Charles Murphey, 217
Candler, John S., 227
INDEX
257
Candler, Warren A., 225, 228
Canebrake, 10
Capitol Theater, 140
Carlisle, Mrs. Willis, 48, 49
Carnegie Library, 169-70, 79, 125, 225
Carnegie Library Training School of
Atlanta, 225
Carrie Steele-Pitts Home, 75
Carter, Edward Randolph, 148
Case-Martin House, 118
Chalmers, Ruby, 132
Chandler, Alice, 181
Cheatham, B. F., 19, 20, 190
Child Labor, 67
Child Welfare Association, 79
Children's League of the Studio Arts
Club, 141
Children's Service Bureau, 75
Children's Theater Guild, 141
Chivers, Thomas Holley, 144
Choice, William, 135
Churches: African Methodist, 84, 90;
All Saints', 117, 131; Baptist Taber-
nacle, 86; Big Bethel, 133, 203; Cen-
tral Presbyterian, 77, 79, 84, 85, 86,
115; Church of the Immaculate Con-
ception, 156-57, 83, 85, 86, 116;
Decatur Baptist, 215 ; Decatur Meth-
odist, 215; Decatur Presbyterian,
214, 215, 218; First Baptist, 83, 85,
115; First Baptist (Decatur), 215;
First Christian, 83; First Methodist,
167; First Methodist (Decatur),
215; First Presbyterian, 83, 84;
Friendship Baptist, 201; Glenn Me-
morial, 81, 227; Hardman, 215;
Indian Creek, 215; Mount Gilead,
159; North Avenue Presbyterian,
92; Paynes Chapel, 84; Peachtree
Christian, 131; Presbyterian (Ros-
well), 234, 236; Protestant Metho-
dist, 84; Sacred Heart, 86, 92, 116,
132, 170; St. Luke's, 85, 117, 132;
St. Philip's, 83, 85, 86, 128; Trinity,
84, 85; Utoy, 159; Wesley Chapel,
82, 84, 167; Wesley Memorial, 225;
Westminster (Decatur), 214-15
Church of the Immaculate Conception,
156-57, 85, 86, 116
City Hall, Atlanta, 155-56, 16, 26, 27,
37, 115, 160
Clapp, J. B., 95
Clare, Virginia Pettigrew, 146
Clark Chapel, 203
Clark College, 203-04, 91
Clark, D. W., 203-04
Clark, Mrs. Victor B., 131
Clark, Will F., 128
Clarke, E. Y., 12, 99
Clayton, H. D., 20
Cleburne, P. R., 19, 22, 193
Cobb County, 39, 160
Cobb, Howell, 27, 109
Coca-Cola, 60, 119
Cohen, John S., 101
College Park, 211, 4, 33, 159
Colonial Place, 237
Colquitt, Walter T., 214
Columbia Theological Seminary, 218-
19
Commerce and Industry, 56-63, 6-7
Commission on Interracial Co-opera-
tion, 34
Community Chest, Atlanta, 77-78
Community Employment Service, 77, 79
Compton, Martha Lumpkin, n, 186
Concordia Association, 137
Concordia Hall, no
Confederate Soldiers' Home, 176
Congress of Industrial Organizations,
69
Conservative Party, 26-27, 28, 31, 32,
33, 34
Constitution, Atlanta, 67, 97, 98-99, 99-
100, 101, 105, 166, 168, 187, 198
Constitutional Convention, 26
Convict leasing, 65-66
Cooper-Brooks House, 118
Cooper, Walter G., 146
Cotton States and International Expo-
sition, 32, 60, 129, 178, 205
Cox College, 92, 104, 211
Cox, James, 102
Craft, Edwin Arthur, 131
Crisp, William H., 134, 135, 136, 137,
138
Criterion Theater, 140
Crowe, Bonita, 133
Cunningham, Cornelia, 125
Cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta,
189-91
Cyclorama Museum, 192
Dalton, Edwin R., 137
D'Alvigny, Charles, 187
D'Alvigny, Noel, 158, 226
Davis, Benjamin Jefferson, 102
Davis Hall, 137
Davis, Jefferson, 18, 124, 183, 220, 222
Davis, Theodore R., 190
Davison-Paxon Company, 119, 181
Decatur, 4, 9, n, 15, 18, 19, 48, 160;
Board of Trade, 217; Library Asso-
ciation, 217; public schools, 93, 216
Decatur Female Seminary, 91, 218
Decatur Male and Female Academy,
216
DeGive, Laurent, 137, 139, 168
DeGive Opera House, 29, 30, 129, 138,
139, 175
DeKalb County, 10, 15, 159, 160, 213-
14, 216; Centennial Association, 217;
Chamber of Agriculture and Com-
merce, 217; Civil Court, 46 ; Harvest
Festival, 217; Militia, 10, 107;
schools, 93, 214, 216, 220
DeKalb County Academy, 214, 216
Democratic Party, 26, 27, 28, 33, 98,
J54
DeRenne, Edward, 155
Dewey, Malcolm H., 132, 223
Dews' school, 88
Dobbs, Samuel Candler, 223
Dogwood Festival, 38
Donald Fraser School, 216
Donnelly, Mrs. Edward, 126
Downing, W. T., 182
Dowsing, J. W., 96
Doyle, Alexander, 166
Drama Guild of the Studio Club,
141
Drew, Mrs. A. Farnsworth, 125, 169
DuBois, William E. Burghardt, 148
DuBose, Jesse E., 83
Duesberry, Professor, 108
Dumley, I. Dean, 153
Duncan, John, 96
Dunning, J. L., 25
Dunwody, John, 235
East Point, 210-11, 5, 159
Eddy, Clarence, 131
Edgewood Theater, 138
Education, 87-93, 15, 28-29
Edwards, George, 184
Edwards, Kate, 125
Eggleston, B. B., 24
Egleston, Thomas E., 79
Eldredge, Olney, 236
Eldridge, Henry, 228
Embick, Stanley D , 210
Emory College, 222, 224-25
INDEX
Emory Junior Colleges, Oxford, Val-
dosta, 223
Emory University, 222-29, 6, 38, 92,
93, 104, 117, 196, 218; Candler
School of Theology, 225, 227-28 ;
Emory Phoenix, 223 ; Emory Wheel,
223; glee club, 223-24; graduate
school, 223, 25; hospital, 225; Lamar
School of Law, 223, 225, 227, 228 ;
library, 228 ; library school, 223,
227; Little Symphony Orchestra,
132, 224; museum, 228-29; Players,
141, 223 ; school of business admin-
istration, 225 ; school of nursing,
223, 225; Student Lecture Associa-
tion, 224; Wesley Museum, 228
Emory University Academy, 223
Erlanger Theater, 140, 141, 142, 168
Evans, Clement A., 187
Evans, Eva Knox, 144
Everhart, Adelaide C., 123
Expositions, 31, 32, 59, 60, 129, 140,
163, 178, 205
Ezra Church, Battle of, 20
Fairs, 163, 195
Family Welfare Society, 77
Farrow, Henry P., 25
Fay, Calvin, 116
Fayette County, 9
Federal Penitentiary, 193-94, 32
Federal Reserve Bank (Sixth District),
36, 61
Federal Theater Project, 141-42
Felton, Rebecca Latimer, 49
Female Institute, 89
Few, Ignatius, 224
Field, Medora, 147
Fires, 36, 39, 61
Fischer, L. C., 231, 232
Flanagan, Thomas Jefferson, 149
Florence Crittenton Home, 73-74
Florida, The, 10-11
Flowerland, 231-32
Flowers, Tiger, 112
Fonerden, William Henry, 95
Formwalt, Moses W., 13, 14, 186
Forsyth Theater, 139
Fort McPherson, 37, 61, no, m, 209-
10
Fort Walker (site), 1,89
Forward Atlanta Movement, 38, 61
Fox Theater, 141
Frank, Leo, 34-35
INDEX
259
Frazee, Orion, 124
French, Daniel Chester, 205
Fuller, William Allen, 187, 191
Fulton Brass and String Band, 16,
28
Fulton County, 15-16, 17, 26, 32, 39,
73, 76, 159, 215; courts, 45, 46, 158;
Department of Public Welfare, 80;
Minute Men, 17; schools, 93
Fulton County Courthouse, 158-61, 115
Fulton, Hamilton, 8, 15-16
Fulton Minstrels, 135
Futrelle, Virginia, 140
Gaines, F. H., 218
Gammon, Elijah H., 196, 204
Gammon Theological Seminary, 195-
96, 91, 203; Foundation, 196; Gilbert
Haven Library, 196
Gate City Guard, 16, 35, 178
Gate City Silver Band, 128
Geary, John W., 18
General, The, 187, 191
General Conference of the Methodist
Church, 222, 224
Gentlemen's Driving Club, 177, 178
Georgia Association of Workers for
the Blind, 79
Georgia Baptist Orphans' Home, 74
Georgia Conference Manual Labor
School, 224
Georgia Conservatory of Music, 132
Georgia Department of Agriculture,
196, 221
Georgia Department of Archives and
History, 180-81, 123
Georgia Engineering Experiment Sta-
tion, 173
Georgia Federation of Labor, 69
Georgia Federation of Music Clubs,
Georgia League of Progressive De-
mocracy, 70
Georgia Library Commission, 170
Georgia Methodist Conference, 224
Georgia Military Academy, 211-12, 92
Georgia Power Company, 54, 55, 67
Georgia School of Technology, 172-77,
6, 29, 80, 91, 92, 93, 104, 105, no, in ;
auditorium-gymnasium, 176-77; Blue
Print, 174; Brittain Hall, 175-76;
Co-operative Plan, 173; Evening
School of Commerce, 80, 92 ; Eve-
ning School of Applied Science, 173 ;
Graduate Department, 172-73;
Georgia Tech Engineer, 174; Grant
Field, 113, 176; Guggenheim School
of Aeronautics, 175; Naval Armory,
176; Technique, 174; Yellow Jacket,
174; Yellow Jackets, 174
Georgia (Roxy) Theater, 140
Giles, Harriett, 201
Gilmer, George R., 9
Girls' German Club, 109
Glenn, Isa, 145
Glenn, John T., 221
Glenn, Luther J., 23, 25
Glenn, Mayor John T., 31, 32
Glenn Memorial Church, 224, 227
Glenn, Mrs. Thomas K., 180
Glenn, Thomas K., 227
Glenn, Wilbur, Fisk, Si, 227
Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament,
"3
Gone With The Wind, 39, 40, 115, 147
161, 165, 168
Good Samaritan Clinic, 78
Goodwin, John B , 178
Gordon, John B., 26, 128, 153, 167,
177, 184, 187, 232
Goulding, Francis R., 144, 219, 237
Goulding, Thomas, 219
Government, 41-47, n, 12, 13, 14-15,
37-38
Grady, Henry W., 165-66, 31, 66, 75,
99, 124, 143, 174, 177, 185
Grady Hospital, 75-76, 77, 78, 223
Grand Theater, 139, 140, 167-69
Grant, Bryan, 112
Grant, Hugh Inman, 176
Grant, John W., 176
Grant, Lemuel P., 188
Grant Park, 187-91, 20, 113
Gravath, E. M., 90
Graves, John Temple, 101
Gray, Agnes Kendrick, 146, 231
Gray, James A., 101
Great Oaks, 234, 237
Greater Atlanta Softball Association,
112-13
Greene, Ward, 145
Gress, George V., 188, 190
Griffith, Mary Butt, 132
Griffith School of Music, 132
Gunn, John E., 92
Haas, Aaron, 52
Hanleiter, C. R., 94, 95, 96
260
INDEX
Hannah Moore Female Collegiate In-
stitute, 214
Hanson, W. T., 174
Hapeville, 212, 4, 33, in, 159
Hardee, William J., 18, 19, 193
Harmsen, Ludwig, 128
Harreld, Kemper, 133
Harris, Joel Chandler, 53, 99, 123, 124,
143, 167, 198, 228
Harris, Julian, 126, 155, 164, 176, 222
Harris, N. E., 174
Harrison, Benjamin, 18
Hartsfield, William B., 37
Hartsock, Ernest, 145, 146
Harwood, Bertha, 130
Haven, Gilbert, 204
Haverty, J. J., 124
Hayden's Hall, 108
Healey Building, 61, 117
Hebrew Orphans' Home, 75
Hecht, Margaret, 132
Hecker, Minna, 132
Hemphill, William A., 74, 98, 99
Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Chil-
dren, 77, 79
Henry County, 213
Hentz, Hal, House, 119
Herndon, Angelo, 38, 69
Herndon, Claud J., 125
Hicky, Daniel Whitehead, 145, 146
Higgins, M. P., 175
High, Mrs. Joseph M., 124, 179
High Museum of Art, 178-80, 38, 124-
25
Hill, Benjamin H., 26, 27, 109, 153, 187
Hillside Cottages, 74
Hillyer School, 216
Hindman, T. C., 20
History, 8-40
Hodgson, Hugh, 132
Hoge, E. F., 100
Holland, Edmund Weyman, 89
Holland Free School, 89
Holloway, Sue, 74
Home Guard, 18
Home for Incurables, 76
Home for Old Women, 76
Home for the Friendless, 74
Hood, John B., 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
158, 183
Hook, Daniel, 83
Hope, John, 201
Hopewell Presbytery, 230
Hopkins, Isaac Stiles, 175
Hopkins, Linton C., 147
Hopson, Elizabeth, 132
Hord, Parker, 147
Home, J. B., Hpuse, 118
Hotchkiss, Charles T., 184
Housing Developments, 38-39, 119
Howard, T. C., 25
Howard Theater, 140
Howard, Thomas C., 96
Howell, Clark, 105
Howell, Evan P., 99, 198
Hudson, Scott, no
Huff House, 115, 184
Huff, Jeremiah, 183, 184
Huff, Sarah, 51, 53, 184
Humphries, Charner, 9
Hunt, John James, 83
Hunter, Louise, 140
Hurt Building, 6, 61
Hurt, Joel, 53
Hurt Memorial Association, 164
Hurt, Troup, House, 20
Hutchinson, Mary E., 125
Hutchinson, Minnie Belle, 125-26
Huyton, J. F., Company, 183
Indians, 48, 221 ; Cherokee, 9, 107,
233; Creek, 9, 159, 213, 221
Inman, Edward, House, 118
Inman, Mrs. Samuel M., Sr., House,
116
Inman, S. M., 221
International Association of Machin-
ists, 67
International Brotherhood of Black-
smiths, Drop Forgers, and Helpers,
67
International Cotton Exposition, 31, 59,
163
Irish Horse Traders, 156-57
Ivy, Hardy, 10
Jackson, Evelyn, 131
Jackson, Leroy, 125
Jackson, William, 213
Jacobs, Thornwell, 127, 145, 230
James House, 29
Janes, W. W., 88
Jefferson, Beatrice, 147
Joe Brown Pikes, 180-81
Joe Brown's Malish, 18
Joel Hurt Park, 163-64
Johnson, General, 20-21
Johnson, Georgia Douglas, 149
INDEX
26l
Johnston, Joseph E., 183-84, 18, 24, 52
Jones, Alexander Henry, 149
Jones, Darwin, 169
Jones Hall, 109
Jones, O. H., 51
Jones, Robert T., Jr. (Bobby), no, in
Journal, Atlanta, 91, 100-01, 101-02,
103, 104, 105, 113, 119, 165, 212-13
Junior League, 141
Kane, Edward, 132
Kay, Lambdin, 104
Keck, Charles, 204
Kidder, D. P., 196
Kimball, Edwin N., 30, 154
Kimball, H. I., 27-28, 30, 31, 154, 162-
63
Kimball House, 161-63, 28, 29, 100,
109, 116, 129
Kimball's Opera House, 27-28, 116,
154, 162
King, Barrington, 235, 236
King, Elinor Whittemore, 132
King, Julia, 165
King, Roswell, 234, 235
King's Daughters, 75, 76
Klein, Joseph, 126, 153
Klindworth Conservatory, 130
Knight, Lucian Lamar, 100, 181
Knight, Mary, 146
Knights of Labor, 66
Kriegshaber, Victor H., 79
Ku Klux Klan, 185, 211
Kurtz, Wilbur G., 125
Labor, 64-71
Ladies' Soldiers' Relief Society, 72
Lakewood Park, 194-95, 29, 36, no,
"3
Lamar, Lucius, Q. C., 227
Lamb, Thomas W., Inc., 168
Land, Emory, 175
Land, Jeff, 233
Lanier, Sidney, 128, 167, 230
Lee, Harry, 147
Lee, J. W., 203
Lee, S. D., 20
Legal Aid Society, 78
Leggett, M. D., 19
Leggett's Hill, 19-20
Leide, Enrico, 140
Lemare, Edwin H., 130
Leonard, Mr. & Mrs. J. S., 108
Liberty Broadcasting Company, 105
Libraries: Carnegie, 169-70, 79, 125,
228; Decatur Public Library Asso-
ciation, 217; Georgia Department of
Archives and History, 180-81; Geor-
gia Library Commission, 170; State,
155; Young Men's Library Associa-
tion, 28, 122, 169-70
Lion of Atlanta, 123, 187
Literature, 143-49
Litsner, Jamie, no
Little Theater Guild, 141
Llorens, Victor, 190
Logan, Carrie Steele, 74-75
Logan, John A., 20
Logan, Joseph C., 79
Logan, Joseph P., 76, in
Long, Stephen H., 9, 10
Loring, W. W., 18, 20
Love, Dave, 140
Lowndes, George, 60
Lukeman, Augustus, 220, 222
Lumpkin, Wilson, 8, 11
Lycett, William, 124
Lynch, Patrick, 115
Lyric Theater, 139
McCullough Rifles, 216
MacDowell Festival, 131
McGehee, Maude, 149
McGillivray, Alexander, 221
McGinty, J. T., 88
McKenna, Mrs. J. W., 77
McNamara, John, 157
McPherson, James B., 192-93, 19, 20,
209, 216
Maddox, Robert, 156
Maiden, Jimmy, no
Maiden, Stewart, no
Mallon, M. B., 90
Maney, George, 18, 19
Manigault, A. M., 20
Manufacturers' Association, 29
Maquino, Antonio, 108
Marietta Paper Mills, 233
Marist College, 170, 92
Marthasville, n, 41
Mason, Mrs. Frank T., 222
Masonic Order of Ancient and Ac-
cepted Scottish Rite, 77
Mattingly, Jane, 132
Maxwell, Gilbert, 146
Meade, George G., 26
Means, Alexander, 225
Menaboni, Athos, 125
262
INDEX
Mendelssohn Society, 120
Metcalf, Ralph Harold, 112
Metropolitan Opera Company, 38, 131,
140, 141, 164-65
Metropolitan Theater, 140
Michael, Moina, 153
Miller, John A., 183
Miller Union Stock Yards, 183
Millis, Walter, 146
Milton County, 39, 160
Mimosa Hall, 235-36, 115, 234
Mims, John F., 16, 72
Mitchell, Eugene, 169
Mitchell, Margaret, 39, 115, 147, 168
Mitchell, Samuel, 12, 157
Moody, Minnie Kite, 146, 147
Montgomery, J. M. C., 9
Moral Party, 14
Morehouse College, 200-01, 91
Morehouse, Henry L., 200
Moretti, G., 153
Morgan, John M., 128
Morris Brown College, 202-03, 91
Moses, Raphael J., 109
Motes, C. W., 122
Mueller, Mr. & Mrs. Kurt, 130
Mule Market, 182-83, 60
Mulligan, Mrs., 107
Municipal Auditorium, 164-65
Munn, William O., 132
Murdock Dramatic Club, 135
Murphey Guards, 216
Murphy, George E., 167
Museums: Cyclorama, 192; Emory
University, 228-29; Georgia Depart-
ment of Archives and History, 180-
81, 123; High Museum of Art, 178-
80, 38, 124; State Capitol, 153;
Wesley, 228; Wren's Nest, 197-98
Music, 127-33, 38, 104, 105, 140, 141,
164-65
Musser, Ben, 145
Mystic Owls, 30
Naegele, Charles, F M 125
Nance, A. Steve, 69
National Stockyards, 182-83
Neal, Robert, 126
Nevers' School, 88
Newman, Allen, 178
Newman, Frances, 145
Newspapers, 94, 102; Acanthus, 97;
Adair's Georgia Land Register, 97;
Age, 102; Capital, 166; Christian
Advocate, 96 ; Constitution, 67, 97,
98-100, 101, 105, 166, 198; Daily
Commercial Bulletin, 97; Daily Ex-
aminer, 96 ; Daily Intelligencer and
Examiner, 96; Daily Locomotive,
96; Daily Ne<w Era, 97, 98, 169;
Daily News, 101 ; Daily Opinion,
97 ; Daily Press, 101 ; Daily Tribune,
97; Daily True Georgian, 98; Daily
World, 102; Democrat, 94-95; Disci-
pline, 96; Educational Journal and
Family Magazine, 96 ; Enterprise,
94, 95; Gate City Guardian, 96, 97;
Georgia Blister and Critic, 96 ;
Georgia Weekly, 96; Georgian, 101,
102; Herald, 66, 96, 166; Independ-
ent, 102; Intelligencer, 14, 17, 96,
97, 98, 108, 121-22; Jeffersonian,
34-35; Journal, 91, 100-01, 101-02,
103, 104, 105, 113, 119, 165, 212-13;
Knight of Jericho, 96; Ladies Home,
97 ; Literary and Temperance Chris-
tian, 96; Luminary, n, 94-95; Med-
ical and Literary Weekly, 96 ; Na-
tional American, 96; People's Party
Paper, 101 ; Southern Advance, 97 ;
Southern Blade, 96 ; Southern Con-
federacy, 97; Southern Miscellany,
95, 96 ; Southern Miscellany and
Upper Georgia Whig, 121; Sunny
South, 97; Temperance Champion,
96; Tribune, 95; Weekly Defiance,
102 ; Weekly Republican, 97 ; Weekly
Republican and Democrat, 96
Newton, John, 18
Nichols, Professor, 109
Nine O'clock Club, no
Nissen, James, 187
Norcross, Jonathan, 14, 15, 29, 53, 56,
74, 82, 96
North Avenue Presbyterian School, 92
Northen, William J., 166, 187
Nunnally, Catherine, 125
Nunnally, Hugh, House, 119
Oakland Cemetery, 185-87, 24, 52, 157
O'Callaghan, Annie Grace, 132
Ocherberg, 124
Ogburn, Dorothy, 147
Ogilbie's School, Mrs. T. S., 88
Oglethorpe College, 230
Oglethorpe Park, 31, 163
Oglethorpe University, 229-31, 6, 91,
92, 105, 145 ; Crypt of Civilization,
INDEX
263
230-31; Hermance Stadium, 113,
230; Lake Phoebe, 229; Press, 230
O'Hara, Pat, 157
Old Guard, 35, 161, 178
Old Lamp Post, 161
Old Sope, 233
Oliver, Elizabeth Paxton, 125
O'Neill, J. F., 83
O'Reilly, Father, 86, 156
Orme, Mrs. Priestly, 222
Orpheum Theater, 138
Packard, Sophia B., 201, 202
Pappenheimer, Mr. and Mrs. John,
130
Paramount Theater, 140
Park, Emily, 181
Parkins, William H., 116
Parks, 46, in, 112, 113; Grant, 187-92,
20, 113; Joel Hurt, 163-64; Lake-
wood, 194-95, 29, 36, no, 113; Ogle-
thorpe, 31, 163; Piedmont, 177-78,
32, 35, 113, 129; State Square, 157-
58, 162
Parr's Hall, 16, 134
Patterson, J. W., 183
Pauley, William C., 164
Peace Jubilee, 35, 178
Peace Monument, 178
Peacock School for Boys, 92
Pearce, Haywood, Jr., 146
Pease's Bar, 169
Peck, William Henry, 144
Peel, Colonel and Mrs. William L.,
130
Pemberton, J. S., 60
Pergament, Lola, 146
Peters, Richard, 57, 175
Phagan, Mary, 34, 35
Piedmont Driving Club, no
Piedmont Exposition, 31, 177
Piedmont Park, 177-78, 32, 35, 113, 129
Pilcher, P. P., 217
Playcrafters, 141
Ponce de Leon Springs, 52, 109
Ponselle, Rosa, 104
Pope, John, 25, 26
Populist Party, 33
Prather Home School for Girls, 129
Pratt, Nathaniel, 236, 237
Prince, Don, 147
Providence Infirmary, 226
Pryor, Allen, 50
Public Welfare, 72-80
Quintard, Charles T., 85
Raccoon Roughs, 128, 185
Radio, 103-06
Radio Stations: WAGA, 102, 105-06;
WATL, 105, 230; WGST, 104-05;
WGM, 105; WJTL, 105, 230; WSB,
IO2, 103-04, 105-06
Ragan, Joseph, 131
Railroads, 28, 43, 55, 56, 57-58, 59,
60, 157-58; Atlanta & Charlotte Air
Line (Georgia Air Line), 16, 29,
51 ; Atlanta & West Point, 16, 20,
21, 127-28, 210, 2ii ; Central of
Georgia, 212; Georgia, 12, 18, 20,
28, 50, 56, 94, 157, 158, 189, 221;
Georgia Western, 16, 51; Macon &
Western (Monroe), 10, 12, 20, 21-
2 3> 5> S^, 107, 108, 114, 158; South-
ern, 54, 55; Western & Atlantic, 3,
8, 9, xo-ii, 12, 14, 21, 23, 49-50, 51,
56, 57, 108, 157, 158, 192
Ramey, George, 125
Raper, Arthur, 146
Reconstruction, 24-30, 59, 65-66, 72-73,
90, 97-98, 108, 109, 116, 122, 128,
143, 154, 160, 162, 185
Reed, G. H., Report, 47
Reed, Martha, 87, 89
Reed, Wallace P., 22, 100
Reid, Neel, 18, 235
Religion: 81-86, 13-14; Baptist, 81, 82-
83, 83-84, 85, 86, 165, 200, 201, 212,
215; Christian Scientist, 86; Church
of Christ, 86, 131; Church of God,
86; Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-
ter-Day Saints, 86; Church of the
Nazarene, 86; Congregationalist,
86; Disciples of Christ, 86; Episco-
palian, 13, 81, 83, 85, 86; Jewish,
75, 84, 86, 137; Lutheran, 86; Meth-
odist, 13, 78-79, 81, 82, 84, 86, 133,
i59 l6 7, 195, 196, 203, 215, 222,
224, 227, 228; Presbyterian, 13-14,
77, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 92,
,115, 214-15, 218-19; Roman Catholic,
13, 82, 83, 85, 86, 91, 92, 116; Sev-
enth-day Adventist, 86 ; Unitarian,
86; Universalist, 86
Renick, E. I., 165
Reynolds, General, 20
Rhodes, A. G., 76, 180, 181
Rhodes, A. G., House, 116, 180-181
Rhodes-Haverty Building, 119
264
Rhodes Memorial Hall, 180-81, 116,
123
Rich's Building, 119
Riots: 1851, 14-15, 42; 1906, 33-34
Ripley, Thomas, 147
Robert, Louisa, 112
Robinson, Mrs. F. M., 76
Rockefeller, John D., 201-02
Rockefeller, Laura Spelman, Memo-
rial, 200
Rogers-Haverty House, 118
Rogers, Robert S., 124
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 165, 176,
178, 236
Roosevelt, Theodore, Sr., 235, 236
Roper, Mrs. Walter G., 222
Roper-Riley House, 118
Rossini Club, 129
Roswell, 233-37, 39, 115, 160
Roswell Mills, 234-35
Rowdy Party, 14-15
Royal, W. H., 95
Sacred Heart School, 92
Sanford, E. V., 221
Sawyer, Benjamin Franklin, 144
Schleiwen String Quartette, 130
Schofield, G. W., 21, 178, 233
Schools, early, 12, 15, 87-90
Schools, Colleges, and Universities:
Agnes Scott, 217-18, 6, 38, 91, 93,
104, 132, 223; Atlanta School of So-
cial Work, 91, 92, 198, 199, 200;
Atlanta University, 198-200, 5, 6,
28, 91, 141, 148, 149, 202, 204;
Atlanta public schools, 28-29, 89-90;
Board of Education, 90, 93; Carne-
gie Library Training School of At-
lanta, 225; Clark College, 203-04,
91 ; Columbia Theological Seminary,
218-19; Decatur public schools, 93,
216; DeKalb County schools, 93,
214, 216, 220; Emory University,
222-29, 6, 38, 92, 93, 104, 117, 132,
141, 196, 218; Fulton County schools,
93 ; Gammon Theological Seminary,
195-96, 91, 203; Georgia Conserva-
tory of Music, 132; Georgia Mili-
tary Academy, 211-12, 92; Georgia
School of Technology, 172-77, 6, 29,
80, 91, 92, 93, 104, 105, no, in,
113; Griffith School of Music, 132;
High Museum School of Art, 124-25,
38, 179; Marist College, 170, 92;
INDEX
Morehouse College, 200-01; Morris
Brown College, 202-03, 9*J North
Avenue Presbyterian School, 92;
Oglethorpe University, 229-31, 6, 91,
92, 105, 113, 145; Peacock School
for Boys, 92; Sacred Heart School,
92; Southern Dental College, 29;
Spelman College, 201-02, 91, 209;
University System of Georgia Eve-
ning School and Junior College, 80,
92; Washington Seminary, 181-82,
92
Scott, Emma, 181, 182
Scott, George F., 218
Scott, L. D., 181
Scott, William A., 102
Scruggs, Anderson, 146
Seely, F. L., 101
Seigler, Maurice, 124
Seydell, Mildred, 146
Sharp, General, 20
Sheldon, Charles A., Jr., 131
Sheltering Arms Nursery, 74
Shelton, William A., 228
Sherman, W. T., 7, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24,
58, 59, 85, 143, 162, 183, 226
Sherman Reconstruction Bill, 24, 25,
98
Shivers, Tom, 48
Shrine of Declaration of Independence
and Constitution of the U. S., 181
Shute, Ben E., 124
Silvey, John, 83
Silvey-Speer House, 116
Skidmore, Lewis, 124
Slaton, John M., 35
Slavery, 15, 57, 64, 65, 215
Smith, Charles, 99, 144
Smith, Earle Chester, 99, 132
Smith, Giles A., 19
Smith, Hoke, 187
Smith, James Milton, 163
Smith, Jasper N., 187
Smith, Osborne, 81
Soap Creek Paper Mills Ruins, 232-33,
57
Social Planning Council, 79
Social Service Index, 77
Social Welfare Society, 79
Southeastern Fair, 194, 195
Southeastern Fair Association, 36, 194
Southern Central Agricultural Society,
16, 108, 121, 221
Southern College of Pharmacy, 92
INDEX
265
Southern College of Physicians & Sur-
geons, 92
Southern Commercial Congress, 35
Southern Dental College, 29
Southern Female Seminary, 92
Southern League, 109
Southern Library School, 225
Southern Medical College, 28, 91, 226
Spanish-American War, 32, 209-10
Spelman College, 201-02, 91, 209
Spelman Nursery School, 202
Spelman Seminary, 202
Spencer, Samuel, Monument, 205
Sports and Recreation, 107-13
Stallings, Laurence, 144
Standing Peachtree, The, 9, 10, 48
Stanton, Frank L., 53, 100, 144
Stanton, Lucy May, 123
Starnes, Percy, 130
State Capitol, 153-55, 4, 27, 28, 123,
162, 165, 181; library, 155; State
Office Building, 126, 155
State Farmers' Market, 196-97
State Game Farm, 229
State Re-employment Office, 77
State Square, 12, 50, 157-58
State Square Park, 157-58, 162
Steedman, Marguerite, 119, 146
Steele, J. H., 96
Steiner Clinic, 78
Stephens, Alexander H., 167, 174, 185,
187
Stephens, Linton, 163
Stephens, Nan Bagby, 132, 145
Stevens, C. H., 18
Stevenson, General, 20
Stewart, Alexander P., 18, 20-21
Stewart, George W., 76
Stewart Missionary Foundation for
Africa, 195
Stiles, J. C., 84
Stirling, Alexa, in
Stokes, Thomas, 54, 147
Stone Mountain, 220-22, 108, 180, 193
Stone Mountain Memorial Association,
222
Storr's School, 90
Stringfellow, Henry, 9
Styles, Carey W., 98
Suburban towns, 4; Alpharetta, 159;
Avondale Estates, 213, 219-20;
Chamblee, 213; Clarkston, 213; Col-
lege Park, 211, 33, 159; Decatur,
213-17, 9, n, 14, 18, 19, 210-11;
East Point, 210-11, 159; Fairburn,
21, 159; Hapeville, 212, 33, 159;
Lithonia, 213; North Atlantic, 213;
Palmetto, 159; Pine Lake, 213; Red
Oak, 21 ; Roswell, 233-37, I]C 5> X 59;
Scottdale, 5; Stone Mountain, 213;
Union City, 159
Suddeth, Ruth Elgin, 145
Sutherland, 184-85
Sweeney, T. W., 19
Tarleton, Fisewood, 145
Templeton, John, 137
Terminal Station, 3, 54, 55
Terminus, The, 8-n, 48, 114, 159
Terrell, William, 222
Texas, The, 191
Theater, 135-42
Theological Seminary of the Synod
of South Carolina and Georgia, 219
Thomas, George H., 18, 184
Thomas, Steffen, 126
Thompson, Joseph, 161
Thomson, J. Edgar, 12
Thrasher, John, 10, 56, 107, 114
Tilton, Edward L., 228
Toombs, Robert, 26, 27, 109, 124,
185
Transportation, 48-55
Treaty of 1821, 9, 159, 213
Tupper, Samuel, Jr., 147
Turner, Joseph Addison, 198
Turner Theological Seminary, 202
Turner, "Uncle Allen," 224
Turn Verein, 108
Twelfth Night Mystic Brotherhood, 30
Typographical Union, 66
Uncle Remus Memorial Association,
198
Union Depot, 52, 55, 158, 162
Union School and Church, n, 81-82,
Is
United Daughters of the Confederacy,
153, 161, 222
United States Government: Atlanta
General Depot, 36-37, 62, 209; Fed-
eral Penitentiary, 193-94; Federal
Reserve Bank, 36, 61 ; Fort McPher-
son, 209-10, 36, 61, in, 209; Hous-
ing Agencies, 38; Lawson General
Hospital, 232, 36, 62; NYA, 80;
PWA, 38; U. S. Naval Reserve Avi-
ation Base, 232, 36, 62
266
INDEX
University System of Georgia, 79, 80,
92, 172, 175
Venable, Samuel, 222
Venable, Willis, 60
Vollmer, Lula, 145
Volunteer Light Infantry Company,
215
Waldron Family, 137
Walker, Samuel, 177
Walker, W. H. T., 193, 18, 19, 20,
189, 216
Wallace, Anne, 170, 225
Walthall, E. C., 18, 21
Walthour, Bobby, no-n
Wangelin, H., 20
War between the States, 16-24, 43, 5 1 *
58-59, 85, 89, 96-97, 122, 128, 135-37,
143, 153, 156, 158, 161, 162, 167,
180-81, 183-84, 185, 187, 189-90, 191-
93, 2O9, 2IO, 215-16, 22O-2I, 226,
230, 233, 234, 236-37
Ward, W. T., 18
Ware, Edmund Asa, 199
Warren, Henry W., 196
Warren, James E., Jr., 145, 146
Washington, Booker T., 204-05, 132,
178
Washington, Booker T., Monument,
204-05
Washington Hotel, 96
Washington, Misses, 181
Washington Seminary, 181-82, 92
Watson, Thomas E., 34, 101, 153, 185
Weegand, Ruth, 132
Wehner, William, 190
Wells, Jake, 139
Wesley Memorial Hospital, 17, 225
Western Union Building, 61
Westmoreland, John G., 225
Wheeler, Charles L., 95
Wheeler, Howard, 112
Wheeler, Joseph E., 19, 167
White Barn Theater, 141
White, Walter F., 148
White, William N., 57, 64, 87, 114
Whitehall Tavern, 9-10, 12, 48, 50,
107, 114
Whitehead-Riley House, 18
Whiteside, Mary Brent, 146
Whiting, Helen A., 148-49
Whitmire, Fannie, 237
Whitney, Eli, 8
William-Oliver Building, 6, 119
William R. Smith, The, 191
Williams, A. S., 18
Williams Business College, 203
Williams, James E., 134
Willis, G. F., 220
Wilson, Alexander N., 89
Wilson, John S., 13, 82, 214
Wilson, Woodrow, 165, 35, 219
Withers, Julia Carlisle, 186
Woman's Choral Club, 131
Woman's Exchange, 66, 129
Woman's Industrial Union, 66
Wood, Leonard, 36, no, 174, 209-10
Woodruff, Hale, 126
Woodward, James, 211
Woodward, James A., 33
Woodward, Vann, 146
Work Projects Administration: 38, 79,
80, 112, 132, 141-42, 146, 164, 177,
190-91, 200
World's Fair and Great International
Cotton Exposition, 31, 59, 163
World War I, 36, 68, 144, 210, 232
Wren's Nest, 197-98
Wright, Mrs. J. A., 127
Wurm, Ferdinand, 128-29
Yarbrough, C. H., 95
Yates, Charlie, in
Yonah, The, 191
Y.M.C.A., in
Young Men's Library Association, 28,
122, 169-70
Zimmer, Fritz, 126
Zimmer, W. J., 83
Zoo, 188-89
/v
LCOtt
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