https://www.hairofthedawg.net/ Sat, 19 Sep 2026 04:26:35 +0000 MyBB https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-15251.html Wed, 09 Sep 2026 02:30:11 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-15251.html Nature's Favorite State. They let me create this separate Forum on this Georgia Football Site so I ran with it because I Love Georgia so much. One way to enjoy this Forum is to go to the oldest page to see the first Georgia Natural Wonder, which was the Long Swamp Valley Marble Vein. No longer an official Wonder, but I have so many places listed here that I have gone way past the 7 Natural Wonders of Georgia. You can go in order or surf around, again they are not ranked past the original 7, the revised 7, and maybe at first. I'm just going anywhere down here at this point.


With my daughters in the Okefenokee Swamp. Serious look, surrounded by Gators. Daughter not impressed. Her twin sister had a better experience. Great side trip on way to Georgia Florida game. (GNW #8)

I've been adding a TRD Scrolling Nugget for you to play as you view the post.


Georgia State Song.


A recent Panoramic from my Condo in Atlanta.


With hiking daughter and Onyx at Cherokee Bluffs. (GNW #233) With some random kid at Mill Creek Falls with Hendrix. (GNW #32)

Have covered the ten tallest peaks, the ten best swamps, the ten best caves. I had themes - Mountains to Ocean - National Landmarks - Old South - White Water - Boulder Fields - Springs - Waterfalls - Beaches - Different Counties - All the State Parks - Revolutionary/Indian/Civil War Battles. There are 10 post on Savannah and 5 post on Athens. We are just now getting to Atlanta. 

 
TRD in front on 7 foot falls Chattooga River, (GNW #18) Niece riding on back of TRD at Wildcat Creek, (GNW #87)  Daughters at Copper Mine rapids Chestatee River. (GNW #88)

I have huge History Tangents, so much so, that I spent several post just on history of a county rather than it actually being a new Natural Wonder of Georgia. 331 Post 282 Wonders at time of this edit.  


Folks seem to click on my Cave post because there is not a lot about Caves on the Internet. (GNW #145) I still hold record for Highest Snow Man in Georgia atop Brasstown Bald. (GNW #20)

Some of my HOTD brothers suggested a pretty Georgia Natural Wonder Gal at the end of each post so I may have gone overboard on some of those, but it helps drive the views, especially from my HOTD Brothers and Sisters.


With Son at Hemlock Falls at Moccasin Creek State Park (GNW #36) and with Pop, and Son at Frat Beach on St. Simons Island. (GNW #60)

I know I have plagiarized and appropriated many images, but it's in an effort to show the Great State of Georgia in ALL it's Glory. 

 
With two year old son Cloudland Canyon (GNW #10) and other Niece on Tray Mountain with her boyfriend at time. (GNW #13)

I have used Wikipedia and New Georgia Encyclopedia. Have featured images and text from Vanishing Georgia, American Whitewater, Atlanta Trails, Sherpa Guide, Face Book, Trip Advisor, etc. 


Wife and twins atop Blood Mountain. (GNW #12) Wife and family Edge of the World Rapids. (GNW #38)

Used all my old Family images on some of these camp-outs and hikes. 


Blood Mountain Creek Falls (GNW #43) and Mount Yonah. (GNW #14)

Have been trying to explore more for my own photos. I have been trying to get better at giving credit for information given, contact me if I've fallen short, and I will edit (Hopefully not forced to delete). Not really for profit but getting close to a Million Views. A labor of Love, the view count on the old Forum is listed.


Rock City with Kids & Hulk Hogan? (GNW #22) and on Minnehaha Falls. (GNW #41)

I am a Tour Guide with Atlanta Sightseeing Bus Tours if you ever come to Atlanta Monday through Friday 9 to 2. Half price if you use Groupon. Some people say I talk too much kinda like these post, but most everyone (.97) loves the Tour and my musical interludes. 

 Jamming with Kermit Belt Line.
They make me wear this Yellow Shirt every day.

I can do after hours (after 2 and on some weekends) Civil Rights, Civil War, or General Tours. Enjoy my Forum and the Great State of Georgia. Good for recruiting, builds Love for the great state of Georgia, come to UGA.  Or, if you live in (Or visit) Georgia, find all these places for weekend getaways. I have several more places lined up to feature but if you have a recommendation, PM me. Since it is a Georgia Bulldog Message Board ....Go Dawgs!

]]> Nature's Favorite State. They let me create this separate Forum on this Georgia Football Site so I ran with it because I Love Georgia so much. One way to enjoy this Forum is to go to the oldest page to see the first Georgia Natural Wonder, which was the Long Swamp Valley Marble Vein. No longer an official Wonder, but I have so many places listed here that I have gone way past the 7 Natural Wonders of Georgia. You can go in order or surf around, again they are not ranked past the original 7, the revised 7, and maybe at first. I'm just going anywhere down here at this point.


With my daughters in the Okefenokee Swamp. Serious look, surrounded by Gators. Daughter not impressed. Her twin sister had a better experience. Great side trip on way to Georgia Florida game. (GNW #8)

I've been adding a TRD Scrolling Nugget for you to play as you view the post.


Georgia State Song.


A recent Panoramic from my Condo in Atlanta.


With hiking daughter and Onyx at Cherokee Bluffs. (GNW #233) With some random kid at Mill Creek Falls with Hendrix. (GNW #32)

Have covered the ten tallest peaks, the ten best swamps, the ten best caves. I had themes - Mountains to Ocean - National Landmarks - Old South - White Water - Boulder Fields - Springs - Waterfalls - Beaches - Different Counties - All the State Parks - Revolutionary/Indian/Civil War Battles. There are 10 post on Savannah and 5 post on Athens. We are just now getting to Atlanta. 

 
TRD in front on 7 foot falls Chattooga River, (GNW #18) Niece riding on back of TRD at Wildcat Creek, (GNW #87)  Daughters at Copper Mine rapids Chestatee River. (GNW #88)

I have huge History Tangents, so much so, that I spent several post just on history of a county rather than it actually being a new Natural Wonder of Georgia. 331 Post 282 Wonders at time of this edit.  


Folks seem to click on my Cave post because there is not a lot about Caves on the Internet. (GNW #145) I still hold record for Highest Snow Man in Georgia atop Brasstown Bald. (GNW #20)

Some of my HOTD brothers suggested a pretty Georgia Natural Wonder Gal at the end of each post so I may have gone overboard on some of those, but it helps drive the views, especially from my HOTD Brothers and Sisters.


With Son at Hemlock Falls at Moccasin Creek State Park (GNW #36) and with Pop, and Son at Frat Beach on St. Simons Island. (GNW #60)

I know I have plagiarized and appropriated many images, but it's in an effort to show the Great State of Georgia in ALL it's Glory. 

 
With two year old son Cloudland Canyon (GNW #10) and other Niece on Tray Mountain with her boyfriend at time. (GNW #13)

I have used Wikipedia and New Georgia Encyclopedia. Have featured images and text from Vanishing Georgia, American Whitewater, Atlanta Trails, Sherpa Guide, Face Book, Trip Advisor, etc. 


Wife and twins atop Blood Mountain. (GNW #12) Wife and family Edge of the World Rapids. (GNW #38)

Used all my old Family images on some of these camp-outs and hikes. 


Blood Mountain Creek Falls (GNW #43) and Mount Yonah. (GNW #14)

Have been trying to explore more for my own photos. I have been trying to get better at giving credit for information given, contact me if I've fallen short, and I will edit (Hopefully not forced to delete). Not really for profit but getting close to a Million Views. A labor of Love, the view count on the old Forum is listed.


Rock City with Kids & Hulk Hogan? (GNW #22) and on Minnehaha Falls. (GNW #41)

I am a Tour Guide with Atlanta Sightseeing Bus Tours if you ever come to Atlanta Monday through Friday 9 to 2. Half price if you use Groupon. Some people say I talk too much kinda like these post, but most everyone (.97) loves the Tour and my musical interludes. 

 Jamming with Kermit Belt Line.
They make me wear this Yellow Shirt every day.

I can do after hours (after 2 and on some weekends) Civil Rights, Civil War, or General Tours. Enjoy my Forum and the Great State of Georgia. Good for recruiting, builds Love for the great state of Georgia, come to UGA.  Or, if you live in (Or visit) Georgia, find all these places for weekend getaways. I have several more places lined up to feature but if you have a recommendation, PM me. Since it is a Georgia Bulldog Message Board ....Go Dawgs!

]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-14774.html Sat, 11 Jul 2026 20:26:16 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-14774.html Georgia Natural Wonder #283 - Georgia Aquarium 

As per Wikipedia, the Georgia Aquarium is a public aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The aquarium exhibits hundreds of species and thousands of animals across its seven major galleries, all of which reside in more than 11 million US gallons of water. It was the largest aquarium in the world from its opening in 2005 until 2012 when it was surpassed by the S.E.A. Aquarium in Singapore and the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China; the Georgia Aquarium remains the largest aquarium in the United States and the sixth largest in the world.



A $250 million donation from the foundation of local businessman and The Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus provided the bulk of the funding needed to build and stock the new facility.



The aquarium's notable specimens include whale sharks, beluga whales, California sea lions, bottlenose dolphins, manta rays, sea otters, and tiger sharks. Its centerpiece is a 6.3 million US gallons whale shark exhibit.

History

In November 2001, Bernard Marcus announced his vision of presenting Atlanta with an aquarium that would encourage both education and economic growth. After visiting 56 aquariums in 13 countries with his wife, Billi Marcus, he donated $250 million toward what was to become Georgia Aquarium. Corporate contributions totaling an additional $40 million allowed the aquarium to open debt-free.

Founding president and executive director of the aquarium, Jeff Swanagan, was brought in as the aquarium's first employee in 2002 and served until 2008. He is largely credited with the creation of the aquarium, from the design of the structure to the procurement of animals for the exhibits.

The aquarium is in Downtown Atlanta on land donated by The Coca-Cola Company, adjacent to Atlantic Station and just north of Centennial Olympic Park. It has a blue metal-and-glass exterior. The world's largest when it opened in November 2005, the aquarium originally encompassed 550,000 square feet of covered space, and its exhibits held 8 million US gallons of fresh and saltwater. Subsequent additions to the collection and redesigns of some habitats have increased the total water held to 11 million US gallons. 20,000 pounds of frozen food for the animals on exhibit is kept hidden from visitors in a stainless steel commissary at −20 °F.

After 27 months of construction, the aquarium opened with 60 animal habitats. Though the non-profit aquarium's admission charges are among the highest in the United States, attendance has far exceeded expectations, with 1 million visitors in the first 100 days, 3 million by August 2006, 5 million by May 2007, and 10 million by June 2009. The Aquarium is part of the Smithsonian Affiliations program and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

In 2019, the show The Aquarium premiered on Animal Planet, documenting animal care and conservation work at the Georgia Aquarium. The show spotlighted various aquarium residents including a whale shark named Yushan, a sea turtle named Tank, and a penguin named Charlie. After the show ended following a two-season, twenty-episode run, Discovery+ began streaming the series, and the Georgia Aquarium subsequently partnered with the service to produce more content about animal experiences and conservation.

Collection

Whale sharks

The aquarium was designed around a 6.3 million US gallons whale shark exhibit, making it the first institution outside of Asia that houses the giant species.

The whale sharks' importation from Taiwan (by air, truck, and boat) had never been attempted previously. They were taken from Taiwan's annual fishing kill quota, under which they would have been eaten had they not been purchased by the aquarium. The aquarium's most famous specimens were four young sharks named Ralph, Norton, Alice, and Trixie, after the primary characters from The Honeymooners. Ralph and Norton died in 2007.


Also in 2007, the aquarium received two new sharks ("Taroko", commemorating Taroko Gorge National Park, and "Yushan" after Taiwan's Jade Mountain) just before a ban on capture of that species took effect. Trixie died after her health declined in 2020. Alice died in 2021. Taroko was euthanized in 2025 after medical staff noticed changes in his appetite and behavior.

Manta rays

The aquarium is only one of four sites in the world displaying a manta ray. Nandi, the aquarium's first manta ray, and the first manta ray on display in the country, was accidentally caught in nets protecting the South African coast from sharks. She joined the Ocean Voyager exhibit in 2008. A second, Tallulah, was added in September 2009. A third, Raven, was added in 2010, with the aquarium's first male manta (later named Blue) added shortly thereafter. Raven subsequently died, leaving the facility with three mantas.

Beluga whales

The aquarium has been home to as many as five 11-foot beluga whales at once.

Males Nico and Gasper, acquired from an amusement park in Mexico, were joined by three females on breeding loan from the New York Aquarium: Marina, Natasha and Natasha's daughter, Maris. After Gasper and Marina died in 2007, the belugas were transferred to Sea World San Antonio, where Nico died in 2009. In 2010, Maris and a new male, Beethoven, were returned to the Georgia Aquarium while Natasha remained with a potential mate in San Antonio. Two young belugas, Grayson (male) and Qinu (female), also from San Antonio, were added in November 2010. Before transferring to the Shedd Aquarium in 2014, Beethoven fathered calves with Maris in 2012 and 2015, neither of which survived. Maris died of a heart defect in 2015. In 2016, Grayson was sent to Shedd Aquarium while SeaWorld Orlando's Aurek and Maple and Shedd Aquarium's Nunavik arrived on loan at Georgia Aquarium. In June 2017, Georgia Aquarium announced that Qinu was pregnant with her first calf, sired by Aurek, and was due in the fall of 2017. In September 2017, Aurek was transferred to Shedd Aquarium on a breeding loan. On November 8, 2017, the Aquarium announced that Qinu's calf had died from complications during birth.

In 2012, the beluga whale Maris gave birth to a female calf. After less than a week, the calf, who was born underweight, died. Although mortality rates of calves born to first-time mothers are extremely high, even in wild populations, Maris's second calf—born on Mother's Day in 2015—would survive less than a month. Maris died in October of the same year, reigniting the debate as to whether the captive beluga breeding program was humane or successful.

On January 14, 2020, the Georgia Aquarium announced that 20-year-old Whisper was pregnant and due to deliver a calf in April. Whisper delivered the calf, Shila, on May 17 that year.

In 2026, the Georgia Aquarium became one of several aquariums participating in the relocation of the remaining belugas from the closed Marineland of Canada in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Two male belugas, 10-year-old Balor and seven-year-old Zephyr, arrived at the aquarium on August 13, 2026. They were among 30 belugas relocated from Marineland to aquariums in the United States and Spain.

Balor and Zephyr travelled by cargo aircraft to Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport before being transported by truck to the aquarium, arriving at approximately 7 a.m. They were initially kept separately while they acclimated, but were introduced the following morning to the aquarium's four existing female belugas, Whisper, Maple, Qinu and Shila. Aquarium staff reported that the six whales were swimming and interacting together shortly after their introduction.

Following the transfers, the aquarium housed six belugas: Whisper, Maple, Qinu, Shila, Balor and Zephyr.

Exhibits

The aquarium's animals are displayed in seven galleries and exhibits: Tropical Diver, Ocean Voyager, Explorers Cove, Cold Water Quest, Southern Company River Scout, Dolphin Coast, Truist Pier 225 and Aquanaut Adventure: A Discovery Zone. Each exhibit corresponds to a specific environment.

Cold Water Quest features animals from the polar and temperate regions of the world and contains most of the mammal species in the Aquarium's collection. This exhibit includes beluga whales and harbor seals in an 800,000-US-gallon habitat, southern sea otters, Japanese spider crabs, weedy sea dragons, two types of puffins, and African penguins.

The largest exhibit, Ocean Voyager, built by the Home Depot, contains 6.3 million U.S. gallons of water and several thousand fish. It measures 284 ft × 126 ft and the depth ranges between 20 and 30 ft, making it the largest indoor aquatic habitat in the world. This exhibit is designed to feature the life of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System and showcases the Aquarium's whale sharks and manta rays as well as a 100 ft underwater acrylic tunnel and one of the world's largest viewing windows.

Truist Pier 225 holds California sea lions. Among its six animals, individuals named Jupiter and Neptune were rescued in the 2015 mass sea lion stranding in California. This exhibit also offers scheduled presentations about the species.

Dolphin Coast is home to the aquarium's pod of 13 common bottlenose dolphins in a 1.8 million U.S. gallons exhibit. This exhibit also features shorebirds such as roseate spoonbills and scarlet ibis.

Aquanaut Adventure: A Discovery Zone contains several smaller exhibits and multiple hands-on activities, including an augmented reality scavenger hunt using the aquarium's mobile app.

Sharks! Predators of the Deep opened on October 23, 2020, and it has a new 20-foot-deep tank that has great hammerhead sharks, sand tiger sharks, tiger sharks, silvertip sharks, silky sharks, zebra sharks, and round ribbontail rays. It features a dive cage, where visitors can be submersed in the tank. It has a wading pool where visitors can walk with rays and zebra sharks.

Explorers Cove opened in August 2024, and features touch pools with cownose rays and lake sturgeons.

Research and conservation

According to founder Bernard Marcus, the aquarium's conservation and environmental mission are equal in importance to its role as an attraction. Before opening, the aquarium was already working with Georgia Tech and Georgia State University in Atlanta and the University of Georgia in Athens to help save endangered species through education and research programs.

The acquisition of the male beluga whales, previously suffering in an inadequate environment, was hailed by Marcus as a prime example of the type of conservation activities the aquarium should be involved with. Roughly 100 tarpons stranded in a tidal pool at Skidaway Island, off the Georgia coast, were rescued for the collection. Coral used in exhibits at the Aquarium is grown in a collaboration between Georgia Tech and the University of the South Pacific, produced by suspending blocks of pumice over a reef near the village of Tagaqe, Fiji for eight months to allow seaweeds and reef invertebrates to establish colonies.

As of 2016, the Georgia Aquarium stated that it would not be taking whales or dolphins that have been caught in the wild.

In 2019, the Georgia Aquarium began participating in a coral project in conjunction with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and other AZA-accredited facilities. In an effort to save coral from a coral-bleaching disease in the Florida Keys, Georgia Aquarium is housing multiple species of coral at their facility. During the same year, the aquarium temporarily provided housing for the sea turtles of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, which were evacuated ahead of Hurricane Dorian.

The aquarium is involved in research initiatives that focus on whale sharks in the Yucatán Peninsula, beluga whales in Alaska, penguins in South Africa, manatees in Quintana Roo, Mexico, loggerhead sea turtles on the Georgia coast and spotted eagle rays in Sarasota, Florida. Its newest research project centers on bottle-nose dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon. As permanent residents at the top of the lagoon's food chain, they are indicators of its environmental health. The aquarium is partnering with Florida Atlantic University and the federal government to monitor the health of these animals, and to identify potential threats such as pollution and emerging infectious diseases.

New facilities and programs

In May 2008, the aquarium announced plans to build a $110 million expansion for a new dolphin exhibit. The expansion covers 84,000 square feet and contains 1.8 million US gallons of water. Located on the west side of the facility, the exhibit features space for live presentations, observation windows, and opportunities for visitors to interact with animals.

Construction began later in 2008 and was completed in late 2010. During part of the construction, the aquarium's three beluga whales were temporarily relocated to Sea World San Antonio. Beluga whales are very sensitive to sound, and while officials had not noted any excessive amounts of stress, it was decided to remove them anyway and eliminate the possibility. Unexpectedly, one of the three belugas, Nico, died at Sea World on October 31, 2009. A preliminary necropsy was unable to determine if Nico's death was caused by the move or by something else.

The Dolphin Celebration show opened to the public on April 2, 2011, and has been controversial. In 2016, the aquarium changed the format of the show to make it more educational.

On January 1, 2011, the aquarium purchased Marineland of Florida for a reported $9.1 million. The seller was Jim Jacoby, a metro Atlanta developer and member of the Georgia Aquarium board of directors, who bought the park in 2004 and re-developed it. In 2019, another company acquired Marineland of Florida.

In 2018, the aquarium announced its largest expansion to date, a $100 million, 45,000-square-foot endeavor featuring a new 1-million-US-gallon saltwater shark gallery, Sharks: Predators of the Deep, and a redesigned main entrance, planned to be completed in late Fall 2020. This new exhibit would include a variety of shark species. A temporary entrance was constructed by the end of 2018 to facilitate construction of the new expansion. The exhibit officially opened on October 23, 2020.

In 2025, the aquarium was the first in the U.S. to offer a free app that provides filters and AI tools to improve visibility of animals, signs, and menus for visually-impaired visitors.



]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #283 - Georgia Aquarium 

As per Wikipedia, the Georgia Aquarium is a public aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The aquarium exhibits hundreds of species and thousands of animals across its seven major galleries, all of which reside in more than 11 million US gallons of water. It was the largest aquarium in the world from its opening in 2005 until 2012 when it was surpassed by the S.E.A. Aquarium in Singapore and the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China; the Georgia Aquarium remains the largest aquarium in the United States and the sixth largest in the world.



A $250 million donation from the foundation of local businessman and The Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus provided the bulk of the funding needed to build and stock the new facility.



The aquarium's notable specimens include whale sharks, beluga whales, California sea lions, bottlenose dolphins, manta rays, sea otters, and tiger sharks. Its centerpiece is a 6.3 million US gallons whale shark exhibit.

History

In November 2001, Bernard Marcus announced his vision of presenting Atlanta with an aquarium that would encourage both education and economic growth. After visiting 56 aquariums in 13 countries with his wife, Billi Marcus, he donated $250 million toward what was to become Georgia Aquarium. Corporate contributions totaling an additional $40 million allowed the aquarium to open debt-free.

Founding president and executive director of the aquarium, Jeff Swanagan, was brought in as the aquarium's first employee in 2002 and served until 2008. He is largely credited with the creation of the aquarium, from the design of the structure to the procurement of animals for the exhibits.

The aquarium is in Downtown Atlanta on land donated by The Coca-Cola Company, adjacent to Atlantic Station and just north of Centennial Olympic Park. It has a blue metal-and-glass exterior. The world's largest when it opened in November 2005, the aquarium originally encompassed 550,000 square feet of covered space, and its exhibits held 8 million US gallons of fresh and saltwater. Subsequent additions to the collection and redesigns of some habitats have increased the total water held to 11 million US gallons. 20,000 pounds of frozen food for the animals on exhibit is kept hidden from visitors in a stainless steel commissary at −20 °F.

After 27 months of construction, the aquarium opened with 60 animal habitats. Though the non-profit aquarium's admission charges are among the highest in the United States, attendance has far exceeded expectations, with 1 million visitors in the first 100 days, 3 million by August 2006, 5 million by May 2007, and 10 million by June 2009. The Aquarium is part of the Smithsonian Affiliations program and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

In 2019, the show The Aquarium premiered on Animal Planet, documenting animal care and conservation work at the Georgia Aquarium. The show spotlighted various aquarium residents including a whale shark named Yushan, a sea turtle named Tank, and a penguin named Charlie. After the show ended following a two-season, twenty-episode run, Discovery+ began streaming the series, and the Georgia Aquarium subsequently partnered with the service to produce more content about animal experiences and conservation.

Collection

Whale sharks

The aquarium was designed around a 6.3 million US gallons whale shark exhibit, making it the first institution outside of Asia that houses the giant species.

The whale sharks' importation from Taiwan (by air, truck, and boat) had never been attempted previously. They were taken from Taiwan's annual fishing kill quota, under which they would have been eaten had they not been purchased by the aquarium. The aquarium's most famous specimens were four young sharks named Ralph, Norton, Alice, and Trixie, after the primary characters from The Honeymooners. Ralph and Norton died in 2007.


Also in 2007, the aquarium received two new sharks ("Taroko", commemorating Taroko Gorge National Park, and "Yushan" after Taiwan's Jade Mountain) just before a ban on capture of that species took effect. Trixie died after her health declined in 2020. Alice died in 2021. Taroko was euthanized in 2025 after medical staff noticed changes in his appetite and behavior.

Manta rays

The aquarium is only one of four sites in the world displaying a manta ray. Nandi, the aquarium's first manta ray, and the first manta ray on display in the country, was accidentally caught in nets protecting the South African coast from sharks. She joined the Ocean Voyager exhibit in 2008. A second, Tallulah, was added in September 2009. A third, Raven, was added in 2010, with the aquarium's first male manta (later named Blue) added shortly thereafter. Raven subsequently died, leaving the facility with three mantas.

Beluga whales

The aquarium has been home to as many as five 11-foot beluga whales at once.

Males Nico and Gasper, acquired from an amusement park in Mexico, were joined by three females on breeding loan from the New York Aquarium: Marina, Natasha and Natasha's daughter, Maris. After Gasper and Marina died in 2007, the belugas were transferred to Sea World San Antonio, where Nico died in 2009. In 2010, Maris and a new male, Beethoven, were returned to the Georgia Aquarium while Natasha remained with a potential mate in San Antonio. Two young belugas, Grayson (male) and Qinu (female), also from San Antonio, were added in November 2010. Before transferring to the Shedd Aquarium in 2014, Beethoven fathered calves with Maris in 2012 and 2015, neither of which survived. Maris died of a heart defect in 2015. In 2016, Grayson was sent to Shedd Aquarium while SeaWorld Orlando's Aurek and Maple and Shedd Aquarium's Nunavik arrived on loan at Georgia Aquarium. In June 2017, Georgia Aquarium announced that Qinu was pregnant with her first calf, sired by Aurek, and was due in the fall of 2017. In September 2017, Aurek was transferred to Shedd Aquarium on a breeding loan. On November 8, 2017, the Aquarium announced that Qinu's calf had died from complications during birth.

In 2012, the beluga whale Maris gave birth to a female calf. After less than a week, the calf, who was born underweight, died. Although mortality rates of calves born to first-time mothers are extremely high, even in wild populations, Maris's second calf—born on Mother's Day in 2015—would survive less than a month. Maris died in October of the same year, reigniting the debate as to whether the captive beluga breeding program was humane or successful.

On January 14, 2020, the Georgia Aquarium announced that 20-year-old Whisper was pregnant and due to deliver a calf in April. Whisper delivered the calf, Shila, on May 17 that year.

In 2026, the Georgia Aquarium became one of several aquariums participating in the relocation of the remaining belugas from the closed Marineland of Canada in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Two male belugas, 10-year-old Balor and seven-year-old Zephyr, arrived at the aquarium on August 13, 2026. They were among 30 belugas relocated from Marineland to aquariums in the United States and Spain.

Balor and Zephyr travelled by cargo aircraft to Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport before being transported by truck to the aquarium, arriving at approximately 7 a.m. They were initially kept separately while they acclimated, but were introduced the following morning to the aquarium's four existing female belugas, Whisper, Maple, Qinu and Shila. Aquarium staff reported that the six whales were swimming and interacting together shortly after their introduction.

Following the transfers, the aquarium housed six belugas: Whisper, Maple, Qinu, Shila, Balor and Zephyr.

Exhibits

The aquarium's animals are displayed in seven galleries and exhibits: Tropical Diver, Ocean Voyager, Explorers Cove, Cold Water Quest, Southern Company River Scout, Dolphin Coast, Truist Pier 225 and Aquanaut Adventure: A Discovery Zone. Each exhibit corresponds to a specific environment.

Cold Water Quest features animals from the polar and temperate regions of the world and contains most of the mammal species in the Aquarium's collection. This exhibit includes beluga whales and harbor seals in an 800,000-US-gallon habitat, southern sea otters, Japanese spider crabs, weedy sea dragons, two types of puffins, and African penguins.

The largest exhibit, Ocean Voyager, built by the Home Depot, contains 6.3 million U.S. gallons of water and several thousand fish. It measures 284 ft × 126 ft and the depth ranges between 20 and 30 ft, making it the largest indoor aquatic habitat in the world. This exhibit is designed to feature the life of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System and showcases the Aquarium's whale sharks and manta rays as well as a 100 ft underwater acrylic tunnel and one of the world's largest viewing windows.

Truist Pier 225 holds California sea lions. Among its six animals, individuals named Jupiter and Neptune were rescued in the 2015 mass sea lion stranding in California. This exhibit also offers scheduled presentations about the species.

Dolphin Coast is home to the aquarium's pod of 13 common bottlenose dolphins in a 1.8 million U.S. gallons exhibit. This exhibit also features shorebirds such as roseate spoonbills and scarlet ibis.

Aquanaut Adventure: A Discovery Zone contains several smaller exhibits and multiple hands-on activities, including an augmented reality scavenger hunt using the aquarium's mobile app.

Sharks! Predators of the Deep opened on October 23, 2020, and it has a new 20-foot-deep tank that has great hammerhead sharks, sand tiger sharks, tiger sharks, silvertip sharks, silky sharks, zebra sharks, and round ribbontail rays. It features a dive cage, where visitors can be submersed in the tank. It has a wading pool where visitors can walk with rays and zebra sharks.

Explorers Cove opened in August 2024, and features touch pools with cownose rays and lake sturgeons.

Research and conservation

According to founder Bernard Marcus, the aquarium's conservation and environmental mission are equal in importance to its role as an attraction. Before opening, the aquarium was already working with Georgia Tech and Georgia State University in Atlanta and the University of Georgia in Athens to help save endangered species through education and research programs.

The acquisition of the male beluga whales, previously suffering in an inadequate environment, was hailed by Marcus as a prime example of the type of conservation activities the aquarium should be involved with. Roughly 100 tarpons stranded in a tidal pool at Skidaway Island, off the Georgia coast, were rescued for the collection. Coral used in exhibits at the Aquarium is grown in a collaboration between Georgia Tech and the University of the South Pacific, produced by suspending blocks of pumice over a reef near the village of Tagaqe, Fiji for eight months to allow seaweeds and reef invertebrates to establish colonies.

As of 2016, the Georgia Aquarium stated that it would not be taking whales or dolphins that have been caught in the wild.

In 2019, the Georgia Aquarium began participating in a coral project in conjunction with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and other AZA-accredited facilities. In an effort to save coral from a coral-bleaching disease in the Florida Keys, Georgia Aquarium is housing multiple species of coral at their facility. During the same year, the aquarium temporarily provided housing for the sea turtles of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, which were evacuated ahead of Hurricane Dorian.

The aquarium is involved in research initiatives that focus on whale sharks in the Yucatán Peninsula, beluga whales in Alaska, penguins in South Africa, manatees in Quintana Roo, Mexico, loggerhead sea turtles on the Georgia coast and spotted eagle rays in Sarasota, Florida. Its newest research project centers on bottle-nose dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon. As permanent residents at the top of the lagoon's food chain, they are indicators of its environmental health. The aquarium is partnering with Florida Atlantic University and the federal government to monitor the health of these animals, and to identify potential threats such as pollution and emerging infectious diseases.

New facilities and programs

In May 2008, the aquarium announced plans to build a $110 million expansion for a new dolphin exhibit. The expansion covers 84,000 square feet and contains 1.8 million US gallons of water. Located on the west side of the facility, the exhibit features space for live presentations, observation windows, and opportunities for visitors to interact with animals.

Construction began later in 2008 and was completed in late 2010. During part of the construction, the aquarium's three beluga whales were temporarily relocated to Sea World San Antonio. Beluga whales are very sensitive to sound, and while officials had not noted any excessive amounts of stress, it was decided to remove them anyway and eliminate the possibility. Unexpectedly, one of the three belugas, Nico, died at Sea World on October 31, 2009. A preliminary necropsy was unable to determine if Nico's death was caused by the move or by something else.

The Dolphin Celebration show opened to the public on April 2, 2011, and has been controversial. In 2016, the aquarium changed the format of the show to make it more educational.

On January 1, 2011, the aquarium purchased Marineland of Florida for a reported $9.1 million. The seller was Jim Jacoby, a metro Atlanta developer and member of the Georgia Aquarium board of directors, who bought the park in 2004 and re-developed it. In 2019, another company acquired Marineland of Florida.

In 2018, the aquarium announced its largest expansion to date, a $100 million, 45,000-square-foot endeavor featuring a new 1-million-US-gallon saltwater shark gallery, Sharks: Predators of the Deep, and a redesigned main entrance, planned to be completed in late Fall 2020. This new exhibit would include a variety of shark species. A temporary entrance was constructed by the end of 2018 to facilitate construction of the new expansion. The exhibit officially opened on October 23, 2020.

In 2025, the aquarium was the first in the U.S. to offer a free app that provides filters and AI tools to improve visibility of animals, signs, and menus for visually-impaired visitors.



]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-14661.html Thu, 25 Jun 2026 06:28:04 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-14661.html Georgia Natural Wonder #282 - Cochran Mill Park

Our next Georgia Natural Wonder in Fulton County is located in Chattahoochee Hills Georgia, just 20 miles southwest of the Atlanta Airport, Cochran Mill Park. It has 800 acres of woods, fields, and streams, features stunning waterfalls, huge boulders, rock outcrops, wildflowers, native azaleas, mountain laurel, and the ruins of 3 historic mills. 


TRD image of Owen Cochran Mill, the easiest mill site close to parking.

The park takes its name from the grist mills operated by the Cochran family in the 1800s-1900s. The Henry family also operated a mill on the park’s west side around 1850.


The Orange trail is the popular choice. It takes you across the bridge to the Owens Cochran Mill. 

My TRD Scrolling Nuggets come from Eddie Cochran, who captured teenage frustration and desire in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. The Who made a hit of this song.

 

  
Cochran Mill is past bridge, vintage image from above falls. 

In 2010, donations from almost 400 local families in the City of Chattahoochee Hills allowed the City to purchase Cochran Mill Park from Fulton County. 

  
Not as much water at the Owens Cochran Mill, the day I visited. 

In 2013, a $100,000 Recreational Trails Program Grant from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources provided the funds to create a remarkable park transformation. Eight miles of new sustainable multi-use trails have been designed and constructed and ten miles of old trails have been rehabilitated. Other park improvements include a 2.5 mile Interpretive Trail, additional parking, an information kiosk, and a trail entrance arch. An ADA handicap accessible equestrian mounting block is easily accessible from the new parking areas.  

  
The Orange trail features fields, boulders and creek crossings. 

Thanks to the Recreational Trails Program Grant and the work of many volunteers, Cochran Mill Park now has 18 miles of sustainable multiple-use trails shared by hikers, horseback riders, mountain bikers, and trail runners. 

 
There is a waterfall going down Bear Creek. 

The Interpretive Trail follows the Orange Trail in a 2.5 mile loop along Little Bear Creek and Big Bear Creek and then returns through the woods. The first Orange Marker is located across the parking lot from the kiosk. This is an easy trail that is fairly well marked. Stick to the trail and explore as much as possible and the great reward will be unexpected rock slides. Signs of the old mill pop out in certain places. The trail is fairly well shaded and should be fine on a hot sunny day.

 
The Orange trail leads to the Berry Mill. 

 

Cochran Mill Park takes you through a setting rich in historical and natural characteristics. The park features beautiful waterfalls, enormous boulders, rock outcrops, wildflowers, native azaleas, and mountain laurels.

 

This Mill had the best water slide.

   

The trail goes through the forest and includes several hills. Along the trail, you may encounter wildlife like deer and snakes. There are some shaded and exposed areas. The trail is rocky and steep in places, so you'll need to be careful where you hike.



This is a beautiful trail in Cochran Mill Park. It meanders along lovely shaded trails, passing by waterfalls, creeks, and wildlife. The trail begins from Upper Wooten Road, where parking is available. Some sections of the trail can get quite muddy after rain. Take care when walking on rocks around the waterfalls and creeks, as they can be very slippery.

 

Highlights include beautiful waterfalls, scenic views, and well-marked trails. Challenges involve muddy sections and slippery rocks. Reviewers suggest wearing sturdy shoes, bringing bug spray, and using a trail app.



Set in a gently rolling forest, the Henry Mill Falls waterfall cascades over a broad, colorful rock outcrop, tumbling into a shallow pool below. It’s one of several stunning waterfalls at Cochran Mill Park, and the most remote of the falls, offering some mid-hike solitude and tranquility.

   

Cochran Mill Park is located southwest of Atlanta near Chattahoochee Hills. This adventure to Henry Mill Falls crosses several streams on the way to the site of a former mill. The trail rolls gently, following the tranquil flow of Bear Creek on this just-under-five-mile round trip to the waterfall.

Henry Mill Falls at Cochran Mill Park: the hike

The adventure begins at the park’s yellow trailhead (view maps and driving directions). The yellow trail meanders through a mixed pine and hardwood forest. The tree canopy towers above the fern and needle-filled forest floor, dappling the forest with sunlight. The hike descends steadily, meeting a gravel road at a third of a mile. This route turns right, following the gravel road westbound to a bridge spanning the shallow, smooth-flowing Cedar Branch Creek. 

  

After crossing the bridge, a number of yellow-blazed trails depart to the right. This hike follows the Old Swamp Trail (#9) roughly northbound to Bear Creek and a connection to the park’s red-blazed trail network. (Check out the official trail map for details. And a warning: the park’s extensive trail network can be very confusing. Multiple trails are blazed the same color, making it really easy to get lost.)


The hike crosses Bear Creek, connecting to the red-blazed trails on the other side. Depending on the creek’s flow and depth, the crossing can be moderate to difficult.



The hike turns left after crossing the creek, following the Bear Creek Trail (#14) northwest toward Henry Mill Falls. The trail crosses a small tributary, winding through a young forest dotted with lichen-covered boulders and smooth rock outcrops, gently rolling elevation along the creek banks. 



Large stone slabs dominate the creek’s bed as the sound of rushing water becomes audible on the trail. The hike reaches Henry Mill Falls, catching wide-open views of the waterfall on the vast rock outcrops and sandy shores just below the cascades.



 
Vintage image of Henry Mill, modern hiker on the edge. 

The return

The sandy banks below the waterfall make a great spot for a mid-hike break, and to soak in the beauty of the forest. Departing Henry Mill Falls, the route doubles back to the trailhead on its outbound route. 

 

The hike finishes at just under five miles, reaching the Cochran Mill Park trailhead and completing the adventure.

  

Note: slippery rocks and fast moving water can be extremely dangerous! Please don’t climb, stand on, swim near, or jump from any waterfall.

Time for a second Eddie Cochran Scrolling Nugget used in a Jane Mansfield flick. Paul McCartney played this song to impress John Lennon when they first met. 



TRD Visit with California Jill

 
We walked down from the parking lot to the bridge over Bear Creek. 

 
Looking up stream before the bridge and down stream from the bridge. 

 
Then upstream is the beautiful Cochran Mill Falls. 

 
Jill had set up picnic spot. 

  
Jill was chillin while TRD was back packing towels, water, and lunch.


Lot of water hole swimming. 

  
Lot of folks hanging out at upper falls in third image.

  
TRD got these general images. 

   
Then Jill violated photo etiquette taking these images of big belly TRD trying to negotiate to a spot where he could get his head into the water fall. 

  
I was wearing a size too small Kansas State shirt Jill got me because she is a Kansas State alumni, and I thought she would be impressed my wearing it. 

 
Then we walked down the Gold Trail in search for the other falls and mills along Upper Bear Creek. 

    
 Found some big trees and boulders. 


Was only suppose to be just a little over a mile to Berry Mill. Lord knows I wasn't going 5 miles to Henry Mill Falls and back.

 
Looking down to Upper Bear Creek from Gold Trail. My stamina is all gone from my medical treatment so we didn't make it to the Berry Mill.

 
On way back to car, Jill decide to hike to Upper Falls of the Cochran Mill. I found a shady spot to follow her.

  
Can see her up there taking selfies with feet in water. 

 
Jill came on an Atlanta City Bus Tour over a year ago, and she's been seen in a few Fulton County Georgia Natural Wonders. 

 
Still just a friend, we have more images from Jill to conclude the TRD visitation of today's Georgia Natural Wonder. 

These songs are kinda short so here is a third Eddie Cochran Scrolling Nugget. He died in a car accident, high speed Ride Share Taxi.



Fulton County (Part 11)

We continue our exploration of the 573 Historical Markers in Fulton County. We reviewed the first 200, and culled 54 Markers that weren't covered in the earlier 10 post on the Civil War in Atlanta and Oakland Cemetery. Some were covered in the 247 National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County. We have 373 Historical Markers left in Fulton County, but we will only list the Markers we have not covered in earlier post.

Hanley's Funeral Home

 
It is on Bell Street NE south of Auburn Avenue NE, on the left when traveling south.

Herndon Plaza 

 
It is on Auburn Avenue NE east of Courtland Street NE, on the right when traveling west.

Historic Reconciliation 

 
It is on Peachtree Street NE south of West Peachtree Street NW, on the right when traveling south. Marker is on a ground-level base in Hardy Ivy Park.

John Calhoun Park 

 
It is at the intersection of Piedmont Avenue NE and Auburn Avenue NE, on the right when traveling north on Piedmont Avenue NE.

Saint Joseph's 

 
It is at the intersection of Courtland Street NE and Baker Street NE, on the right when traveling south on Courtland Street NE.


Saint Joseph's Hospital vintage image. 

Southern Company 

 
It is at the intersection of Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard NW and Ted Turner Drive NW, on the right when traveling east on Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard NW.

Sweet Auburn Walk 


It is on Auburn Avenue east of Courtland Street NE, on the left when traveling east.



South-View Cemetery 

 
It is on Helena Road SE west of Jonesboro Road SE (Georgia Route 54), on the left when traveling east. Marker is near the cemetery entrance.

Capt. Grant's Vision for a Safe City 

 
Marker is Missing It was at the intersection of Peachtree Place Northwest and Spring Street Northwest, on the left when traveling west on Peachtree Place Northwest. Although his defensive plan for Atlanta failed, the city felt his influence in other, more positive ways. He donated the land for Grant Park, served as a councilman and was an influential civic leader.

  
Lemuel Pratt Grant (1817-1893) - His home is one of only four remaining antebellum houses in Atlanta.

Second Oldest D.A.R. Chapter 

  
It was on Piedmont Avenue 0.1 miles north of 14th Street, on the right when traveling south. We have been informed that this marker is no longer there and will not be replaced.

David and Frances Cotting 

  
It is on Peachtree Place NE 0 miles west of Crescent Avenue NE, on the right when traveling east. Cotting Estate is now Cotting Court Condos. 

Georgia Tech Meets Midtown

 
It is on 5th Street Northwest west of Spring Street Northwest, on the right when traveling west. 

James J. Andrews 

 
Spot where Andrews was hanged is at the intersection of Juniper Street and 3rd Street, on the left when traveling south on Juniper Street. 

   
Buster Keaton and Fess Parker played James Andrews in motion pictures.


Buried with other Raiders at Chattanooga National Cemetery. 

Land Lot 104 

 
It is on West Peachtree Street NE near Inwood Circle NE, on the right when traveling north. Marker in on the property of WSB-TV's studios, in a fenced and gated area.

 
George Washington Carver homestead is now where WSB White Columns is now. 

Margaret Mitchell 

  
It is on Peachtree Street at 17th Street NE, on the right when traveling north. This is her parents house where she grew up. 

 

Margaret Mitchell House 

 
It is on Peachtree Street just south of 10th Street NW, on the left when traveling north. The marker stands at the front of the Margaret Mitchell House, a ten-unit apartment building where she wrote Gone With the Wind. 

  
Front and back of apartments and Peggy pecking away on that Remington typewriter. 

 
Desk where she wrote and bedroom. 

Ponce de Leon Ball Park 


The marker is located behind the Whole Foods Market, in the main plaza. It is accessible from the delivery road at the back of the stores. 


The plaque sits atop a concrete pillar in the shape of home plate.


The marker sits under the famed Magnolia Tree, the last vestige of the ball park. The tree stood in the outfield and survives today.


Looking from the approximately location of the grandstands across the infield toward center and right fields. Today it is the site of Midtown Plaza.

  
Postcard - Can see the Sears and Roebuck - and the center field Magnolia Tree.  

One last Eddie Cochran Scrolling Nugget. Squeezing them in here for our Cochran Mill GNW. 



The Castle 

Also known as Fort Peace, covered this in GNW# 275. Here is the historical marker.

 

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer 

It is at the intersection of Peachtree Road NE and 4th Street, on the right when traveling north on Peachtree Road NE.

 

The Georgian Terrace Hotel 

We covered this with the Fox Theater Historic District in GNW# 275. Here is the Historical Marker. 

 

The Temple 

We covered this in GNW# 279. Here is the Historical Marker. 

 

Montgomery-DeFoor House Site 

It was at the intersection of Moore's Mill Road and Bolton Road, on the right when traveling south on Moore's Mill Road. It is believed the marker was hit by a bus, probably sometime in 2005.

  

 Vintage image of house. 

All the rest of the Historical Markers for this post are in the King Birth Home neighborhood. 

A Relaxing Atmosphere 



Marker is at or near this postal address: 526 Auburn Avenue, Atlanta GA 30312.



Apartment House 



Marker is at or near this postal address: 509 Auburn Avenue NE, Atlanta GA 30312. About to collapse and beyond repair, the house was demolished in 1990 and reconstructed in 1997 by the National Park Service. 



Birth Home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 




Marker is at or near this postal address: 501 Auburn Ave NE, Atlanta GA 30312



Bryant Preparatory Institute 



Marker is at or near this postal address: 533 Auburn Ave NE, Atlanta GA 30312


Where school use to be.

Bryant-Graves House



Marker is at or near this postal address: 522 Auburn Avenue NE, Atlanta GA 30312.

 

Fire Station No. 6



Marker is at or near this postal address: 474 Auburn Ave, Atlanta GA 30312.


King played with station dalmatian dogs and slid down the fire pole. 

Harper House 



Principal of Booker T. Washington High School. Marker is at or near this postal address: 535 Auburn Avenue, Atlanta GA 30312.

 

Historic Fire Station No. 6 



This marker has been replaced by a newer marker, "Fire Station No. 6."

Middle-Class Dwelling



Marker is at or near this postal address: 497 Auburn Ave NE, Atlanta GA 30312.



OK still 292 Historical Markers to explore in Fulton County. Probably much less after I cull them for Civil War Markers and NRHP sites I've already covered. 

Here are some Georgia Natural Wonder Gals actually at the Cochran Mill Park.

  

]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #282 - Cochran Mill Park

Our next Georgia Natural Wonder in Fulton County is located in Chattahoochee Hills Georgia, just 20 miles southwest of the Atlanta Airport, Cochran Mill Park. It has 800 acres of woods, fields, and streams, features stunning waterfalls, huge boulders, rock outcrops, wildflowers, native azaleas, mountain laurel, and the ruins of 3 historic mills. 


TRD image of Owen Cochran Mill, the easiest mill site close to parking.

The park takes its name from the grist mills operated by the Cochran family in the 1800s-1900s. The Henry family also operated a mill on the park’s west side around 1850.


The Orange trail is the popular choice. It takes you across the bridge to the Owens Cochran Mill. 

My TRD Scrolling Nuggets come from Eddie Cochran, who captured teenage frustration and desire in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. The Who made a hit of this song.

 

  
Cochran Mill is past bridge, vintage image from above falls. 

In 2010, donations from almost 400 local families in the City of Chattahoochee Hills allowed the City to purchase Cochran Mill Park from Fulton County. 

  
Not as much water at the Owens Cochran Mill, the day I visited. 

In 2013, a $100,000 Recreational Trails Program Grant from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources provided the funds to create a remarkable park transformation. Eight miles of new sustainable multi-use trails have been designed and constructed and ten miles of old trails have been rehabilitated. Other park improvements include a 2.5 mile Interpretive Trail, additional parking, an information kiosk, and a trail entrance arch. An ADA handicap accessible equestrian mounting block is easily accessible from the new parking areas.  

  
The Orange trail features fields, boulders and creek crossings. 

Thanks to the Recreational Trails Program Grant and the work of many volunteers, Cochran Mill Park now has 18 miles of sustainable multiple-use trails shared by hikers, horseback riders, mountain bikers, and trail runners. 

 
There is a waterfall going down Bear Creek. 

The Interpretive Trail follows the Orange Trail in a 2.5 mile loop along Little Bear Creek and Big Bear Creek and then returns through the woods. The first Orange Marker is located across the parking lot from the kiosk. This is an easy trail that is fairly well marked. Stick to the trail and explore as much as possible and the great reward will be unexpected rock slides. Signs of the old mill pop out in certain places. The trail is fairly well shaded and should be fine on a hot sunny day.

 
The Orange trail leads to the Berry Mill. 

 

Cochran Mill Park takes you through a setting rich in historical and natural characteristics. The park features beautiful waterfalls, enormous boulders, rock outcrops, wildflowers, native azaleas, and mountain laurels.

 

This Mill had the best water slide.

   

The trail goes through the forest and includes several hills. Along the trail, you may encounter wildlife like deer and snakes. There are some shaded and exposed areas. The trail is rocky and steep in places, so you'll need to be careful where you hike.



This is a beautiful trail in Cochran Mill Park. It meanders along lovely shaded trails, passing by waterfalls, creeks, and wildlife. The trail begins from Upper Wooten Road, where parking is available. Some sections of the trail can get quite muddy after rain. Take care when walking on rocks around the waterfalls and creeks, as they can be very slippery.

 

Highlights include beautiful waterfalls, scenic views, and well-marked trails. Challenges involve muddy sections and slippery rocks. Reviewers suggest wearing sturdy shoes, bringing bug spray, and using a trail app.



Set in a gently rolling forest, the Henry Mill Falls waterfall cascades over a broad, colorful rock outcrop, tumbling into a shallow pool below. It’s one of several stunning waterfalls at Cochran Mill Park, and the most remote of the falls, offering some mid-hike solitude and tranquility.

   

Cochran Mill Park is located southwest of Atlanta near Chattahoochee Hills. This adventure to Henry Mill Falls crosses several streams on the way to the site of a former mill. The trail rolls gently, following the tranquil flow of Bear Creek on this just-under-five-mile round trip to the waterfall.

Henry Mill Falls at Cochran Mill Park: the hike

The adventure begins at the park’s yellow trailhead (view maps and driving directions). The yellow trail meanders through a mixed pine and hardwood forest. The tree canopy towers above the fern and needle-filled forest floor, dappling the forest with sunlight. The hike descends steadily, meeting a gravel road at a third of a mile. This route turns right, following the gravel road westbound to a bridge spanning the shallow, smooth-flowing Cedar Branch Creek. 

  

After crossing the bridge, a number of yellow-blazed trails depart to the right. This hike follows the Old Swamp Trail (#9) roughly northbound to Bear Creek and a connection to the park’s red-blazed trail network. (Check out the official trail map for details. And a warning: the park’s extensive trail network can be very confusing. Multiple trails are blazed the same color, making it really easy to get lost.)


The hike crosses Bear Creek, connecting to the red-blazed trails on the other side. Depending on the creek’s flow and depth, the crossing can be moderate to difficult.



The hike turns left after crossing the creek, following the Bear Creek Trail (#14) northwest toward Henry Mill Falls. The trail crosses a small tributary, winding through a young forest dotted with lichen-covered boulders and smooth rock outcrops, gently rolling elevation along the creek banks. 



Large stone slabs dominate the creek’s bed as the sound of rushing water becomes audible on the trail. The hike reaches Henry Mill Falls, catching wide-open views of the waterfall on the vast rock outcrops and sandy shores just below the cascades.



 
Vintage image of Henry Mill, modern hiker on the edge. 

The return

The sandy banks below the waterfall make a great spot for a mid-hike break, and to soak in the beauty of the forest. Departing Henry Mill Falls, the route doubles back to the trailhead on its outbound route. 

 

The hike finishes at just under five miles, reaching the Cochran Mill Park trailhead and completing the adventure.

  

Note: slippery rocks and fast moving water can be extremely dangerous! Please don’t climb, stand on, swim near, or jump from any waterfall.

Time for a second Eddie Cochran Scrolling Nugget used in a Jane Mansfield flick. Paul McCartney played this song to impress John Lennon when they first met. 



TRD Visit with California Jill

 
We walked down from the parking lot to the bridge over Bear Creek. 

 
Looking up stream before the bridge and down stream from the bridge. 

 
Then upstream is the beautiful Cochran Mill Falls. 

 
Jill had set up picnic spot. 

  
Jill was chillin while TRD was back packing towels, water, and lunch.


Lot of water hole swimming. 

  
Lot of folks hanging out at upper falls in third image.

  
TRD got these general images. 

   
Then Jill violated photo etiquette taking these images of big belly TRD trying to negotiate to a spot where he could get his head into the water fall. 

  
I was wearing a size too small Kansas State shirt Jill got me because she is a Kansas State alumni, and I thought she would be impressed my wearing it. 

 
Then we walked down the Gold Trail in search for the other falls and mills along Upper Bear Creek. 

    
 Found some big trees and boulders. 


Was only suppose to be just a little over a mile to Berry Mill. Lord knows I wasn't going 5 miles to Henry Mill Falls and back.

 
Looking down to Upper Bear Creek from Gold Trail. My stamina is all gone from my medical treatment so we didn't make it to the Berry Mill.

 
On way back to car, Jill decide to hike to Upper Falls of the Cochran Mill. I found a shady spot to follow her.

  
Can see her up there taking selfies with feet in water. 

 
Jill came on an Atlanta City Bus Tour over a year ago, and she's been seen in a few Fulton County Georgia Natural Wonders. 

 
Still just a friend, we have more images from Jill to conclude the TRD visitation of today's Georgia Natural Wonder. 

These songs are kinda short so here is a third Eddie Cochran Scrolling Nugget. He died in a car accident, high speed Ride Share Taxi.



Fulton County (Part 11)

We continue our exploration of the 573 Historical Markers in Fulton County. We reviewed the first 200, and culled 54 Markers that weren't covered in the earlier 10 post on the Civil War in Atlanta and Oakland Cemetery. Some were covered in the 247 National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County. We have 373 Historical Markers left in Fulton County, but we will only list the Markers we have not covered in earlier post.

Hanley's Funeral Home

 
It is on Bell Street NE south of Auburn Avenue NE, on the left when traveling south.

Herndon Plaza 

 
It is on Auburn Avenue NE east of Courtland Street NE, on the right when traveling west.

Historic Reconciliation 

 
It is on Peachtree Street NE south of West Peachtree Street NW, on the right when traveling south. Marker is on a ground-level base in Hardy Ivy Park.

John Calhoun Park 

 
It is at the intersection of Piedmont Avenue NE and Auburn Avenue NE, on the right when traveling north on Piedmont Avenue NE.

Saint Joseph's 

 
It is at the intersection of Courtland Street NE and Baker Street NE, on the right when traveling south on Courtland Street NE.


Saint Joseph's Hospital vintage image. 

Southern Company 

 
It is at the intersection of Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard NW and Ted Turner Drive NW, on the right when traveling east on Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard NW.

Sweet Auburn Walk 


It is on Auburn Avenue east of Courtland Street NE, on the left when traveling east.



South-View Cemetery 

 
It is on Helena Road SE west of Jonesboro Road SE (Georgia Route 54), on the left when traveling east. Marker is near the cemetery entrance.

Capt. Grant's Vision for a Safe City 

 
Marker is Missing It was at the intersection of Peachtree Place Northwest and Spring Street Northwest, on the left when traveling west on Peachtree Place Northwest. Although his defensive plan for Atlanta failed, the city felt his influence in other, more positive ways. He donated the land for Grant Park, served as a councilman and was an influential civic leader.

  
Lemuel Pratt Grant (1817-1893) - His home is one of only four remaining antebellum houses in Atlanta.

Second Oldest D.A.R. Chapter 

  
It was on Piedmont Avenue 0.1 miles north of 14th Street, on the right when traveling south. We have been informed that this marker is no longer there and will not be replaced.

David and Frances Cotting 

  
It is on Peachtree Place NE 0 miles west of Crescent Avenue NE, on the right when traveling east. Cotting Estate is now Cotting Court Condos. 

Georgia Tech Meets Midtown

 
It is on 5th Street Northwest west of Spring Street Northwest, on the right when traveling west. 

James J. Andrews 

 
Spot where Andrews was hanged is at the intersection of Juniper Street and 3rd Street, on the left when traveling south on Juniper Street. 

   
Buster Keaton and Fess Parker played James Andrews in motion pictures.


Buried with other Raiders at Chattanooga National Cemetery. 

Land Lot 104 

 
It is on West Peachtree Street NE near Inwood Circle NE, on the right when traveling north. Marker in on the property of WSB-TV's studios, in a fenced and gated area.

 
George Washington Carver homestead is now where WSB White Columns is now. 

Margaret Mitchell 

  
It is on Peachtree Street at 17th Street NE, on the right when traveling north. This is her parents house where she grew up. 

 

Margaret Mitchell House 

 
It is on Peachtree Street just south of 10th Street NW, on the left when traveling north. The marker stands at the front of the Margaret Mitchell House, a ten-unit apartment building where she wrote Gone With the Wind. 

  
Front and back of apartments and Peggy pecking away on that Remington typewriter. 

 
Desk where she wrote and bedroom. 

Ponce de Leon Ball Park 


The marker is located behind the Whole Foods Market, in the main plaza. It is accessible from the delivery road at the back of the stores. 


The plaque sits atop a concrete pillar in the shape of home plate.


The marker sits under the famed Magnolia Tree, the last vestige of the ball park. The tree stood in the outfield and survives today.


Looking from the approximately location of the grandstands across the infield toward center and right fields. Today it is the site of Midtown Plaza.

  
Postcard - Can see the Sears and Roebuck - and the center field Magnolia Tree.  

One last Eddie Cochran Scrolling Nugget. Squeezing them in here for our Cochran Mill GNW. 



The Castle 

Also known as Fort Peace, covered this in GNW# 275. Here is the historical marker.

 

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer 

It is at the intersection of Peachtree Road NE and 4th Street, on the right when traveling north on Peachtree Road NE.

 

The Georgian Terrace Hotel 

We covered this with the Fox Theater Historic District in GNW# 275. Here is the Historical Marker. 

 

The Temple 

We covered this in GNW# 279. Here is the Historical Marker. 

 

Montgomery-DeFoor House Site 

It was at the intersection of Moore's Mill Road and Bolton Road, on the right when traveling south on Moore's Mill Road. It is believed the marker was hit by a bus, probably sometime in 2005.

  

 Vintage image of house. 

All the rest of the Historical Markers for this post are in the King Birth Home neighborhood. 

A Relaxing Atmosphere 



Marker is at or near this postal address: 526 Auburn Avenue, Atlanta GA 30312.



Apartment House 



Marker is at or near this postal address: 509 Auburn Avenue NE, Atlanta GA 30312. About to collapse and beyond repair, the house was demolished in 1990 and reconstructed in 1997 by the National Park Service. 



Birth Home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 




Marker is at or near this postal address: 501 Auburn Ave NE, Atlanta GA 30312



Bryant Preparatory Institute 



Marker is at or near this postal address: 533 Auburn Ave NE, Atlanta GA 30312


Where school use to be.

Bryant-Graves House



Marker is at or near this postal address: 522 Auburn Avenue NE, Atlanta GA 30312.

 

Fire Station No. 6



Marker is at or near this postal address: 474 Auburn Ave, Atlanta GA 30312.


King played with station dalmatian dogs and slid down the fire pole. 

Harper House 



Principal of Booker T. Washington High School. Marker is at or near this postal address: 535 Auburn Avenue, Atlanta GA 30312.

 

Historic Fire Station No. 6 



This marker has been replaced by a newer marker, "Fire Station No. 6."

Middle-Class Dwelling



Marker is at or near this postal address: 497 Auburn Ave NE, Atlanta GA 30312.



OK still 292 Historical Markers to explore in Fulton County. Probably much less after I cull them for Civil War Markers and NRHP sites I've already covered. 

Here are some Georgia Natural Wonder Gals actually at the Cochran Mill Park.

  

]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-14492.html Thu, 04 Jun 2026 11:36:31 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-14492.html Georgia Natural Wonder #281 - Shirley Clarke Franklin Park

Still several places in Atlanta and Fulton County to support our recount of all the tangents surrounding Georgia's main city. We come to Atlanta's newest and largest park. A former Rock Quarry of some notoriety, turned to something of use for the greater good of Atlanta. 

 

Our first TRD Scrolling Nugget comes from the earliest Beatles doing a Buddy Holly song.



The Atlanta Beltline is a massive 22-mile loop of multi-use trails, parks, and transit built on former railway corridors. Encircling the core of Atlanta, it connects 45 intown neighborhoods with walking and biking paths, public art, and dining. I'm familiar with the East side but our wonder today includes the West side. I've always wanted to see this wonder but you could not get past the fences for the old Bell Quarry. I finally visited the park with my friend Jean, the Bolton Cafeteria Cashier. 

 
Went from Bell Quarry to Atlanta Freshwater Reservoir.

Wikipedia

Shirley Clarke Franklin Park (formerly Westside Park) is a park in Atlanta, Georgia located on the site of the former Bellwood Quarry. The park is between Johnson Road and Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway and between the neighborhoods of Bankhead, Grove Park, and Knight Park/Howell Station. 


This Whalebone entrance art work sculpture. 

Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry was a major green space project of the Atlanta Beltline master plan.

  

History

The land, which was owned by Fulton County, was previously leased to Vulcan Materials. On December 10, 2005, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin announced a plan to acquire the land in order to create a 351-acre park with a 45-acre lake which would also serve as a drinking water reservoir. 



The plan was a portion of the extensive Beltline project to construct a ring of parks, trails, and transit surrounding the core of Atlanta. As proposed, Westside Reservoir Park was nearly twice the size of Atlanta's premiere greenspace, Piedmont Park. Acquisition by the city was completed on June 30, 2006.



On December 29, 2017, outgoing mayor Kasim Reed unveiled plans for phase one of the park's construction. The cost of the first phase was approximately $26.5 million.


Phase one includes a gateway to the park and a "grand overlook" of both the quarry and the Atlanta skyline.

 
There are pedestrian connections to the Proctor Creek Greenway. 

 
Wow, future Atlanta Wonder, Proctor Creek?


The grand pump house filling the reservoir. 

On August 27, 2019, Westside Park received a major boost with the announcement that the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation had awarded a $17.5 million grant for the Beltline project. 


The Blank grant accelerated the development of parks and trails along the 22-mile circular corridor – especially on the West side.


At a ribbon-cutting ceremony on August 20, 2021, Atlanta's Westside Park was opened to the public.


On February 3, 2025, Westside Park was renamed to Shirley Clarke Franklin Park, in honor of the former mayor of Atlanta. She helped acquire the quarry before it turned into a park. 

Bellwood Quarry


The south side of Bellwood Quarry (c. 2014) prior to the site being flooded.

The Bellwood Quarry (often referred to as Bell Quarry) is a century-old granite pit in northwest Atlanta. Once a site of forced labor and commercial mining, it was purchased by the city in 2006 to become a 2.4-billion-gallon emergency water reservoir and the centerpiece of Westside Park.



The site's history is characterized by rapid civic development alongside a legacy of systemic racial injustice, commercial enterprise. 



Our second TRD Scrolling Nugget comes from the Pretenders.



Late 19th Century Convict Camps: The property initially operated as the Bellwood Convict Camp, a notorious Fulton County chain gang site. During the Jim Crow era, white leaders used these camps to subjugate Black citizens, forcing them into grueling, lethal labor to rebuild Atlanta's railways and infrastructure.



Bellwood was one of a number of chain gang camps in Atlanta and across the state that lasted into the second half of the 20th century. Their creation coincided with the early decades of Black freedom, against the backdrop of a rebuilding South: “Atlanta has just been destroyed in the Civil War. There’s this emergence of African American communities migrating from all across the state to Atlanta,” says Darrin Sims, the director of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights’ Truth and Transformation Initiative, which is exploring this chapter of the city’s history. “There’s also this need for cheap labor.”



For the white leaders of Georgia, the camps—and a system of convict leasing whereby mostly Black prisoners were leased to private businesses, including the infamous Chattahoochee Brick Company—were ways that nominally free Black citizens could still be held in bondage, while providing labor to rebuild the city. “People are being rounded up. There’s really no other way to put it,” Sims says. “They’re being targeted systemically. People would leave home and not come back.” In addition to being its own work camp, Bellwood was a “dispersement site” for Fulton County, which operated it; from this central location, prisoners could be sent to rock quarries around the area.



“Bellwood was the headquarters for the Fulton County chain gang system. That’s why the Fulton County jail is out there today,” says Douglas Blackmon, who’s leading the research component for the initiative; now a professor at Georgia State University, Blackmon won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for his book Slavery by Another Name, which explored the rise of convict leasing in the post–Civil War South. The chain gang system, Blackmon says, was “the ultimate fulfillment of the old stereotype, of prisoners in stripes being sent to break rocks in the quarry. It’s the oldest cliche there is about jails.”

 

The systematic violence of the convict lease system was so extreme that it was abandoned in the wake of scandal, including public hearings, in the first decade of the 20th century. But the chain gangs continued for decades longer, with prisoners sent out from the quarries to labor on the roads. “There was a big movement, the Good Roads Movement, that said: These prisoners, instead of them being in that terrible brick factory, or doing this other work for somebody who’s making a profit off of it—these folks ought to be working on the roads. Let’s put all the prisoners on the road in chain gangs,” Blackmon says. “It was viewed as a big improvement. But then, of course, the chain gang becomes the most infamous cruelty that people are generally aware of in the 20th century in terms of treatment of prisoners.” (Chain gangs entered the popular imagination through films like 1932’s I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang and, later, 1967’s Cool Hand Luke.)

 

“We know that the conditions were absolutely horrendous at this site,” Sims says about Bellwood. “Just making gravel 10, 12 hours a day—really backbreaking work like that.” On the historical podcast Archive Atlanta, Victoria Lemos has shared details of several incidents she learned about in her research, such as the case of Charley Stevens—a 28-year-old Black man sentenced on a charge of “gaming” and offered the choice of a $45 fine or eight months’ hard labor. He died of heatstroke in the Bellwood quarry in 1913. Also that year, Lemos found, a former convict named Henry Shivers filed a lawsuit against the camp’s “whipping boss,” claiming that he’d been beaten with a club for 20 minutes in front of an entire mess hall full of incarcerated people, over the alleged infraction of smoking a cigarette after dinner.



Sung by an incarcerated man named Jesse Wadley, “I Promised Mr. Tyree” was recorded by the folklorist John Lomax in 1934 during travels throughout the South; partnering with the Library of Congress, Lomax captured tens of thousands of folk songs over the course of his career. A few days after his visit to Bellwood, Lomax traveled to a penitentiary in Milledgeville, where he continued to hear complaints about Georgia’s capital city, as in a song called “We Don’t Get No Justice in Atlanta.”



With the Truth and Transformation Initiative, Sims, the Center for Civil and Human Rights, and partner organizations including Chattahoochee Brick Company Descendants coalition are gathering information about this history, sources for which are relatively sparse: lawsuits from families seeking relatives who have disappeared, wanted posters for escapees, records from cemeteries and medical institutions. Blackmon is working with students from local universities to try to identify the names of people who worked on the chain gang, as well as find any living descendants. The goal is to create a memorial at Westside Park to the victims and survivors of convict leasing and the chain gang camps. (Following the disappearance of the chain gang system, private mining operations at Bellwood continued throughout the 20th century; in 2006, Vulcan Materials sold the site to the City of Atlanta.)



“We’ve got to tell the truth, and that’s how we get to the transformation,” Sims says. “Acknowledging the history allows us to work together to transform what we want for the future. To have something on the west side of Atlanta that pays homage to the bodies that rebuilt Atlanta and were lost and abused and terrorized allows us to discuss: How do we make things different?”

Granite Extraction: Alongside prison labor, commercial machines operated a 350-foot-deep granite pit here. 



Mining operations finally ceased in 2003, and the site was purchased by the city a few years later.



The former granite quarry, which closed in 2007, was a popular hangout spot for local teens. The site was used as a location for the filming of the AMC's series The Walking Dead in the summer of 2010. 



 

It was also used as a filming location for season four episode 14 of The Vampire Diaries.



There was a scene in Mockingjay Part 1, and the final scene of The Fundamentals of Caring. In 2016, it was featured prominently in several episodes of the Netflix series Stranger Things.



The quarry was used to film lunar surface sequences in the Neil Armstrong biographical film, First Man, released in 2018.

Driller Mike: During construction of the reservoir and the park, the area was closed to the public. A five-mile tunnel was dug to connect the quarry to the Chattahoochee River. The reservoir began filling in April of 2020, and completed filling in February 2021.

 

The 400-foot-long tunnel boring machine (TBM) that dug the 5-mile-long tunnel from the Chattahoochee River to the Bellwood Quarry (now Westside Park) is named Driller Mike. 

 

The machine was named in a public vote after Atlanta-based rapper Killer Mike.

  

In addition to its recreational role, Shirley Clarke Franklin Park functions as a critical piece of Atlanta’s water infrastructure. The reservoir significantly increases the city’s emergency water storage capacity, holding a backup water supply of more than two billion gallons, which would last more than 30 days.

 

Swimming at Bellwood Quarry (now officially known as the Westside Reservoir Park) is strictly prohibited. The quarry functions as a 2.4-billion-gallon emergency drinking water reservoir for the City of Atlanta. 

  
Attempting to swim here is a federal crime and poses severe safety hazards.

Why Swimming is Banned

Emergency Water Supply: The city converted the site to protect critical drinking water reserves from contamination.

Deadly Pumping Systems: The reservoir is up to 350 feet deep. It contains massive, automated water pumps that, when activated, can drag a swimmer underwater and cause severe injury or death.

Strict Security: The area is enclosed by fencing and monitored by security and the Atlanta Police. Trespassers are subject to arrest.

TRD Visit to this Natural (Man Made) Wonder of Atlanta. 

We parked and made our way to the main entrance.

 
Jean models the Phoenix Bird Sculpture (Rebirth Pavilion)

 
Made our way to bathroom, much more important at end of visit.

 
TRD and Jean at the Shirley Clarke Franklin Pavilion. 

 
Then we found a man struggling to carry a canopy to the Family Reunion ahead. Jean helped him out and jumped right in to the Double Dutch jump rope with the ladies.



  
Look at Jean spinning the ropes. 

  
Dang Jean was really good I had to beg them to let me have my girlfriend back so we could visit the park.


Made our way past playground. Jean still a little miffed about having to leave the Family Reunion.

 
Got a kid to go down slide for me to take photo. 

 
Past the valley's of quarry rock fill and kudzu.

 
Then you come upon the lake on the other side of the chain link fence. Jean rested while I wandered trying to take images through the fence. 

 
Waterline on West side of Quarry. 

 
Spinning round to the Southwest corner of Quarry. 

 
South side in distance, near bank vegetation. 

 
Rocky Quarry cliffs. 

 
Then you spin to East side of Quarry.


Panel shows Tunnel Path and Driller Mike in upper right corner. 

 
Trying to capture the Natural Wonder of the cliffs. 

 
More cliffs to East.


Getting in some near shore plants. 

 
Big cliff to East. 


Walked over to Pump House. 

  
Big ole chain link fence, Jean still waiting in distance. Stopped to notice flowers. 

 
 Then we made our way past the Kudzu valley to the Overlook. 

  
Wildlife - Dragonfly - Frog - Butterfly.
 
 
Pine cone on way to Overlook.


Jean at the Overlook. 

 
East shore across pond and West shore down below. 


Panoramic.

 
Jean took some pictures.

 
TRD gets to be in some pictures. 

 
Thumb eclipse in the one image, and just as a suggestion, flip flops are not ideal footwear for this park.  


Panel shows just how big the Quarry Lake is. 

 
There is a memorial marker for Edith Marie McGuire the second African American women to win 3 medals at one Olympics, 1964. 

   
TRD notices some flowers.

 
Multiple maps around park, marker at main pavilion. 

 
Back to that Phoenix Bird statue at park entrance. Snake chased us out of park. Get out and get a picture says Jean. Zoom from driver's seat instead. 

 
I had to take some pictures of the Whalebone entrance to park. 

  
Jean taking pictures of me in case I got run over. 


Flower ID Panel. 

  
TRD and Jean at the Shirley Clarke Franklin Park northwest Atlanta. Good deal for Atlanta. 

Fulton County (Part 10)

We concluded our listings for 247 National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia. We now turn to the 573 Historical Markers in Fulton County. Now we have already covered a bulk of these on our 10 post on the Civil War in Atlanta and Oakland Cemetery. 

Delta Air Lines World Headquarters - AIAA Historic Aerospace Site



Located in the Delta Flight Museum.

 

God's Acre / Rest Haven

 

God's Acre Marker side next to Westview Cemetery Water Tower.

 

In Memory of Our Comrades

 

 
In Westview Cemetery.



Lugenia Burns Hope (1871-1947)

 
Located near Graves Hall on the campus of Morehouse College.

National Medical Association: Medicine in the Civil Rights Movement



At the First Congregational Church United Church of Christ.

 

Rush Memorial Congregational Church

 
It is on James P. Brawley Drive SW 0.1 miles south of Parsons Street SW.

Westview Receiving Vault

 
Westview Cemetery.

William L. Scruggs L.L.D. Author, Lawyer, Diplomat

 
Located in Section 1 at Westview Cemetery.

Habersham Memorial Hall

 
It is in Ansley Park on 15th Street just west of Piedmont Road.

 

Booker T. Washington High School

 

An Appeal for Human Rights March 9, 1960

 

Marker is in Atlanta University Center.



Atlanta Student Movement



Nearby Clark Atlanta University entrance gate.

 

Atlanta Student Movement Planned

 

It is at the intersection of Atlanta Student Movement Boulevard and Chestnut Street NW.

 

The Atlanta Student Movement 1960-1965

 

By the other Markers.

Montgomery Cemetery



It is on Marietta Boulevard NW ¼ mile south of Bolton Road NW, on the right when traveling south. The marker is located in heavy brush and trees well off the roadway, adjacent to a building (currently a restaurant). It can be very difficult to see (and even more difficult to reach). 


It is the resting place of Major James McConnell Montgomery (1768–1842), who is widely considered the first white man to settle permanently in what is now Fulton County.

Birthplace of Allison Nelson

 
The Chattahoochee River is in the background. (The tower on the right is for an approach to the Fulton County/Charlie Brown Airport.)

“The Storyteller” Frank Fleming, Sculptor

 
The marker stands in Charlie Loudermilk Park, a triangle formed by Roswell Road, Peachtree Road, and Sardis Way.

  

Gov. John M. Slaton 1866-1955

 

Miss Jane Donaldson Business Estabished — 1886 - 1931 

 

The first Donaldson store was Miss Jane Donaldson. Miss Jane Donaldson was a little old lady that was really, really elderly, with a long dress and high-topped shoes and all. She lived right behind the store. Of course, everybody thought it was so funny. If you went to the store, most of the time she wasn’t there. She had a thing to pull for a bell. You’d ring the bell and she’d come out, even if you wanted a nickel’s worth of candy. Most of the time we wanted that old hoop cheese, that round hoop cheese. She’d come out there. She lived with her brother, uh, she lived with her brother and his wife. Yes, Miss Jane Donaldson, everybody knew her, because she had that Donaldson store for years.

Sardis Methodist Church


It is in Buckhead. It is on Powers Ferry Road NW 0.1 miles north of Roswell Road.

 

Sardis Methodist Church Cemetery.

 

Swan House

 

3099 Andrews Drive NW, Atlanta GA 30305.

 

Swan House

 
Marker is along the driveway that leads directly to the front portico.

The Indian Trail Echota

 
It is at the intersection of Peachtree Road (U.S. 19) and Palisades Road.

 

Jacob Elsas and the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mills

 
Marker is in Cabbagetown. It is on Carroll Street Southeast south of Tennelle Street Southeast.

 
The Former Fulton Bag & Cotton Mills Redeveloped into a mix of apartments, condominiums, office space and film studios. Jacob Elsas

1996 Summer Olympics Games of the XXVI Olympiad

 
Marker is next to the visitor/information center in Centennial Olympic Park.

1998 Shining Light Award Honoring Zell Miller

  
It is at the intersection of Centennial Olympic Park Drive and Marietta Street.

CNN Cable News Network

  
It is on Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW near Marietta Street NW.

Dr. John S. Pemberton

 
Located just to the west of the World of Coca-Cola Museum.

  

Welcome to Centennial Olympic Park

 
Marker is next to the Centennial park's visitor/information center.

Historic Owl Rock Church


It is at the intersection of Campbellton Road (Georgia Route 166) and Union Road SW.

 
Historic Owl Rock Church. Owl Rock – located behind the church.

One last TRD Scrolling Nugget for today's Post, an Owl Song written by Al "Blind Owl" Wilson and Canned Heat. 



Georgia Dome

 
Marker is accessible by foot at the northwest corner of the Home Depot Backyard venue.


The House that Dion Sanders built, where Kerri Strug landed one more vault. 



Grady Health System


It is on Jesse Hill, Jr. Drive south of Cocoa Cola Place. The marker is located where the original hospital once stood.

 
Early Grady

Sandtown

 
It is at the intersection of Fulton Industrial Boulevard (Georgia Route 70) and Boat Rock Road SW, on the right when traveling south on Fulton Industrial Boulevard.

The Winecoff Fire

 
119 People died. 

   

Thrasherville Where Atlanta Began

 
Marker is located in front of the State Bar of Georgia building. 

 
Plaque dedicated to "Atlanta's First Baby". Located beside the Thrasherville Marker.

Birthplace of Coca-Cola

 

 
Marker is in front of Georgia State University's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. Where Jacob's Pharmacy was located. 

SunTrust Bank

 
It is at the intersection of Edgewood Avenue SE and Park Place NE.

On the wall by the marker is the Prophecy of John C. Calhoun November 13, 1845.



Willis Carlisle's Store 1845

 
It is in Five Points. It is at the intersection of Park Place Southeast and Decatur Street Southeast.

 
Site of the Trout House during Civil War.

Fort McPherson

 
It is in Fort McPherson at the intersection of Hardee Avenue SW and Haney Plaza.

 

Georgia Institute of Technology


It is in Georgia Tech. It is on Cherry Street 0.1 miles west of North Avenue. It is in front of Tech Tower. 



Georgia Tech Origins A Tech Giant's Hand-tooled History

 
Marker is missing, it was located just beyond the two security bollards on the left.

"Out in the Rain" (1913)

 
Marker and sculpture is in Oakland Cemetery.

Roosevelt High School

 

It originally opened as an all girls school, and was named, Girls High School, from 1924 - 1947. Shortly after World War II, the Atlanta high schools became co-educational. The Girls High School was renamed Roosevelt High School for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the school continued as an Atlanta institution until 1985. The building was then renovated into apartments during the late 1980s, and continues to be used for residential apartment living to this very day.

   

The Bobby Jones Story


From the Oakland Cemetery entrance (Oakland at Martin Luther King), take the 10th right turn. 

 
 
Mt. Zion Methodist Church

 
It is in Hammond Park. It is at the intersection of Metropolitan Parkway SW (U.S. 41) and Old Jonesboro Road

The Honorable Isabel Gates Webster (April 16, 1931 - July 2, 1991)

 
It is in Harland Terrace. It is on Peyton Place Southwest 0.1 miles north of Peyton Road Southwest

Alonzo Herndon 1858-1927

 
Located at Georgia State University Centennial Hall.

 
Herndon Home and Herndon himself. 

Atlanta's "Main Street" Auburn Avenue - Integration of the Police Department
 
  
There is a series of signs up and down Auburn Avenue. 

Auburn Avenue Underpass Auburn Avenue - Bronner Brothers Store

 
Under I-85 and I-75 Downtown Connector. 

Big Bethel A.M.E. Church 220 Auburn Avenue



Big Bethel A.M.E. Church Auburn Avenue

 

Whew! Reviewed the first 200 Historical Markers of Fulton County, and culled 54 Markers that weren't covered in the earlier 10 post on the Civil War in Atlanta and Oakland Cemetery. A lot of these Markers covered our listings for the 247 National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County so we did not repeat those. We have 373 Historical Markers left in Fulton County, but we will only list the Markers we have not covered in earlier post.

Our GNW Girls today are Chain Gang Women.

 

 
Only in Arizona.

]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #281 - Shirley Clarke Franklin Park

Still several places in Atlanta and Fulton County to support our recount of all the tangents surrounding Georgia's main city. We come to Atlanta's newest and largest park. A former Rock Quarry of some notoriety, turned to something of use for the greater good of Atlanta. 

 

Our first TRD Scrolling Nugget comes from the earliest Beatles doing a Buddy Holly song.



The Atlanta Beltline is a massive 22-mile loop of multi-use trails, parks, and transit built on former railway corridors. Encircling the core of Atlanta, it connects 45 intown neighborhoods with walking and biking paths, public art, and dining. I'm familiar with the East side but our wonder today includes the West side. I've always wanted to see this wonder but you could not get past the fences for the old Bell Quarry. I finally visited the park with my friend Jean, the Bolton Cafeteria Cashier. 

 
Went from Bell Quarry to Atlanta Freshwater Reservoir.

Wikipedia

Shirley Clarke Franklin Park (formerly Westside Park) is a park in Atlanta, Georgia located on the site of the former Bellwood Quarry. The park is between Johnson Road and Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway and between the neighborhoods of Bankhead, Grove Park, and Knight Park/Howell Station. 


This Whalebone entrance art work sculpture. 

Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry was a major green space project of the Atlanta Beltline master plan.

  

History

The land, which was owned by Fulton County, was previously leased to Vulcan Materials. On December 10, 2005, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin announced a plan to acquire the land in order to create a 351-acre park with a 45-acre lake which would also serve as a drinking water reservoir. 



The plan was a portion of the extensive Beltline project to construct a ring of parks, trails, and transit surrounding the core of Atlanta. As proposed, Westside Reservoir Park was nearly twice the size of Atlanta's premiere greenspace, Piedmont Park. Acquisition by the city was completed on June 30, 2006.



On December 29, 2017, outgoing mayor Kasim Reed unveiled plans for phase one of the park's construction. The cost of the first phase was approximately $26.5 million.


Phase one includes a gateway to the park and a "grand overlook" of both the quarry and the Atlanta skyline.

 
There are pedestrian connections to the Proctor Creek Greenway. 

 
Wow, future Atlanta Wonder, Proctor Creek?


The grand pump house filling the reservoir. 

On August 27, 2019, Westside Park received a major boost with the announcement that the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation had awarded a $17.5 million grant for the Beltline project. 


The Blank grant accelerated the development of parks and trails along the 22-mile circular corridor – especially on the West side.


At a ribbon-cutting ceremony on August 20, 2021, Atlanta's Westside Park was opened to the public.


On February 3, 2025, Westside Park was renamed to Shirley Clarke Franklin Park, in honor of the former mayor of Atlanta. She helped acquire the quarry before it turned into a park. 

Bellwood Quarry


The south side of Bellwood Quarry (c. 2014) prior to the site being flooded.

The Bellwood Quarry (often referred to as Bell Quarry) is a century-old granite pit in northwest Atlanta. Once a site of forced labor and commercial mining, it was purchased by the city in 2006 to become a 2.4-billion-gallon emergency water reservoir and the centerpiece of Westside Park.



The site's history is characterized by rapid civic development alongside a legacy of systemic racial injustice, commercial enterprise. 



Our second TRD Scrolling Nugget comes from the Pretenders.



Late 19th Century Convict Camps: The property initially operated as the Bellwood Convict Camp, a notorious Fulton County chain gang site. During the Jim Crow era, white leaders used these camps to subjugate Black citizens, forcing them into grueling, lethal labor to rebuild Atlanta's railways and infrastructure.



Bellwood was one of a number of chain gang camps in Atlanta and across the state that lasted into the second half of the 20th century. Their creation coincided with the early decades of Black freedom, against the backdrop of a rebuilding South: “Atlanta has just been destroyed in the Civil War. There’s this emergence of African American communities migrating from all across the state to Atlanta,” says Darrin Sims, the director of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights’ Truth and Transformation Initiative, which is exploring this chapter of the city’s history. “There’s also this need for cheap labor.”



For the white leaders of Georgia, the camps—and a system of convict leasing whereby mostly Black prisoners were leased to private businesses, including the infamous Chattahoochee Brick Company—were ways that nominally free Black citizens could still be held in bondage, while providing labor to rebuild the city. “People are being rounded up. There’s really no other way to put it,” Sims says. “They’re being targeted systemically. People would leave home and not come back.” In addition to being its own work camp, Bellwood was a “dispersement site” for Fulton County, which operated it; from this central location, prisoners could be sent to rock quarries around the area.



“Bellwood was the headquarters for the Fulton County chain gang system. That’s why the Fulton County jail is out there today,” says Douglas Blackmon, who’s leading the research component for the initiative; now a professor at Georgia State University, Blackmon won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for his book Slavery by Another Name, which explored the rise of convict leasing in the post–Civil War South. The chain gang system, Blackmon says, was “the ultimate fulfillment of the old stereotype, of prisoners in stripes being sent to break rocks in the quarry. It’s the oldest cliche there is about jails.”

 

The systematic violence of the convict lease system was so extreme that it was abandoned in the wake of scandal, including public hearings, in the first decade of the 20th century. But the chain gangs continued for decades longer, with prisoners sent out from the quarries to labor on the roads. “There was a big movement, the Good Roads Movement, that said: These prisoners, instead of them being in that terrible brick factory, or doing this other work for somebody who’s making a profit off of it—these folks ought to be working on the roads. Let’s put all the prisoners on the road in chain gangs,” Blackmon says. “It was viewed as a big improvement. But then, of course, the chain gang becomes the most infamous cruelty that people are generally aware of in the 20th century in terms of treatment of prisoners.” (Chain gangs entered the popular imagination through films like 1932’s I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang and, later, 1967’s Cool Hand Luke.)

 

“We know that the conditions were absolutely horrendous at this site,” Sims says about Bellwood. “Just making gravel 10, 12 hours a day—really backbreaking work like that.” On the historical podcast Archive Atlanta, Victoria Lemos has shared details of several incidents she learned about in her research, such as the case of Charley Stevens—a 28-year-old Black man sentenced on a charge of “gaming” and offered the choice of a $45 fine or eight months’ hard labor. He died of heatstroke in the Bellwood quarry in 1913. Also that year, Lemos found, a former convict named Henry Shivers filed a lawsuit against the camp’s “whipping boss,” claiming that he’d been beaten with a club for 20 minutes in front of an entire mess hall full of incarcerated people, over the alleged infraction of smoking a cigarette after dinner.



Sung by an incarcerated man named Jesse Wadley, “I Promised Mr. Tyree” was recorded by the folklorist John Lomax in 1934 during travels throughout the South; partnering with the Library of Congress, Lomax captured tens of thousands of folk songs over the course of his career. A few days after his visit to Bellwood, Lomax traveled to a penitentiary in Milledgeville, where he continued to hear complaints about Georgia’s capital city, as in a song called “We Don’t Get No Justice in Atlanta.”



With the Truth and Transformation Initiative, Sims, the Center for Civil and Human Rights, and partner organizations including Chattahoochee Brick Company Descendants coalition are gathering information about this history, sources for which are relatively sparse: lawsuits from families seeking relatives who have disappeared, wanted posters for escapees, records from cemeteries and medical institutions. Blackmon is working with students from local universities to try to identify the names of people who worked on the chain gang, as well as find any living descendants. The goal is to create a memorial at Westside Park to the victims and survivors of convict leasing and the chain gang camps. (Following the disappearance of the chain gang system, private mining operations at Bellwood continued throughout the 20th century; in 2006, Vulcan Materials sold the site to the City of Atlanta.)



“We’ve got to tell the truth, and that’s how we get to the transformation,” Sims says. “Acknowledging the history allows us to work together to transform what we want for the future. To have something on the west side of Atlanta that pays homage to the bodies that rebuilt Atlanta and were lost and abused and terrorized allows us to discuss: How do we make things different?”

Granite Extraction: Alongside prison labor, commercial machines operated a 350-foot-deep granite pit here. 



Mining operations finally ceased in 2003, and the site was purchased by the city a few years later.



The former granite quarry, which closed in 2007, was a popular hangout spot for local teens. The site was used as a location for the filming of the AMC's series The Walking Dead in the summer of 2010. 



 

It was also used as a filming location for season four episode 14 of The Vampire Diaries.



There was a scene in Mockingjay Part 1, and the final scene of The Fundamentals of Caring. In 2016, it was featured prominently in several episodes of the Netflix series Stranger Things.



The quarry was used to film lunar surface sequences in the Neil Armstrong biographical film, First Man, released in 2018.

Driller Mike: During construction of the reservoir and the park, the area was closed to the public. A five-mile tunnel was dug to connect the quarry to the Chattahoochee River. The reservoir began filling in April of 2020, and completed filling in February 2021.

 

The 400-foot-long tunnel boring machine (TBM) that dug the 5-mile-long tunnel from the Chattahoochee River to the Bellwood Quarry (now Westside Park) is named Driller Mike. 

 

The machine was named in a public vote after Atlanta-based rapper Killer Mike.

  

In addition to its recreational role, Shirley Clarke Franklin Park functions as a critical piece of Atlanta’s water infrastructure. The reservoir significantly increases the city’s emergency water storage capacity, holding a backup water supply of more than two billion gallons, which would last more than 30 days.

 

Swimming at Bellwood Quarry (now officially known as the Westside Reservoir Park) is strictly prohibited. The quarry functions as a 2.4-billion-gallon emergency drinking water reservoir for the City of Atlanta. 

  
Attempting to swim here is a federal crime and poses severe safety hazards.

Why Swimming is Banned

Emergency Water Supply: The city converted the site to protect critical drinking water reserves from contamination.

Deadly Pumping Systems: The reservoir is up to 350 feet deep. It contains massive, automated water pumps that, when activated, can drag a swimmer underwater and cause severe injury or death.

Strict Security: The area is enclosed by fencing and monitored by security and the Atlanta Police. Trespassers are subject to arrest.

TRD Visit to this Natural (Man Made) Wonder of Atlanta. 

We parked and made our way to the main entrance.

 
Jean models the Phoenix Bird Sculpture (Rebirth Pavilion)

 
Made our way to bathroom, much more important at end of visit.

 
TRD and Jean at the Shirley Clarke Franklin Pavilion. 

 
Then we found a man struggling to carry a canopy to the Family Reunion ahead. Jean helped him out and jumped right in to the Double Dutch jump rope with the ladies.



  
Look at Jean spinning the ropes. 

  
Dang Jean was really good I had to beg them to let me have my girlfriend back so we could visit the park.


Made our way past playground. Jean still a little miffed about having to leave the Family Reunion.

 
Got a kid to go down slide for me to take photo. 

 
Past the valley's of quarry rock fill and kudzu.

 
Then you come upon the lake on the other side of the chain link fence. Jean rested while I wandered trying to take images through the fence. 

 
Waterline on West side of Quarry. 

 
Spinning round to the Southwest corner of Quarry. 

 
South side in distance, near bank vegetation. 

 
Rocky Quarry cliffs. 

 
Then you spin to East side of Quarry.


Panel shows Tunnel Path and Driller Mike in upper right corner. 

 
Trying to capture the Natural Wonder of the cliffs. 

 
More cliffs to East.


Getting in some near shore plants. 

 
Big cliff to East. 


Walked over to Pump House. 

  
Big ole chain link fence, Jean still waiting in distance. Stopped to notice flowers. 

 
 Then we made our way past the Kudzu valley to the Overlook. 

  
Wildlife - Dragonfly - Frog - Butterfly.
 
 
Pine cone on way to Overlook.


Jean at the Overlook. 

 
East shore across pond and West shore down below. 


Panoramic.

 
Jean took some pictures.

 
TRD gets to be in some pictures. 

 
Thumb eclipse in the one image, and just as a suggestion, flip flops are not ideal footwear for this park.  


Panel shows just how big the Quarry Lake is. 

 
There is a memorial marker for Edith Marie McGuire the second African American women to win 3 medals at one Olympics, 1964. 

   
TRD notices some flowers.

 
Multiple maps around park, marker at main pavilion. 

 
Back to that Phoenix Bird statue at park entrance. Snake chased us out of park. Get out and get a picture says Jean. Zoom from driver's seat instead. 

 
I had to take some pictures of the Whalebone entrance to park. 

  
Jean taking pictures of me in case I got run over. 


Flower ID Panel. 

  
TRD and Jean at the Shirley Clarke Franklin Park northwest Atlanta. Good deal for Atlanta. 

Fulton County (Part 10)

We concluded our listings for 247 National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia. We now turn to the 573 Historical Markers in Fulton County. Now we have already covered a bulk of these on our 10 post on the Civil War in Atlanta and Oakland Cemetery. 

Delta Air Lines World Headquarters - AIAA Historic Aerospace Site



Located in the Delta Flight Museum.

 

God's Acre / Rest Haven

 

God's Acre Marker side next to Westview Cemetery Water Tower.

 

In Memory of Our Comrades

 

 
In Westview Cemetery.



Lugenia Burns Hope (1871-1947)

 
Located near Graves Hall on the campus of Morehouse College.

National Medical Association: Medicine in the Civil Rights Movement



At the First Congregational Church United Church of Christ.

 

Rush Memorial Congregational Church

 
It is on James P. Brawley Drive SW 0.1 miles south of Parsons Street SW.

Westview Receiving Vault

 
Westview Cemetery.

William L. Scruggs L.L.D. Author, Lawyer, Diplomat

 
Located in Section 1 at Westview Cemetery.

Habersham Memorial Hall

 
It is in Ansley Park on 15th Street just west of Piedmont Road.

 

Booker T. Washington High School

 

An Appeal for Human Rights March 9, 1960

 

Marker is in Atlanta University Center.



Atlanta Student Movement



Nearby Clark Atlanta University entrance gate.

 

Atlanta Student Movement Planned

 

It is at the intersection of Atlanta Student Movement Boulevard and Chestnut Street NW.

 

The Atlanta Student Movement 1960-1965

 

By the other Markers.

Montgomery Cemetery



It is on Marietta Boulevard NW ¼ mile south of Bolton Road NW, on the right when traveling south. The marker is located in heavy brush and trees well off the roadway, adjacent to a building (currently a restaurant). It can be very difficult to see (and even more difficult to reach). 


It is the resting place of Major James McConnell Montgomery (1768–1842), who is widely considered the first white man to settle permanently in what is now Fulton County.

Birthplace of Allison Nelson

 
The Chattahoochee River is in the background. (The tower on the right is for an approach to the Fulton County/Charlie Brown Airport.)

“The Storyteller” Frank Fleming, Sculptor

 
The marker stands in Charlie Loudermilk Park, a triangle formed by Roswell Road, Peachtree Road, and Sardis Way.

  

Gov. John M. Slaton 1866-1955

 

Miss Jane Donaldson Business Estabished — 1886 - 1931 

 

The first Donaldson store was Miss Jane Donaldson. Miss Jane Donaldson was a little old lady that was really, really elderly, with a long dress and high-topped shoes and all. She lived right behind the store. Of course, everybody thought it was so funny. If you went to the store, most of the time she wasn’t there. She had a thing to pull for a bell. You’d ring the bell and she’d come out, even if you wanted a nickel’s worth of candy. Most of the time we wanted that old hoop cheese, that round hoop cheese. She’d come out there. She lived with her brother, uh, she lived with her brother and his wife. Yes, Miss Jane Donaldson, everybody knew her, because she had that Donaldson store for years.

Sardis Methodist Church


It is in Buckhead. It is on Powers Ferry Road NW 0.1 miles north of Roswell Road.

 

Sardis Methodist Church Cemetery.

 

Swan House

 

3099 Andrews Drive NW, Atlanta GA 30305.

 

Swan House

 
Marker is along the driveway that leads directly to the front portico.

The Indian Trail Echota

 
It is at the intersection of Peachtree Road (U.S. 19) and Palisades Road.

 

Jacob Elsas and the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mills

 
Marker is in Cabbagetown. It is on Carroll Street Southeast south of Tennelle Street Southeast.

 
The Former Fulton Bag & Cotton Mills Redeveloped into a mix of apartments, condominiums, office space and film studios. Jacob Elsas

1996 Summer Olympics Games of the XXVI Olympiad

 
Marker is next to the visitor/information center in Centennial Olympic Park.

1998 Shining Light Award Honoring Zell Miller

  
It is at the intersection of Centennial Olympic Park Drive and Marietta Street.

CNN Cable News Network

  
It is on Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW near Marietta Street NW.

Dr. John S. Pemberton

 
Located just to the west of the World of Coca-Cola Museum.

  

Welcome to Centennial Olympic Park

 
Marker is next to the Centennial park's visitor/information center.

Historic Owl Rock Church


It is at the intersection of Campbellton Road (Georgia Route 166) and Union Road SW.

 
Historic Owl Rock Church. Owl Rock – located behind the church.

One last TRD Scrolling Nugget for today's Post, an Owl Song written by Al "Blind Owl" Wilson and Canned Heat. 



Georgia Dome

 
Marker is accessible by foot at the northwest corner of the Home Depot Backyard venue.


The House that Dion Sanders built, where Kerri Strug landed one more vault. 



Grady Health System


It is on Jesse Hill, Jr. Drive south of Cocoa Cola Place. The marker is located where the original hospital once stood.

 
Early Grady

Sandtown

 
It is at the intersection of Fulton Industrial Boulevard (Georgia Route 70) and Boat Rock Road SW, on the right when traveling south on Fulton Industrial Boulevard.

The Winecoff Fire

 
119 People died. 

   

Thrasherville Where Atlanta Began

 
Marker is located in front of the State Bar of Georgia building. 

 
Plaque dedicated to "Atlanta's First Baby". Located beside the Thrasherville Marker.

Birthplace of Coca-Cola

 

 
Marker is in front of Georgia State University's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. Where Jacob's Pharmacy was located. 

SunTrust Bank

 
It is at the intersection of Edgewood Avenue SE and Park Place NE.

On the wall by the marker is the Prophecy of John C. Calhoun November 13, 1845.



Willis Carlisle's Store 1845

 
It is in Five Points. It is at the intersection of Park Place Southeast and Decatur Street Southeast.

 
Site of the Trout House during Civil War.

Fort McPherson

 
It is in Fort McPherson at the intersection of Hardee Avenue SW and Haney Plaza.

 

Georgia Institute of Technology


It is in Georgia Tech. It is on Cherry Street 0.1 miles west of North Avenue. It is in front of Tech Tower. 



Georgia Tech Origins A Tech Giant's Hand-tooled History

 
Marker is missing, it was located just beyond the two security bollards on the left.

"Out in the Rain" (1913)

 
Marker and sculpture is in Oakland Cemetery.

Roosevelt High School

 

It originally opened as an all girls school, and was named, Girls High School, from 1924 - 1947. Shortly after World War II, the Atlanta high schools became co-educational. The Girls High School was renamed Roosevelt High School for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the school continued as an Atlanta institution until 1985. The building was then renovated into apartments during the late 1980s, and continues to be used for residential apartment living to this very day.

   

The Bobby Jones Story


From the Oakland Cemetery entrance (Oakland at Martin Luther King), take the 10th right turn. 

 
 
Mt. Zion Methodist Church

 
It is in Hammond Park. It is at the intersection of Metropolitan Parkway SW (U.S. 41) and Old Jonesboro Road

The Honorable Isabel Gates Webster (April 16, 1931 - July 2, 1991)

 
It is in Harland Terrace. It is on Peyton Place Southwest 0.1 miles north of Peyton Road Southwest

Alonzo Herndon 1858-1927

 
Located at Georgia State University Centennial Hall.

 
Herndon Home and Herndon himself. 

Atlanta's "Main Street" Auburn Avenue - Integration of the Police Department
 
  
There is a series of signs up and down Auburn Avenue. 

Auburn Avenue Underpass Auburn Avenue - Bronner Brothers Store

 
Under I-85 and I-75 Downtown Connector. 

Big Bethel A.M.E. Church 220 Auburn Avenue



Big Bethel A.M.E. Church Auburn Avenue

 

Whew! Reviewed the first 200 Historical Markers of Fulton County, and culled 54 Markers that weren't covered in the earlier 10 post on the Civil War in Atlanta and Oakland Cemetery. A lot of these Markers covered our listings for the 247 National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County so we did not repeat those. We have 373 Historical Markers left in Fulton County, but we will only list the Markers we have not covered in earlier post.

Our GNW Girls today are Chain Gang Women.

 

 
Only in Arizona.

]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-14359.html Wed, 20 May 2026 04:19:45 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-14359.html Georgia Natural Wonder #280 - Whittier Mill Park

I found this place trough Internet search and felt it would fit in with my search for Natural Wonders of Georgia. We have included Mills in our previous post numerous times. High Falls - High Shoals - Factory Shoals - Cedar Shoals - Hurricane Shoals - Watson Mill - Hard Labor Creek - Ruff Mill - Sope Creek - Roswell Mill - Poole's Mill - Porterdale Shoals - Hamburg State Park - Scull Shoals - Sweetwater Creek - Brown's Mill - Banning Mills. 

 
Whittier Mill Park 

We haven't featured our artist enough on these Scrolling Nuggets, but Whittier Mill is calling baby, for the earliest Steve Miller.  That's Boz Scaggs singing.


Whole back side of this album rocked.

Wikipedia

Whittier Mill Village, originally Chattahoochee, a recognized neighborhood of Atlanta on the Upper Westside of Atlanta. It is roughly contiguous with the Whittier Mills Historic District, both locally- and NRHP-listed. The mill and the adjacent village were founded in 1895. The area is a good example of a Southern mill and village. Only remnants of the mill remain. However, the housing areas mostly have survived.

In 2001, the historic district included 98 contributing buildings, one contributing structure, and one contributing site, as well as 16 non-contributing buildings. (See below in post)

City of Atlanta



Significance

Following the Civil War and the national economic depression of 1873 to 1879, prosperity began a slow return to the South in general and the Atlanta area in particular. Of great importance in this prosperity was the International Cotton Exposition in 1881 in Atlanta, the first grand exposition held in the South. As historian Alice Galenson has noted, "The surge of interest in industrial endeavor in the South was manifested in the Atlanta Cotton Exposition of 1881, often credited with having inaugurated the cotton mill boom." For the next four decades, the three southern states of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina experienced a tremendous growth in the construction of cotton mills, drawing on both local and New England capital and the exploitation of a large supply of cheap labor in the form of poor, mountain and/or rural whites. Whittier Mill and its surrounding village was established in 1895 and is a prime example of this early development of the southern mill and attached village. Its subsequent history illustrates the rise and decline of the textile industry in the South as well as the shift in industry and business from the older, industrial centers of the North and Northeast to the "Sunbelt". Although only a few remnants of the actual mill itself remain, the housing built for "operatives" stands largely intact, providing a good idea of life in a typical mill village of turn-of-the-century Atlanta. 

Whittier Mill

Served by the Southern Railroad (several trains a day) and an electric streetcar line running every thirty minutes, the mill and its village nestled in a small valley near the Chattahoochee River. Construction began in May 1895 and was completed in less than a year at a total cost of $180,000. Less than a quarter mile away was the Chattahoochee Brick Company, and a March 6, 1895 letter from that firm's vice president G. W. Parrott outlined and confirmed the financial arrangement between his corporation and Whittier Cotton Mills. The brick company sold thirty acres along the river and their manager's existing brick cottage and would construct a 40,000 square foot cotton mill, warehouse, and a storehouse of "the very finest hard brick" as well as thirty frame cottages for the operatives. The mill owners would apply half of the equipment from their existing mills in Massachusetts and half would be new. Chattahoochee Brick received $2,500 in cash and $50,000 in stock. 



The mill company was named after the Whittier family of Massachusetts, which had started the business in Lowell. The actual owners, however, were Paul Butler, son of Civil War general Benjamin Butler, and several other prominent capitalists. Nevertheless, the Whittier family provided the major officers, including president Helen Whittier and treasurer Nelson Whittier. According to newspaper reports, it was Helen Whittier who selected the site for the southern branch of the ten mill system and who officially threw the switch to open the factory in 1896. Miss Whittier had come to Atlanta prior to the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition and was obviously attracted to the area for the firm's southern expansion. Her nephew Walter R. B. Whittier was installed as the manager, a job he would retain until 1936. 


Hedgerows home.

A special feature in the Atlanta Journal in July 1896 (six months after the mill had been operating) was subtitled "Quite a community itself/The Operatives Colonized in Comfortable Cottages -- Built by Capitalists of New England." In a typical Victorian prose, the writer stated: "One of the most picturesque places in the vicinity of Atlanta is Whittier Mills. . . . The houses of the operatives are built around the brow of the hill in a semi-circular shape. . . [that] resembles a half-moon. . . . The greatest number of these houses face the mill and are built of the best material with terraced yards and plenty of green grass, some of the more thrifty of the occupants already having roses planted and growing. Altogether they present an appearance of thrift and care not usually seen among people of this class." Guarding over the workers was manager Walter "Boss" Whittier in a large, brick house named "Hedgerows" on a nearby hill, and superintendent W. H. Salmon, also living on the property. The homes of these two men were heated with steam from the plant. 



Other than jobs, which started in 1896 at one dollar a day, the mill owners, over the years, provided a settlement house, store, a school building with space for church services, and a golf course. In the east half of the mill store were dry goods, groceries were located in the west half and the Chattahoochee post office occupied the northwest corner. Directly across Parrott Avenue from the company store what was and is known as the "ark" which housed the barber shop, a shoe shop, a pharmacy, and the men's showers. 



Housing was rented from the mill and paid for by the room. Most units were duplexes and were built with locks on both sides of the doors to each room so the interiors could be easily reconfigured when families needed more space. At $.50 per room, $1.50 per week, or $6.00 per four week month, the price included all maintenance and utilities. The mill kept the houses painted and the grass cut, provided water and electricity, and made all plumbing and electrical repairs. The original houses had wells for water, but when there was a mill expansion in 1926, the new houses had running water. The 1926 housing is distinguished by less steeply pitched roofs than the original dwellings and was designed by the Boston architectural firm of Parsons and Wait. Paul and Sid Whittier (sons of W. R. B. Whittier) oversaw the construction, which was of "Common Southern Pine," fireplaces and chimneys of Chattahoochee brick, and sited on pier foundations. The streets were unpaved, but rear alleys helped provide good drainage and the lots were smaller for easier upkeep. To this day, the 1926 construction is still called "New Village" by long time area residents. 



That some "outside" help was needed, however, is reflected in W. R. B. Whittier's 1910 request that the Atlanta Sheltering Arms Association of Day Nurseries set up a settlement in the village. In addition to the nursery, there were kindergarten classes, night school for adults, clubs for boys and girls, and mothers' meetings with a social worker. A physician held free clinics twice weekly, and a brass band was organized for the young men, who performed in a bandstand located north of Parrott Avenue. The settlement house was in a large, three story building at the southeast corner of Parrott and Whittier Avenues (based on the 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map), but was dismantled in 1926 with the waning of the settlement house movement in the United States during that decade. Sections of the settlement house were used to construct other houses in the expansion of the village that year. 



Despite the many amenities provided by the mill owners, life for the workers was not easy even if it was a step up from rural or mountain poverty. Sid Whittier, the last member of his family to run the business, showed why this was when he stated that even with the low pay, ". . . there were hundreds of people for every job and none of them had ever worked in a factory before." The 1900 census lists 635 people working at Whittier Cotton Mills including 211 weavers, 135 spinners, 60 spoolers, 48 dolphers, 29 carders, 23 speeders, and 20 drawers. Many of the dolphers, weavers, and spinners were children as young as seven or nine years. The failure of southern states like Georgia to pass compulsory school attendance laws made it possible to employ children and helped the southern mills to have profits of twenty to seventy-five percent while their counterparts in New England might be actually losing money. Another factor in such profits was long hours. During its first decades, Whittier Mills ran seven days a week with two shifts, midnight to noon and noon to midnight. Six day work weeks were standard. According to I. A. Newby in Plain Folk in the New South, mill villages were often plagued with alcoholism and violence partially as a result of the hard conditions. He recounts numerous incidents throughout the South and one from Whittier Mills in 1905 when two male youths who had been drinking assaulted two young girls on a public street. All were workers at the mill. This and other similar incidents undoubtedly brought about the establishment of the settlement house in 1910, but it is difficult to imagine how the workers could realistically be expected to take advantage of its programs when whole families worked such long hours. 

 

These workers or operatives primarily produced cotton yarn, ranging in size from "twos," used for window cord, to "forties," the finest of cotton filaments. "Softbacks" for gloves and mittens, braiders' yarn, druggists' twine, and wrappings for hose were also manufactured. Mississippi delta cotton was used for thread and California cotton was used for yarn. Yarn-wrapped water hose used for firehoses was the mills' specialty. The use of cotton fiber to make flexible firehoses had been developed by Paul Butler and Nelson Whittier prior to 1895 and the business had a virtual monopoly on the production due to patents on the circular loom and twister machinery these two men had developed. It was this part of the Whittier Mills production which was moved to Georgia with the opening of the new southern branch. 



Nevertheless, the mills' wares changed with the times. In 1914 experiments with "mineral wool" or asbestos were recorded and in the late 1920s blue denim was sold to the United States penitentiary in Atlanta. During World War II, the mills made cloth for sandbags for the federal government. At other times, Whittier Mills produced corduroy cloth, garden hosing, and even synthetic cloth. In September 1926 the trade journal Cotton reported that the Silver Lake Company had applied for a charter to produce cordage at Whittier Mills in what was now called the suburb of Chattahoochee. It was this expansion of the mill by 65,000 square feet which brought about the already mentioned addition to the mill housing. 



The 1930s proved a particularly difficult time for Whittier Mills and its workers. The Whittiers had had a virtual monopoly on firehose yarn production in the South until the depression when Callaway Mills hired a key worker, who stated Sid Whittier, ". . . took a complete set of yarn samples and the 'know-how'" with him. Bibb Manufacturing later hired knowledgeable personnel from Callaway, and three southern mills began to compete for the lucrative firehose business. Again according to Sid Whittier, ". . . the last to pirate his way in had a cost advantage because he comes in with more modern machinery." To earn extra money during the Depression, millworkers cut pieces for Ideal American Jigsaw puzzles in the evenings. 



The loss of the monopoly and the depression ended the mills' expansion. Permanent lay-offs and short-term strikes occurred at Whittier Mills, which had begun to lose money on its Georgia operation. In 1934, the year of the General Textile Strike throughout the country in which so many southern millworkers participated, "Boss" Whittier left the operation. J. J. Scott of Scottdale Mills near Decatur became general manager. Scott divided his time between his own mills and their competition at Whittier Mills in the town of Chattahoochee. Scott put the mill back into the black and in 1936 placed Hanford Sams in the manager's position of both his mills. Sams eventually became vice president of the Whittier Mills board of directors under president Scott, who had taken over that position from Sid Whittier in 1936. 



During the 1940s, the new management and wartime contracts brought renewed economic stability to the mill and the village. The employees' newsletter, Whittier Mills & Silver Lake News, reported on the prowess of the company baseball team with detailed accounts of winning seasons, playing against Clarkdale Thread Mill and Celanese (of Rome), and in 1948, the construction of new bleachers for the fans. That year the Osborne family were the big stars: the father, "Tiny," was once a major league player for Chicago and Brooklyn in the National League; "Jeter," one of his seven children, played in the Southern League for the New Orleans Pelicans; and another son, "Bottles" played for Rochester (AAA ball) and Birmingham in the Southern Association. In 1949, the trolley from Atlanta, filled with free riders for the occasion, made its last run to Chattahoochee. 



Major changes occurred, however, in the 1950s. In 1952 the City of Atlanta annexed Chattahoochee, an unincorporated township since its foundation. It was also in this decade that J. P. Stevens sold Whittier Mills to Scottdale Industries. Shortly after the mills' sale in 1954, the new owners began selling the mill houses to the tenants starting at $2,000. Butler Way was extended to occupy the old baseball grounds and several of the houses were moved there to create more equitably sized lots. 


By mid-1971, Whittier Mills has closed for good following a decade of increasing competition from cheap imports. Company officials cited the problem as 
". . . the accelerating flood of imports from low wage countries into our textile market. Added to this problem is the shortage of textile workers in this area." Although it was reported at the time that low unemployment figures for Atlanta meant the workers would probably find new jobs quickly, newspaper reports later that year stated that still unemployed workers from Whittier Mills would be eligible for extended benefits from the federal government because job loss was deemed the result of unfair trade practices. 


For the next two decades, the mill buildings went unused. Several were burned by arsonists in 1986 and the owners proposed to turn the site into a landfill in 1980. Over the protests of local residents, the remaining structures were demolished in 1988 by Victorian Artifacts, Inc., which valued the massive heart-of-pine timbers and the antique bricks. The original mill tower which housed offices and a water tank for fire protection still remains. Meanwhile, a small investment group began to renovate the area's housing for resale. A 1991 article in the Atlanta Journal/Constitution Homefinder section indicated that the renovation work had been successful with the old mill houses selling for up to $75,000. One of the "amenities" cited in the article was that residents were seeking historic status. 

Conclusions

Whittier Mill is a local reminder of a period of great importance to the history of Atlanta and the Southeast. As the "New South" emerged from the ruin and chaos of civil war and reconstruction, Atlanta became a regional symbol and center for economic rejuvenation. As the increasing railroads tied the Southeast to Atlanta, and both the region and the city to a national market economy, industries developed along the rail lines and near labor supplies. The mill villages provided a transitional area for rural and mountain people to adjust to communal and even urban life in some cases. Under the paternalistic, if hard and demanding, eye of the mill owners and managers, poor whites did indeed achieve a new lifestyle as the twentieth century dawned while enduring low wages, long hours and the utilization of child labor. The mills themselves also offered the change for interregional cooperation between southern and northern investors. 



Whittier Village was connected early on by streetcar lines and a commuter railroad to the larger metropolis. Churches and schools were built to encourage socialization, education, and worker stability. The placement of the settlement house in the community in 1910 shows the prevalence of the Progressive Movement's ideas in Atlanta as it helped introduce modern medical treatment and group activities to the "villagers." 



The large, community-oriented buildings of the mill and settlement house are unfortunately gone. The distinctive and typical mill tower (needed to contain a water tank for fire protection) remains to create a visual anchor for the industrial nature of the development, however. Most important, the housing of the workers or operatives remains and gives a true sense of time and place, especially if interpreted realistically. According to local residents, there has been very little new construction in the community since the 1920s, thus enhancing the value of Whittier Mill as an historic district. 

Whittier Mill Village

Our park located in a secluded pocket of northwest Atlanta in the 120-year old neighborhood of  Whittier Mill Village.  Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the official city park property was once the site of a cotton mill, and the surrounding homes were the residences for the mill workers. 

  
                 
Today, the park is a beautiful green space, offering something rarely found in any metropolitan area. 

Chattahoochee River Lands

In addition to its natural allure, the park includes recreational amenities such as bocce courts, uncovered picnic pavilion in what was the Carpenter Shop, playground, and lawn, making it an ideal spot for family gatherings and outdoor activities. These features enhance the park’s appeal, providing visitors with a range of leisure options while enjoying the picturesque surroundings and historical charm. Limited street parking available.

 

Spanning 22 acres, the park offers an extensive trail system that weaves through a wooded area along the riverbank of the Chattahoochee River. These unpaved trails provide hikers and nature enthusiasts with a tranquil and immersive experience. The trails also showcase remnants of the 19th century cotton mill, blending natural beauty with cultural heritage. 



Whittier Mill Park, located along the Chattahoochee River in northwest Atlanta, reflects the city’s industrial heritage and community preservation efforts. Established in the late 19th century, the site was home to the Whittier Cotton Mills, a New England–owned textile factory that opened in 1896. The mill brought industrial jobs and led to the creation of the surrounding Whittier Mill Village, a planned community with millworker housing, a school, and a park—rare in Southern mill towns of the era. 

 

After the mill closed in 1971, the site fell into disrepair and was nearly lost to development. Community members, with support from the City of Atlanta and the Trust for Public Land, rallied to preserve the historic landscape. In 2003, Whittier Mill Park officially opened, incorporating remnants of the original mill structures, including the imposing brick tower and foundations of the weaving room. 

  

Today, Whittier Mill Park serves as a public greenspace and a living testament to Atlanta’s industrial past, maintained through continued neighborhood stewardship and historic preservation.

Hiking Atlanta's Hidden Forests

Originally a mill town started by “carpet baggers” from Massachusetts, Whittier Mills is now a historic neighborhood with an adjacent park hidden in an industrial area of town. You can still see some of the mill buildings at the beginning of this hike, but the best part of the are the quiet trails along the Chattahoochee River. 

 

One of the newest up-and-coming parks in Atlanta, Whittier Mills provides easily-accessible hiking along the Chattahoochee as part of its web of trails, as well as an historic mill site.

A Picturesque Retreat: Whittier Mill Park

Whittier Mill Park, cradled by the calming embrace of the Chattahoochee River, is where history whispers through the trees and nature paints a stunning landscape. This hidden haven, with its picturesque mill and lush greenery, invites you to step away from the city’s hustle and immerse yourself in tranquility. 

 

Picture this: a leisurely stroll along winding trails, the sun filtering through a canopy of leaves, and the gentle rustling of the wind accompanying your every step. Whether you’re an art lover capturing the mill’s timeless beauty, a nature enthusiast reveling in the flora and fauna, or simply someone seeking a peaceful picnic spot, Whittier Mill Park offers a blissful escape that’s as soothing as it is inspiring.

Yelp

I love Whittier Mill Park! On the site of a former mill, this hidden gem includes a huge field great for kite flying, dog running, or whatever strikes your fancy. There are two structures on the grounds that are all that is left of the mill. These are great for photo shoots. 

  

One of my favorite parks in Atlanta. It's never crowded. I guess not too many people outside of the neighborhood are even aware of this park's existence. It's a great park with a huge open field with nice grass. There's also a nice sized playground and beautiful mill ruins to explore. My daughter and dog love it.

TRD Travels to Whittier Mill 

Well first of all, the majority of the Park was under construction. There was no place to park. I parked in grass along curb.



Signage.

  

I walked to the Carpenter Shop. 

 

 

 
Dedicated bricks and pavilion.

Then I walked past the playground horse shoe box.

 

I walked up the steps to the Hedgerows Trail. 

  

Walked along the Hedgerow Trail for three acres surrounding demolished home Walter "Boss" Whittier.

  

Saw a deer. 

 
Hello "Boss".

Walked along fence with railroad track beyond. Fence ended, and I circled back. Beautiful tree.

  

Hedgerow Trail. 

 

Natural Wonder part of Post.

 

Noticing trees and making way back down steps. 

  

Then I ventured to the tower. 

  

Kind of tricky getting beyond gate for images inside tower.

 

Worth saving, this Mill Tower. 

  

Tower image overload.

   

Following the trail sign to the Chattahoochee River but it proved too far, way past railroad track, and I settled for image of this tree.

  

Little brick patio & benches on way back to car.

  

Took my usual Squirrel image. Drove around Mill Village. 

  

Restored Mill homes.

  

Fulton County (Part 9)

Well, that was short and sweet. May not have been a Natural Wonder of Georgia, but it qualified as a Natural Wonder of Atlanta. Actual Deer in Atlanta. We conclude our listings for National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia.

Virginia-Highland Historic District

In 2011, readers of Creative Loafing voted Virginia–Highland "Best Overall Neighborhood."  


It is named after the intersection of Virginia Avenue and North Highland Avenue, the heart of its trendy retail district at the center of the neighborhood.

  
Adair Mansion, Briarcliff Hotel, John Howell Park.

  
The Colonnades, Orme Park Bridge, Summerfest.

  
In June 2011, Atlanta Magazine designated Virginia Highland "favorite neighborhood overall". 

  
In 2012, readers of Creative Loafing voted Virginia Highland  "Best Walkable Neighborhood". 

  
In 2020, Southern Living editors named Virginia–Highland number 4 on their “The South’s Best Neighborhoods”  list.

Anne Wallace Branch-Carnegie Library of Atlanta

The Anne Wallace Branch of the Atlanta Public Library is significant in architecture as a good intact example of the use of the Georgian Revival style for a public building. 


It retains most all of its original exterior features-red brick, centered entrance portico with columns, windows with keystones, entrance fanlight, etc

 
It is significant as having been built to be a Carnegie branch library using the Carnegie-sponsored plans created by the New York City firm of Whitfield and King, with local architect Harry L. Walker assigned to the project.



In 1886, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, wealthy beyond all measure, vowed to utilize his money for benevolent causes. 

 

Between 1889 and 1916, Andrew Carnegie established 1,681 Libraries in the US. 

 

Carnegie paid for 30 libraries in Georgia, 24 public libraries including branches in Atlanta and Savannah, and 6 college libraries. Of these, 20 public libraries still survive. 

Washington Carver Homes

Located on Holcomb Ave in East Point, GA, this property was built in 1951 by the City of East Point Housing Authority. It was recently added to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and the National Register of Historic Places for its mid-century segregation-era architecture.

   

Built exclusively for African Americans, the buildings are an important record of racial segregation during the mid-20th century. The buildings embody key architectural features and site planning practices characteristic of public housing developments across the nation including functional, utilitarian designs; repetitive building forms; an ordered “superblock” plan; substantial open spaces; and integral circulation networks. Developed across the country between 1930 and the early 1950s, the United States has a dwindling number of these low-rise, multi-unit public housing complexes. Washington Carver Homes is the only remaining example in East Point.

Washington Park Historic District

 
The park itself opened in 1919, it holds the distinction of being the first designated recreational space for African Americans in the city. 

 

  

Booker T. Washington High School


Designed by Atlanta-born architect Eugene C. Wachendorff, the building incorporates medieval and Byzantine elements, including the dramatic main entrance with five arches in two tiers.


Booker T. Washington Lifting the Veil of Ignorance.

  

West End Historic District

  
Wrens Nest - Joel Chandler Harris House, Hammonds House Museum, John Thrasher Home.

  
Evan Park Howell Estate estate, often called Woodlawn, George F. Bolles Home, the owner of a store specializing in books, stationary, and fancy goods on Marietta Street, Clarke Howell, Jr. Home. All these Black and White homes are demolished.

   West End places and West Belt Line.

Western Electric Company Building

  
Now known as the Telephone Factory Lofts, a mixed-use loft building along the Belt Line trail East Atlanta.

  
Train tracks are now the Belt Line. Rotary telephone door.

  

 

We are in the National Register of Historic Places on this post that started with a Mill, we bring back Steve Miller for second TRD Scrolling Nugget.



Westinghouse Electric Company Building

The building is representative of early-20th century fire-proof construction with its concrete frame clad in brick and concrete mushroom support columns. The building is also significant in the area of architecture for its design by Atlanta-based architect Emit C. Seiz. 

 

Lastly known for its association with the Westinghouse Electric Company and the expansion of the electrical industry in Atlanta in the early 20th century.

 

During its most recent rehabilitation, the building was converted to office space and lofts.

 

Westview Cemetery

 
Westview Cemetery is the largest civilian cemetery in the Southeastern United States, comprising more than 582 acres, 50 percent of which is undeveloped. 

  
Grave stones in cemetery - George King of King Hardware Stores - Atlanta mayor Isaac N. Ragsdale.

 

The cemetery includes the graves of more than 125,000 people. 

  
Westview Abbey is a mausoleum and chapel, built in 1943 and houses 11,444 entombment's and space to hold cremated remains. 

  

   
Twenty-seven stained glass panels adorn the Spanish Gothic-style chapel and depict Jesus Christ's life from nativity through crucifixion and resurrection.

  
My Grandmother is buried here. Pop and Mom at Grandma Hazel's marker they had installed. TRD with Grandma Hazel. That car really dates that image.

Whitehall Street Retail Historic District

Peachtree Street becomes Whitehall Street after it crosses south of Marietta Street.

 
"Atlanta's original commercial and retail core." 

 
In the Antebellum era, the area was also the site of the city's slave market. Black man, with a gun, reading a book, and relaxing in public in front of former slave Auction Building. All things forbidden in slave society. 2nd image is 1871. 

 
In 1907, the M. Rich Building was completed. 

 
Pink Pig - Lighting of Christmas Tree. The memories of youth. 

During the early 1900s, many notable companies operated in this district, including Rich's, H. L. Green, Kress, and McCrory's.

  
Vintage images Whitehall Historic District. 

Whittier Mills Historic District

We featured the Mill Park in this post as a Atlanta Natural Wonder, the residential buildings in the historic district are what makes this a National Register of Historic Places listing in Fulton County. The Mill Worker homes are one-story wood-framed dwellings situated on small lots and share uniform setbacks. The dwellings were constructed as duplexes and triplexes.

   

Collectively the mill village retains a high level of historic integrity and most houses retain their original design, materials,and craftsmanship.

  

Winecoff Hotel

   

The Winecoff Hotel fire, of December 7, 1946, was the deadliest hotel fire in American history, killing 119 hotel occupants, including the hotel's original owners. 

  
All of the hotel's occupants above the fire's origin on the third floor were trapped, and the fire's survivors either were rescued from upper-story windows or jumped into nets held by firemen. 

 
Some misjudged the ten-foot-wide alley between the rear of the Winecoff and the Mortgage Guaranty Building and attempted to jump across.

 
A photograph of one survivor's fall won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Photography. 

 
The rear of the Winecoff Hotel in 1984 with the fire escape stairway added during reconstruction after the fire.



Winnwood Apartments

The Winnwood Apartments (1460 W Peachtree St NW) is a historic, 48-unit Georgian Revival building in Midtown Atlanta. 

  

Following a multi-million dollar restoration, the city partnered with developers to convert the property into permanent supportive housing for previously homeless Atlantans.

 

Originally built in 1931, the property features a deep U-shaped footprint, central courtyard, and historic restorations protected by Easements Atlanta.

George Jr. and Emily Winship House

The George and Emily Winship, Jr., House is a two-story Tudor Revival-style residence that stands atop a hill in the Peachtree Heights East subdivision. 

 

The exterior of the home features elaborately patterned brickwork, half-timbering, and multi-paned windows. The home is also ornamented with limestone details, including the archways of the front projecting portico. Meanwhile, the front door is made of mahogany and weighs about 400 pounds! The house is topped by a steeply pitched slate roof.

 

George Winship, Jr. was a prominent Atlanta businessman. 

   

He was the President of the Fulton Supply Company and Director of The Atlanta Gas Light Company and the Fulton National Bank of Atlanta. 

  

Stuart Witham House

The Stuart Witham House (also known as the Witham-Clark House) is a historic Neo-Georgian and Colonial Revival estate located at 2922 Andrews Drive NW in the Peachtree Heights area of Buckhead, Atlanta.

 

Designed in 1923 by prominent Atlanta architect Neel Reid. The Witham-Clark House, a Neo-Georgian style house built in 1926, represents one of the latter works of Neel Reid, the principal designer for the early twentieth century firm of Hentz, Reid and Adler. It was the work of this Atlanta firm that  gave impetus to the characterization of Atlanta's early twentieth century elite neighborhoods and made them among the most architecturally prominent of urban residential areas in America.

  

Features a classic U-shaped floor plan, symmetrical recessed wings, and intricate Adamesque detailing around the central entranceway.

Wynne-Claughton Building

   

During the 1946 Winecoff Hotel fire, some people trapped in the nearby Winecoff Hotel attempted to jump across the 10-foot alley separating the two buildings, with many falling to their deaths as a result. 

   

   

Yonge Street School

Yonge Street School (later renamed Henry Rutherford Butler Elementary) was a historic Atlanta institution built in 1911. Located near Auburn Avenue, it was the first modern brick public school for Black students in the city. 



In 1911, teacher and activist Selena Sloan Butler organized the country's first Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) unit for Black parents at Yonge Street School.



Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., attended first grade at Yonge Street Elementary School with his six-year-old sister, Christine.

 
While the original school building no longer operates as an active Atlanta Public School, the site is recognized as a historic landmark, located just north of the Selena S. Butler Park.

Former Listings

Carnegie Library of Atlanta





  

Stones from exterior of Carnegie Library used in Carnegie Education Pavilion located in Downtown's Hardy Ivy Park. 

  

Fulton County Almshouse

  
The Fulton County Almshouses, opened in 1911 near Chastain Park in Atlanta, provided segregated institutional care for indigent and elderly residents. The former white almshouse was controversially demolished by The Galloway School in August 2024.


The site's surviving African American almshouse currently operates as the Chastain Arts Center.

Glenridge Hall

Glenridge Hall was a historic property in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States. The house was built in 1929.

 
It was used as a filming location for such films as Driving Miss Daisy. Demolished to make way for Mercedes-Benz's U.S. headquarters.

Hillyer Trust Building

The historic Hillyer Trust Building is located at 140 Peachtree St NW in downtown Atlanta. Built in 1912, this landmark is known as a Neel Reid "baby skyscraper" and was once celebrated as the world's tallest, thinnest building. These images are so cool, I had no idea this was here. 

   
Originally designed with eight stories, the top floors were later removed, leaving the three-story structure that stands today. De-listed due to the removal of the top 5 floors of the building in 1978.

Western and Atlantic Railroad Zero Milepost


Originally located outside at ground level when erected in 1958.  


This marker had the post mount removed and was mounted on a wall when the parking garage and surrounding complex was built in the 1980s.



The Zero Mile Post has since been removed and taken to the Atlanta History Center.



After the original structure was demolished, a newly made marker and a replica mile post were erected under Central Avenue on May 14, 2019.


The replica Zero Milepost and interpretive signage created by Atlanta History Center, and historical marker re-erected by the Georgia Historical Society and Atlanta History Center on May 14, 2019, mark the historic terminus of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, marked by the Zero Milepost around 1850. This site is located beneath Central Avenue.

Judge William Wilson House

 
Looked good back in 1960's.

  
Not so much in 21st Century. Gone With The Wind now. 

Wow, so I am finished with all the Wikipedia listings for National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia. Still have a few places we can consider as Natural Wonders of Georgia (Or at least Natural Wonders of Atlanta). We still have Historical Markers, Towns, and Notable People to cover for Fulton County. Getting close to half of all people in Georgia, live in the Atlanta area. 

My Georgia Natural Wonder gals today for Whittier Mill are beautiful and Witty. 

 
Nikki Glaser: Known for her bold, hilarious honesty about dating, sex, and relationships. She had a massive, widely-praised run on Netflix and continues to be one of the highest-grossing touring acts.

  
Iliza Shlesinger: A comedy powerhouse who masterfully explores the female experience with high energy, sharp critiques, and high-fashion stage outfits.

  
Whitney Cummings: A trailblazer who brings sharp, observational, and unapologetic psychological insights into dating and modern womanhood.

 
Natasha Leggero: Famous for her elevated, glamorous aesthetic blended with scathing, biting crowd work and sharp observational wit.

What a hobby, love of Georgia and AI research on sexy comedians. Atlanta's newest City Park is next. 

]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #280 - Whittier Mill Park

I found this place trough Internet search and felt it would fit in with my search for Natural Wonders of Georgia. We have included Mills in our previous post numerous times. High Falls - High Shoals - Factory Shoals - Cedar Shoals - Hurricane Shoals - Watson Mill - Hard Labor Creek - Ruff Mill - Sope Creek - Roswell Mill - Poole's Mill - Porterdale Shoals - Hamburg State Park - Scull Shoals - Sweetwater Creek - Brown's Mill - Banning Mills. 

 
Whittier Mill Park 

We haven't featured our artist enough on these Scrolling Nuggets, but Whittier Mill is calling baby, for the earliest Steve Miller.  That's Boz Scaggs singing.


Whole back side of this album rocked.

Wikipedia

Whittier Mill Village, originally Chattahoochee, a recognized neighborhood of Atlanta on the Upper Westside of Atlanta. It is roughly contiguous with the Whittier Mills Historic District, both locally- and NRHP-listed. The mill and the adjacent village were founded in 1895. The area is a good example of a Southern mill and village. Only remnants of the mill remain. However, the housing areas mostly have survived.

In 2001, the historic district included 98 contributing buildings, one contributing structure, and one contributing site, as well as 16 non-contributing buildings. (See below in post)

City of Atlanta



Significance

Following the Civil War and the national economic depression of 1873 to 1879, prosperity began a slow return to the South in general and the Atlanta area in particular. Of great importance in this prosperity was the International Cotton Exposition in 1881 in Atlanta, the first grand exposition held in the South. As historian Alice Galenson has noted, "The surge of interest in industrial endeavor in the South was manifested in the Atlanta Cotton Exposition of 1881, often credited with having inaugurated the cotton mill boom." For the next four decades, the three southern states of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina experienced a tremendous growth in the construction of cotton mills, drawing on both local and New England capital and the exploitation of a large supply of cheap labor in the form of poor, mountain and/or rural whites. Whittier Mill and its surrounding village was established in 1895 and is a prime example of this early development of the southern mill and attached village. Its subsequent history illustrates the rise and decline of the textile industry in the South as well as the shift in industry and business from the older, industrial centers of the North and Northeast to the "Sunbelt". Although only a few remnants of the actual mill itself remain, the housing built for "operatives" stands largely intact, providing a good idea of life in a typical mill village of turn-of-the-century Atlanta. 

Whittier Mill

Served by the Southern Railroad (several trains a day) and an electric streetcar line running every thirty minutes, the mill and its village nestled in a small valley near the Chattahoochee River. Construction began in May 1895 and was completed in less than a year at a total cost of $180,000. Less than a quarter mile away was the Chattahoochee Brick Company, and a March 6, 1895 letter from that firm's vice president G. W. Parrott outlined and confirmed the financial arrangement between his corporation and Whittier Cotton Mills. The brick company sold thirty acres along the river and their manager's existing brick cottage and would construct a 40,000 square foot cotton mill, warehouse, and a storehouse of "the very finest hard brick" as well as thirty frame cottages for the operatives. The mill owners would apply half of the equipment from their existing mills in Massachusetts and half would be new. Chattahoochee Brick received $2,500 in cash and $50,000 in stock. 



The mill company was named after the Whittier family of Massachusetts, which had started the business in Lowell. The actual owners, however, were Paul Butler, son of Civil War general Benjamin Butler, and several other prominent capitalists. Nevertheless, the Whittier family provided the major officers, including president Helen Whittier and treasurer Nelson Whittier. According to newspaper reports, it was Helen Whittier who selected the site for the southern branch of the ten mill system and who officially threw the switch to open the factory in 1896. Miss Whittier had come to Atlanta prior to the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition and was obviously attracted to the area for the firm's southern expansion. Her nephew Walter R. B. Whittier was installed as the manager, a job he would retain until 1936. 


Hedgerows home.

A special feature in the Atlanta Journal in July 1896 (six months after the mill had been operating) was subtitled "Quite a community itself/The Operatives Colonized in Comfortable Cottages -- Built by Capitalists of New England." In a typical Victorian prose, the writer stated: "One of the most picturesque places in the vicinity of Atlanta is Whittier Mills. . . . The houses of the operatives are built around the brow of the hill in a semi-circular shape. . . [that] resembles a half-moon. . . . The greatest number of these houses face the mill and are built of the best material with terraced yards and plenty of green grass, some of the more thrifty of the occupants already having roses planted and growing. Altogether they present an appearance of thrift and care not usually seen among people of this class." Guarding over the workers was manager Walter "Boss" Whittier in a large, brick house named "Hedgerows" on a nearby hill, and superintendent W. H. Salmon, also living on the property. The homes of these two men were heated with steam from the plant. 



Other than jobs, which started in 1896 at one dollar a day, the mill owners, over the years, provided a settlement house, store, a school building with space for church services, and a golf course. In the east half of the mill store were dry goods, groceries were located in the west half and the Chattahoochee post office occupied the northwest corner. Directly across Parrott Avenue from the company store what was and is known as the "ark" which housed the barber shop, a shoe shop, a pharmacy, and the men's showers. 



Housing was rented from the mill and paid for by the room. Most units were duplexes and were built with locks on both sides of the doors to each room so the interiors could be easily reconfigured when families needed more space. At $.50 per room, $1.50 per week, or $6.00 per four week month, the price included all maintenance and utilities. The mill kept the houses painted and the grass cut, provided water and electricity, and made all plumbing and electrical repairs. The original houses had wells for water, but when there was a mill expansion in 1926, the new houses had running water. The 1926 housing is distinguished by less steeply pitched roofs than the original dwellings and was designed by the Boston architectural firm of Parsons and Wait. Paul and Sid Whittier (sons of W. R. B. Whittier) oversaw the construction, which was of "Common Southern Pine," fireplaces and chimneys of Chattahoochee brick, and sited on pier foundations. The streets were unpaved, but rear alleys helped provide good drainage and the lots were smaller for easier upkeep. To this day, the 1926 construction is still called "New Village" by long time area residents. 



That some "outside" help was needed, however, is reflected in W. R. B. Whittier's 1910 request that the Atlanta Sheltering Arms Association of Day Nurseries set up a settlement in the village. In addition to the nursery, there were kindergarten classes, night school for adults, clubs for boys and girls, and mothers' meetings with a social worker. A physician held free clinics twice weekly, and a brass band was organized for the young men, who performed in a bandstand located north of Parrott Avenue. The settlement house was in a large, three story building at the southeast corner of Parrott and Whittier Avenues (based on the 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map), but was dismantled in 1926 with the waning of the settlement house movement in the United States during that decade. Sections of the settlement house were used to construct other houses in the expansion of the village that year. 



Despite the many amenities provided by the mill owners, life for the workers was not easy even if it was a step up from rural or mountain poverty. Sid Whittier, the last member of his family to run the business, showed why this was when he stated that even with the low pay, ". . . there were hundreds of people for every job and none of them had ever worked in a factory before." The 1900 census lists 635 people working at Whittier Cotton Mills including 211 weavers, 135 spinners, 60 spoolers, 48 dolphers, 29 carders, 23 speeders, and 20 drawers. Many of the dolphers, weavers, and spinners were children as young as seven or nine years. The failure of southern states like Georgia to pass compulsory school attendance laws made it possible to employ children and helped the southern mills to have profits of twenty to seventy-five percent while their counterparts in New England might be actually losing money. Another factor in such profits was long hours. During its first decades, Whittier Mills ran seven days a week with two shifts, midnight to noon and noon to midnight. Six day work weeks were standard. According to I. A. Newby in Plain Folk in the New South, mill villages were often plagued with alcoholism and violence partially as a result of the hard conditions. He recounts numerous incidents throughout the South and one from Whittier Mills in 1905 when two male youths who had been drinking assaulted two young girls on a public street. All were workers at the mill. This and other similar incidents undoubtedly brought about the establishment of the settlement house in 1910, but it is difficult to imagine how the workers could realistically be expected to take advantage of its programs when whole families worked such long hours. 

 

These workers or operatives primarily produced cotton yarn, ranging in size from "twos," used for window cord, to "forties," the finest of cotton filaments. "Softbacks" for gloves and mittens, braiders' yarn, druggists' twine, and wrappings for hose were also manufactured. Mississippi delta cotton was used for thread and California cotton was used for yarn. Yarn-wrapped water hose used for firehoses was the mills' specialty. The use of cotton fiber to make flexible firehoses had been developed by Paul Butler and Nelson Whittier prior to 1895 and the business had a virtual monopoly on the production due to patents on the circular loom and twister machinery these two men had developed. It was this part of the Whittier Mills production which was moved to Georgia with the opening of the new southern branch. 



Nevertheless, the mills' wares changed with the times. In 1914 experiments with "mineral wool" or asbestos were recorded and in the late 1920s blue denim was sold to the United States penitentiary in Atlanta. During World War II, the mills made cloth for sandbags for the federal government. At other times, Whittier Mills produced corduroy cloth, garden hosing, and even synthetic cloth. In September 1926 the trade journal Cotton reported that the Silver Lake Company had applied for a charter to produce cordage at Whittier Mills in what was now called the suburb of Chattahoochee. It was this expansion of the mill by 65,000 square feet which brought about the already mentioned addition to the mill housing. 



The 1930s proved a particularly difficult time for Whittier Mills and its workers. The Whittiers had had a virtual monopoly on firehose yarn production in the South until the depression when Callaway Mills hired a key worker, who stated Sid Whittier, ". . . took a complete set of yarn samples and the 'know-how'" with him. Bibb Manufacturing later hired knowledgeable personnel from Callaway, and three southern mills began to compete for the lucrative firehose business. Again according to Sid Whittier, ". . . the last to pirate his way in had a cost advantage because he comes in with more modern machinery." To earn extra money during the Depression, millworkers cut pieces for Ideal American Jigsaw puzzles in the evenings. 



The loss of the monopoly and the depression ended the mills' expansion. Permanent lay-offs and short-term strikes occurred at Whittier Mills, which had begun to lose money on its Georgia operation. In 1934, the year of the General Textile Strike throughout the country in which so many southern millworkers participated, "Boss" Whittier left the operation. J. J. Scott of Scottdale Mills near Decatur became general manager. Scott divided his time between his own mills and their competition at Whittier Mills in the town of Chattahoochee. Scott put the mill back into the black and in 1936 placed Hanford Sams in the manager's position of both his mills. Sams eventually became vice president of the Whittier Mills board of directors under president Scott, who had taken over that position from Sid Whittier in 1936. 



During the 1940s, the new management and wartime contracts brought renewed economic stability to the mill and the village. The employees' newsletter, Whittier Mills & Silver Lake News, reported on the prowess of the company baseball team with detailed accounts of winning seasons, playing against Clarkdale Thread Mill and Celanese (of Rome), and in 1948, the construction of new bleachers for the fans. That year the Osborne family were the big stars: the father, "Tiny," was once a major league player for Chicago and Brooklyn in the National League; "Jeter," one of his seven children, played in the Southern League for the New Orleans Pelicans; and another son, "Bottles" played for Rochester (AAA ball) and Birmingham in the Southern Association. In 1949, the trolley from Atlanta, filled with free riders for the occasion, made its last run to Chattahoochee. 



Major changes occurred, however, in the 1950s. In 1952 the City of Atlanta annexed Chattahoochee, an unincorporated township since its foundation. It was also in this decade that J. P. Stevens sold Whittier Mills to Scottdale Industries. Shortly after the mills' sale in 1954, the new owners began selling the mill houses to the tenants starting at $2,000. Butler Way was extended to occupy the old baseball grounds and several of the houses were moved there to create more equitably sized lots. 


By mid-1971, Whittier Mills has closed for good following a decade of increasing competition from cheap imports. Company officials cited the problem as 
". . . the accelerating flood of imports from low wage countries into our textile market. Added to this problem is the shortage of textile workers in this area." Although it was reported at the time that low unemployment figures for Atlanta meant the workers would probably find new jobs quickly, newspaper reports later that year stated that still unemployed workers from Whittier Mills would be eligible for extended benefits from the federal government because job loss was deemed the result of unfair trade practices. 


For the next two decades, the mill buildings went unused. Several were burned by arsonists in 1986 and the owners proposed to turn the site into a landfill in 1980. Over the protests of local residents, the remaining structures were demolished in 1988 by Victorian Artifacts, Inc., which valued the massive heart-of-pine timbers and the antique bricks. The original mill tower which housed offices and a water tank for fire protection still remains. Meanwhile, a small investment group began to renovate the area's housing for resale. A 1991 article in the Atlanta Journal/Constitution Homefinder section indicated that the renovation work had been successful with the old mill houses selling for up to $75,000. One of the "amenities" cited in the article was that residents were seeking historic status. 

Conclusions

Whittier Mill is a local reminder of a period of great importance to the history of Atlanta and the Southeast. As the "New South" emerged from the ruin and chaos of civil war and reconstruction, Atlanta became a regional symbol and center for economic rejuvenation. As the increasing railroads tied the Southeast to Atlanta, and both the region and the city to a national market economy, industries developed along the rail lines and near labor supplies. The mill villages provided a transitional area for rural and mountain people to adjust to communal and even urban life in some cases. Under the paternalistic, if hard and demanding, eye of the mill owners and managers, poor whites did indeed achieve a new lifestyle as the twentieth century dawned while enduring low wages, long hours and the utilization of child labor. The mills themselves also offered the change for interregional cooperation between southern and northern investors. 



Whittier Village was connected early on by streetcar lines and a commuter railroad to the larger metropolis. Churches and schools were built to encourage socialization, education, and worker stability. The placement of the settlement house in the community in 1910 shows the prevalence of the Progressive Movement's ideas in Atlanta as it helped introduce modern medical treatment and group activities to the "villagers." 



The large, community-oriented buildings of the mill and settlement house are unfortunately gone. The distinctive and typical mill tower (needed to contain a water tank for fire protection) remains to create a visual anchor for the industrial nature of the development, however. Most important, the housing of the workers or operatives remains and gives a true sense of time and place, especially if interpreted realistically. According to local residents, there has been very little new construction in the community since the 1920s, thus enhancing the value of Whittier Mill as an historic district. 

Whittier Mill Village

Our park located in a secluded pocket of northwest Atlanta in the 120-year old neighborhood of  Whittier Mill Village.  Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the official city park property was once the site of a cotton mill, and the surrounding homes were the residences for the mill workers. 

  
                 
Today, the park is a beautiful green space, offering something rarely found in any metropolitan area. 

Chattahoochee River Lands

In addition to its natural allure, the park includes recreational amenities such as bocce courts, uncovered picnic pavilion in what was the Carpenter Shop, playground, and lawn, making it an ideal spot for family gatherings and outdoor activities. These features enhance the park’s appeal, providing visitors with a range of leisure options while enjoying the picturesque surroundings and historical charm. Limited street parking available.

 

Spanning 22 acres, the park offers an extensive trail system that weaves through a wooded area along the riverbank of the Chattahoochee River. These unpaved trails provide hikers and nature enthusiasts with a tranquil and immersive experience. The trails also showcase remnants of the 19th century cotton mill, blending natural beauty with cultural heritage. 



Whittier Mill Park, located along the Chattahoochee River in northwest Atlanta, reflects the city’s industrial heritage and community preservation efforts. Established in the late 19th century, the site was home to the Whittier Cotton Mills, a New England–owned textile factory that opened in 1896. The mill brought industrial jobs and led to the creation of the surrounding Whittier Mill Village, a planned community with millworker housing, a school, and a park—rare in Southern mill towns of the era. 

 

After the mill closed in 1971, the site fell into disrepair and was nearly lost to development. Community members, with support from the City of Atlanta and the Trust for Public Land, rallied to preserve the historic landscape. In 2003, Whittier Mill Park officially opened, incorporating remnants of the original mill structures, including the imposing brick tower and foundations of the weaving room. 

  

Today, Whittier Mill Park serves as a public greenspace and a living testament to Atlanta’s industrial past, maintained through continued neighborhood stewardship and historic preservation.

Hiking Atlanta's Hidden Forests

Originally a mill town started by “carpet baggers” from Massachusetts, Whittier Mills is now a historic neighborhood with an adjacent park hidden in an industrial area of town. You can still see some of the mill buildings at the beginning of this hike, but the best part of the are the quiet trails along the Chattahoochee River. 

 

One of the newest up-and-coming parks in Atlanta, Whittier Mills provides easily-accessible hiking along the Chattahoochee as part of its web of trails, as well as an historic mill site.

A Picturesque Retreat: Whittier Mill Park

Whittier Mill Park, cradled by the calming embrace of the Chattahoochee River, is where history whispers through the trees and nature paints a stunning landscape. This hidden haven, with its picturesque mill and lush greenery, invites you to step away from the city’s hustle and immerse yourself in tranquility. 

 

Picture this: a leisurely stroll along winding trails, the sun filtering through a canopy of leaves, and the gentle rustling of the wind accompanying your every step. Whether you’re an art lover capturing the mill’s timeless beauty, a nature enthusiast reveling in the flora and fauna, or simply someone seeking a peaceful picnic spot, Whittier Mill Park offers a blissful escape that’s as soothing as it is inspiring.

Yelp

I love Whittier Mill Park! On the site of a former mill, this hidden gem includes a huge field great for kite flying, dog running, or whatever strikes your fancy. There are two structures on the grounds that are all that is left of the mill. These are great for photo shoots. 

  

One of my favorite parks in Atlanta. It's never crowded. I guess not too many people outside of the neighborhood are even aware of this park's existence. It's a great park with a huge open field with nice grass. There's also a nice sized playground and beautiful mill ruins to explore. My daughter and dog love it.

TRD Travels to Whittier Mill 

Well first of all, the majority of the Park was under construction. There was no place to park. I parked in grass along curb.



Signage.

  

I walked to the Carpenter Shop. 

 

 

 
Dedicated bricks and pavilion.

Then I walked past the playground horse shoe box.

 

I walked up the steps to the Hedgerows Trail. 

  

Walked along the Hedgerow Trail for three acres surrounding demolished home Walter "Boss" Whittier.

  

Saw a deer. 

 
Hello "Boss".

Walked along fence with railroad track beyond. Fence ended, and I circled back. Beautiful tree.

  

Hedgerow Trail. 

 

Natural Wonder part of Post.

 

Noticing trees and making way back down steps. 

  

Then I ventured to the tower. 

  

Kind of tricky getting beyond gate for images inside tower.

 

Worth saving, this Mill Tower. 

  

Tower image overload.

   

Following the trail sign to the Chattahoochee River but it proved too far, way past railroad track, and I settled for image of this tree.

  

Little brick patio & benches on way back to car.

  

Took my usual Squirrel image. Drove around Mill Village. 

  

Restored Mill homes.

  

Fulton County (Part 9)

Well, that was short and sweet. May not have been a Natural Wonder of Georgia, but it qualified as a Natural Wonder of Atlanta. Actual Deer in Atlanta. We conclude our listings for National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia.

Virginia-Highland Historic District

In 2011, readers of Creative Loafing voted Virginia–Highland "Best Overall Neighborhood."  


It is named after the intersection of Virginia Avenue and North Highland Avenue, the heart of its trendy retail district at the center of the neighborhood.

  
Adair Mansion, Briarcliff Hotel, John Howell Park.

  
The Colonnades, Orme Park Bridge, Summerfest.

  
In June 2011, Atlanta Magazine designated Virginia Highland "favorite neighborhood overall". 

  
In 2012, readers of Creative Loafing voted Virginia Highland  "Best Walkable Neighborhood". 

  
In 2020, Southern Living editors named Virginia–Highland number 4 on their “The South’s Best Neighborhoods”  list.

Anne Wallace Branch-Carnegie Library of Atlanta

The Anne Wallace Branch of the Atlanta Public Library is significant in architecture as a good intact example of the use of the Georgian Revival style for a public building. 


It retains most all of its original exterior features-red brick, centered entrance portico with columns, windows with keystones, entrance fanlight, etc

 
It is significant as having been built to be a Carnegie branch library using the Carnegie-sponsored plans created by the New York City firm of Whitfield and King, with local architect Harry L. Walker assigned to the project.



In 1886, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, wealthy beyond all measure, vowed to utilize his money for benevolent causes. 

 

Between 1889 and 1916, Andrew Carnegie established 1,681 Libraries in the US. 

 

Carnegie paid for 30 libraries in Georgia, 24 public libraries including branches in Atlanta and Savannah, and 6 college libraries. Of these, 20 public libraries still survive. 

Washington Carver Homes

Located on Holcomb Ave in East Point, GA, this property was built in 1951 by the City of East Point Housing Authority. It was recently added to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and the National Register of Historic Places for its mid-century segregation-era architecture.

   

Built exclusively for African Americans, the buildings are an important record of racial segregation during the mid-20th century. The buildings embody key architectural features and site planning practices characteristic of public housing developments across the nation including functional, utilitarian designs; repetitive building forms; an ordered “superblock” plan; substantial open spaces; and integral circulation networks. Developed across the country between 1930 and the early 1950s, the United States has a dwindling number of these low-rise, multi-unit public housing complexes. Washington Carver Homes is the only remaining example in East Point.

Washington Park Historic District

 
The park itself opened in 1919, it holds the distinction of being the first designated recreational space for African Americans in the city. 

 

  

Booker T. Washington High School


Designed by Atlanta-born architect Eugene C. Wachendorff, the building incorporates medieval and Byzantine elements, including the dramatic main entrance with five arches in two tiers.


Booker T. Washington Lifting the Veil of Ignorance.

  

West End Historic District

  
Wrens Nest - Joel Chandler Harris House, Hammonds House Museum, John Thrasher Home.

  
Evan Park Howell Estate estate, often called Woodlawn, George F. Bolles Home, the owner of a store specializing in books, stationary, and fancy goods on Marietta Street, Clarke Howell, Jr. Home. All these Black and White homes are demolished.

   West End places and West Belt Line.

Western Electric Company Building

  
Now known as the Telephone Factory Lofts, a mixed-use loft building along the Belt Line trail East Atlanta.

  
Train tracks are now the Belt Line. Rotary telephone door.

  

 

We are in the National Register of Historic Places on this post that started with a Mill, we bring back Steve Miller for second TRD Scrolling Nugget.



Westinghouse Electric Company Building

The building is representative of early-20th century fire-proof construction with its concrete frame clad in brick and concrete mushroom support columns. The building is also significant in the area of architecture for its design by Atlanta-based architect Emit C. Seiz. 

 

Lastly known for its association with the Westinghouse Electric Company and the expansion of the electrical industry in Atlanta in the early 20th century.

 

During its most recent rehabilitation, the building was converted to office space and lofts.

 

Westview Cemetery

 
Westview Cemetery is the largest civilian cemetery in the Southeastern United States, comprising more than 582 acres, 50 percent of which is undeveloped. 

  
Grave stones in cemetery - George King of King Hardware Stores - Atlanta mayor Isaac N. Ragsdale.

 

The cemetery includes the graves of more than 125,000 people. 

  
Westview Abbey is a mausoleum and chapel, built in 1943 and houses 11,444 entombment's and space to hold cremated remains. 

  

   
Twenty-seven stained glass panels adorn the Spanish Gothic-style chapel and depict Jesus Christ's life from nativity through crucifixion and resurrection.

  
My Grandmother is buried here. Pop and Mom at Grandma Hazel's marker they had installed. TRD with Grandma Hazel. That car really dates that image.

Whitehall Street Retail Historic District

Peachtree Street becomes Whitehall Street after it crosses south of Marietta Street.

 
"Atlanta's original commercial and retail core." 

 
In the Antebellum era, the area was also the site of the city's slave market. Black man, with a gun, reading a book, and relaxing in public in front of former slave Auction Building. All things forbidden in slave society. 2nd image is 1871. 

 
In 1907, the M. Rich Building was completed. 

 
Pink Pig - Lighting of Christmas Tree. The memories of youth. 

During the early 1900s, many notable companies operated in this district, including Rich's, H. L. Green, Kress, and McCrory's.

  
Vintage images Whitehall Historic District. 

Whittier Mills Historic District

We featured the Mill Park in this post as a Atlanta Natural Wonder, the residential buildings in the historic district are what makes this a National Register of Historic Places listing in Fulton County. The Mill Worker homes are one-story wood-framed dwellings situated on small lots and share uniform setbacks. The dwellings were constructed as duplexes and triplexes.

   

Collectively the mill village retains a high level of historic integrity and most houses retain their original design, materials,and craftsmanship.

  

Winecoff Hotel

   

The Winecoff Hotel fire, of December 7, 1946, was the deadliest hotel fire in American history, killing 119 hotel occupants, including the hotel's original owners. 

  
All of the hotel's occupants above the fire's origin on the third floor were trapped, and the fire's survivors either were rescued from upper-story windows or jumped into nets held by firemen. 

 
Some misjudged the ten-foot-wide alley between the rear of the Winecoff and the Mortgage Guaranty Building and attempted to jump across.

 
A photograph of one survivor's fall won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Photography. 

 
The rear of the Winecoff Hotel in 1984 with the fire escape stairway added during reconstruction after the fire.



Winnwood Apartments

The Winnwood Apartments (1460 W Peachtree St NW) is a historic, 48-unit Georgian Revival building in Midtown Atlanta. 

  

Following a multi-million dollar restoration, the city partnered with developers to convert the property into permanent supportive housing for previously homeless Atlantans.

 

Originally built in 1931, the property features a deep U-shaped footprint, central courtyard, and historic restorations protected by Easements Atlanta.

George Jr. and Emily Winship House

The George and Emily Winship, Jr., House is a two-story Tudor Revival-style residence that stands atop a hill in the Peachtree Heights East subdivision. 

 

The exterior of the home features elaborately patterned brickwork, half-timbering, and multi-paned windows. The home is also ornamented with limestone details, including the archways of the front projecting portico. Meanwhile, the front door is made of mahogany and weighs about 400 pounds! The house is topped by a steeply pitched slate roof.

 

George Winship, Jr. was a prominent Atlanta businessman. 

   

He was the President of the Fulton Supply Company and Director of The Atlanta Gas Light Company and the Fulton National Bank of Atlanta. 

  

Stuart Witham House

The Stuart Witham House (also known as the Witham-Clark House) is a historic Neo-Georgian and Colonial Revival estate located at 2922 Andrews Drive NW in the Peachtree Heights area of Buckhead, Atlanta.

 

Designed in 1923 by prominent Atlanta architect Neel Reid. The Witham-Clark House, a Neo-Georgian style house built in 1926, represents one of the latter works of Neel Reid, the principal designer for the early twentieth century firm of Hentz, Reid and Adler. It was the work of this Atlanta firm that  gave impetus to the characterization of Atlanta's early twentieth century elite neighborhoods and made them among the most architecturally prominent of urban residential areas in America.

  

Features a classic U-shaped floor plan, symmetrical recessed wings, and intricate Adamesque detailing around the central entranceway.

Wynne-Claughton Building

   

During the 1946 Winecoff Hotel fire, some people trapped in the nearby Winecoff Hotel attempted to jump across the 10-foot alley separating the two buildings, with many falling to their deaths as a result. 

   

   

Yonge Street School

Yonge Street School (later renamed Henry Rutherford Butler Elementary) was a historic Atlanta institution built in 1911. Located near Auburn Avenue, it was the first modern brick public school for Black students in the city. 



In 1911, teacher and activist Selena Sloan Butler organized the country's first Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) unit for Black parents at Yonge Street School.



Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., attended first grade at Yonge Street Elementary School with his six-year-old sister, Christine.

 
While the original school building no longer operates as an active Atlanta Public School, the site is recognized as a historic landmark, located just north of the Selena S. Butler Park.

Former Listings

Carnegie Library of Atlanta





  

Stones from exterior of Carnegie Library used in Carnegie Education Pavilion located in Downtown's Hardy Ivy Park. 

  

Fulton County Almshouse

  
The Fulton County Almshouses, opened in 1911 near Chastain Park in Atlanta, provided segregated institutional care for indigent and elderly residents. The former white almshouse was controversially demolished by The Galloway School in August 2024.


The site's surviving African American almshouse currently operates as the Chastain Arts Center.

Glenridge Hall

Glenridge Hall was a historic property in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States. The house was built in 1929.

 
It was used as a filming location for such films as Driving Miss Daisy. Demolished to make way for Mercedes-Benz's U.S. headquarters.

Hillyer Trust Building

The historic Hillyer Trust Building is located at 140 Peachtree St NW in downtown Atlanta. Built in 1912, this landmark is known as a Neel Reid "baby skyscraper" and was once celebrated as the world's tallest, thinnest building. These images are so cool, I had no idea this was here. 

   
Originally designed with eight stories, the top floors were later removed, leaving the three-story structure that stands today. De-listed due to the removal of the top 5 floors of the building in 1978.

Western and Atlantic Railroad Zero Milepost


Originally located outside at ground level when erected in 1958.  


This marker had the post mount removed and was mounted on a wall when the parking garage and surrounding complex was built in the 1980s.



The Zero Mile Post has since been removed and taken to the Atlanta History Center.



After the original structure was demolished, a newly made marker and a replica mile post were erected under Central Avenue on May 14, 2019.


The replica Zero Milepost and interpretive signage created by Atlanta History Center, and historical marker re-erected by the Georgia Historical Society and Atlanta History Center on May 14, 2019, mark the historic terminus of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, marked by the Zero Milepost around 1850. This site is located beneath Central Avenue.

Judge William Wilson House

 
Looked good back in 1960's.

  
Not so much in 21st Century. Gone With The Wind now. 

Wow, so I am finished with all the Wikipedia listings for National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia. Still have a few places we can consider as Natural Wonders of Georgia (Or at least Natural Wonders of Atlanta). We still have Historical Markers, Towns, and Notable People to cover for Fulton County. Getting close to half of all people in Georgia, live in the Atlanta area. 

My Georgia Natural Wonder gals today for Whittier Mill are beautiful and Witty. 

 
Nikki Glaser: Known for her bold, hilarious honesty about dating, sex, and relationships. She had a massive, widely-praised run on Netflix and continues to be one of the highest-grossing touring acts.

  
Iliza Shlesinger: A comedy powerhouse who masterfully explores the female experience with high energy, sharp critiques, and high-fashion stage outfits.

  
Whitney Cummings: A trailblazer who brings sharp, observational, and unapologetic psychological insights into dating and modern womanhood.

 
Natasha Leggero: Famous for her elevated, glamorous aesthetic blended with scathing, biting crowd work and sharp observational wit.

What a hobby, love of Georgia and AI research on sexy comedians. Atlanta's newest City Park is next. 

]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-14291.html Sun, 10 May 2026 04:05:44 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-14291.html Georgia Natural Wonder #279 - Ponce de Leon Spring

Ponce de Leon Springs was a mineral spring in Atlanta, Georgia. The spring was a popular tourist destination from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s. Springs were very popular all around the world. Around the turn of the century, the land surrounding the spring was developed into an amusement park. By the 1920s, the amusement park was demolished, and the area was developed for industrial and, later, commercial properties.

  
Today it is the 4th Ward Park and the spring is used to power this man made waterfall.

Our TRD Scrolling Nugget is Leon Russell for Ponce de Leon.



We have set the precedent for Springs as Natural Wonders in Georgia, having featured them 12 times.

Radium Springs #2


Radium.

Warm Springs #4

Indian Springs #23

Cave Spring #93

Porter Springs #115

Magnolia Springs #118


Magnolia.

Electric Health Resort #130

Lithia Springs #174

Crawfish Springs #195


Crawfish.

Spring Place #203

Watson Springs #211

Seven Springs of Powder Springs #214

Ponce de Leon Spring

A lot of these springs of the early 20th century had resorts around them or they had been hyped as tourist attraction. Residents of Atlanta had known of the spring, which was located about 2 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, since the early 1800s, though it was not until the mid-1800s that they became a popular tourist area as a local destination spa. The mineral content of the water was thought to provide health benefits to drinkers, and the spring was named in reference to the legend of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León's search for the Fountain of Youth in Florida. By the 1870s, there was a streetcar line extending from downtown to the spring, following a route that would later become Ponce de Leon Avenue, one of the city's busiest thoroughfares. In the early 1900s, the spring was sold to developers who created an amusement park on the site, nicknaming it "the Coney Island of Atlanta". 

 

By the 1920s, the amusement park's popularity began to wane and the land was eventually sold to Sears, Roebuck and Co., who built their regional distribution and retail headquarters on the site. 



Today, the building is Ponce City Market, a mixed-use development, and some of the original land that was home to the spring has been developed into the Historic Fourth Ward Park.

Early history

In the United States in the 1800s, numerous mineral spas were developed around naturally occurring mineral springs. These locations, such as Saratoga Springs in New York and White Sulphur Springs in Virginia, were very popular tourist locations as destination spas, while the mineral water produced at the springs was sought out for its perceived health effects. Don't forget Hot Springs Arkansas. In the U.S. state of Georgia, there were eleven such mineral springs that had been commercially developed prior to the American Civil War (See above), though many of those resorts were destroyed during that conflict. In Atlanta, Georgia, around the mid-1800s, there were several natural springs that provided the city's residents with fresh drinking water and leisure areas, such as the Atlanta Mineral Spring. 

Another spring located in the Atlanta metropolitan area was the Ponce de Leon Springs, earliest found image. 

This spring was located northeast of the city, about 1 mile outside of the city limits and 2 miles away from Downtown Atlanta. The area was a low-lying vale where two creeks met, and the spring itself was surrounded by a grove of beech trees. 



People in the area had known of the Ponce de Leon Springs since at least the early 1800s. Between 1818 and 1820, John Young, a cattle rancher from the area, built a house near the spring, and by the 1830s, the spring was being used as a source of drinking water for some local residents. The water originated from a source rock of gneiss and biotite, with the water being chalybeate. The water was considered medicinal and good for health because of its mineral quality. As a result, in the 1860s, Henry L. Wilson, a retired physician from Atlanta, named the spring the Ponce de Leon Springs as a reference to the legend of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León and his search for the Fountain of Youth. 

Popularity as a trolley park 



A black and white illustration of a natural spring, with the words "PONCE DE LEON SPRINGS" written underneath


Illustration of the area in 1881

By the 1860s, the spring was under the private ownership of John Armistead. Around this time, the spring started to become a major source of Atlanta's water supply after Yancey Springs, another freshwater spring in the city, had been filled in in 1868 to make way for a new railroad in the city. By 1870, Ponce de Leon Springs had also become a popular day trip destination for Atlanta citizens. With the spring's popularity well-established, Armistead began bottling the water and established a residential water delivery service by 1871.  That same year, the Atlanta and Richmond Air-Line Railway constructed a railroad near the spring, which was located at the foot of its embankment. This railroad would later come under the ownership of Southern Railway. In 1872, an amphitheater with a dance pavilion was constructed near the spring, and that same year, a local businessman established an omnibus service to the spring, with a one-way fare of $0.50. The service ran between the spring and Kimball House in downtown and helped to increase tourism to the spring. At the time, it was one of only a handful of public parks in the area, alongside Oglethorpe Park, Oakland Cemetery, and a small park near Atlanta City Hall. Around this same time, Richard Peters, a co-owner of the Atlanta Street Railway, took notice of the increasing popularity of the spring and had a route created to the location. 



This route, a part of the railway's Nine-Mile Circle, was an extension of their Peachtree Street line and followed a path that would later become known as Ponce de Leon Avenue, one of the most traveled thoroughfares in the city. The line opened in June 1874 and charged a fare of $0.10, which was twice the amount the railway charged for their other routes. This increased price was due to the remote location of the spring, which was in a sparsely populated area, and the line only ran for six months out of the year, as few people visited the spring during the winter. Additionally, the railway had had to construct a bridge across Clear Creek to reach the spring. By 1884, another rail company, the Gate City Street Railroad, had also established a line to take people from downtown to the spring. In 1875, an article in The Atlanta Constitution called the spring "Atlanta's Charming Suburban Resort". By this time, a bath house had also been built at the spring, and there were numerous vendors selling fruit and ice cream to the visitors. A ten-pin bowling alley was added by 1879, the same year that the spring was discussed in the national publication Harper's New Monthly Magazine, and by 1881, the spring was receiving several thousand visitors annually. The popularity of the spring during this time was part of a larger nationwide trend of trolley parks that had become popular in large cities throughout the United States. 

 
Inman Park Station, still there.

First a natural site of rest and rejuvenation, Ponce de Leon Park's popularity grew in tandem with the Atlanta streetcar system, just as Atlanta's growth in the latter half of the 1800s relied upon its status as a railway transportation hub. As the site's primary attraction shifted from the springs and its natural surroundings to the theater, casino, and rides, Atlanta itself was developing from a small Victorian town into an electrified metropolis.

Purchase by the Atlanta Street Railway


Wading in Creek at Ponce de Leon Park, circa 1890,

In May 1886, Armistead, who still owned the land, began to charge visitors $0.05 to drink water from the spring. Armistead's decision was met with resistance from the Atlanta Street Railway, whose management worried that customer frustration over the charge could hurt their business. However, the following year, the railway purchased the land from Armistead. In January 1888, the railway leased the land to N. C. Bosche, a local businessman who planned to convert the area into a beer garden, though this plan never came to fruition. 

 

Two years later, in 1890, W. A. Hemphill, the president of the railway, hired Julius Hartman, a local landscape designer, to renovate the area. Hartman had previously worked on developing Little Switzerland, an amusement park near Grant Park that would later be known as the White City. Hartman proposed enhancing the natural beauty of the area by adding walking paths and by creating a 4-acre large artificial lake called Ponce de Leon Lake. This lake, as well as a smaller pond called Pairs Pond, were created in mid-1890. 

Amusement park


A color image of Ponce de Leon amusement park from the early 20th century, showing several rides, including a Ferris wheel


The Ponce de Leon amusement park, c. early 20th century

In January 1903, 47 acres of land surrounding the spring was purchased by a company that would eventually be known as the Ponce de Leon Amusement Company, which intended to develop the land as an amusement park. Construction began the following month and saw the creation of several new buildings, a theater, a carousel, and a casino. The owners also brought in many other amusement rides and attractions similar to those found at the resort areas of Coney Island, New York, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, such as a ping pong parlor, a gravity railroad, a Ferris wheel, and a penny arcade, among others. 



Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Park followed this trend. Established at the end of the nineteenth century, it offered Atlantans not only a venue for amusement, but also an interactive stage for emergent technologies. While bubbling springs and fragrant azaleas initially drew visitors to the park, the Ponce de Leon Springs site evolved over four decades into a complex array of manufactured amusements that kept visitors coming back. Equipped with a theater, electric lights, mechanical rides, man-made lakes, picnic grounds, outdoor gardens, and, eventually, a baseball park, Ponce de Leon Park became a nexus between nineteenth-century naturalism and twentieth-century modernism.



The new area soon became known as "the Coney Island of Atlanta". The park was scheduled to open for its inaugural season in May 1903, but this opening was postponed by about a month. The casino opened on June 1 with a performance of The Lady Slavey operetta, and the park as a whole opened to several thousand visitors several days later on June 6.  In 1906, the park was purchased by the Ponce de Leon Park Association, which was run by casino lessee Jack Wells as president, Joseph Whitehead as treasurer, and Hugh L. Cardoza as secretary and manager. The association invested $50,000 into renovations for the park (equivalent to $1,791,667 in 2025), which added new attractions and ushered in the park's heyday. 



Now long gone, the park once served as a gathering place for weekend picnics, concerts, performances, and rides, and served as a microcosm for an emerging modern southern city with evolving social relations. The electric lights and mechanized rides on display at Ponce de Leon Park offered Georgians a playful glimpse of new technology, which developed in step with the growing metropolitan area that surrounded it. While Atlanta’s first baseball stadium eventually rose on the site of the park.

 

In 1907, the lake was filled in and a ballpark, Ponce de Leon Park, was built on the location. 


Also known as Spiller Field. 

This ballpark served as the home venue for the Atlanta Crackers, the city's Minor League Baseball team, who debuted at the park on May 23 of 1907 before 8,000 spectators. 



The ballpark would later also serve as the home venue for the Atlanta Black Crackers, the city's Negro league baseball team, won an Atlanta pro team championship 1938. Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Johnny Big Cat Mize, and Luke Appling played here. Bob Montag hit longest home run ever. Shot to right field landed on box car of train, ended up in Chattanooga. My dad loved to tell that story. 


Ponce de Leon Lake, ca. 1895

This lake was filled in to make way for the Atlanta Crackers baseball field in 1907.

 
Before and after the Ford Factory and Sears Building was built. 

The portion of the lake and the whole baseball complex is now the parking lot for the Midtown Shopping Plaza. 

Later land use


Historic Fourth Ward Park with Ponce City Market in the background, 2012

While the spring and accompanying amusement park remained a popular retreat throughout the early 1900s, by the 1910s, the area around the spring began to see substantial development. In 1914, the Ford Motor Company built a headquarters for their operations in the southeastern United States near the spring. This building served as a factory, showroom, and office for the company until they sold the building to the United States Department of War in 1942. 

 

By the early 1920s, the amusement park had fallen out of fashion and, in 1924, Sears, Roebuck and Co. purchased the land that contained the spring and the amusement park in order to construct their new retail and distribution headquarters for the southeast. In 1966, following the construction of Atlanta Stadium, the Ponce de Leon ballpark was demolished. Following its demolition, the area was converted into commercial real estate and is currently home to Midtown Place, an outdoor shopping mall. In 1990, Sears sold this building to the government of Atlanta, which operated the building for several years as "City Hall East". In 2011, the building was sold by the city to developers who converted it into a mixed-use development called Ponce City Market. Additionally, as of 2016, the Ford building has been converted into an apartment complex called the Ford Factory Lofts. 


Also in the 2000s, a significant amount of land just south of Ponce City Market in what had previously been the spring area was converted into the Historic Fourth Ward Park.


Codo's and Fourth Hotel on right being built. 

The railroad right of way that ran next to the spring area has undergone redevelopment as part of the BeltLine, a series of shared-use paths and urban green spaces that surround the city.


Beltline at Ponce City Market. 

Timeline

Late 1860s – Atlanta residents began visiting the springs in John Armistead’s beech grove two miles east of town, approximately 50 yards south of the intersection of Ponce de Leon and the Atlanta BeltLine. An Atlanta physician named the springs “Ponce de Leon Springs,” based on his assertion that the water held restorative properties. Soon, an omnibus carried passengers daily from Atlanta to the springs for a 10-cent fare. 

  
 
1874 – A new City charter establishes Atlanta’s Fourth Ward, extending to the northeastern city limits, bounded by West Peachtree to the west and the Georgia Railroad tracks to the south. The term “Old Fourth Ward” dates to 1937, when the state legislature reduced the number of city wards from 13 to 6, combining old wards into new ones. The “old fourth ward,” became part of the new 5th Ward. 1954-the ward system ended with the creation of a Board of Aldermen, which lasted until the City Charter of 1974, which created the current Atlanta City Council.



1903 – The Ponce de Leon Amusement Park opens, on the site of what would become the Sears building and Historic Fourth Ward Park. The park featured a casino, theater, merry-go-round, “Cave of the Winds,” penny arcade, two restaurants, and many more attractions.



1907 – The Ponce de Leon Ballpark opens, in what is now the Midtown Plaza shopping center, to host the Atlanta Crackers, who played there until the 1960s.



1928 – Sears Roebuck builds its Southern Regional Distribution Center on Ponce de Leon, then and still, the largest brick building in the Southeast.



1989 – The Sears Roebuck building is purchased by the City of Atlanta and re-christened City Hall East. Lee Haney had a gym in the garage. Mr. Olympia for 8 years. 

 

1999 – The City of Atlanta agrees to a federal consent decree to fix its chronic sewer overflows and other waste treatment problems. The city proposes a 15-year, $3 billion overhaul of the city’s sewer systems. At the time, the Clear Creek basin area, directly south of the Sears Building, is a brownfield of abandoned warehouses and parking lots, which flood with increasing regularity, as do buildings to the north of the basin area.

 

2003 – Bill Eisenhauer, a storm water activist, convenes a group to discuss storm water issues in Old Fourth Ward, particularly in the Clear Creek basin. The group develops a concept plan, showing a 35-acre park with a sustainable storm water detention pond as its central amenity.

 

2006 – The City establishes the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. (ABI), to create a 22-mile transportation/recreation corridor that will encircle Atlanta’s downtown. ABI establishes plans for a number of parks as part of the project, including the 17.5 acre Historic Fourth Ward Park.

 

2011 – City Hall East is sold to Jamestown Properties, who developed the property, renamed the Ponce City Market, as a mixed-use development of retail, office, condos and apartments, which opened in 2014.

    
Amusement park today is atop Ponce Market. 

2012 – The Atlanta Beltline, Inc., completes Historic Fourth Ward Park, the first major city park on the BeltLine.

 
Modern spring features.

 
Music venue.

   
Don't swim lake but prepare to get wet elsewhere. 

 

Fulton County (Part 8)

We continue with our National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia. We have 50 left plus 6 former listings. 

Tullie Smith House

 
At the Atlanta History Center. 

  

Southern Bell Telephone Company Building

  
Same guys who built Fox Theater.



We insert a second TRD Scrolling Nugget for this lengthy post. Rotary telephone ladies got me spinning in tribute to our GNW Gal theme at the end of this post. 



Southern Belting Company Building

 

  

Southern Dairies

 

Southern Dairies is often credited as being one of the first warehouse conversions in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood of Atlanta.

 

Southern Railway North Avenue Yards Historic District

 

The Roundhouse at Northyards Business Park was renovated and turned into a business park in 2002 by C.D. Moody Construction.

 

They won the 2002 Atlanta Urban Design Commission's Award of Excellence.

 

Southern Spring Bed Company

The Southern Spring Bed Company is a complex of industrial buildings located one block north of Memorial Drive near Oakland Cemetery in downtown Atlanta. 

 
The Southern Spring Bed Company is significant in the area of industry as one of the largest bed and seat manufacturers in the Southeast. 

 

The company was in business in Atlanta prior to 1887 and was the first and longest operating of Atlanta's spring bed companies. "Spring bed" is a generic term that encompasses beds made of wood or metal frames with metal springs either within the mattress or as box springs. 

  
Spring Lofts now.

Sperry & Hutchinson Company Warehouse

The historic Sperry & Hutchinson (S&H) Company Warehouse in East Point, Georgia, is a former 1954 distribution hub. 

 

Located at 2181 Sylvan Road, the site was famously known for storing S&H Green Stamps. 

 
Today, it serves as the production facility for Arden's Garden after undergoing an award-winning historic preservation.

Spotswood Hall

Built in 1913, its original design attributed to architect A. Ten Eyck Brown, and enlarged and remodeled by Atlanta architect Philip Trammel! Shutze in 1933.

 
 
Spotswood Hall is a two-story, frame, Classical Revival-style house set on a two-acre lot on Argonne Drive in northwest Atlanta. The house sits at the edge of a sweeping lawn atop a prominent hilltop that falls rapidly away to the east and south. 

 

Spotswood Hall is also significant in the area of architecture as a design of two important Atlanta-based architects. 

  

The remodeling of Spotswood Hall was one of Hentz, Adler, and Shutze's few commissions in 1933 and 1934, when the Depression forced the partners to forego their salaries in order to keep the firm afloat.

  

Staff Row and Old Post Area-Fort McPherson

Fort McPherson, one of the most picturesque installations in the south, has been rich in military tradition since its inception in 1889. It has long been an important military post, showplace and point of interest to Atlanta citizens and visitors.

   

Named for General James Birdseye McPherson who was killed in the battle of Atlanta.

  

Many of the buildings survive in the northeast corner of the property in the original quadrangle effect. These red brick structures with white wood trim are all substantial examples of the High Victorian style of architecture.


Quarters 10, indeed the most impressive building of the district, is in basically the Queen Anne style of Victorian Architecture yet it also has elements of the classical style. It has a rambling plan with several turrets with scroll-paned windows of the earlier Victorian era.. In 1925, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was assigned to Fort McPherson as post commander. Since his wife refused to live in the quarters, they rented an apartment downtown near the Fox Theatre. The MacArthurs left after having spent 89 days at Fort McPherson, when he was reassigned to Baltimore. A sleeping porch was added to the back of the quarters in 1935 for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's visits while he was en route to Warm Springs, Georgia. 

Stewart Avenue Industrial Historic District

The Stewart Avenue Industrial Historic District is located about 1.5 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta. Spanning portions of what is now known as Metropolitan Parkway, the district preserves historic 1920s warehouses, mixed-use buildings, and former gas stations.

 
Much of the area was built using heavy timber and steel "mill" construction, which served as an affordable, state-of-the-art fire-safety solution in the 1920s.

The corridor thrived on rail-to-truck transportation. It featured three historic rail lines and was designated an "Official Truck Route" to facilitate Atlanta's growing out-of-state investment and commerce.

 
Nalley Chevrolet and Stewart Lakewood Mall. 

 
Funtown used to be on Stewart Avenue. Abandoned for years.

  
Funtown closed its doors in the mid-sixties because they didn't want to integrate. The fact that a Six Flags opened in Atlanta around the same time may have played a part in its closing. 


The Salvation Army Evangeline Booth College was established for the training of Salvation Army Officers on Stewart Avenue.

Stewart Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church South

The Stewart Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church South is significant in architecture because it is an important local example of the use of the Beaux Arts style in the design of a church.

 

It also contains important interior details, including the pressed metal sanctuary ceiling with a Greek key motif, the coved cornice with an urn motif, and numerous opalescent glass windows.

  

Stone Hall, Atlanta University

  

Stonewall Park Historic District

The Stonewall Park Historic District is a small residential subdivision platted in 1914, just west of the intersection of now-busy thoroughfares Moreland Avenue and Glenwood Avenue in Atlanta. The neighborhood is commonly considered part of Ormewood Park, a much broader residential area composed of a number of smaller subdivisions that proliferated along and around area streetcar lines.

  

It is significant for its intact collection of residential types and styles popular throughout Georgia from the 1910s through the 1950s

Swan House

   

Donald Sutherland's Governors Mansion during Hunger Games. 

 

Julie Ann Moore shot by bow and arrow top steps later Hunger Games movie. 



Also Lee Daniels (The Butler) served here 3 years before serving all those presidents at the White House.

  

Sweet Auburn Historic District

  
Looking east on Auburn, Odd Fellows building, Herndon Building.

  
Big Bethel Church, Atlanta Life Insurance Company, Chef Sonya's Sweet Potato Cheese Cake. 

 
Dr. King's funeral, John Lewis tribute.

Techwood Homes Historic District

 
First Federal Housing project under New Deal of FDR. 

  
Use to be Georgia Tech dorm rooms. 

   
Except for a few historic buildings, Techwood Homes was demolished in 1996 before the 1996 Summer Olympics. It and neighboring Clark Howell Homes are now a mixed-use area called Centennial Place.

The Temple

 

   
Bombed in late 50's as dramatized in Driving Miss Daisy Academy Award best film 1989. 

The Texas

  
Use to be at Zoo, now at Atlanta History Center in Buckhead. 

Albert E. Thornton House

 

Thornton Building

   

  

Henry B. Tompkins House

  

  

Trio Steam Laundry

Constructed in the early twentieth century, it served as a major laundry facility during a period of rapid urban and industrial growth on Atlanta’s east side. 

 

The building is noted for its brick construction, functional industrial design, and association with the city’s early commercial service industries.

  

Troy Peerless Laundry Building

The Troy Peerless Laundry Building is significant in the area of architecture because it survives as one of Atlanta's best examples of small-scale Art Deco architecture. 

 

Its polychromatic decorative panels with stylized foliated forms are characteristic of the Art Deco phase of early modern architecture. 

  

The high-style Art Deco ornamentation on the Troy Peerless Laundry Building indicates not only the success of Atlanta Laundries but also the importance of the commercial laundry industry in Atlanta in the first decades of the 20th century.

  

Trust Company of Georgia Northeast Freeway Branch

The Trust Company selected the architectural firm of Abreu & Robeson, Architects to design a branch bank to service then-explosive development in the area of Monroe Drive and the Northeast Expressway, and exploit the visibility afforded by the new area highway. 

 

An outstanding example of New Formalism in Atlanta. 

 

Character-defining features of this architectural style include the building's pedestal form and simplified classical features such as symmetrical bays and arches. 

 
Restaurant now. 

Trygveson

 
(often referred to as the Calhoun-Thornwell House or "The Pink Castle")

A Baroque Italian Villa, with stucco walls and a red tile roof. This house still retains much of its grandeur- Interior exhibits much Baroque ornament and has one Allyn Cox Mural still remaining.

  

The best example of an Italian Baroque Villa in Georgia. The siting of the house and comprehensive landscape design now much altered are testament to the talent of Philip Shutze and the firm of Hentz, Reld, and Adler. 

  
The privately-owned residence is celebrated for its pale pink facade and lush grounds. Originally on 18 acres now on about 2 acres. Stone columns flanked driveway, now a whole subdivision built around estate. 

Tuxedo Park Historic District

Tuxedo Park is an exclusive, prestigious historic neighborhood in Atlanta’s Buckhead district. 

 
Established in 1911 as one of the city's first automobile-oriented suburbs, it originally served as a summer estate retreat for Atlanta's elite and is now renowned for its sprawling, secluded estates and magnificent architecture.

   
Originally a seasonal escape, it transitioned into a year-round residence that has housed Atlanta's wealthiest citizens, including Coca-Cola executives and golf legend Bobby Jones.

Mary Elizabeth Tyler House

The Tyler House is significant in the area of architecture because it is a good example of a Classical Revival-style house. 

  

The Mary Elizabeth Tyler House is significant in the area of social history because of its association with the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1920s. It's success fed on the racism and xenophobia created by D. W. Griffith's 1915 film "The Birth of a Nation," and the lynching of Leo Frank. (GNW#133 - Part 4)

    

In 1919, in an effort to revive the flagging Ku Klux Klan, Imperial Wizard William J. Simmons, who had begun cross-burning ceremonies atop Stone Mountain in 1915, hired Klan member Edward Young Clarke and his business partner Mary Elizabeth "Bessie" Tyler to boost Klan membership rolls. It went from a regional order to a nationwide social and political organization.Tyler and Clarke began their work with the Klan in 1919 when the Klan had a membership of 2,000 to 3,000. By 1921, the Klan numbered almost 100,000 members, and by 1924 membership reached almost three-and-a-half million.

Tyree Building

  
The Tyree is one of the first buildings in Atlanta built in the Beaux-Arts style.

  
The apartments were converted into condominiums in 1980.

U.S. Post Office and Courthouse

 

 

  

Underground Atlanta Historic District

 

 

   

   

Dante's Down the Hatch was a legendary Atlanta, Georgia, restaurant and jazz club operated by Dante Stephenson from 1970 to 2013. 

  

Famous for its 18th-century pirate ship decor, a moat filled with live crocodiles, live jazz, and fondue, the iconic establishment left a lasting legacy on the city.

  

United States Post Office, Federal Annex

 

 
Now the Martin Luther King Federal Office Building.

  

Utoy Cemetery

 
We explored this cemetery with (GNW #267 - Part 2)

E. Van Winkle Gin and Machine Works

The site specialized in cotton-related machinery in 1898. 

 

During World War II, the complex produced ammunition. 

  

Now it is the Goat Farm Arts Center.

   

The Goat Farm Arts Center is a visual and performing arts center and contains the studio space of over 300 artists.



Villa Lamar

 
The Villa Lamar is significant in architecture because it is among the finest examples in Georgia of the use of the Italian Renaissance style, exemplified in the use of marble, mosaic tile, a tile roof, the Palladian style entrance loggia, and overall massing of the building. 

  
All the exterior design here. 

It is also significant as the only known work in Georgia of a nationally-known architect from Washington, D. C., George 0. Totten, Jr. (1865-1939). Totten studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1893 to 1895. 

  

His post-educational training included working for the U. S. government, assisting in designing many monumental buildings.

  

Oh Boy, I can finish up the National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia with our next post. We have 25 left plus 6 former listings. Our GNW Gals for this post are with a Ferris Wheel like the Coney Island of the South. 

   

Hopefully Blood Sweat and Tears are still playing. The TRD Natural Wonders of Georgia spin on, 22 post on Atlanta and Fulton County so far. 


]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #279 - Ponce de Leon Spring

Ponce de Leon Springs was a mineral spring in Atlanta, Georgia. The spring was a popular tourist destination from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s. Springs were very popular all around the world. Around the turn of the century, the land surrounding the spring was developed into an amusement park. By the 1920s, the amusement park was demolished, and the area was developed for industrial and, later, commercial properties.

  
Today it is the 4th Ward Park and the spring is used to power this man made waterfall.

Our TRD Scrolling Nugget is Leon Russell for Ponce de Leon.



We have set the precedent for Springs as Natural Wonders in Georgia, having featured them 12 times.

Radium Springs #2


Radium.

Warm Springs #4

Indian Springs #23

Cave Spring #93

Porter Springs #115

Magnolia Springs #118


Magnolia.

Electric Health Resort #130

Lithia Springs #174

Crawfish Springs #195


Crawfish.

Spring Place #203

Watson Springs #211

Seven Springs of Powder Springs #214

Ponce de Leon Spring

A lot of these springs of the early 20th century had resorts around them or they had been hyped as tourist attraction. Residents of Atlanta had known of the spring, which was located about 2 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, since the early 1800s, though it was not until the mid-1800s that they became a popular tourist area as a local destination spa. The mineral content of the water was thought to provide health benefits to drinkers, and the spring was named in reference to the legend of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León's search for the Fountain of Youth in Florida. By the 1870s, there was a streetcar line extending from downtown to the spring, following a route that would later become Ponce de Leon Avenue, one of the city's busiest thoroughfares. In the early 1900s, the spring was sold to developers who created an amusement park on the site, nicknaming it "the Coney Island of Atlanta". 

 

By the 1920s, the amusement park's popularity began to wane and the land was eventually sold to Sears, Roebuck and Co., who built their regional distribution and retail headquarters on the site. 



Today, the building is Ponce City Market, a mixed-use development, and some of the original land that was home to the spring has been developed into the Historic Fourth Ward Park.

Early history

In the United States in the 1800s, numerous mineral spas were developed around naturally occurring mineral springs. These locations, such as Saratoga Springs in New York and White Sulphur Springs in Virginia, were very popular tourist locations as destination spas, while the mineral water produced at the springs was sought out for its perceived health effects. Don't forget Hot Springs Arkansas. In the U.S. state of Georgia, there were eleven such mineral springs that had been commercially developed prior to the American Civil War (See above), though many of those resorts were destroyed during that conflict. In Atlanta, Georgia, around the mid-1800s, there were several natural springs that provided the city's residents with fresh drinking water and leisure areas, such as the Atlanta Mineral Spring. 

Another spring located in the Atlanta metropolitan area was the Ponce de Leon Springs, earliest found image. 

This spring was located northeast of the city, about 1 mile outside of the city limits and 2 miles away from Downtown Atlanta. The area was a low-lying vale where two creeks met, and the spring itself was surrounded by a grove of beech trees. 



People in the area had known of the Ponce de Leon Springs since at least the early 1800s. Between 1818 and 1820, John Young, a cattle rancher from the area, built a house near the spring, and by the 1830s, the spring was being used as a source of drinking water for some local residents. The water originated from a source rock of gneiss and biotite, with the water being chalybeate. The water was considered medicinal and good for health because of its mineral quality. As a result, in the 1860s, Henry L. Wilson, a retired physician from Atlanta, named the spring the Ponce de Leon Springs as a reference to the legend of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León and his search for the Fountain of Youth. 

Popularity as a trolley park 



A black and white illustration of a natural spring, with the words "PONCE DE LEON SPRINGS" written underneath


Illustration of the area in 1881

By the 1860s, the spring was under the private ownership of John Armistead. Around this time, the spring started to become a major source of Atlanta's water supply after Yancey Springs, another freshwater spring in the city, had been filled in in 1868 to make way for a new railroad in the city. By 1870, Ponce de Leon Springs had also become a popular day trip destination for Atlanta citizens. With the spring's popularity well-established, Armistead began bottling the water and established a residential water delivery service by 1871.  That same year, the Atlanta and Richmond Air-Line Railway constructed a railroad near the spring, which was located at the foot of its embankment. This railroad would later come under the ownership of Southern Railway. In 1872, an amphitheater with a dance pavilion was constructed near the spring, and that same year, a local businessman established an omnibus service to the spring, with a one-way fare of $0.50. The service ran between the spring and Kimball House in downtown and helped to increase tourism to the spring. At the time, it was one of only a handful of public parks in the area, alongside Oglethorpe Park, Oakland Cemetery, and a small park near Atlanta City Hall. Around this same time, Richard Peters, a co-owner of the Atlanta Street Railway, took notice of the increasing popularity of the spring and had a route created to the location. 



This route, a part of the railway's Nine-Mile Circle, was an extension of their Peachtree Street line and followed a path that would later become known as Ponce de Leon Avenue, one of the most traveled thoroughfares in the city. The line opened in June 1874 and charged a fare of $0.10, which was twice the amount the railway charged for their other routes. This increased price was due to the remote location of the spring, which was in a sparsely populated area, and the line only ran for six months out of the year, as few people visited the spring during the winter. Additionally, the railway had had to construct a bridge across Clear Creek to reach the spring. By 1884, another rail company, the Gate City Street Railroad, had also established a line to take people from downtown to the spring. In 1875, an article in The Atlanta Constitution called the spring "Atlanta's Charming Suburban Resort". By this time, a bath house had also been built at the spring, and there were numerous vendors selling fruit and ice cream to the visitors. A ten-pin bowling alley was added by 1879, the same year that the spring was discussed in the national publication Harper's New Monthly Magazine, and by 1881, the spring was receiving several thousand visitors annually. The popularity of the spring during this time was part of a larger nationwide trend of trolley parks that had become popular in large cities throughout the United States. 

 
Inman Park Station, still there.

First a natural site of rest and rejuvenation, Ponce de Leon Park's popularity grew in tandem with the Atlanta streetcar system, just as Atlanta's growth in the latter half of the 1800s relied upon its status as a railway transportation hub. As the site's primary attraction shifted from the springs and its natural surroundings to the theater, casino, and rides, Atlanta itself was developing from a small Victorian town into an electrified metropolis.

Purchase by the Atlanta Street Railway


Wading in Creek at Ponce de Leon Park, circa 1890,

In May 1886, Armistead, who still owned the land, began to charge visitors $0.05 to drink water from the spring. Armistead's decision was met with resistance from the Atlanta Street Railway, whose management worried that customer frustration over the charge could hurt their business. However, the following year, the railway purchased the land from Armistead. In January 1888, the railway leased the land to N. C. Bosche, a local businessman who planned to convert the area into a beer garden, though this plan never came to fruition. 

 

Two years later, in 1890, W. A. Hemphill, the president of the railway, hired Julius Hartman, a local landscape designer, to renovate the area. Hartman had previously worked on developing Little Switzerland, an amusement park near Grant Park that would later be known as the White City. Hartman proposed enhancing the natural beauty of the area by adding walking paths and by creating a 4-acre large artificial lake called Ponce de Leon Lake. This lake, as well as a smaller pond called Pairs Pond, were created in mid-1890. 

Amusement park


A color image of Ponce de Leon amusement park from the early 20th century, showing several rides, including a Ferris wheel


The Ponce de Leon amusement park, c. early 20th century

In January 1903, 47 acres of land surrounding the spring was purchased by a company that would eventually be known as the Ponce de Leon Amusement Company, which intended to develop the land as an amusement park. Construction began the following month and saw the creation of several new buildings, a theater, a carousel, and a casino. The owners also brought in many other amusement rides and attractions similar to those found at the resort areas of Coney Island, New York, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, such as a ping pong parlor, a gravity railroad, a Ferris wheel, and a penny arcade, among others. 



Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Park followed this trend. Established at the end of the nineteenth century, it offered Atlantans not only a venue for amusement, but also an interactive stage for emergent technologies. While bubbling springs and fragrant azaleas initially drew visitors to the park, the Ponce de Leon Springs site evolved over four decades into a complex array of manufactured amusements that kept visitors coming back. Equipped with a theater, electric lights, mechanical rides, man-made lakes, picnic grounds, outdoor gardens, and, eventually, a baseball park, Ponce de Leon Park became a nexus between nineteenth-century naturalism and twentieth-century modernism.



The new area soon became known as "the Coney Island of Atlanta". The park was scheduled to open for its inaugural season in May 1903, but this opening was postponed by about a month. The casino opened on June 1 with a performance of The Lady Slavey operetta, and the park as a whole opened to several thousand visitors several days later on June 6.  In 1906, the park was purchased by the Ponce de Leon Park Association, which was run by casino lessee Jack Wells as president, Joseph Whitehead as treasurer, and Hugh L. Cardoza as secretary and manager. The association invested $50,000 into renovations for the park (equivalent to $1,791,667 in 2025), which added new attractions and ushered in the park's heyday. 



Now long gone, the park once served as a gathering place for weekend picnics, concerts, performances, and rides, and served as a microcosm for an emerging modern southern city with evolving social relations. The electric lights and mechanized rides on display at Ponce de Leon Park offered Georgians a playful glimpse of new technology, which developed in step with the growing metropolitan area that surrounded it. While Atlanta’s first baseball stadium eventually rose on the site of the park.

 

In 1907, the lake was filled in and a ballpark, Ponce de Leon Park, was built on the location. 


Also known as Spiller Field. 

This ballpark served as the home venue for the Atlanta Crackers, the city's Minor League Baseball team, who debuted at the park on May 23 of 1907 before 8,000 spectators. 



The ballpark would later also serve as the home venue for the Atlanta Black Crackers, the city's Negro league baseball team, won an Atlanta pro team championship 1938. Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Johnny Big Cat Mize, and Luke Appling played here. Bob Montag hit longest home run ever. Shot to right field landed on box car of train, ended up in Chattanooga. My dad loved to tell that story. 


Ponce de Leon Lake, ca. 1895

This lake was filled in to make way for the Atlanta Crackers baseball field in 1907.

 
Before and after the Ford Factory and Sears Building was built. 

The portion of the lake and the whole baseball complex is now the parking lot for the Midtown Shopping Plaza. 

Later land use


Historic Fourth Ward Park with Ponce City Market in the background, 2012

While the spring and accompanying amusement park remained a popular retreat throughout the early 1900s, by the 1910s, the area around the spring began to see substantial development. In 1914, the Ford Motor Company built a headquarters for their operations in the southeastern United States near the spring. This building served as a factory, showroom, and office for the company until they sold the building to the United States Department of War in 1942. 

 

By the early 1920s, the amusement park had fallen out of fashion and, in 1924, Sears, Roebuck and Co. purchased the land that contained the spring and the amusement park in order to construct their new retail and distribution headquarters for the southeast. In 1966, following the construction of Atlanta Stadium, the Ponce de Leon ballpark was demolished. Following its demolition, the area was converted into commercial real estate and is currently home to Midtown Place, an outdoor shopping mall. In 1990, Sears sold this building to the government of Atlanta, which operated the building for several years as "City Hall East". In 2011, the building was sold by the city to developers who converted it into a mixed-use development called Ponce City Market. Additionally, as of 2016, the Ford building has been converted into an apartment complex called the Ford Factory Lofts. 


Also in the 2000s, a significant amount of land just south of Ponce City Market in what had previously been the spring area was converted into the Historic Fourth Ward Park.


Codo's and Fourth Hotel on right being built. 

The railroad right of way that ran next to the spring area has undergone redevelopment as part of the BeltLine, a series of shared-use paths and urban green spaces that surround the city.


Beltline at Ponce City Market. 

Timeline

Late 1860s – Atlanta residents began visiting the springs in John Armistead’s beech grove two miles east of town, approximately 50 yards south of the intersection of Ponce de Leon and the Atlanta BeltLine. An Atlanta physician named the springs “Ponce de Leon Springs,” based on his assertion that the water held restorative properties. Soon, an omnibus carried passengers daily from Atlanta to the springs for a 10-cent fare. 

  
 
1874 – A new City charter establishes Atlanta’s Fourth Ward, extending to the northeastern city limits, bounded by West Peachtree to the west and the Georgia Railroad tracks to the south. The term “Old Fourth Ward” dates to 1937, when the state legislature reduced the number of city wards from 13 to 6, combining old wards into new ones. The “old fourth ward,” became part of the new 5th Ward. 1954-the ward system ended with the creation of a Board of Aldermen, which lasted until the City Charter of 1974, which created the current Atlanta City Council.



1903 – The Ponce de Leon Amusement Park opens, on the site of what would become the Sears building and Historic Fourth Ward Park. The park featured a casino, theater, merry-go-round, “Cave of the Winds,” penny arcade, two restaurants, and many more attractions.



1907 – The Ponce de Leon Ballpark opens, in what is now the Midtown Plaza shopping center, to host the Atlanta Crackers, who played there until the 1960s.



1928 – Sears Roebuck builds its Southern Regional Distribution Center on Ponce de Leon, then and still, the largest brick building in the Southeast.



1989 – The Sears Roebuck building is purchased by the City of Atlanta and re-christened City Hall East. Lee Haney had a gym in the garage. Mr. Olympia for 8 years. 

 

1999 – The City of Atlanta agrees to a federal consent decree to fix its chronic sewer overflows and other waste treatment problems. The city proposes a 15-year, $3 billion overhaul of the city’s sewer systems. At the time, the Clear Creek basin area, directly south of the Sears Building, is a brownfield of abandoned warehouses and parking lots, which flood with increasing regularity, as do buildings to the north of the basin area.

 

2003 – Bill Eisenhauer, a storm water activist, convenes a group to discuss storm water issues in Old Fourth Ward, particularly in the Clear Creek basin. The group develops a concept plan, showing a 35-acre park with a sustainable storm water detention pond as its central amenity.

 

2006 – The City establishes the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. (ABI), to create a 22-mile transportation/recreation corridor that will encircle Atlanta’s downtown. ABI establishes plans for a number of parks as part of the project, including the 17.5 acre Historic Fourth Ward Park.

 

2011 – City Hall East is sold to Jamestown Properties, who developed the property, renamed the Ponce City Market, as a mixed-use development of retail, office, condos and apartments, which opened in 2014.

    
Amusement park today is atop Ponce Market. 

2012 – The Atlanta Beltline, Inc., completes Historic Fourth Ward Park, the first major city park on the BeltLine.

 
Modern spring features.

 
Music venue.

   
Don't swim lake but prepare to get wet elsewhere. 

 

Fulton County (Part 8)

We continue with our National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia. We have 50 left plus 6 former listings. 

Tullie Smith House

 
At the Atlanta History Center. 

  

Southern Bell Telephone Company Building

  
Same guys who built Fox Theater.



We insert a second TRD Scrolling Nugget for this lengthy post. Rotary telephone ladies got me spinning in tribute to our GNW Gal theme at the end of this post. 



Southern Belting Company Building

 

  

Southern Dairies

 

Southern Dairies is often credited as being one of the first warehouse conversions in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood of Atlanta.

 

Southern Railway North Avenue Yards Historic District

 

The Roundhouse at Northyards Business Park was renovated and turned into a business park in 2002 by C.D. Moody Construction.

 

They won the 2002 Atlanta Urban Design Commission's Award of Excellence.

 

Southern Spring Bed Company

The Southern Spring Bed Company is a complex of industrial buildings located one block north of Memorial Drive near Oakland Cemetery in downtown Atlanta. 

 
The Southern Spring Bed Company is significant in the area of industry as one of the largest bed and seat manufacturers in the Southeast. 

 

The company was in business in Atlanta prior to 1887 and was the first and longest operating of Atlanta's spring bed companies. "Spring bed" is a generic term that encompasses beds made of wood or metal frames with metal springs either within the mattress or as box springs. 

  
Spring Lofts now.

Sperry & Hutchinson Company Warehouse

The historic Sperry & Hutchinson (S&H) Company Warehouse in East Point, Georgia, is a former 1954 distribution hub. 

 

Located at 2181 Sylvan Road, the site was famously known for storing S&H Green Stamps. 

 
Today, it serves as the production facility for Arden's Garden after undergoing an award-winning historic preservation.

Spotswood Hall

Built in 1913, its original design attributed to architect A. Ten Eyck Brown, and enlarged and remodeled by Atlanta architect Philip Trammel! Shutze in 1933.

 
 
Spotswood Hall is a two-story, frame, Classical Revival-style house set on a two-acre lot on Argonne Drive in northwest Atlanta. The house sits at the edge of a sweeping lawn atop a prominent hilltop that falls rapidly away to the east and south. 

 

Spotswood Hall is also significant in the area of architecture as a design of two important Atlanta-based architects. 

  

The remodeling of Spotswood Hall was one of Hentz, Adler, and Shutze's few commissions in 1933 and 1934, when the Depression forced the partners to forego their salaries in order to keep the firm afloat.

  

Staff Row and Old Post Area-Fort McPherson

Fort McPherson, one of the most picturesque installations in the south, has been rich in military tradition since its inception in 1889. It has long been an important military post, showplace and point of interest to Atlanta citizens and visitors.

   

Named for General James Birdseye McPherson who was killed in the battle of Atlanta.

  

Many of the buildings survive in the northeast corner of the property in the original quadrangle effect. These red brick structures with white wood trim are all substantial examples of the High Victorian style of architecture.


Quarters 10, indeed the most impressive building of the district, is in basically the Queen Anne style of Victorian Architecture yet it also has elements of the classical style. It has a rambling plan with several turrets with scroll-paned windows of the earlier Victorian era.. In 1925, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was assigned to Fort McPherson as post commander. Since his wife refused to live in the quarters, they rented an apartment downtown near the Fox Theatre. The MacArthurs left after having spent 89 days at Fort McPherson, when he was reassigned to Baltimore. A sleeping porch was added to the back of the quarters in 1935 for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's visits while he was en route to Warm Springs, Georgia. 

Stewart Avenue Industrial Historic District

The Stewart Avenue Industrial Historic District is located about 1.5 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta. Spanning portions of what is now known as Metropolitan Parkway, the district preserves historic 1920s warehouses, mixed-use buildings, and former gas stations.

 
Much of the area was built using heavy timber and steel "mill" construction, which served as an affordable, state-of-the-art fire-safety solution in the 1920s.

The corridor thrived on rail-to-truck transportation. It featured three historic rail lines and was designated an "Official Truck Route" to facilitate Atlanta's growing out-of-state investment and commerce.

 
Nalley Chevrolet and Stewart Lakewood Mall. 

 
Funtown used to be on Stewart Avenue. Abandoned for years.

  
Funtown closed its doors in the mid-sixties because they didn't want to integrate. The fact that a Six Flags opened in Atlanta around the same time may have played a part in its closing. 


The Salvation Army Evangeline Booth College was established for the training of Salvation Army Officers on Stewart Avenue.

Stewart Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church South

The Stewart Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church South is significant in architecture because it is an important local example of the use of the Beaux Arts style in the design of a church.

 

It also contains important interior details, including the pressed metal sanctuary ceiling with a Greek key motif, the coved cornice with an urn motif, and numerous opalescent glass windows.

  

Stone Hall, Atlanta University

  

Stonewall Park Historic District

The Stonewall Park Historic District is a small residential subdivision platted in 1914, just west of the intersection of now-busy thoroughfares Moreland Avenue and Glenwood Avenue in Atlanta. The neighborhood is commonly considered part of Ormewood Park, a much broader residential area composed of a number of smaller subdivisions that proliferated along and around area streetcar lines.

  

It is significant for its intact collection of residential types and styles popular throughout Georgia from the 1910s through the 1950s

Swan House

   

Donald Sutherland's Governors Mansion during Hunger Games. 

 

Julie Ann Moore shot by bow and arrow top steps later Hunger Games movie. 



Also Lee Daniels (The Butler) served here 3 years before serving all those presidents at the White House.

  

Sweet Auburn Historic District

  
Looking east on Auburn, Odd Fellows building, Herndon Building.

  
Big Bethel Church, Atlanta Life Insurance Company, Chef Sonya's Sweet Potato Cheese Cake. 

 
Dr. King's funeral, John Lewis tribute.

Techwood Homes Historic District

 
First Federal Housing project under New Deal of FDR. 

  
Use to be Georgia Tech dorm rooms. 

   
Except for a few historic buildings, Techwood Homes was demolished in 1996 before the 1996 Summer Olympics. It and neighboring Clark Howell Homes are now a mixed-use area called Centennial Place.

The Temple

 

   
Bombed in late 50's as dramatized in Driving Miss Daisy Academy Award best film 1989. 

The Texas

  
Use to be at Zoo, now at Atlanta History Center in Buckhead. 

Albert E. Thornton House

 

Thornton Building

   

  

Henry B. Tompkins House

  

  

Trio Steam Laundry

Constructed in the early twentieth century, it served as a major laundry facility during a period of rapid urban and industrial growth on Atlanta’s east side. 

 

The building is noted for its brick construction, functional industrial design, and association with the city’s early commercial service industries.

  

Troy Peerless Laundry Building

The Troy Peerless Laundry Building is significant in the area of architecture because it survives as one of Atlanta's best examples of small-scale Art Deco architecture. 

 

Its polychromatic decorative panels with stylized foliated forms are characteristic of the Art Deco phase of early modern architecture. 

  

The high-style Art Deco ornamentation on the Troy Peerless Laundry Building indicates not only the success of Atlanta Laundries but also the importance of the commercial laundry industry in Atlanta in the first decades of the 20th century.

  

Trust Company of Georgia Northeast Freeway Branch

The Trust Company selected the architectural firm of Abreu & Robeson, Architects to design a branch bank to service then-explosive development in the area of Monroe Drive and the Northeast Expressway, and exploit the visibility afforded by the new area highway. 

 

An outstanding example of New Formalism in Atlanta. 

 

Character-defining features of this architectural style include the building's pedestal form and simplified classical features such as symmetrical bays and arches. 

 
Restaurant now. 

Trygveson

 
(often referred to as the Calhoun-Thornwell House or "The Pink Castle")

A Baroque Italian Villa, with stucco walls and a red tile roof. This house still retains much of its grandeur- Interior exhibits much Baroque ornament and has one Allyn Cox Mural still remaining.

  

The best example of an Italian Baroque Villa in Georgia. The siting of the house and comprehensive landscape design now much altered are testament to the talent of Philip Shutze and the firm of Hentz, Reld, and Adler. 

  
The privately-owned residence is celebrated for its pale pink facade and lush grounds. Originally on 18 acres now on about 2 acres. Stone columns flanked driveway, now a whole subdivision built around estate. 

Tuxedo Park Historic District

Tuxedo Park is an exclusive, prestigious historic neighborhood in Atlanta’s Buckhead district. 

 
Established in 1911 as one of the city's first automobile-oriented suburbs, it originally served as a summer estate retreat for Atlanta's elite and is now renowned for its sprawling, secluded estates and magnificent architecture.

   
Originally a seasonal escape, it transitioned into a year-round residence that has housed Atlanta's wealthiest citizens, including Coca-Cola executives and golf legend Bobby Jones.

Mary Elizabeth Tyler House

The Tyler House is significant in the area of architecture because it is a good example of a Classical Revival-style house. 

  

The Mary Elizabeth Tyler House is significant in the area of social history because of its association with the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1920s. It's success fed on the racism and xenophobia created by D. W. Griffith's 1915 film "The Birth of a Nation," and the lynching of Leo Frank. (GNW#133 - Part 4)

    

In 1919, in an effort to revive the flagging Ku Klux Klan, Imperial Wizard William J. Simmons, who had begun cross-burning ceremonies atop Stone Mountain in 1915, hired Klan member Edward Young Clarke and his business partner Mary Elizabeth "Bessie" Tyler to boost Klan membership rolls. It went from a regional order to a nationwide social and political organization.Tyler and Clarke began their work with the Klan in 1919 when the Klan had a membership of 2,000 to 3,000. By 1921, the Klan numbered almost 100,000 members, and by 1924 membership reached almost three-and-a-half million.

Tyree Building

  
The Tyree is one of the first buildings in Atlanta built in the Beaux-Arts style.

  
The apartments were converted into condominiums in 1980.

U.S. Post Office and Courthouse

 

 

  

Underground Atlanta Historic District

 

 

   

   

Dante's Down the Hatch was a legendary Atlanta, Georgia, restaurant and jazz club operated by Dante Stephenson from 1970 to 2013. 

  

Famous for its 18th-century pirate ship decor, a moat filled with live crocodiles, live jazz, and fondue, the iconic establishment left a lasting legacy on the city.

  

United States Post Office, Federal Annex

 

 
Now the Martin Luther King Federal Office Building.

  

Utoy Cemetery

 
We explored this cemetery with (GNW #267 - Part 2)

E. Van Winkle Gin and Machine Works

The site specialized in cotton-related machinery in 1898. 

 

During World War II, the complex produced ammunition. 

  

Now it is the Goat Farm Arts Center.

   

The Goat Farm Arts Center is a visual and performing arts center and contains the studio space of over 300 artists.



Villa Lamar

 
The Villa Lamar is significant in architecture because it is among the finest examples in Georgia of the use of the Italian Renaissance style, exemplified in the use of marble, mosaic tile, a tile roof, the Palladian style entrance loggia, and overall massing of the building. 

  
All the exterior design here. 

It is also significant as the only known work in Georgia of a nationally-known architect from Washington, D. C., George 0. Totten, Jr. (1865-1939). Totten studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1893 to 1895. 

  

His post-educational training included working for the U. S. government, assisting in designing many monumental buildings.

  

Oh Boy, I can finish up the National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia with our next post. We have 25 left plus 6 former listings. Our GNW Gals for this post are with a Ferris Wheel like the Coney Island of the South. 

   

Hopefully Blood Sweat and Tears are still playing. The TRD Natural Wonders of Georgia spin on, 22 post on Atlanta and Fulton County so far. 


]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-13907.html Mon, 23 Mar 2026 04:07:13 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-13907.html
  
Today the tall stone fireplace from a lodge Monroe had built for public gatherings and two small stone structures (one actually a bomb shelter from the 1950s) which resemble English garden follies now make up the grounds of the Ansley-Monroe Villas condominiums that now occupy the site. 

Our TRD Scrolling Nugget about Monroe Gardens is Elton John's tribute to Marilyn Monroe. 



 
These are the Internet images. 



A large house on the southeast corner of Monroe Drive and Rock Springs Road, was built by Monroe at 1945 Monroe Drive for his daughter, and is still standing but has been converted into rental apartments. In 1937 North Boulevard was renamed Monroe Drive honoring William L. Monroe, Sr., founder of Monroe’s Landscape and Nursery Company and Monroe Gardens and his many landscape projects throughout the city. This is explained better in this walking tour of Piedmont Heights neighborhood.

TRD Visit To Monroe Gardens

 
I walked down to the Wedding Chapel behind the Ansley-Monroe Villas condominiums.

Monroe Gardens had beautiful gardens as well a nursery, where he grew plants for his landscaping clients. 

    
These are all TRD images from his visit to Monroe Gardens. 

He designed and installed over 10,000 gardens—private, commercial, and public—throughout Atlanta and the Southeast. 

  

His clients included Emory University, the Coca-Cola headquarters, Chastain Park (originally named North Fulton Park), and many more. 

  
Can see the rock walls in valley below the Ansley-Monroe Villas condominiums.

Monroe’s grounds were a popular wedding venue and social hangout with a fishing pond, waterfall, wishing well, picnic areas, an outdoor bar, and more. 

  

Now days, you can find relics of an outdoor chapel, bomb shelter, and outdoor fireplace among the Ansley-Monroe Villas town homes property. I visited these gardens yesterday. 

 

In 1928 the City of Atlanta began annexing Piedmont Heights by taking in the lots along North Boulevard. In the 1930s a new home could be bought for $4,700 on North Boulevard or Wimbledon Road. 

  

William Lott Monroe, Sr. (1891-1965), landscape designer and nurseryman, is recognized in newspaper articles as the “landscape artist” during the development of North Fulton Park (later renamed Chastain Memorial Park) in the late 1930s and early 1940s. This work was financed partially through WPA (Works Progress Administration) funds and supported with local prison labor. There are three main areas in Chastain Park with Monroe’s signature style as a landscape designer: (1) the master grill area; (2) the picnic grounds area; and (3) the amphitheater. 

  
Chastain Park (GNW #276).

Before going further with Monroe, we should look at a controversy involving the landscaper William Lott Monroe. 1941 (Jan. 25) Monroe’s Landscape & Nursery Co. is removed from Fulton County’s payroll: Drawn more than $17,000 from the county in the last year and one-half. 

 

The company was drawing $500 a month for supervising landscaping of county parks, which was in addition to flowers, shrubs and blueprints sold by it to the county. 

  
Beautiful chimney still around. 

(Nursery Company Is Cut Off Pay Roll.” Atlanta Constitution, Jan. 25, 1941) In 1941, Mr. Monroe was working on North Fulton Park, later known as Chastain Park. This park was annexed into the City of Atlanta on January 1, 1952.

  
Stone runoff. 

Monroe died in 1965, leaving his son, Billy, to run the business until its closing in 1985. 

  
Modern patio and star. 

William L. Monroe, Sr. Biographical Sketch

William L. Monroe, Sr. was born in 1892 in Biscoe, North Carolina, a crossroads community in the central part of the state. He graduated from Elon College in North Carolina and later studied at Duke and Cornell universities. He first came to Atlanta in 1917, when his military service brought him to Camp Gordon in Chamblee. He was working for the C.A. Dahl Company, a florist and nursery on Peachtree Street in Atlanta by 1920, the year he is first recorded in the Atlanta city directories. 

  
One of the earliest projects that can be attributed to Monroe is Dorough Garden on Lullwater Road, reportedly laid out in 1920. Internet images.

 

The garden incorporates formal and informal elements to create a lush setting for the Mediterranean-style house on the property. 

 

Not much is known of Monroe ’s work in the early 1920s through the early 1930s.

 
Well and bridges along Lullwater. 

According to his obituary in the Atlanta Journal, Monroe founded his own company, Monroe Landscaping & Nursery Company in 1925, although it does not appear in the city directories until 1932. The company was located on what is now his namesake road, Monroe Drive, near the Ansley Park neighborhood of Atlanta. 

  
Back to TRD images Monroe Gardens. 

Monroe owned a great deal of land in this area where there is now a large American Red Cross office. He lived in a house on the site. 

  
There was a second Monroe Chimney and Grill. 

There he had a garden that was used for parties, weddings, and other social activities. 

  

The garden featured extensive stone work. 

  
You can see why I am enamored with this Monroe Stonework. 
 
Until 1938 Monroe Drive was known as Boulevard Drive. The portion of Boulevard from Piedmont Road north was changed to Monroe Drive in honor of Monroe and his business. Copying information from several sources, gets repetitive. 

   
Running down the runoff.

Later, the name Monroe Drive was extended south to Ponce de Leon Avenue as it is today. Became Boulevard south of there. 

 
Modern bridge over to Bomb Shelter. 

Monroe’s business was apparently well established by the mid-1930s, and he was soon involved in a number of large-scale projects. 

  
Bomb Shelter. 

In 1937 Monroe began work on the landscaping for the home of Fulton County Commissioner Troy Chastain on Habersham Road in the Peachtree Heights subdivision in Buckhead. The steeply sloping rear yard of the house presented challenges in terms of controlling water run-off, but was perfectly suited to Monroe’s penchant for waterfalls and cascades. He constructed a meandering stream that travels through rock-lined channels, dropping into three pools as it descends. A rock walkway with short sections of steps ascends the hill, at one point crossing the stream with a large flat stone. To control run-off from the hill, Monroe constructed concrete channels that flow toward the side yard and around a hillside to a catch basin that carried the water to the street. There is another stream in the front yard that may have been fed by a spring. Monroe also constructed a large rock retaining wall with a stairwell cut into it to separate the driveway from the rear yard. Another interesting feature of the Chastain property is the two millstones that were used as paving stones at the front and rear entrances. Cut pieces of slate were arranged around the stones to create a sunburst effect. Monroe also used mahonia at the Chastain house, according to current owner John Foley. 

 
Home of John Foley 2875 Habersham Road. 

Monroe also served as a special consultant for Fulton County and assisted in development of several parks in Atlanta. Most notably, he (designed Adams Park and Chastain Park, which were championed by Commissioners Tony Chastain and Charles Adams. At Chastain, Monroe oversaw the construction of a number of stone features using WPA labor, including an amphitheater, retaining walls, grills, shelters, steps, and bridges. In November 1938, the Atlanta Journal reported that Chastain and a number of guests inspected the site of the park then under construction. Among the guests were William Monroe and Robert L. MacDougall and C.M. Johnson of the WPA.

  
Chastain Park (GNW #276)

In the late 1930s Monroe was hired to design and oversee construction of Carroll Gardens in DeKalb County, an extensive rock garden with pools and waterfalls overlooking a lake that was part of the Carroll family’s private recreational park. There are no known existing plans. The work was abandoned after being only partially completed. The garden was rediscovered under years of litter and overgrowth by a new property owner around 2000. The garden was restored and completed in the style and design typical of Monroe’s work.


TRD panoramic of lower pond. Glen Emerald Rock Gardens (Carroll Gardens) (GNW #160)

A curved stone bridge original to the garden is similar to the one in Adams Park. The rock garden, located in east Atlanta, is now part of the DeKalb County park system and known as the Glen Emerald Rock Garden.

 
Adams Park (GNW #277) 

Monroe is associated with other landscape projects in the Atlanta area, although not all of them are still in existence. The 1933 Garden History of Georgia notes two gardens planned by Monroe. The Selman garden is a mostly formal plan, but the garden known as Llwyn near the Brookhaven Country Club has more in common with his rock garden designs. Llwyn featured rising terraces that provided different perspectives from different parts of the house and grounds. A tea garden was furnished with tables and benches, as well as a stream that flowed down the hillside “over rocks and into pools”. Rock walls and weathered boulders were also placed around the garden. The plantings included ferns, perennials, and broad-leaved evergreens, as well as crocus, narcissi, pansies, tulips, and columbines. Also mentioned were azaleas, rhododendron, and mountain laurel, all of which were prominent in Monroe ’s designs. 

  
Back to Monroe Gardens.

Very few plans of Monroe have survived to the present to give an overall perspective on his work. Unfortunately, most of his plans were destroyed about the time that William Monroe, Jr. took over his father ’s business in the early 1950s. However, Monroe, Sr. continued to work at the firm until the early 1960s, and a few plans of the son’s collection at the Atlanta History Center were the work of the senior Monroe. These plans do provide some clues to Monroe’s style and influences. The earliest plan is dated 1940 and is for a Fulton County park in Alpharetta called Chastain Woods. No records exist to show the park was ever built. The design is interesting in that it features curvilinear paths reminiscent of Frederick Law Olmstead and his disciples. The topography is not shown, but presumably the paths follow the contours of the land. The paths are punctuated with small sets of stone steps to help navigate the slopes, and as found at his other parks and gardens, the trails lead to pavilions and picnic areas with fireplaces.

 
TRD continues to explore the Monroe Gardens.

   
Last images of Monroe Gardens. 

  
Monroe Stonework. Multiple weddings in here. 

   
Flowers all in the Ansley-Monroe Villas condominiums.

A later design of Monroe’s, dating to 1960, is an outdoor Sunday school classroom for the Druid Hills Methodist Church at the corner of Ponce de Leon and Briarcliff roads in Atlanta. A sketch of the site as planned shows typical elements of Monroe ’s naturalistic gardens. A curved stone wall with an attached bench defines the space, creating an irregular-shaped patio. The wall encircles a tree at one end of the patio and a stone table and seat are located at the other end, interrupting the flat plane of the surface. Plantings around the classroom space include a hedge of cherry laurel, beds of podocarpus, mahonia, azaleas, and blue lilyturf.

Some of the residential projects that were either designed or installed by William Monroe in the Buckhead area of Atlanta include the Hugh Nunnally estate on Blackland Road. Currently owned by owner of WEB MD.


Monroe did the stone and grass steps out front where Clark Gable and Carol Lombard posed for a photo during World Premier of Gone With the Wind in Atlanta. 

The Robert Woodruff House, 3rd owner of Coke.


Pine trees look like Augusta National. 

the Rufus DeWitt King estate, the Chester Martin estate on Blackland Road, 



and the Carlyle Fraser estate at 2 Vernon Road. 


Fraser was owner of Genuine Parts.

He also did the landscaping plans for the Moore’s Mill Reservoir and Secondary Pumping Station at the Atlanta Waterworks, 

 

the Biscayne Drive Apartments in 1955, 



a garden for Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones on Tuxedo Drive in northern Atlanta, and a proposed nursing home for the McDonough Construction Company in 1961. In 1959 he also rehabilitated the Cator Woodford Gardens on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta, which were originally designed by Robert B. Cridwell of Philadelphia in 1920. These plans were generally commercial in nature, and did not feature the stone walls, water features, and naturalistic settings like those found at Adams Park.

  

Fulton County (Part 7)

We continue with our National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia. We have 91 left plus 6 former listings. 

North Avenue Presbyterian Church

 

 

 

  

Oakland Cemetery

  
Margaret Mitchell (Everybody drops a penny), Bobby Jones (Everybody drops a golf ball) , Kenny Rodgers (Everybody drops a poker chip).

 
Confederate Memorial and Sleeping Lion of Confederacy (removed). 

  
Maynard Jackson Monument. Mausoleums. Out in the Rain sculpture. 


We covered Oakland Cemetery extensively in (GNW # 268 Part 1) (GNW # 268 Part 2) (GNW # 268 Part 3)

Oakland City Historic District

Development of Oakland City as a suburb of Atlanta began with the completion of a trolley line to the area in the 1890s. The predominant architectural house type found throughout Oakland City is the bungalow. 

  
The Craftsman-style bungalow was the most popular early 20th-century house in Georgia.  

 
Oakland City Historic District is significant in the area of architecture for its good and intact collection of late-19th and early-20th century houses, commercial buildings, and community landmark buildings.

Odd Fellows Building and Auditorium

 
Soon to be homeless shelter 1800 men. 

 

 
Always wondered what this auditorium looked like. 

Omega Chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity

 
A Georgia Tech Frat House?   

  
Boys in T for Tech.

 

J. K. Orr Shoe Company

Under architecture the building is significant as a good representative example of an early 20th-century factory designed by architect A. Francis Walker and constructed by the W. Bensel Construction Company. 

 

It is significant under industry as a shoe factory owned and operated by J.K. Orr, Sr. Orr employed between 200 - 400 people at his company where men's, women's, and children's shoes were manufactured. The shoe factory marketed its product primarily in the southeast but also exported its shoes to Cuba and South America.

   
Recently the building underwent extensive rehabilitation using federal investment tax credits and is now used as housing for the mentally ill.

Paces Ferry Tower

Paces Ferry Tower was built in the International Style and was briefly the tallest structure in Buckhead, according to the Georgia Trust. Its architect was James C. Wise, who built several Buckhead mansions, including the 1938 Meredith House at 417 Hillside Drive in the Chastain Park neighborhood, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Wise is also credited with a 1960s renovation of the Swan Coach House at the Atlanta History Center. 

 
The Tower is now Buckhead’s Kimpton Sylvan Hotel and is among the winners of a prestigious statewide historic preservation award.

 
The hotel, which opened last year, is a rehabilitation of the former Paces Ferry Tower. 

Palmer House and Phelan House Apartments

The Palmer House and Phelan House Apartments are two adjacent brick apartment buildings located on Peachtree Street and Peachtree Place (Ninth Street) in Atlanta's Midtown neighborhood. 

 

The Palmer House was Designed by Atlanta architect Gottfried L. Norrman, the Palmer House is an excellent example of the Queen Anne style.

 

The Phelan House apartments were completed in 1915 and designed by J. Neel Reid and Philip Trammel! Shutze, the Phelan, arranged in "flats," represents the precursor to garden apartments, which were popular in Atlanta in the 1920sand 1930s. 

  

Both architects studied in Europe before designing classically inspired residential and commercial buildings in Atlanta through the middle of the 20th century.

  

Park Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South

The Park Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is significant in architecture as a good example of a Gothic Revival- style church. 

 
Park Street Methodist Church meets National Register Criteria C because it is the work of a master, architect Charles Edward Choate, who worked all over the state of Georgia.  

  
He is noted for, and has been studied for, his churches, homes, and commercial buildings.

Peachtree Center Historic District

This Peachtree Center Historic District includes the Peachtree Center where we meet for my daily Bus Tour, and all the adjacent buildings mostly designed by Atlanta architect John C. Portman Jr.

 


From Weston Peachtree Plaza on left to Marriott Marquis on Right. 

  
Peachtree Center Courtyard. 

 

  
Known for Sky Bridges. One into Hyatt and an now abandoned one way high to top floor AmericasMart. 

Hyatt Regency Atlanta 1967

  

  

Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel 1976

  
Hotel holds record most floors in Atlanta 70.  Damage after 2009 Tornado. Ground floor lobby.

Tallest hotel in the world upon completion in 1976. Today, it is the fourth-tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere, and the 28th tallest all-hotel building in the world.
 
  
Sundial Restaurant rotates at top. The hotel was heavily featured in the 1981 film Sharky's Machine starring Burt Reynolds. Stuntman Dar Robinson, doubling for Henry Silva at the end of the film, dropped 220 feet from what appeared to be the Westin Peachtree Plaza, setting a record for the highest freefall jump from a building in a film. In actuality, however, the stunt scene was filmed at the nearby Hyatt Regency Hotel,using its shorter but similar cylindrical-shaped Radius Tower.

Atlanta Marriott Marquis 1985

  
Sleeping Lion of Lucerne Switzerland John Portman Sculptures. Like Jonah in belly of whale soft rib cage.
 
 

AmericasMart 1961, 1979, 1992, 2008

 

  

Truist Plaza 1992

  
Use to be Trust Company, then it was Sun Trust, now Truist. Ballet Olympia out front. 



American Cancer Society Center 1989

   
270 Peachtree Street, moved up hill from prior location down by Aquarium. White Oak Restaurant sells rabbit appetizer. 

Good spot for a 2nd TRD Scrolling Nugget, Rabbit at White Oak.



Peachtree Christian Church

The Peachtree Christian Church is significant in architecture as a fine example of a twentieth-century Gothic-styled church whose.sanctuary or nave is built on the historic Gothic floor plan and includes a vaulted ceiling, side aisles, arched window openings, ribs and bosses, all characteristic elements of this style.

 

The church is significant in art for its large collection of English stained glass made by William Glasby.

  



Peachtree Heights Park

The significance of Peachtree Heights Park is based on the exceptional quality of the residential architecture set within the landscape design of the notable architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings (who designed, among other buildings, the New York Public Library in New York City). 

  

The firm of Hentz, Reid and Adler (later Hentz, Reid, Adler and Shutze) designed at least fifteen houses in this district.

  

 

Peachtree Highlands Historic District  

Peachtree Highlands Historic District is historically significant in terms of community planning and development, architecture, and social history. 

  

In terms of community planning and development, it is significant in Atlanta as an example of a street-car/automobile suburb designed for the lower middle class. 

  
It provides an excellent contrast to Atlanta's many subdivisions of the same period designed for the upper middle and upper classes.

Peachtree Highlands-Peachtree Park Historic District

  

  

Peachtree Southern Railway Station

 

  
Southern Crescent to New Orleans, the Nancy Hanks to Florida. 

 

Edward C. Peters House

  
Also known as Ivy Hall.

  
Once was a restaurant called "The Mansion".

Piedmont Park




Georgia plays Auburn 1895.

 
(GNW #271)

 

Piedmont Park Apartments

 

 

  

Thomas H. Pitts House and Dairy

The Thomas H. Pitts Estate comprises a nearly complete early-twentieth-century dairy farm.

 

The Thomas H. Pitts Estate ("Casa Loma") is significant for its architectural qualities and landscaping, and historically significant for the role it played in dairying.

  

Pittsburgh Historic District

In 1883, the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad Company (later Southern Railway Company) built a complex of railroad maintenance shops and a large rail yard southwest of downtown Atlanta, and a historic African-American neighborhood developed on the west side of the tracks along McDaniel Street.

  

Atlanta historian Franklin Garrett wrote that the name "Pittsburgh" was the result of the smoky rail yard's atmosphere being reminiscent of the steel mills of Pittsburgh, PA. 

 
Most of the residents were railroad workers, craftsmen, and domestic workers.

William G. Raoul House

The William G. Raoul House is one of the few remaining residences on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, a street once lined with grand late 19th and early 20th century houses. Most of these houses have been demolished as Atlanta's commercial center has grown north along the topographic ridge followed by Peachtree Street. These houses were among the finest works of residential architecture in the city at the time; most also were associated with Atlanta's most prominent families. The Raoul house is among a half-dozen surviving examples of these fashionable turn-of-the-century houses in Atlanta.

   

The Raoul estate buildings are the work of the noted architect Bradford Gilbert (1853-1911), who designed not only the building overall but also the interior decorative elements. 

   

At the time, Gilbert was one of the best-known architects of New York; he designed a number of early high-rise or sky-scraper buildings, of which the "Flatiron" building is one. He served as architectural consultant to several railroad companies, and he worked on an early remodeling of Grand Central Station. Gilbert also was the supervising architect for the Cotton States Exposition of 1895 in Atlanta.

Retail Credit Company Home Office Building

The significance of the Retail Credit Company Home Office Building is in architectural merit and in commercial history, as the first headquarters building for the Retail Credit Company, organized in March, 1899. 

  

Architecturally, it is significant as one of Atlanta's very few extant examples of Art Deco architecture. 

  

The building also is important because it was the first high-rise office building in Atlanta to be completely air-conditioned.

Reynoldstown Historic District

  

Reynoldstown is a community that was originally settled after the American Civil War by freed slaves who were employed by the railroad. Madison and Sarah Reynolds were among the first ex-slaves to move into the area, and it is believed that the neighborhood was named after them.

 

Rhodes Memorial Hall

  

  


I always heard this stain glass tells story of Civil War from secession to surrender.

Rhodes-Haverty Building

  

   

Isaac Roberts House

 

Up in Sandy Springs.

  

Rock Spring Presbyterian Church

 

Across Street from Fat Macs Rib Shack. 

  

Roscoe-Dunaway Gardens Historic District

Mostly in Coweta County, but part of the district is located in Fulton County. 

  
Seventy-nine buildings contribute to the historic district.

  
Place overgrown Kudzu until present owners went all out restoring it.

 
Original Lady spent eighteen years overseeing construction of a "theater-garden". She employed architects and a full-time stone mason for a decade.

 
This qualifies as a Natural Wonder down the road. 

Rufus M. Rose House

 
Abandoned now.

  
Use to be a museum and antique store.

   
Margaret Mitchell's rocking chair, Bobby Jones Calamity Jane putter, Eli Whitney's cotton gin, a Japanese zero bomber. 

F.H. Ross & Company Laundry Warehouse

The F.H. Ross & Company Laundry Warehouse, located at 833 Memorial Drive in Atlanta, is a historic building constructed in 1949. It became known as Atlanta Dairies in the 1960's. 

  

A notable example of the Streamline Moderne style, which is characterized by smooth, horizontal lines and often used for industrial/transportation related buildings.  

 

Streamline Moderne style was often applied to buildings with a transportation-related function or design, such as bus stations, drive-in restaurants, and gas stations, and limited extant examples in Atlanta include the Varsity restaurant (61 North Avenue NW, Jules Grey, 1940), the Atlanta Constitution Building (143 Alabama Street SW, Robert and Company, 1947), and Briarcliff Plaza (1027 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE and the 1061 Ponce de Leon Avenue, George Harwell Bond, 1940).

Roswell Historic District

  
Historic district including Roswell's town square, with 28 contributing buildings. 

 

We did three extensive post on Roswell Georgia GNW #144 (Part 1) - GNW #144 (Part 2) - GNW #144 (Part 3)



Simeon and Jane Rucker Log House

The Rucker Log House is a recently restored c.1833 log house with modern additions. It's significance is in terms of architecture for its log construction, its vernacular form and plan, and it's age. Less than a dozen log houses in Georgia are currently individually listed in the National Register, and none of these is in the metropolitan Atlanta area. 

 

It is also significant in terms of exploration and settlement for its direct historical associations with the first wave of Euro-American settlement in this part of the state. 

  
Dogs, ducks, Maine Cabin Masters. 

This region was opened to white settlement after 1832 when the State of Georgia with Federal assistance seized Cherokee Indian lands (by 1831) and distributed them to white settlers through a land lottery (1832).

  

St. Andrews Apartments

The St. Andrews Apartment building is located on the southeast corner of West Peachtree and llth Streets, in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. It is a relatively simple seven-story, L-shaped, brick structure, built in 1924 and remodeled in 1958. 

   

The building is important in the area of social history for housing numerous middle and upper-class Atlantans in the 1920s and 1930s, some of whom were employed as physicians, nurses, stock brokers, company presidents, salesmen, lawyers, and real estate  developers. 

  
Many of the tenants were professionally associated with the builders and original owners of the building, the Wynne Claughton Realty Sales Corporation.

St. Mark Methodist Church

  

    

Sardis Methodist Church and Cemetery

Sardis Methodist Church and Cemetery (now known as Sardis United Methodist Church) is located on a relatively quiet five-acre site in the middle of a sprawling urban area of northern Atlanta known as Buckhead. With a congregation dating to c.1848, the 1927 church is at least the third religious building on the site. 

  

The interior is dominated by the sanctuary, which features classical details and several stained-glass windows dating to 1941. The 1927 church is a good example of the work of architect Owen James Trainor Southwell who designed the building with a rural aesthetic in the popular Colonial Revival style. 

  

The property is also significant at the local level under Criterion A in the area of exploration/settlement for the cemetery’s association with the early history of the Buckhead community. 

    

The first incarnation of Sardis Methodist Church on its current site likely dates to the late 1840s, around the same time that the nearby settlement of Irbyville came to be known as Buckhead.

Charles E. Sciple House

The Charles E. Sciple House is a two-story, brick, eclectic-style house with a one-story modern dining-hall addition on the southwest side and a northwest ell whose second-floor sleeping porch has been converted to an office. The brick exterior is embellished with very little ornamentation other than the shape of the house itself. 

  

The house is significant as the home of Charles E. Sciple (1857-1941), an Alabama native who took over an Atlanta building-supply business (known as Sciple and Sons).  

   
Presently, it is the home of the Women's Commerce Club.

Sears, Roebuck and Co. Mail-Order Warehouse and Retail Store

  
When it was being built, now it is Ponce City Market. 

   
Apartments upper levels.

Selig Company Building

 

   

Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

 

 

  

Archibald Smith House

 
Part of the trilogy of antebellum homes in Roswell.

   

Our GNW Gal for this post about Monroe Gardens can be no other than Marilyn Monroe herself. The original Playboy Playmate. 

    

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Today the tall stone fireplace from a lodge Monroe had built for public gatherings and two small stone structures (one actually a bomb shelter from the 1950s) which resemble English garden follies now make up the grounds of the Ansley-Monroe Villas condominiums that now occupy the site. 

Our TRD Scrolling Nugget about Monroe Gardens is Elton John's tribute to Marilyn Monroe. 



 
These are the Internet images. 



A large house on the southeast corner of Monroe Drive and Rock Springs Road, was built by Monroe at 1945 Monroe Drive for his daughter, and is still standing but has been converted into rental apartments. In 1937 North Boulevard was renamed Monroe Drive honoring William L. Monroe, Sr., founder of Monroe’s Landscape and Nursery Company and Monroe Gardens and his many landscape projects throughout the city. This is explained better in this walking tour of Piedmont Heights neighborhood.

TRD Visit To Monroe Gardens

 
I walked down to the Wedding Chapel behind the Ansley-Monroe Villas condominiums.

Monroe Gardens had beautiful gardens as well a nursery, where he grew plants for his landscaping clients. 

    
These are all TRD images from his visit to Monroe Gardens. 

He designed and installed over 10,000 gardens—private, commercial, and public—throughout Atlanta and the Southeast. 

  

His clients included Emory University, the Coca-Cola headquarters, Chastain Park (originally named North Fulton Park), and many more. 

  
Can see the rock walls in valley below the Ansley-Monroe Villas condominiums.

Monroe’s grounds were a popular wedding venue and social hangout with a fishing pond, waterfall, wishing well, picnic areas, an outdoor bar, and more. 

  

Now days, you can find relics of an outdoor chapel, bomb shelter, and outdoor fireplace among the Ansley-Monroe Villas town homes property. I visited these gardens yesterday. 

 

In 1928 the City of Atlanta began annexing Piedmont Heights by taking in the lots along North Boulevard. In the 1930s a new home could be bought for $4,700 on North Boulevard or Wimbledon Road. 

  

William Lott Monroe, Sr. (1891-1965), landscape designer and nurseryman, is recognized in newspaper articles as the “landscape artist” during the development of North Fulton Park (later renamed Chastain Memorial Park) in the late 1930s and early 1940s. This work was financed partially through WPA (Works Progress Administration) funds and supported with local prison labor. There are three main areas in Chastain Park with Monroe’s signature style as a landscape designer: (1) the master grill area; (2) the picnic grounds area; and (3) the amphitheater. 

  
Chastain Park (GNW #276).

Before going further with Monroe, we should look at a controversy involving the landscaper William Lott Monroe. 1941 (Jan. 25) Monroe’s Landscape & Nursery Co. is removed from Fulton County’s payroll: Drawn more than $17,000 from the county in the last year and one-half. 

 

The company was drawing $500 a month for supervising landscaping of county parks, which was in addition to flowers, shrubs and blueprints sold by it to the county. 

  
Beautiful chimney still around. 

(Nursery Company Is Cut Off Pay Roll.” Atlanta Constitution, Jan. 25, 1941) In 1941, Mr. Monroe was working on North Fulton Park, later known as Chastain Park. This park was annexed into the City of Atlanta on January 1, 1952.

  
Stone runoff. 

Monroe died in 1965, leaving his son, Billy, to run the business until its closing in 1985. 

  
Modern patio and star. 

William L. Monroe, Sr. Biographical Sketch

William L. Monroe, Sr. was born in 1892 in Biscoe, North Carolina, a crossroads community in the central part of the state. He graduated from Elon College in North Carolina and later studied at Duke and Cornell universities. He first came to Atlanta in 1917, when his military service brought him to Camp Gordon in Chamblee. He was working for the C.A. Dahl Company, a florist and nursery on Peachtree Street in Atlanta by 1920, the year he is first recorded in the Atlanta city directories. 

  
One of the earliest projects that can be attributed to Monroe is Dorough Garden on Lullwater Road, reportedly laid out in 1920. Internet images.

 

The garden incorporates formal and informal elements to create a lush setting for the Mediterranean-style house on the property. 

 

Not much is known of Monroe ’s work in the early 1920s through the early 1930s.

 
Well and bridges along Lullwater. 

According to his obituary in the Atlanta Journal, Monroe founded his own company, Monroe Landscaping & Nursery Company in 1925, although it does not appear in the city directories until 1932. The company was located on what is now his namesake road, Monroe Drive, near the Ansley Park neighborhood of Atlanta. 

  
Back to TRD images Monroe Gardens. 

Monroe owned a great deal of land in this area where there is now a large American Red Cross office. He lived in a house on the site. 

  
There was a second Monroe Chimney and Grill. 

There he had a garden that was used for parties, weddings, and other social activities. 

  

The garden featured extensive stone work. 

  
You can see why I am enamored with this Monroe Stonework. 
 
Until 1938 Monroe Drive was known as Boulevard Drive. The portion of Boulevard from Piedmont Road north was changed to Monroe Drive in honor of Monroe and his business. Copying information from several sources, gets repetitive. 

   
Running down the runoff.

Later, the name Monroe Drive was extended south to Ponce de Leon Avenue as it is today. Became Boulevard south of there. 

 
Modern bridge over to Bomb Shelter. 

Monroe’s business was apparently well established by the mid-1930s, and he was soon involved in a number of large-scale projects. 

  
Bomb Shelter. 

In 1937 Monroe began work on the landscaping for the home of Fulton County Commissioner Troy Chastain on Habersham Road in the Peachtree Heights subdivision in Buckhead. The steeply sloping rear yard of the house presented challenges in terms of controlling water run-off, but was perfectly suited to Monroe’s penchant for waterfalls and cascades. He constructed a meandering stream that travels through rock-lined channels, dropping into three pools as it descends. A rock walkway with short sections of steps ascends the hill, at one point crossing the stream with a large flat stone. To control run-off from the hill, Monroe constructed concrete channels that flow toward the side yard and around a hillside to a catch basin that carried the water to the street. There is another stream in the front yard that may have been fed by a spring. Monroe also constructed a large rock retaining wall with a stairwell cut into it to separate the driveway from the rear yard. Another interesting feature of the Chastain property is the two millstones that were used as paving stones at the front and rear entrances. Cut pieces of slate were arranged around the stones to create a sunburst effect. Monroe also used mahonia at the Chastain house, according to current owner John Foley. 

 
Home of John Foley 2875 Habersham Road. 

Monroe also served as a special consultant for Fulton County and assisted in development of several parks in Atlanta. Most notably, he (designed Adams Park and Chastain Park, which were championed by Commissioners Tony Chastain and Charles Adams. At Chastain, Monroe oversaw the construction of a number of stone features using WPA labor, including an amphitheater, retaining walls, grills, shelters, steps, and bridges. In November 1938, the Atlanta Journal reported that Chastain and a number of guests inspected the site of the park then under construction. Among the guests were William Monroe and Robert L. MacDougall and C.M. Johnson of the WPA.

  
Chastain Park (GNW #276)

In the late 1930s Monroe was hired to design and oversee construction of Carroll Gardens in DeKalb County, an extensive rock garden with pools and waterfalls overlooking a lake that was part of the Carroll family’s private recreational park. There are no known existing plans. The work was abandoned after being only partially completed. The garden was rediscovered under years of litter and overgrowth by a new property owner around 2000. The garden was restored and completed in the style and design typical of Monroe’s work.


TRD panoramic of lower pond. Glen Emerald Rock Gardens (Carroll Gardens) (GNW #160)

A curved stone bridge original to the garden is similar to the one in Adams Park. The rock garden, located in east Atlanta, is now part of the DeKalb County park system and known as the Glen Emerald Rock Garden.

 
Adams Park (GNW #277) 

Monroe is associated with other landscape projects in the Atlanta area, although not all of them are still in existence. The 1933 Garden History of Georgia notes two gardens planned by Monroe. The Selman garden is a mostly formal plan, but the garden known as Llwyn near the Brookhaven Country Club has more in common with his rock garden designs. Llwyn featured rising terraces that provided different perspectives from different parts of the house and grounds. A tea garden was furnished with tables and benches, as well as a stream that flowed down the hillside “over rocks and into pools”. Rock walls and weathered boulders were also placed around the garden. The plantings included ferns, perennials, and broad-leaved evergreens, as well as crocus, narcissi, pansies, tulips, and columbines. Also mentioned were azaleas, rhododendron, and mountain laurel, all of which were prominent in Monroe ’s designs. 

  
Back to Monroe Gardens.

Very few plans of Monroe have survived to the present to give an overall perspective on his work. Unfortunately, most of his plans were destroyed about the time that William Monroe, Jr. took over his father ’s business in the early 1950s. However, Monroe, Sr. continued to work at the firm until the early 1960s, and a few plans of the son’s collection at the Atlanta History Center were the work of the senior Monroe. These plans do provide some clues to Monroe’s style and influences. The earliest plan is dated 1940 and is for a Fulton County park in Alpharetta called Chastain Woods. No records exist to show the park was ever built. The design is interesting in that it features curvilinear paths reminiscent of Frederick Law Olmstead and his disciples. The topography is not shown, but presumably the paths follow the contours of the land. The paths are punctuated with small sets of stone steps to help navigate the slopes, and as found at his other parks and gardens, the trails lead to pavilions and picnic areas with fireplaces.

 
TRD continues to explore the Monroe Gardens.

   
Last images of Monroe Gardens. 

  
Monroe Stonework. Multiple weddings in here. 

   
Flowers all in the Ansley-Monroe Villas condominiums.

A later design of Monroe’s, dating to 1960, is an outdoor Sunday school classroom for the Druid Hills Methodist Church at the corner of Ponce de Leon and Briarcliff roads in Atlanta. A sketch of the site as planned shows typical elements of Monroe ’s naturalistic gardens. A curved stone wall with an attached bench defines the space, creating an irregular-shaped patio. The wall encircles a tree at one end of the patio and a stone table and seat are located at the other end, interrupting the flat plane of the surface. Plantings around the classroom space include a hedge of cherry laurel, beds of podocarpus, mahonia, azaleas, and blue lilyturf.

Some of the residential projects that were either designed or installed by William Monroe in the Buckhead area of Atlanta include the Hugh Nunnally estate on Blackland Road. Currently owned by owner of WEB MD.


Monroe did the stone and grass steps out front where Clark Gable and Carol Lombard posed for a photo during World Premier of Gone With the Wind in Atlanta. 

The Robert Woodruff House, 3rd owner of Coke.


Pine trees look like Augusta National. 

the Rufus DeWitt King estate, the Chester Martin estate on Blackland Road, 



and the Carlyle Fraser estate at 2 Vernon Road. 


Fraser was owner of Genuine Parts.

He also did the landscaping plans for the Moore’s Mill Reservoir and Secondary Pumping Station at the Atlanta Waterworks, 

 

the Biscayne Drive Apartments in 1955, 



a garden for Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones on Tuxedo Drive in northern Atlanta, and a proposed nursing home for the McDonough Construction Company in 1961. In 1959 he also rehabilitated the Cator Woodford Gardens on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta, which were originally designed by Robert B. Cridwell of Philadelphia in 1920. These plans were generally commercial in nature, and did not feature the stone walls, water features, and naturalistic settings like those found at Adams Park.

  

Fulton County (Part 7)

We continue with our National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia. We have 91 left plus 6 former listings. 

North Avenue Presbyterian Church

 

 

 

  

Oakland Cemetery

  
Margaret Mitchell (Everybody drops a penny), Bobby Jones (Everybody drops a golf ball) , Kenny Rodgers (Everybody drops a poker chip).

 
Confederate Memorial and Sleeping Lion of Confederacy (removed). 

  
Maynard Jackson Monument. Mausoleums. Out in the Rain sculpture. 


We covered Oakland Cemetery extensively in (GNW # 268 Part 1) (GNW # 268 Part 2) (GNW # 268 Part 3)

Oakland City Historic District

Development of Oakland City as a suburb of Atlanta began with the completion of a trolley line to the area in the 1890s. The predominant architectural house type found throughout Oakland City is the bungalow. 

  
The Craftsman-style bungalow was the most popular early 20th-century house in Georgia.  

 
Oakland City Historic District is significant in the area of architecture for its good and intact collection of late-19th and early-20th century houses, commercial buildings, and community landmark buildings.

Odd Fellows Building and Auditorium

 
Soon to be homeless shelter 1800 men. 

 

 
Always wondered what this auditorium looked like. 

Omega Chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity

 
A Georgia Tech Frat House?   

  
Boys in T for Tech.

 

J. K. Orr Shoe Company

Under architecture the building is significant as a good representative example of an early 20th-century factory designed by architect A. Francis Walker and constructed by the W. Bensel Construction Company. 

 

It is significant under industry as a shoe factory owned and operated by J.K. Orr, Sr. Orr employed between 200 - 400 people at his company where men's, women's, and children's shoes were manufactured. The shoe factory marketed its product primarily in the southeast but also exported its shoes to Cuba and South America.

   
Recently the building underwent extensive rehabilitation using federal investment tax credits and is now used as housing for the mentally ill.

Paces Ferry Tower

Paces Ferry Tower was built in the International Style and was briefly the tallest structure in Buckhead, according to the Georgia Trust. Its architect was James C. Wise, who built several Buckhead mansions, including the 1938 Meredith House at 417 Hillside Drive in the Chastain Park neighborhood, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Wise is also credited with a 1960s renovation of the Swan Coach House at the Atlanta History Center. 

 
The Tower is now Buckhead’s Kimpton Sylvan Hotel and is among the winners of a prestigious statewide historic preservation award.

 
The hotel, which opened last year, is a rehabilitation of the former Paces Ferry Tower. 

Palmer House and Phelan House Apartments

The Palmer House and Phelan House Apartments are two adjacent brick apartment buildings located on Peachtree Street and Peachtree Place (Ninth Street) in Atlanta's Midtown neighborhood. 

 

The Palmer House was Designed by Atlanta architect Gottfried L. Norrman, the Palmer House is an excellent example of the Queen Anne style.

 

The Phelan House apartments were completed in 1915 and designed by J. Neel Reid and Philip Trammel! Shutze, the Phelan, arranged in "flats," represents the precursor to garden apartments, which were popular in Atlanta in the 1920sand 1930s. 

  

Both architects studied in Europe before designing classically inspired residential and commercial buildings in Atlanta through the middle of the 20th century.

  

Park Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South

The Park Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is significant in architecture as a good example of a Gothic Revival- style church. 

 
Park Street Methodist Church meets National Register Criteria C because it is the work of a master, architect Charles Edward Choate, who worked all over the state of Georgia.  

  
He is noted for, and has been studied for, his churches, homes, and commercial buildings.

Peachtree Center Historic District

This Peachtree Center Historic District includes the Peachtree Center where we meet for my daily Bus Tour, and all the adjacent buildings mostly designed by Atlanta architect John C. Portman Jr.

 


From Weston Peachtree Plaza on left to Marriott Marquis on Right. 

  
Peachtree Center Courtyard. 

 

  
Known for Sky Bridges. One into Hyatt and an now abandoned one way high to top floor AmericasMart. 

Hyatt Regency Atlanta 1967

  

  

Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel 1976

  
Hotel holds record most floors in Atlanta 70.  Damage after 2009 Tornado. Ground floor lobby.

Tallest hotel in the world upon completion in 1976. Today, it is the fourth-tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere, and the 28th tallest all-hotel building in the world.
 
  
Sundial Restaurant rotates at top. The hotel was heavily featured in the 1981 film Sharky's Machine starring Burt Reynolds. Stuntman Dar Robinson, doubling for Henry Silva at the end of the film, dropped 220 feet from what appeared to be the Westin Peachtree Plaza, setting a record for the highest freefall jump from a building in a film. In actuality, however, the stunt scene was filmed at the nearby Hyatt Regency Hotel,using its shorter but similar cylindrical-shaped Radius Tower.

Atlanta Marriott Marquis 1985

  
Sleeping Lion of Lucerne Switzerland John Portman Sculptures. Like Jonah in belly of whale soft rib cage.
 
 

AmericasMart 1961, 1979, 1992, 2008

 

  

Truist Plaza 1992

  
Use to be Trust Company, then it was Sun Trust, now Truist. Ballet Olympia out front. 



American Cancer Society Center 1989

   
270 Peachtree Street, moved up hill from prior location down by Aquarium. White Oak Restaurant sells rabbit appetizer. 

Good spot for a 2nd TRD Scrolling Nugget, Rabbit at White Oak.



Peachtree Christian Church

The Peachtree Christian Church is significant in architecture as a fine example of a twentieth-century Gothic-styled church whose.sanctuary or nave is built on the historic Gothic floor plan and includes a vaulted ceiling, side aisles, arched window openings, ribs and bosses, all characteristic elements of this style.

 

The church is significant in art for its large collection of English stained glass made by William Glasby.

  



Peachtree Heights Park

The significance of Peachtree Heights Park is based on the exceptional quality of the residential architecture set within the landscape design of the notable architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings (who designed, among other buildings, the New York Public Library in New York City). 

  

The firm of Hentz, Reid and Adler (later Hentz, Reid, Adler and Shutze) designed at least fifteen houses in this district.

  

 

Peachtree Highlands Historic District  

Peachtree Highlands Historic District is historically significant in terms of community planning and development, architecture, and social history. 

  

In terms of community planning and development, it is significant in Atlanta as an example of a street-car/automobile suburb designed for the lower middle class. 

  
It provides an excellent contrast to Atlanta's many subdivisions of the same period designed for the upper middle and upper classes.

Peachtree Highlands-Peachtree Park Historic District

  

  

Peachtree Southern Railway Station

 

  
Southern Crescent to New Orleans, the Nancy Hanks to Florida. 

 

Edward C. Peters House

  
Also known as Ivy Hall.

  
Once was a restaurant called "The Mansion".

Piedmont Park




Georgia plays Auburn 1895.

 
(GNW #271)

 

Piedmont Park Apartments

 

 

  

Thomas H. Pitts House and Dairy

The Thomas H. Pitts Estate comprises a nearly complete early-twentieth-century dairy farm.

 

The Thomas H. Pitts Estate ("Casa Loma") is significant for its architectural qualities and landscaping, and historically significant for the role it played in dairying.

  

Pittsburgh Historic District

In 1883, the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad Company (later Southern Railway Company) built a complex of railroad maintenance shops and a large rail yard southwest of downtown Atlanta, and a historic African-American neighborhood developed on the west side of the tracks along McDaniel Street.

  

Atlanta historian Franklin Garrett wrote that the name "Pittsburgh" was the result of the smoky rail yard's atmosphere being reminiscent of the steel mills of Pittsburgh, PA. 

 
Most of the residents were railroad workers, craftsmen, and domestic workers.

William G. Raoul House

The William G. Raoul House is one of the few remaining residences on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, a street once lined with grand late 19th and early 20th century houses. Most of these houses have been demolished as Atlanta's commercial center has grown north along the topographic ridge followed by Peachtree Street. These houses were among the finest works of residential architecture in the city at the time; most also were associated with Atlanta's most prominent families. The Raoul house is among a half-dozen surviving examples of these fashionable turn-of-the-century houses in Atlanta.

   

The Raoul estate buildings are the work of the noted architect Bradford Gilbert (1853-1911), who designed not only the building overall but also the interior decorative elements. 

   

At the time, Gilbert was one of the best-known architects of New York; he designed a number of early high-rise or sky-scraper buildings, of which the "Flatiron" building is one. He served as architectural consultant to several railroad companies, and he worked on an early remodeling of Grand Central Station. Gilbert also was the supervising architect for the Cotton States Exposition of 1895 in Atlanta.

Retail Credit Company Home Office Building

The significance of the Retail Credit Company Home Office Building is in architectural merit and in commercial history, as the first headquarters building for the Retail Credit Company, organized in March, 1899. 

  

Architecturally, it is significant as one of Atlanta's very few extant examples of Art Deco architecture. 

  

The building also is important because it was the first high-rise office building in Atlanta to be completely air-conditioned.

Reynoldstown Historic District

  

Reynoldstown is a community that was originally settled after the American Civil War by freed slaves who were employed by the railroad. Madison and Sarah Reynolds were among the first ex-slaves to move into the area, and it is believed that the neighborhood was named after them.

 

Rhodes Memorial Hall

  

  


I always heard this stain glass tells story of Civil War from secession to surrender.

Rhodes-Haverty Building

  

   

Isaac Roberts House

 

Up in Sandy Springs.

  

Rock Spring Presbyterian Church

 

Across Street from Fat Macs Rib Shack. 

  

Roscoe-Dunaway Gardens Historic District

Mostly in Coweta County, but part of the district is located in Fulton County. 

  
Seventy-nine buildings contribute to the historic district.

  
Place overgrown Kudzu until present owners went all out restoring it.

 
Original Lady spent eighteen years overseeing construction of a "theater-garden". She employed architects and a full-time stone mason for a decade.

 
This qualifies as a Natural Wonder down the road. 

Rufus M. Rose House

 
Abandoned now.

  
Use to be a museum and antique store.

   
Margaret Mitchell's rocking chair, Bobby Jones Calamity Jane putter, Eli Whitney's cotton gin, a Japanese zero bomber. 

F.H. Ross & Company Laundry Warehouse

The F.H. Ross & Company Laundry Warehouse, located at 833 Memorial Drive in Atlanta, is a historic building constructed in 1949. It became known as Atlanta Dairies in the 1960's. 

  

A notable example of the Streamline Moderne style, which is characterized by smooth, horizontal lines and often used for industrial/transportation related buildings.  

 

Streamline Moderne style was often applied to buildings with a transportation-related function or design, such as bus stations, drive-in restaurants, and gas stations, and limited extant examples in Atlanta include the Varsity restaurant (61 North Avenue NW, Jules Grey, 1940), the Atlanta Constitution Building (143 Alabama Street SW, Robert and Company, 1947), and Briarcliff Plaza (1027 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE and the 1061 Ponce de Leon Avenue, George Harwell Bond, 1940).

Roswell Historic District

  
Historic district including Roswell's town square, with 28 contributing buildings. 

 

We did three extensive post on Roswell Georgia GNW #144 (Part 1) - GNW #144 (Part 2) - GNW #144 (Part 3)



Simeon and Jane Rucker Log House

The Rucker Log House is a recently restored c.1833 log house with modern additions. It's significance is in terms of architecture for its log construction, its vernacular form and plan, and it's age. Less than a dozen log houses in Georgia are currently individually listed in the National Register, and none of these is in the metropolitan Atlanta area. 

 

It is also significant in terms of exploration and settlement for its direct historical associations with the first wave of Euro-American settlement in this part of the state. 

  
Dogs, ducks, Maine Cabin Masters. 

This region was opened to white settlement after 1832 when the State of Georgia with Federal assistance seized Cherokee Indian lands (by 1831) and distributed them to white settlers through a land lottery (1832).

  

St. Andrews Apartments

The St. Andrews Apartment building is located on the southeast corner of West Peachtree and llth Streets, in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. It is a relatively simple seven-story, L-shaped, brick structure, built in 1924 and remodeled in 1958. 

   

The building is important in the area of social history for housing numerous middle and upper-class Atlantans in the 1920s and 1930s, some of whom were employed as physicians, nurses, stock brokers, company presidents, salesmen, lawyers, and real estate  developers. 

  
Many of the tenants were professionally associated with the builders and original owners of the building, the Wynne Claughton Realty Sales Corporation.

St. Mark Methodist Church

  

    

Sardis Methodist Church and Cemetery

Sardis Methodist Church and Cemetery (now known as Sardis United Methodist Church) is located on a relatively quiet five-acre site in the middle of a sprawling urban area of northern Atlanta known as Buckhead. With a congregation dating to c.1848, the 1927 church is at least the third religious building on the site. 

  

The interior is dominated by the sanctuary, which features classical details and several stained-glass windows dating to 1941. The 1927 church is a good example of the work of architect Owen James Trainor Southwell who designed the building with a rural aesthetic in the popular Colonial Revival style. 

  

The property is also significant at the local level under Criterion A in the area of exploration/settlement for the cemetery’s association with the early history of the Buckhead community. 

    

The first incarnation of Sardis Methodist Church on its current site likely dates to the late 1840s, around the same time that the nearby settlement of Irbyville came to be known as Buckhead.

Charles E. Sciple House

The Charles E. Sciple House is a two-story, brick, eclectic-style house with a one-story modern dining-hall addition on the southwest side and a northwest ell whose second-floor sleeping porch has been converted to an office. The brick exterior is embellished with very little ornamentation other than the shape of the house itself. 

  

The house is significant as the home of Charles E. Sciple (1857-1941), an Alabama native who took over an Atlanta building-supply business (known as Sciple and Sons).  

   
Presently, it is the home of the Women's Commerce Club.

Sears, Roebuck and Co. Mail-Order Warehouse and Retail Store

  
When it was being built, now it is Ponce City Market. 

   
Apartments upper levels.

Selig Company Building

 

   

Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

 

 

  

Archibald Smith House

 
Part of the trilogy of antebellum homes in Roswell.

   

Our GNW Gal for this post about Monroe Gardens can be no other than Marilyn Monroe herself. The original Playboy Playmate. 

    

]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-13906.html Mon, 23 Mar 2026 04:06:10 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-13906.html Georgia Natural Wonder #277 - Adams Park

We are following the stone work of William Lott Monroe and we come to Charles R. Adams Park. It is located in southwest Atlanta, approximately six miles from downtown. It is a public city park surrounded by the residential neighborhood of Cascade Heights, which has houses dating mostly from the 1920s to the 1960s. The general topography is hilly with mature hardwood trees and pines. 

 
Top Row Dawg visited Adams Park on Saturday. Images off the beaten path shows why this is a Natural Wonder of Georgia way down here at #277. 

Our TRD Scrolling Nugget is Adam Clayton for Adams Park. He is the bass guitarist for the rock band U2, a position he has held since the band's inception in 1976. Known for his steady, melodic, and often driving bass lines, he is a cornerstone of U2's sound.



Construction of the park, also known as Adams Park, was begun in the mid-1930s, but the dedication ceremony took place in 1940. The nominated property consists of a 32-acre designed landscape including passive greenspace, a lake and stream, and active recreational and community facilities. 



The naturalistic landscape design makes use of curvilinear paths, dramatic vistas, and rustic materials to evoke the rural aesthetic common to other public parks from the period. 


Hardscape features include stone walls, stairs, paths, bridges, culverts, and urns constructed of granite from local quarries. 

 
The centerpiece is a shaded canyon-like area with picnic shelters (some constructed of large logs), stone grills, and a stream with large boulders and rocky cliffs. 

 
A flatter adjacent area features a two-acre lake with an embankment and a small island reached by a stone bridge.  

 
Monroe style wall at main parking. Dodge Charger Club hanging out. 

Charles R. Adams Park is a 32-acre city park located in the Cascade Heights neighborhood of southwest Atlanta. It was built in the late 1930s based on the designs of William L. Monroe, Sr. The park initially served the white residents of Fulton County during a time when the population was growing rapidly. 

 
First stone path to Picnic Shelter. Don't think this is a Monroe grill though.

  
The grounds include both active and passive recreational features such as stone paths, stone walls and stone bridges, picnic areas, community buildings, and sports facilities. 

  
Lovely canopy of trees by this first shelter. 

Landscape and Structures

The landscape design of Charles R. Adams Park (including culverts, grills, picnic shelters, walkways, stairs, and small bridges, etc.) is counted as one contributing site as this park was named on the National Register of Historic Properties in Fulton County. 

    

Because of its relatively large size, the man-made lake is individually counted as a contributing structure.  

     

The park consists of two dis-contiguous tracts, surrounded by residential streets. The Adams Park Golf Course (now known as the Alfred “Tup” Holmes Golf Course) is located adjacent to the two tracts. 


The golf course and its clubhouse are not included in this nomination due to alterations to the course that may affect its historic integrity. The larger main tract is shown on the National Register maps as Tract 2 (not an official designation). 

  
At the north side is an entrance to the park off of Venetian Road, one of the surrounding streets. Flora all over park. 

 
Across Venetian looks like private property but still some Monroe like landscaping. 

   

A walking path/ service road leads to the first of three historic picnic shelters with rustic log designs. Only one rustic shelter left. 

 

 

As the land begins a gentle slope downward into the picnic area, there were two additional log picnic shelters (photographs 14, 15, and 16). 

  

Next to each picnic shelter is a freestanding stone grill (photograph 18). These shelters and grills all date to the 1930s construction of the park. 



  
TRD images of grills.

To the east of the log shelters is tree-covered land next to the stream and hillside. 

  

An unnamed intermittent stream (a tributary of Utoy Creek) feeds into the park at Venetian Drive through the park’s first stone culvert. 

  
The trickling stream cascades down around large exposed rocks and a massive tilted boulder. The effect was created as part of the landscape design by William L. Monroe, Sr. 

 

When the stream reaches the bottom of the hillside, it winds around the east side of the picnic area through a second stone culvert and under a vehicular bridge connected to an unpaved road. 

 
Bottom of canyon. 

 

The stream continues under an arched, stone footbridge connected to stone stairs and walls leading to the pool area (photographs 20 and 21).

 

 
TRD images of this bridge. 

 
Local rock from 1930's.

  
At top to left swimming pool, to right back to baseball fields and parking lot. 

 
Looking down stairs brilliant rocky construction by WPA. 

Much of the boulder and rock-strewn edges next to the stream are now covered with invasive ground cover and years of composted leaves. 

  
City does good job keeping it maintained.

The hillside along the stream, some of which is exposed granite, is dotted with outcrops of trees. 

 
In a canyon.

 

At the center of the crushed-rock-covered picnic area, there is a large picnic pavilion with a massive stone fireplace and several picnic tables (photograph 17). 



 

This shelter is set on a concrete slab, and is covered with a gabled roof topped with a monitor. 

 
TRD rambled around this shelter. 

  
Lot of Monroe or subsequent stone work. 

 

Next to the shelter are picnic tables (photograph 19). 



They are arranged in front of a raised stone-and-concrete platform with a three-sided bench (photograph 22). 

 
Stage for music. 

The area is heavily shaded by mature beech, oak, hickory, and pine trees. This low point of the park is known as the “canyon.” Two footbridges span the stream in this section. The concrete-slab bridge in photograph 24 appears to be a replacement. 



 
TRD images of modern bridge. 

 

The hillside on the west side of the picnic area is divided into two tiers by a network of pathways. 

  
Trees runoff flowers.

Nestled into this hillside above the stream and third stone culvert is a stone walkway that spans 330 feet across the length of the hill (photograph 7). 

 

This rustic walkway also has stone walls on each side that act as retaining walls for the hillside. 

   
This walkway and stone work was pretty neat. 

  
Lot of images this stone walkway. Steps to no where. 

  

There are two complete sets of stone stairs off this walkway. The one at the south end of the walkway leads down 25 feet to the interior park road (photograph 6).



  
The upper section of these stairs is no longer extant, nor is the former “comfort station ” (restrooms) in this area. 

  
Water runoff and flowers.

Another set of stone stairs, located about midway along the walkway, is intact and rises 84 feet above the hillside walkway (photograph 8). 



  
From the top of the stairs at the upper level, there is a panoramic view of the picnic area about 100 feet below and of the lake to the southeast, maybe in winter. 

It leads to a 250-foot circular stone path on the upper street level near Delowe Drive. The circular path, with its three stone urns (photograph 9), was once the main pedestrian entrance into the park. It is across the street from the golf course clubhouse. 

 

  
Walked all along this path. 

 

The park’s interior vehicular roadway, known as Lagoon Drive, encompasses the lake and recreation fields at the southern end of the park. The drive follows the natural topography in a semi-circle for two-tenths of a mile, dividing the park into two sections, and providing the only vehicular access for visitors. Beginning at Delowe Drive to the west, the roadway provides views of the lake and the upper tier green space. As Lagoon Drive reaches level ground, it continues past the “canyon ” area, outdoor pool and pool house, tennis courts and picnic pavilion, playground, ball fields, and recreation center. Lagoon Drive exits onto Boulevard Lorraine by the recreation center. 

 
I walked down from the parking lot on the stairs. 

The unnamed intermittent stream (a tributary of Utoy Creek) then flows through a third stone culvert under the park’s main road and into the fishing lake. 

 

Stone steps from Lagoon Drive lead down to the 1.7-acre man-made fishing lake (a contributing structure), which has an average depth of about 11 feet. 



The open bowl-shaped topography with its trees and under story growth provides seclusion from the surrounding residential area (photograph 1). 



The slopes around the lake rise about 15 feet above the lake at the highest point. The roadway and upper level greens pace form the "lip” of the bowl-like configuration and at this vantage point there is a view of the lake below. The west bank is built up with granite and some sandstone. 

   

The island on the east side of the lake is the remains of the earthen embankment that separated the stream from the lake (photograph 2). 



The embankment served as the walking path along the east bank. Since its removal, there is no path directly along the east bank of the lake. 


There is an amazing Boardwalk now. 

There is a stone footbridge that connects the island to a stone walkway and stairs up to ball fields, playground, and recreation center. 

 

At the mouth of the fourth stone culvert that feeds the stream into the lake on the north side is a concrete-and- stone storm-water diversionary system. 

  

It was originally designed to prevent rain-swollen stream waters from emptying directly into the lake and to divert waters from streams into a separate channel, which was contained by an earthen embankment that ran along the east side of the lake. What was once a full-fledged stream when the park was built in the 1930s is now only a thin trickle during heavy rainfall. 

 

Along the southern bank of the lake is another stone bridge (photograph 5) and stairs to the recreation facilities. 



There is an inscription on the bridge that says, “WPA 1938.” I never could find that marker. 

 

Lot of images this Monroe bridge. 

   

Overflow from the lake now flows over a concrete spillway (built in 1999 or 2000) and under the bridge into a rock-covered channel. 

 

The channel dips below the level of the lake and meanders through a picturesque area.

   
Now I went overboard walking and photographing this area of park. An actual waterfall. 

Then continuing through the fifth stone culvert Delowe Drive. 

  

An aeration fountain was added near the center of the lake in 2007, replacing an earlier fountain. 



There is a small non-historic (1970s) pump house built to pump lake water across the street for the golf course ’s irrigation system (On right side image below).



National Register Historic Property Significance.

Charles R. Adams Park is nominated under Criteria A and C at the local level of significance as a good example of an urban park designed by William L. Monroe, Sr., who played a role in several Atlanta parks and gardens between the 1920s and 1960s. The park is significant in the area of landscape architecture (Criterion C) for utilizing the principles of naturalistic landscape design that relied on local materials and skilled labor-intensive craftsmanship, as was common in many larger state and national parks during this period. 

   
Hidden section of park. 

The design works with the park’s rugged topography and flowing stream to create an urban oasis with rustic stonework, picturesque views, native and exotic plant species, and recreational amenities. 

  
That same Utoy Creek tributary. 

William L. Monroe, Sr. (1892-1965), a noted Atlanta landscaper, founded Monroe Landscape and Nursery Company in 1925, one of the first such companies in Atlanta. His major landscaping projects in Georgia included the grounds of the Berry schools (now Berry College) (GNW #54) in Rome and the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School in Rabun County. He also designed Atlanta’s Chastain Park (GNW #276) and Carroll Gardens (GNW #260), as well as numerous residential landscapes. 

  
And there is this newer boardwalk.  

Adams Park is also significant in the areas of community planning and development and entertainment/recreation (Criterion A) for its role in the establishment of a system of urban parks for Fulton County and the city of Atlanta. Developed as a county park in the late 1930s and named for county commissioner Dr. Charles R. Adams, the park was initially part of a planned multi-million dollar program to improve parks and golf courses in order to attract a population with the economic means to enjoy leisure activities. This use of county funds was controversial, and Adams was criticized for extending his influence to further the project. The park is also significant for its use of federal relief money during the Great Depression to construct many of the facilities and landscape features with Works Progress Administration labor. Adams Park became an Atlanta city park under the 1952 “Plan of Improvement ” when the city annexed large portions of unincorporated Fulton County. 

  
Still wandering this grotto below lake and last Monroe bridge.

Narrative Statement of Significance: Charles R. Adams Park is significant in the area of landscape architecture for its overall historic landscape following the designs of William L. Monroe, Sr. and the landscape features constructed by workers using federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds. Remaining historic features include a lake and channelized stream, stone steps and walkways, rustic picnic shelters, stone urns, native plant materials, and stonework from local sources. Adams Park was designed and built in the mid-1930s using the principles of naturalistic landscape design similar to those used by the National Park Service and many New Deal-era public works projects. The preservation of existing natural features, employment of curvilinear forms, the framing of natural dramatic vistas, the use of local natural materials, and the skilled labor-intensive craftsmanship of the extensive stonework are evident throughout the landscape. The landscape design was intended to be nonintrusive and subordinate to the existing natural environment. Adams Park is intentionally secluded from its residential surroundings. 

 
Loved this grotto. 

William L. Monroe, Sr. (1892-1965) was an early Atlanta landscape designer who played an important role in the design and construction of Atlanta’s gardens and parks between 1925 and 1963. Monroe’s reputation as a significant influence on landscaping in the city is generally recognized in Atlanta’s community of landscape architects and gardeners, although much of his work is lost or undocumented. His fascinating gardens, with their well-crafted stonework, soothing water features, and ambitious scale, are good examples of recreational retreats created during the Great Depression era and later. The myriad paths, stone furniture, and picnic areas found in both his public and private gardens were conceived to encourage exploration and activity rather than to present a formalized architectural statement. Monroe’s gardens expertly reflected an emphasis on inviting natural spaces where the structural elements are woven into the environment, suggesting the close connection between man and nature. Adams Park is a good intact example of Monroe’s work, and one of the few of his landscapes that remains easily accessible to the public. 

  
There, I used all my images from the grotto visit. 

Adams Park is also significant in the areas of entertainment/recreation and community planning and development as a public recreation space influenced by the recreation movement and other social improvement movements of the time period. The early 20th century was a period of economic growth and development for Fulton County and Atlanta. From about 1936 through 1950, Fulton County made significant investments in parks to help promote population growth. Chastain Park to the north of Atlanta (now part of the city) was designed by William L. Monroe, Sr. almost simultaneously with Adams Park in the city’s southwest sector using the same rustic-style influences. Both parks used federal relief agency funds to construct stonework and landscape features. These projects were direct results of the county’s strategy to use parks to attract a middle-class population with the economic means to have leisure time to enjoy nature and recreational amenities.

  
Wonderful park and trees from 1930's.

In the mid-1920s plans were underway by Fulton County to increase residential development in the unincorporated county to the south and north of the city of Atlanta. Land was purchased for the development of parks as a tool to encourage growth in the new suburban neighborhoods that were being developed. A key component of the funding came from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), created in 1935 by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act to provide useful work for needy unemployed individuals. 

  
Appreciating the Natural Wonder of this park. 

According to the Atlanta Constitution on July 28, 1935:

On completion of construction work in the new Charles R. Adams Park adjoining Cascade Heights, that section will have the largest recreational center in Fulton County. The park property was purchased by the county and the work done by the government with FERA [Federal Emergency Relief Agency] labor. Golf courses, lake, swimming pool, tennis courts, and baseball diamonds are included in the program of development.

  
I wandered all around the lake. 

By 1935 Adams Park was under construction at a cost of roughly $331,095, of which $262,689 came from federal funds. The final cost was closer to $376,000. The park was dedicated on May 29, 1940 with a group of almost 1,000 people in attendance. Newspaper reports also indicate that the park was an impetus for further residential development in the surrounding neighborhood of Cascade Heights.

  
West bank and geese across lake on East bank.

The construction of the park was not without controversy. Adams Park was named after Dr. Charles R. Adams, who was a Fulton County commissioner from 1935 to 1942. News articles from 1939 discussed a grand jury probe of commissioners Adams and Troy Chastain for using their positions to further their interests in property near the park. Adams lived a mile or so from the subdivision and park. His campaign manager was the exclusive sales agent for the Cascade Heights subdivision (where the park is located). Chastain and Adams were not indicted, but there were many questions over the amount of money going towards parks, particularly parks with expensive golf courses, which were not considered affordable for the average person.

 
Finished loop around lake and came back to stone work at head of lake again. 

Under the 1952 “Plan of Improvement,” the city of Atlanta expanded its borders to the south and to the north by annexing large portions of unincorporated Fulton County.

   

 As a result of the annexation, Adam Park and Chastain Park both became incorporated into Atlanta’s city boundaries.

History of the Cascade Heights Neighborhood

Adams Park was built on land that was purchased around 1924 by Weyman & Conley Company (also known as Wey-Con, Inc.). The surrounding area was developed as the broader Cascade Heights subdivision (also known as Cascade). Cascade often refers to a larger area in southwest Atlanta that consists of several smaller neighborhoods including Adams Park, Beecher Hills, Peyton Forest, Mangum Manor, West Manor, and others. 

  
Winding down all the TRD images.

Until the early 1960s, the overall population consisted mostly of white families. A practice by realtors called “block-busting” exacerbated racial tensions by convincing white residents that African Americans would lower property values if they moved in nearby. In 1962 Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen ordered a barricade erected at Peyton Road to ensure continued separation of white and black neighborhoods in southwest Atlanta. 

 

The barricade was dismantled after protests and court orders. As African Americans purchased houses, many of the original residents moved away. By the late 1960s, a demographic reversal had occurred and the area transitioned into a predominantly African-American upper-middle-class neighborhood. It became known as the home of several notable or prominent Atlantan's such as Hank Aaron, Ambassador Andrew Young, and Mayor Shirley Franklin.

History of Adams Park

Adams Park (the park, not the neighborhood) was built on three non-contiguous parcels of land. (Two of the parcels are included in this nomination. The golf course is excluded.) The first parcel would contain the community clubhouse (1936), gym (c.1950), ball fields, and picnic shelters. This tract was initially sold to the Fulton County Board of Education by Wey-Con, Inc. for one dollar in March of 1928 to build a school for the burgeoning community. The parcel was large enough to accommodate the school that was eventually built on the north side of the tract, along with the park features on the south side. The park was dedicated in 1940 after several years of construction. 

 
No more TRD images past these.

The community center (Cascade Community Clubhouse), located on Wilson Drive, was once a center of community activity. It housed a Carnegie Library until the Adams Park Library was built in 1942. The clubhouse was built in 1936 and is listed among Georgia’s WPA (Work Progress Administration) projects. It was the meeting place for the Cascade Garden Club and several other community organizations. A 1937 topography and elevation plat shows a garden located in the rear of the clubhouse. As the community surrounding the park grew, the elementary school became so crowded in the early 1950s that the park’s Cascade Community Clubhouse and the Youth Hut (no longer extant) were used for some of the second and third grade classes. The clubhouse and library were each eventually closed, and are now awaiting other uses. The former gymnasium is used for a maintenance building.

 
Ducks and a Blue Heron. 

Segregation in Atlanta Parks

In 1917 the city of Atlanta had 492 acres of park land. Adams Park, created in the late 1930s, was initially part of the Fulton County parks system until 1952, when the city of Atlanta annexed the neighborhood and its parks into the city limits. By 1956, after annexation, the city had 938 acres of park land. The state of Georgia had passed a law in 1905 that segregated all parks. In 1915 Atlanta had two parks for African Americans and 11 parks for white residents. In 1926 blacks could use only three of the city’s 24 parks. By 1940 Atlanta had passed an ordinance officially segregating the city parks. The U. S. Supreme Court ordered desegregation of the city’s golf courses in 1955. The Adams Park Golf Course was renamed for Alfred “Tup” Holmes in 1983. 

 
Holmes and a drone view of his golf course.

Holmes was part of a group of black golfers who filed a lawsuit in 1953 to desegregate Atlanta’s public parks and golf courses. The case worked its way to the U.S. Supreme Court and on November 7, 1955, the court ruled against Atlanta's "separate but equal" precept in public golf courses. The case was handled by a young NAACP attorney, future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

 
Marshall at Supreme Court and desegregation Adams Park golf course.

In 1961 student leaders of the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights (COAHR) filed a federal lawsuit seeking to end discrimination in all of Atlanta’s public city-owned facilities such as parks, municipal buildings, and swimming pools. A federal court ruled in the students’ favor in 1962 and the city integrated its swimming pools in 1963. Adams Park was presumably desegregated at this time.

Fulton County (Part 6)

I'm really enjoying exploring Atlanta and Fulton County after all these years working on this forum. I have five more pretty solid separate Georgia Natural Wonders in mind. We have 117 remaining National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County.

Inman Park Historic District

  

  

We covered Inman Park pretty good in the Battle of Atlanta (GNW #265).

   

Inman Park-Moreland Historic District


Kriegshaber House is now the Wrecking Bar Brewpub.

Island Ford Lodge



King Plow Company

For over eighty years from 1901 to 1986, the King Plow Company was one of the leading manufacturers of farming implements in the South, shipping to over 38 states and many other countries. 

 

This complex of historic industrial buildings was the company's principal manufacturing plant.

  

 

Terminal West venue now. Bar out back where you can drink and watch late night trains pass by.

 

Martin Luther King, Jr., Historic District

  
Ebeneezer Church, Interior old church where his mom was shot 1974. New church across Auburn Avenue where Rafael Warnock still preaches on weekend. 


Tomb day after Dexter died. The Atlanta Hawk visited parents. 

Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site

  
Civil Rights Walk of Fame, Nobel Peace Prize, Shotgun Shacks. 

 
Birth home and piano Dr. King busted with baseball bat when he was called in for piano lessons from neighborhood baseball game.
 
M.C. Kiser Company Building

  

  

William and Ruth Knight Lustron House

The Knight Lustron House is significant in architecture and engineering as an example of post-World War II prefabricated housing and an excellent and intact example of the "Lustron" type of prefabricated house. 

  

This innovative and unusual type of prefabrication employed porcelain-enamel baked on steel panels.

Knox Apartments, Cauthorn House and Peachtree Road Apartments Historic District

  

Victor H. Kriegshaber House

 

    

Lakewood Heights Historic District

  

 

Lindridge-Martin Manor Historic District

   

Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital



 

Father of Anesthesia.

 

Manuel's Tavern

  

Mark Inn East

Constructed in 1964, it is significant under Criterion A in the area of commerce as the remarkably intact second location of Mark Inn, Inc., an Atlanta‐based motel chain. Thus, Mark Inn East is an important local example of a distinct phase in the evolution of interstate-catering hospitality.



The building has been renovated and converted into an affordable housing complex called the Ralph David House. 

Means Street Historic District

   

 

Medical Arts Building

 

   
Constructed in 1927. Vacant since 1995. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

 
It was also amongst the first to have a covered parking garage.

  

  

Memorial to the Six Million

The Memorial to the Six Million is an open-air structure designed as a memorial to the murdered Jews of the Holocaust. It is located in Greenwood Cemetery in southwest Atlanta. Greenwood Cemetery, which includes over 3,000 Jewish and gentile burials, became the principal Jewish cemetery in the first decades of the 20th century after the last burial plots were sold in Oakland Cemetery near downtown Atlanta. 


Completed in 1965, the memorial was built by survivors who resided in Atlanta and sought a place to pray for family members that perished in the Holocaust. 

   
It is the second such Holocaust memorial in the United States after Philadelphia's.

Kenneth and Hazel Meredith House

Significant under Criterion C at the local level in the area of architecture as a remarkably intact example of English Vernacular Revival style architecture.

 

   

Significant under Criterion C at the local level in the area of landscape architecture as a remarkably intact example of the property's landscape design is attributed to noted Atlanta landscape designer, William L. Monroe, Sr. Although many years have passed since Monroe's original plan was created, there are a number of original landscape features, including plantings, that have survived. The grounds of the Meredith house, include the intact original
barbecue pit and patio. 

 

Winding paths, tiered rock garden.

 

Methodist Cemetery

The Old Roswell Cemetery (also known as the Old Methodist Cemetery) in Roswell, Georgia, established around 1836, is a historic burial ground listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021. Located near the historic Methodist Church, it contains graves of early settlers. Often featuring graves of families tied to the development of the city's mills.

  

We covered the Roswell Cemetery pretty good with (GNW # 144 (Part 2).

 

Methodist Center

Significance: An excellent example of mid-century modern design (New Formalism) by the renowned Atlanta firm Finch, Alexander, Barnes, Rothschild, and Paschal. Features a six-story office tower and a unique twelve-sided, one-story chapel on a raised plaza. 

 
Served as the administrative headquarters of the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist Church.

   
Replacing the church facilities, which had been vacant for nearly 20 years, are Revival Lofts. 51 apartments and an amenity space in the 12-sided chapel. 

Midtown Historic District

  

  
Boy's High School is now Grady High School.

Mozley Park Historic District

Mozley Park is significant in architecture because it is a good example of a planned neighborhood reflecting a variety of historic architectural styles.

 

They range from the Queen Anne, through a large majority of Craftsman Bungalow houses, to minimal traditional style interpretations of the late-1930s and early 1940s.

  

National NuGrape Company

 
Purple front door.

  
Right on the Belt-line. 

  
Lofts now.

New Hope African Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery

The New Hope African Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery is significant at the local level as a good example of a rural African-American church and cemetery, which has served as an educational, social and religious center for its congregation since the postbellum period. 

 

The church, constructed in 1936 on land donated to the congregation after the Civil War, continues to serve its community amidst its now suburban setting and far-flung congregation.

Newtown Elementary School



  

  


This photo shows students and teachers at the Newtown School in 1930.


Students sit in Miss Alexander's third grade classroom at the Newtown School in 1961 or 1962.

William P. Nicolson House

 
The property was operated as the Shellmont Inn Bed and Breakfast until 2016.

 

   

  

Our Georgia Natural Wonder gals are all named Adams for Adams Park.

   
Amy Adams - Maud Adams - Brooke Adams - Julie Adams


]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #277 - Adams Park

We are following the stone work of William Lott Monroe and we come to Charles R. Adams Park. It is located in southwest Atlanta, approximately six miles from downtown. It is a public city park surrounded by the residential neighborhood of Cascade Heights, which has houses dating mostly from the 1920s to the 1960s. The general topography is hilly with mature hardwood trees and pines. 

 
Top Row Dawg visited Adams Park on Saturday. Images off the beaten path shows why this is a Natural Wonder of Georgia way down here at #277. 

Our TRD Scrolling Nugget is Adam Clayton for Adams Park. He is the bass guitarist for the rock band U2, a position he has held since the band's inception in 1976. Known for his steady, melodic, and often driving bass lines, he is a cornerstone of U2's sound.



Construction of the park, also known as Adams Park, was begun in the mid-1930s, but the dedication ceremony took place in 1940. The nominated property consists of a 32-acre designed landscape including passive greenspace, a lake and stream, and active recreational and community facilities. 



The naturalistic landscape design makes use of curvilinear paths, dramatic vistas, and rustic materials to evoke the rural aesthetic common to other public parks from the period. 


Hardscape features include stone walls, stairs, paths, bridges, culverts, and urns constructed of granite from local quarries. 

 
The centerpiece is a shaded canyon-like area with picnic shelters (some constructed of large logs), stone grills, and a stream with large boulders and rocky cliffs. 

 
A flatter adjacent area features a two-acre lake with an embankment and a small island reached by a stone bridge.  

 
Monroe style wall at main parking. Dodge Charger Club hanging out. 

Charles R. Adams Park is a 32-acre city park located in the Cascade Heights neighborhood of southwest Atlanta. It was built in the late 1930s based on the designs of William L. Monroe, Sr. The park initially served the white residents of Fulton County during a time when the population was growing rapidly. 

 
First stone path to Picnic Shelter. Don't think this is a Monroe grill though.

  
The grounds include both active and passive recreational features such as stone paths, stone walls and stone bridges, picnic areas, community buildings, and sports facilities. 

  
Lovely canopy of trees by this first shelter. 

Landscape and Structures

The landscape design of Charles R. Adams Park (including culverts, grills, picnic shelters, walkways, stairs, and small bridges, etc.) is counted as one contributing site as this park was named on the National Register of Historic Properties in Fulton County. 

    

Because of its relatively large size, the man-made lake is individually counted as a contributing structure.  

     

The park consists of two dis-contiguous tracts, surrounded by residential streets. The Adams Park Golf Course (now known as the Alfred “Tup” Holmes Golf Course) is located adjacent to the two tracts. 


The golf course and its clubhouse are not included in this nomination due to alterations to the course that may affect its historic integrity. The larger main tract is shown on the National Register maps as Tract 2 (not an official designation). 

  
At the north side is an entrance to the park off of Venetian Road, one of the surrounding streets. Flora all over park. 

 
Across Venetian looks like private property but still some Monroe like landscaping. 

   

A walking path/ service road leads to the first of three historic picnic shelters with rustic log designs. Only one rustic shelter left. 

 

 

As the land begins a gentle slope downward into the picnic area, there were two additional log picnic shelters (photographs 14, 15, and 16). 

  

Next to each picnic shelter is a freestanding stone grill (photograph 18). These shelters and grills all date to the 1930s construction of the park. 



  
TRD images of grills.

To the east of the log shelters is tree-covered land next to the stream and hillside. 

  

An unnamed intermittent stream (a tributary of Utoy Creek) feeds into the park at Venetian Drive through the park’s first stone culvert. 

  
The trickling stream cascades down around large exposed rocks and a massive tilted boulder. The effect was created as part of the landscape design by William L. Monroe, Sr. 

 

When the stream reaches the bottom of the hillside, it winds around the east side of the picnic area through a second stone culvert and under a vehicular bridge connected to an unpaved road. 

 
Bottom of canyon. 

 

The stream continues under an arched, stone footbridge connected to stone stairs and walls leading to the pool area (photographs 20 and 21).

 

 
TRD images of this bridge. 

 
Local rock from 1930's.

  
At top to left swimming pool, to right back to baseball fields and parking lot. 

 
Looking down stairs brilliant rocky construction by WPA. 

Much of the boulder and rock-strewn edges next to the stream are now covered with invasive ground cover and years of composted leaves. 

  
City does good job keeping it maintained.

The hillside along the stream, some of which is exposed granite, is dotted with outcrops of trees. 

 
In a canyon.

 

At the center of the crushed-rock-covered picnic area, there is a large picnic pavilion with a massive stone fireplace and several picnic tables (photograph 17). 



 

This shelter is set on a concrete slab, and is covered with a gabled roof topped with a monitor. 

 
TRD rambled around this shelter. 

  
Lot of Monroe or subsequent stone work. 

 

Next to the shelter are picnic tables (photograph 19). 



They are arranged in front of a raised stone-and-concrete platform with a three-sided bench (photograph 22). 

 
Stage for music. 

The area is heavily shaded by mature beech, oak, hickory, and pine trees. This low point of the park is known as the “canyon.” Two footbridges span the stream in this section. The concrete-slab bridge in photograph 24 appears to be a replacement. 



 
TRD images of modern bridge. 

 

The hillside on the west side of the picnic area is divided into two tiers by a network of pathways. 

  
Trees runoff flowers.

Nestled into this hillside above the stream and third stone culvert is a stone walkway that spans 330 feet across the length of the hill (photograph 7). 

 

This rustic walkway also has stone walls on each side that act as retaining walls for the hillside. 

   
This walkway and stone work was pretty neat. 

  
Lot of images this stone walkway. Steps to no where. 

  

There are two complete sets of stone stairs off this walkway. The one at the south end of the walkway leads down 25 feet to the interior park road (photograph 6).



  
The upper section of these stairs is no longer extant, nor is the former “comfort station ” (restrooms) in this area. 

  
Water runoff and flowers.

Another set of stone stairs, located about midway along the walkway, is intact and rises 84 feet above the hillside walkway (photograph 8). 



  
From the top of the stairs at the upper level, there is a panoramic view of the picnic area about 100 feet below and of the lake to the southeast, maybe in winter. 

It leads to a 250-foot circular stone path on the upper street level near Delowe Drive. The circular path, with its three stone urns (photograph 9), was once the main pedestrian entrance into the park. It is across the street from the golf course clubhouse. 

 

  
Walked all along this path. 

 

The park’s interior vehicular roadway, known as Lagoon Drive, encompasses the lake and recreation fields at the southern end of the park. The drive follows the natural topography in a semi-circle for two-tenths of a mile, dividing the park into two sections, and providing the only vehicular access for visitors. Beginning at Delowe Drive to the west, the roadway provides views of the lake and the upper tier green space. As Lagoon Drive reaches level ground, it continues past the “canyon ” area, outdoor pool and pool house, tennis courts and picnic pavilion, playground, ball fields, and recreation center. Lagoon Drive exits onto Boulevard Lorraine by the recreation center. 

 
I walked down from the parking lot on the stairs. 

The unnamed intermittent stream (a tributary of Utoy Creek) then flows through a third stone culvert under the park’s main road and into the fishing lake. 

 

Stone steps from Lagoon Drive lead down to the 1.7-acre man-made fishing lake (a contributing structure), which has an average depth of about 11 feet. 



The open bowl-shaped topography with its trees and under story growth provides seclusion from the surrounding residential area (photograph 1). 



The slopes around the lake rise about 15 feet above the lake at the highest point. The roadway and upper level greens pace form the "lip” of the bowl-like configuration and at this vantage point there is a view of the lake below. The west bank is built up with granite and some sandstone. 

   

The island on the east side of the lake is the remains of the earthen embankment that separated the stream from the lake (photograph 2). 



The embankment served as the walking path along the east bank. Since its removal, there is no path directly along the east bank of the lake. 


There is an amazing Boardwalk now. 

There is a stone footbridge that connects the island to a stone walkway and stairs up to ball fields, playground, and recreation center. 

 

At the mouth of the fourth stone culvert that feeds the stream into the lake on the north side is a concrete-and- stone storm-water diversionary system. 

  

It was originally designed to prevent rain-swollen stream waters from emptying directly into the lake and to divert waters from streams into a separate channel, which was contained by an earthen embankment that ran along the east side of the lake. What was once a full-fledged stream when the park was built in the 1930s is now only a thin trickle during heavy rainfall. 

 

Along the southern bank of the lake is another stone bridge (photograph 5) and stairs to the recreation facilities. 



There is an inscription on the bridge that says, “WPA 1938.” I never could find that marker. 

 

Lot of images this Monroe bridge. 

   

Overflow from the lake now flows over a concrete spillway (built in 1999 or 2000) and under the bridge into a rock-covered channel. 

 

The channel dips below the level of the lake and meanders through a picturesque area.

   
Now I went overboard walking and photographing this area of park. An actual waterfall. 

Then continuing through the fifth stone culvert Delowe Drive. 

  

An aeration fountain was added near the center of the lake in 2007, replacing an earlier fountain. 



There is a small non-historic (1970s) pump house built to pump lake water across the street for the golf course ’s irrigation system (On right side image below).



National Register Historic Property Significance.

Charles R. Adams Park is nominated under Criteria A and C at the local level of significance as a good example of an urban park designed by William L. Monroe, Sr., who played a role in several Atlanta parks and gardens between the 1920s and 1960s. The park is significant in the area of landscape architecture (Criterion C) for utilizing the principles of naturalistic landscape design that relied on local materials and skilled labor-intensive craftsmanship, as was common in many larger state and national parks during this period. 

   
Hidden section of park. 

The design works with the park’s rugged topography and flowing stream to create an urban oasis with rustic stonework, picturesque views, native and exotic plant species, and recreational amenities. 

  
That same Utoy Creek tributary. 

William L. Monroe, Sr. (1892-1965), a noted Atlanta landscaper, founded Monroe Landscape and Nursery Company in 1925, one of the first such companies in Atlanta. His major landscaping projects in Georgia included the grounds of the Berry schools (now Berry College) (GNW #54) in Rome and the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School in Rabun County. He also designed Atlanta’s Chastain Park (GNW #276) and Carroll Gardens (GNW #260), as well as numerous residential landscapes. 

  
And there is this newer boardwalk.  

Adams Park is also significant in the areas of community planning and development and entertainment/recreation (Criterion A) for its role in the establishment of a system of urban parks for Fulton County and the city of Atlanta. Developed as a county park in the late 1930s and named for county commissioner Dr. Charles R. Adams, the park was initially part of a planned multi-million dollar program to improve parks and golf courses in order to attract a population with the economic means to enjoy leisure activities. This use of county funds was controversial, and Adams was criticized for extending his influence to further the project. The park is also significant for its use of federal relief money during the Great Depression to construct many of the facilities and landscape features with Works Progress Administration labor. Adams Park became an Atlanta city park under the 1952 “Plan of Improvement ” when the city annexed large portions of unincorporated Fulton County. 

  
Still wandering this grotto below lake and last Monroe bridge.

Narrative Statement of Significance: Charles R. Adams Park is significant in the area of landscape architecture for its overall historic landscape following the designs of William L. Monroe, Sr. and the landscape features constructed by workers using federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds. Remaining historic features include a lake and channelized stream, stone steps and walkways, rustic picnic shelters, stone urns, native plant materials, and stonework from local sources. Adams Park was designed and built in the mid-1930s using the principles of naturalistic landscape design similar to those used by the National Park Service and many New Deal-era public works projects. The preservation of existing natural features, employment of curvilinear forms, the framing of natural dramatic vistas, the use of local natural materials, and the skilled labor-intensive craftsmanship of the extensive stonework are evident throughout the landscape. The landscape design was intended to be nonintrusive and subordinate to the existing natural environment. Adams Park is intentionally secluded from its residential surroundings. 

 
Loved this grotto. 

William L. Monroe, Sr. (1892-1965) was an early Atlanta landscape designer who played an important role in the design and construction of Atlanta’s gardens and parks between 1925 and 1963. Monroe’s reputation as a significant influence on landscaping in the city is generally recognized in Atlanta’s community of landscape architects and gardeners, although much of his work is lost or undocumented. His fascinating gardens, with their well-crafted stonework, soothing water features, and ambitious scale, are good examples of recreational retreats created during the Great Depression era and later. The myriad paths, stone furniture, and picnic areas found in both his public and private gardens were conceived to encourage exploration and activity rather than to present a formalized architectural statement. Monroe’s gardens expertly reflected an emphasis on inviting natural spaces where the structural elements are woven into the environment, suggesting the close connection between man and nature. Adams Park is a good intact example of Monroe’s work, and one of the few of his landscapes that remains easily accessible to the public. 

  
There, I used all my images from the grotto visit. 

Adams Park is also significant in the areas of entertainment/recreation and community planning and development as a public recreation space influenced by the recreation movement and other social improvement movements of the time period. The early 20th century was a period of economic growth and development for Fulton County and Atlanta. From about 1936 through 1950, Fulton County made significant investments in parks to help promote population growth. Chastain Park to the north of Atlanta (now part of the city) was designed by William L. Monroe, Sr. almost simultaneously with Adams Park in the city’s southwest sector using the same rustic-style influences. Both parks used federal relief agency funds to construct stonework and landscape features. These projects were direct results of the county’s strategy to use parks to attract a middle-class population with the economic means to have leisure time to enjoy nature and recreational amenities.

  
Wonderful park and trees from 1930's.

In the mid-1920s plans were underway by Fulton County to increase residential development in the unincorporated county to the south and north of the city of Atlanta. Land was purchased for the development of parks as a tool to encourage growth in the new suburban neighborhoods that were being developed. A key component of the funding came from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), created in 1935 by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act to provide useful work for needy unemployed individuals. 

  
Appreciating the Natural Wonder of this park. 

According to the Atlanta Constitution on July 28, 1935:

On completion of construction work in the new Charles R. Adams Park adjoining Cascade Heights, that section will have the largest recreational center in Fulton County. The park property was purchased by the county and the work done by the government with FERA [Federal Emergency Relief Agency] labor. Golf courses, lake, swimming pool, tennis courts, and baseball diamonds are included in the program of development.

  
I wandered all around the lake. 

By 1935 Adams Park was under construction at a cost of roughly $331,095, of which $262,689 came from federal funds. The final cost was closer to $376,000. The park was dedicated on May 29, 1940 with a group of almost 1,000 people in attendance. Newspaper reports also indicate that the park was an impetus for further residential development in the surrounding neighborhood of Cascade Heights.

  
West bank and geese across lake on East bank.

The construction of the park was not without controversy. Adams Park was named after Dr. Charles R. Adams, who was a Fulton County commissioner from 1935 to 1942. News articles from 1939 discussed a grand jury probe of commissioners Adams and Troy Chastain for using their positions to further their interests in property near the park. Adams lived a mile or so from the subdivision and park. His campaign manager was the exclusive sales agent for the Cascade Heights subdivision (where the park is located). Chastain and Adams were not indicted, but there were many questions over the amount of money going towards parks, particularly parks with expensive golf courses, which were not considered affordable for the average person.

 
Finished loop around lake and came back to stone work at head of lake again. 

Under the 1952 “Plan of Improvement,” the city of Atlanta expanded its borders to the south and to the north by annexing large portions of unincorporated Fulton County.

   

 As a result of the annexation, Adam Park and Chastain Park both became incorporated into Atlanta’s city boundaries.

History of the Cascade Heights Neighborhood

Adams Park was built on land that was purchased around 1924 by Weyman & Conley Company (also known as Wey-Con, Inc.). The surrounding area was developed as the broader Cascade Heights subdivision (also known as Cascade). Cascade often refers to a larger area in southwest Atlanta that consists of several smaller neighborhoods including Adams Park, Beecher Hills, Peyton Forest, Mangum Manor, West Manor, and others. 

  
Winding down all the TRD images.

Until the early 1960s, the overall population consisted mostly of white families. A practice by realtors called “block-busting” exacerbated racial tensions by convincing white residents that African Americans would lower property values if they moved in nearby. In 1962 Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen ordered a barricade erected at Peyton Road to ensure continued separation of white and black neighborhoods in southwest Atlanta. 

 

The barricade was dismantled after protests and court orders. As African Americans purchased houses, many of the original residents moved away. By the late 1960s, a demographic reversal had occurred and the area transitioned into a predominantly African-American upper-middle-class neighborhood. It became known as the home of several notable or prominent Atlantan's such as Hank Aaron, Ambassador Andrew Young, and Mayor Shirley Franklin.

History of Adams Park

Adams Park (the park, not the neighborhood) was built on three non-contiguous parcels of land. (Two of the parcels are included in this nomination. The golf course is excluded.) The first parcel would contain the community clubhouse (1936), gym (c.1950), ball fields, and picnic shelters. This tract was initially sold to the Fulton County Board of Education by Wey-Con, Inc. for one dollar in March of 1928 to build a school for the burgeoning community. The parcel was large enough to accommodate the school that was eventually built on the north side of the tract, along with the park features on the south side. The park was dedicated in 1940 after several years of construction. 

 
No more TRD images past these.

The community center (Cascade Community Clubhouse), located on Wilson Drive, was once a center of community activity. It housed a Carnegie Library until the Adams Park Library was built in 1942. The clubhouse was built in 1936 and is listed among Georgia’s WPA (Work Progress Administration) projects. It was the meeting place for the Cascade Garden Club and several other community organizations. A 1937 topography and elevation plat shows a garden located in the rear of the clubhouse. As the community surrounding the park grew, the elementary school became so crowded in the early 1950s that the park’s Cascade Community Clubhouse and the Youth Hut (no longer extant) were used for some of the second and third grade classes. The clubhouse and library were each eventually closed, and are now awaiting other uses. The former gymnasium is used for a maintenance building.

 
Ducks and a Blue Heron. 

Segregation in Atlanta Parks

In 1917 the city of Atlanta had 492 acres of park land. Adams Park, created in the late 1930s, was initially part of the Fulton County parks system until 1952, when the city of Atlanta annexed the neighborhood and its parks into the city limits. By 1956, after annexation, the city had 938 acres of park land. The state of Georgia had passed a law in 1905 that segregated all parks. In 1915 Atlanta had two parks for African Americans and 11 parks for white residents. In 1926 blacks could use only three of the city’s 24 parks. By 1940 Atlanta had passed an ordinance officially segregating the city parks. The U. S. Supreme Court ordered desegregation of the city’s golf courses in 1955. The Adams Park Golf Course was renamed for Alfred “Tup” Holmes in 1983. 

 
Holmes and a drone view of his golf course.

Holmes was part of a group of black golfers who filed a lawsuit in 1953 to desegregate Atlanta’s public parks and golf courses. The case worked its way to the U.S. Supreme Court and on November 7, 1955, the court ruled against Atlanta's "separate but equal" precept in public golf courses. The case was handled by a young NAACP attorney, future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

 
Marshall at Supreme Court and desegregation Adams Park golf course.

In 1961 student leaders of the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights (COAHR) filed a federal lawsuit seeking to end discrimination in all of Atlanta’s public city-owned facilities such as parks, municipal buildings, and swimming pools. A federal court ruled in the students’ favor in 1962 and the city integrated its swimming pools in 1963. Adams Park was presumably desegregated at this time.

Fulton County (Part 6)

I'm really enjoying exploring Atlanta and Fulton County after all these years working on this forum. I have five more pretty solid separate Georgia Natural Wonders in mind. We have 117 remaining National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County.

Inman Park Historic District

  

  

We covered Inman Park pretty good in the Battle of Atlanta (GNW #265).

   

Inman Park-Moreland Historic District


Kriegshaber House is now the Wrecking Bar Brewpub.

Island Ford Lodge



King Plow Company

For over eighty years from 1901 to 1986, the King Plow Company was one of the leading manufacturers of farming implements in the South, shipping to over 38 states and many other countries. 

 

This complex of historic industrial buildings was the company's principal manufacturing plant.

  

 

Terminal West venue now. Bar out back where you can drink and watch late night trains pass by.

 

Martin Luther King, Jr., Historic District

  
Ebeneezer Church, Interior old church where his mom was shot 1974. New church across Auburn Avenue where Rafael Warnock still preaches on weekend. 


Tomb day after Dexter died. The Atlanta Hawk visited parents. 

Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site

  
Civil Rights Walk of Fame, Nobel Peace Prize, Shotgun Shacks. 

 
Birth home and piano Dr. King busted with baseball bat when he was called in for piano lessons from neighborhood baseball game.
 
M.C. Kiser Company Building

  

  

William and Ruth Knight Lustron House

The Knight Lustron House is significant in architecture and engineering as an example of post-World War II prefabricated housing and an excellent and intact example of the "Lustron" type of prefabricated house. 

  

This innovative and unusual type of prefabrication employed porcelain-enamel baked on steel panels.

Knox Apartments, Cauthorn House and Peachtree Road Apartments Historic District

  

Victor H. Kriegshaber House

 

    

Lakewood Heights Historic District

  

 

Lindridge-Martin Manor Historic District

   

Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital



 

Father of Anesthesia.

 

Manuel's Tavern

  

Mark Inn East

Constructed in 1964, it is significant under Criterion A in the area of commerce as the remarkably intact second location of Mark Inn, Inc., an Atlanta‐based motel chain. Thus, Mark Inn East is an important local example of a distinct phase in the evolution of interstate-catering hospitality.



The building has been renovated and converted into an affordable housing complex called the Ralph David House. 

Means Street Historic District

   

 

Medical Arts Building

 

   
Constructed in 1927. Vacant since 1995. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

 
It was also amongst the first to have a covered parking garage.

  

  

Memorial to the Six Million

The Memorial to the Six Million is an open-air structure designed as a memorial to the murdered Jews of the Holocaust. It is located in Greenwood Cemetery in southwest Atlanta. Greenwood Cemetery, which includes over 3,000 Jewish and gentile burials, became the principal Jewish cemetery in the first decades of the 20th century after the last burial plots were sold in Oakland Cemetery near downtown Atlanta. 


Completed in 1965, the memorial was built by survivors who resided in Atlanta and sought a place to pray for family members that perished in the Holocaust. 

   
It is the second such Holocaust memorial in the United States after Philadelphia's.

Kenneth and Hazel Meredith House

Significant under Criterion C at the local level in the area of architecture as a remarkably intact example of English Vernacular Revival style architecture.

 

   

Significant under Criterion C at the local level in the area of landscape architecture as a remarkably intact example of the property's landscape design is attributed to noted Atlanta landscape designer, William L. Monroe, Sr. Although many years have passed since Monroe's original plan was created, there are a number of original landscape features, including plantings, that have survived. The grounds of the Meredith house, include the intact original
barbecue pit and patio. 

 

Winding paths, tiered rock garden.

 

Methodist Cemetery

The Old Roswell Cemetery (also known as the Old Methodist Cemetery) in Roswell, Georgia, established around 1836, is a historic burial ground listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021. Located near the historic Methodist Church, it contains graves of early settlers. Often featuring graves of families tied to the development of the city's mills.

  

We covered the Roswell Cemetery pretty good with (GNW # 144 (Part 2).

 

Methodist Center

Significance: An excellent example of mid-century modern design (New Formalism) by the renowned Atlanta firm Finch, Alexander, Barnes, Rothschild, and Paschal. Features a six-story office tower and a unique twelve-sided, one-story chapel on a raised plaza. 

 
Served as the administrative headquarters of the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist Church.

   
Replacing the church facilities, which had been vacant for nearly 20 years, are Revival Lofts. 51 apartments and an amenity space in the 12-sided chapel. 

Midtown Historic District

  

  
Boy's High School is now Grady High School.

Mozley Park Historic District

Mozley Park is significant in architecture because it is a good example of a planned neighborhood reflecting a variety of historic architectural styles.

 

They range from the Queen Anne, through a large majority of Craftsman Bungalow houses, to minimal traditional style interpretations of the late-1930s and early 1940s.

  

National NuGrape Company

 
Purple front door.

  
Right on the Belt-line. 

  
Lofts now.

New Hope African Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery

The New Hope African Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery is significant at the local level as a good example of a rural African-American church and cemetery, which has served as an educational, social and religious center for its congregation since the postbellum period. 

 

The church, constructed in 1936 on land donated to the congregation after the Civil War, continues to serve its community amidst its now suburban setting and far-flung congregation.

Newtown Elementary School



  

  


This photo shows students and teachers at the Newtown School in 1930.


Students sit in Miss Alexander's third grade classroom at the Newtown School in 1961 or 1962.

William P. Nicolson House

 
The property was operated as the Shellmont Inn Bed and Breakfast until 2016.

 

   

  

Our Georgia Natural Wonder gals are all named Adams for Adams Park.

   
Amy Adams - Maud Adams - Brooke Adams - Julie Adams


]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-13905.html Mon, 23 Mar 2026 04:05:07 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-13905.html Georgia Natural Wonder #276 - Chastain Park

As we move around Fulton County looking for Natural Wonders of Georgia, we come upon Chastain Park. It is well known for its beautiful residential neighborhood and outdoor concert amphitheater. It’s also well-known for recreation, with a pool, golf course, tennis center, and horse park. There was a Civil War Calvary battle by the golf course, we covered in (GNW #263).  But we chose this park as a Natural Wonder of Georgia primarily because of it's connection to William Lott Monroe, Sr. (1892-1965). 



He was an early Atlanta landscape designer who played an important role in the design and construction of Atlanta’s gardens and parks between 1925 and 1963. We discovered Monroe first as the designer of the Glen Emerald Park, and Glen Emerald Rock Garden in DeKalb County. (GNW #260)

 

Our TRD Scrolling Nugget comes from the time I saw Neil Young at the Amphitheater.



William Lott Monroe, Sr. was born in 1892 in Biscoe, North Carolina, a crossroads community in the central part of the state. He graduated from Elon College in North Carolina and later studied at Duke and Cornell universities. He first came to Atlanta in 1917, when his military service brought him to Camp Gordon in Chamblee. He was working for the C.A. Dahl Company, a florist and nursery on Peachtree Street in Atlanta by 1920.

  

One of Atlanta’s earliest professional landscape architects, he founded Monroe's Landscape and Nursery Company in 1925, specializing in rock gardens, waterfalls, and native stonework. That company does not appear in the city directories until 1932. The company was located on what is now his namesake road, Monroe Drive, near the Ansley Park neighborhood of Atlanta.

  

Monroe’s reputation as a significant influence on landscaping in the city is generally recognized in Atlanta’s community of landscape architects and gardeners, although much of his work is lost or undocumented. 

 

His fascinating gardens, with their well-crafted stonework, soothing water features, and ambitious scale, are good examples of recreational retreats created during the Great Depression era and later. 

  

The myriad paths, stone furniture, and picnic areas found in both his public and private gardens were conceived to encourage exploration and activity rather than to present a formalized architectural statement. 

  

Monroe’s gardens expertly reflected an emphasis on inviting natural spaces where the structural elements are woven into the environment, suggesting the close connection between man and nature. 

  

A landscape designer and nurseryman, he is recognized in newspaper articles as the “landscape artist” during the development of North Fulton Park (later renamed Chastain Memorial Park) in the late 1930s and early 1940s. This work was financed partially through WPA (Works Progress Administration) funds and supported with local prison labor.

  

The Chastain Park 2008 Master Plan states: “The park was envisioned as a recreational showplace with a wide variety of high-quality facilities to set the tone for the neighborhood.” While he did not design the entire park, Monroe oversaw the creation of the original stone grills, fireplaces, walls, benches.

  

I was fascinated by the  storm water drainage systems in the “Master Grill Area” and in the picnic grounds area in between the Chastain Arts Center and the Chastain Park Playground.

  

Unfortunately, these features suffer from occasional acts of vandalism, but those that remain are essential design elements and should be preserved. 

  

Similarly, the amphitheater – designed at the same time as the picnic grounds and completed in 1941 – maintains original stone walls, steps, and stage orientation, with more recent updates and renovations in the past decades. The original features that exist within the amphitheater should be preserved as well. 

 

Several features are still visible and intact in the master grill area, but much of this area was backfilled in the 1970s or 1980s, covering up stone work, grills, steps, benches, water features, and a 100-foot rock tunnel often nicknamed “the witches’ cave” by visitors. 

  
People standing in line for the Witches Cave. 

Chastain Park Conservancy considers this location a possible focus for future restoration.

 
You can see where a portion of the tunnel was bricked over.

There are three main areas in Chastain Park with Monroe’s signature style as a landscape designer: 1) the master grill area; (2) the picnic grounds area; and (3) the amphitheater.

(1) The original master grill area covers approximately five acres and is accessed via unmarked gravel driveway from West Wieuca Road, about halfway between the Galloway School campus and the Chastain Arts Center. This narrow driveway opens up to a large, flat gravel parking area surrounded by wooded hillsides in all directions. 

 

To the west is a set of steps that lead up to a concrete pad, flanked by other steps on either side; Ray Mock of the Chastain Park Conservancy said this was a restroom facility at one time. 

 

To the north of the clearing is what remains of the original master grill shed area: the upper portion of a stone fireplace, stone ledges, large boulders, and an undulating stone wall in the hillside behind it. 

 

Over toward the east is a large concrete pad set up with non-historic picnic tables and the remains of two additional fireplace/grills. The undulating wall continues behind these structures. 

  

Farthest to the east in the clearing is a rustic stone staircase with the remains of stone gazebo walls at the top of the hill. This staircase is often seen in historical photos of the master grill area with a wooden gazebo picnic shelter at the top. 

 

From this high vantage point, one can view the entire valley and see additional picnic shelters farther up on the hillside. 

   

It is estimated there is at least six feet of leveled fill in the clearing when compared to historical photos. An entire hillside, including a water feature and additional stone steps, has been removed. However, there is evidence of stone-lined drainage areas in the hillside to the east of the master grill shed area.

   

(2) The picnic grounds area is composed of multiple outdoor stone grills, fireplaces, and picnic shelters set into the wooded hillside; it is generally connected to the original master grill area by trail. 

  

It can be accessed from many different locations, including behind the Chastain Arts Center and south of Chastain Memorial Parkway (Park Road). 

 

These stone grills and fireplaces are not identical in design, but maintain a common style of stacked stone. 

  

They are connected throughout the hillside via pathways, with stone benches, walls, and tree wells interspersed. 

  

The covered picnic shelters are not original to Monroe’s time, but have been replicated from designs that are characteristic of his work. 

  

There are a few features north of Chastain Memorial Parkway, including an additional stone grill, steps in various locations, and portions of stone walls. 

  

This northernmost area of the park is not as wooded, and is within view of private residences. It was once the campground area for boys and girls groups.

(3) The Delta Classic Chastain Park Amphitheater is generally bounded by Stella Drive, Chastain Memorial Parkway (Park Drive), and Elliott Galloway Way (Pool Drive); it maintains its original orientation in a natural bowl-shaped depression in the land. It is not open to the public on a daily basis and is closed off with a series of gates and tall, chain-link fences. 

   

The amphitheater operates during the summer and can seat approximately 6,900 guests for outdoor concerts and other ticketed events. The stone walls and steps are original to the amphitheater, but the additions on either side of the stage have been built up over time. The cantilevered concrete “all-weather shelters” towards the rear of the amphitheater were installed in 1956.

 

Chastain Park is the largest city-owned park in Atlanta. The park project began in July 1938 with funds partially provided by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) and labor provided by prison camp inmates. 

 

William Lott Monroe, Sr. is indicated in newspaper articles as the “landscape artist” during development. Monroe’s name and company are on various plans and landscape drawings for the park in the collections at the Atlanta History Center; some of these are undated, but others are marked 1939 and 1940. Monroe’s influence and signature rustic, naturalistic style is seen specifically in the stone work of the master grill area, picnic grounds area, and amphitheater. 

  

Monroe did not design the North Fulton Golf Course – it was the last course laid out by Chandler Egan before Egan’s death in 1936. 

 



The Atlanta Horse Show officially opened the park in early May 1939, and Ray Mock of the Chastain Park Conservancy reports that there are original Monroe stone walls within the horse park. 

 

The park dedication ceremony and opening of the golf course took place on July 4, 1940, and Monroe was on the publicity committee. However, by January 1941, Monroe’s landscape company was removed from Fulton County’s payroll. The amphitheater was completed in December 1941, but the opening was postponed due to the war. Its first show was in June 1944. 

 

1939 (Apr.) The park was a huge project for Fulton County, and Monroe’s stone work was often praised. But many more people were involved and Monroe’s designs were not the only features in development at the park. One article describes work continuing on the tennis courts, golf course, man made lake, swimming pool, other athletic courts and fields, and horseback riding trails. 

  
Even the curbs had a Monroe style rocky design.

(“North Fulton Park Work Is Pushed.” Atlanta Constitution, Apr. 30, 1939)

Still, many articles during this time return to admire the master grill area and picnic grounds: 

“Dotting the cool hillsides of the park are rustic shelters with open fire grills and stone iceboxes for picnickers. Atop one hill, almost finished, is a Boy Scout center and another center for the Girl Scouts is planned for the hill across the valley. Four conical-shaped huts with showers and bunks, capable of accommodating 60 Scouts on overnight outings, have been built in a semi-circle that borders a Scout council ring of seats hewn from halves of huge tree trunks. The Nucleus of the shingled shelters for picnickers and Scouts is a silvery spring where cool water splashes over mossy rocks to brim small mirror pools flanked by ferns and flowers. Here, the mechanics of man add to the natural assembled beauties and a waterfall that is controlled by an electric switch cascades over slabs of granite. Designed like a grotto one might find in a Graustarkian country, this spot in the park nestles below high trees in a valley nook. A rock-lined tunnel cuts through jutting earth at one place to give an added impression of craggy wilderness to motorized Atlantans who have to ride only eight miles from Five Points to reach this garden."

  
Realized it was easier to turn camera around to take images of these grand trees. 

Troy Chastain

Commissioner Troy Chastain lived on Habersham Road in the Peachtree Heights subdivision in Buckhead. The steeply sloping rear yard of the house presented challenges in terms of controlling water run-off, but was perfectly suited to Monroe’s penchant for waterfalls and cascades. He constructed a meandering stream that travels through rock-lined channels, dropping into three pools as it descends. A rock walkway with short sections of steps ascends the hill, at one point crossing the stream with a large flat stone. To control run-off from the hill, Monroe constructed concrete channels that flow toward the side yard and around a hillside to a catch basin that carried the water to the street. There is another stream in the front yard that may have been fed by a spring. Monroe also constructed a large rock retaining wall with a stairwell cut into it to separate the driveway from the rear yard. Another interesting feature of the Chastain property is the two millstones that were used as paving stones at the front and rear entrances. Cut pieces of slate were arranged around the stones to create a sunburst effect.

  

Chastain had Monroe also serve as a special consultant for Fulton County and assisted in development of several parks in Atlanta. Most notably, he designed Adams Park and Chastain Park, which were championed by Commissioners Tony Chastain and Charles Adams. At Chastain, Monroe oversaw the construction of a number of stone features using WPA labor, including an amphitheater, retaining walls, grills, shelters, steps, and bridges. 

  

News articles from 1939 discussed a grand jury probe of commissioners Adams and Troy Chastain for using their positions to further their interests in property near the park. Chastain and Adams were not indicted, but there were many questions over the amount of money going towards parks, particularly parks with expensive golf courses, which were not considered affordable for the average person.

  
And I can get in some images. 

Lest we forget, the Federal government helped with Labor

The early 20th century was a period of economic growth and development for Fulton County and Atlanta. From about 1936 through 1950, Fulton County made significant investments in parks to help promote population growth. Chastain Park to the north of Atlanta (now part of the city) was designed by William L. Monroe, Sr. almost simultaneously with Adams Park in the city’s southwest sector using the same rustic-style influences. Both parks used federal relief agency funds to construct stonework and landscape features. These projects were direct results of the county’s strategy to use parks to attract a middle-class population with the economic means to have leisure time to enjoy nature and recreational amenities.

  

In the mid-1920s plans were underway by Fulton County to increase residential development in the unincorporated county to the south and north of the city of Atlanta. Land was purchased for the development of parks as a tool to encourage growth in the new suburban neighborhoods that were being developed. A key component of the funding came from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), created in 1935 by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act to provide useful work for needy unemployed individuals. According to the Atlanta Constitution on July 28, 1935.

  

In November 1938, the Atlanta Journal reported that Chastain and a number of guests inspected the site of the park then under construction. Among the guests were William Monroe and Robert L. MacDougall and C.M. Johnson of the WPA.

 
WPA in Atlanta. The trees they planted are 90 years old now.

Under the 1952 “Plan of Improvement,” the city of Atlanta expanded its borders to the south and to the north by annexing large portions of unincorporated Fulton County. As a result of the annexation, Adam Park and Chastain Park both became incorporated into Atlanta’s city boundaries.

Wikipedia

Chastain Memorial Park (originally known as the North Fulton Park, commonly known as Chastain Park) is the second-largest city park in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a 268-acre park near the northern edge of the city. Included in the park are jogging paths, playgrounds, NYO ball fields, tennis courts, a golf course, swimming pool, horse park and amphitheater. Now I want you to see Wikipedia doesn't mention Monroe not once. 

 
Random TRD images rocky drainage and playground.  

Location

The wedge-shaped park is bounded on the east side by Lake Forrest Drive, on the west-southwest side by Powers Ferry Road, and on the north-northwest end by West Wieuca Road. Nancy Creek bisects the park, flowing from east to west. 

  

It is surrounded by forested neighborhoods in the Buckhead area of the city, and is northwest of the original Buckhead Village and the uptown Lenox area.

History

The land was originally home of Creek Indians, near the floodplain Nancy Creek. In 1840, the land was acquired by DeKalb County and used as a site for town hall meetings. In 1900, the land was sold to Fulton County with plans to build an almshouse for the poor. In 1909, the North Fulton Alm House opened. The housing was designed in a Neoclassical style by architectural firm Morgan and Dillon. At the start of the Great Depression, the Almshouse Cemetery was constructed.

  

In 1940, Fulton County proposed to construct a residential area on a large portion of the land. Both almshouses were planned to be demolished, although the cemetery would be left unharmed. Under the direction of Troy Green Chastain (Fulton County Commissioner) and with help from the Works Progress Administration, the North Fulton neighborhood was born. Out of the original 1,000 acres, 268 became "North Fulton Park". The park was composed of the North Fulton Golf Course, a clubhouse, Olympic-sized swimming pool, tennis courts, gymnasium, bathhouse, horse stables and polo field. 

  
Ravine across upper street. 

The construction of the park was completed in 1945, a year after the death of Chastain. To honor his contribution of the park, the county renamed the park, the "Chastain Memorial Park" on September 25, 1946.

Path Trails

Throughout the park, color-coded trails loop through the Chastain’s rolling landscape, exploring the scenic stretches of the park’s landscaped perimeter. Paved by the PATH Foundation, it’s one of the most popular running and walking trails in Atlanta. 

  
Squirrel seen (On Log). Mostly Internet images starting here. 

PATH Foundation began constructing a trail in Chastain Park in 1994, which has since expanded to a three-mile trail around Chastain Park and North Fulton Golf Course. PATH estimates an average of 250 people use the trail each hour, and is developing a second loop in the northern area of the park to meet demand.

Pool

A pool is also located within Chastain Park. It is a city pool, meaning it is open to the public most of the time, but nonmembers must pay to get in, and there are some times when only members can swim. 


The Chastain Park Athletic Club swim-team practices at this pool.

Chastain Park Amphitheater

The Synovus Bank Amphitheater (originally known as North Fulton Park Amphitheater; formerly the Cadence Bank Amphitheater and the Chastain Park Amphitheater) is an outdoor amphitheater within historic Chastain Park in Atlanta, Georgia. The venue, designed by Nelson Brackin, opened in 1944 and is decreed "Atlanta’s Oldest Outdoor Music Venue". The venue attracts more than 200,000 spectators per season.

  

The outdoor amphitheater operates only during the summer months. While during most years there are shows between April and October, the majority fall between the end of May and early September. The two main promoters of concerts are the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Live Nation. The capacity is roughly 6,900, with the vast majority of tickets being reserved seating. There is also limited general admission lawn seating at the back of the amphitheater and at stage right. Only a small number of seats are covered.

 

For all but a few shows a season, tables are set up in the pit and lower part of the orchestra section. Tables seat six, and all six tickets must be purchased together. Those who do not purchase table seats are allowed to bring in tray-sized tables. Also for the table setup shows, food and drinks, including alcohol, are allowed to be brought in for consumption. Elaborate setups with nice food, tablecloths and candles are common. However, there are a small number of shows each season with a "rock" setup. Here there are no tables or carry-ins. Instead of tables in the pit, only rows of chairs are set up. Parking is limited, and traffic can be heavy on nights when the show is sold out. 

Chastain Park Trail: the run

Top Atlanta walking and running trails: the Chastain Park Trail visits a beautifully landscaped park in Buckhead.

 
Use to play Frisbee Golf on this side of upper road. View down main hill of Monroe Grills. Last two TRD images, found a place for all my pictures from my walk about. 

The park is tucked off Roswell Road in Buckhead’s northernmost stretches, just inside Atlanta’s I-285 Perimeter – a short drive or moderate bike ride from Midtown Atlanta. 

 

While most of the park’s trails border the often-car-filled Powers Ferry Road and Lake Forest Drive, the trail does score ample scenic beauty, skirting the rolling terrain of North Fulton Golf Course and winding through the beautifully landscaped park. It’s a great spot for a 5k run or scenic walk, and one of our favorite running spots near Buckhead.

 

The trail is well-marked at intersections as the multiple trails merge and diverge around the park. The trails are also signed for distance – a great feature for pace-training runners who aren’t tracking distance via GPS. Three color-coded loop trails offer varying distances, including two 5k loops (the 3.1 mile red and blue trails) as well as a 3k (the 1.6-mile gold trail). The red and blue share a common path for most of their length, separating into distinct trails in the park’s northern stretches.

 
Run the Chastain Park Trail in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood, following color-coded 5k and 3k loops

The trail explores its most scenic stretch on the park’s eastern perimeter along Lake Forest Drive. Along this stretch, the trail crosses a bridge spanning Nancy Creek, catching views of the creek’s rocky banks and pebble-lined bed. Benches offer shaded resting spots nestled along the stream, perfect for a post-workout cool off.

 
Top places to run in Atlanta: the 5k trail at Chastain Park loops through a scenic park setting in Buckhead

The northwestern stretches of the park’s yellow and blue trails skirt the banks of a pond, winding in a gentle southwestern arc along its tree-lined shores. Ducks and geese are a common sight here, and fish bask in the pond’s sunny shallows. 

 
Chastain Park Pond, often called the "Hamburger Pond" due to the shape of its central island, is a serene, spring-fed feature located within Atlanta's largest park. It serves as a popular spot for fishing (largemouth bass), birdwatching, and walking, surrounded by lush greenery and a paved trail.



The trail doesn’t completely escape traffic and the sounds of the city, especially compared to some of our other favorite Atlanta running trails like the unpaved and traffic-free 3.1 mile (5k) loop at Cochran Shoals. But the trail is well worth the visit for a workout on a well-maintained, well-signed and paved trail in the Buckhead area.

Fulton County (Part 5)

Whew that was pretty full. Lets see how many National Register of Historic Properties we can add to our post. We have 140 left. 

Granada Apartments

The Granada Apartments is locally significant under Criterion C in the area of architecture, as an excellent and rare local example of the Spanish Revival/Spanish Colonial Revival style applied to an apartment building in Atlanta. 

 

Designed by the short-lived architectural alliance of Barney Havis and Augustus E. Constantine, the building embodies particularly well-executed distinctive characteristics of the Spanish Revival style.

 

Grant Park Historic District

 
We covered Grant Park with (GNW #269).

  

This is the Grant Park neighborhood. 

  

Grant Park North

The Grant Park North Historic District is a city neighborhood characterized by late Victorian houses of varying degrees of detailing and size. 

 

Many of the houses retain all of their Victorian trim around porches and other elements such as stained and leaded glass windows. The district is well shaded by oak trees in most areas. 

 

It is significant in architecture for its collection of historic houses reflecting various styles and elements of the late Victorian period. 

 

These include some houses reflecting elements of the Eastlake and Queen Anne styles, and others that are more eclectic, all reflecting variety in the use of ornamentation, glass, porches, and gables. 

W. D. Grant Building

  

   



Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company

It is significant in the area commerce because of its association with the A & P company, one of the first nationwide grocery store chains, and for its role as a regional headquarters during a period of company expansion.

 

It is also an excellent example of a concrete frame industrial building that was used by the company as a warehouse, bakery, and its local offices. 

    

Between 1997 and 2002, the A & P building was rehabilitated as residential loft apartments with retail space in the basement.

  

Griffith School of Music

It is significant in architecture as a fine and very intact example of the Craftsman style for a residence. The house retains almost all of its original features.

 

The house was designed to resemble an estate, and thus has a much larger presence on what is actually a small intown city location. The house setting is on a rise giving it a great view from the rear of the city of Atlanta.

  

It was also significant in the performing arts because it was purchased in 1923 by the Griffith family. 

  

The Griffiths used the house as a residence and the location for the Griffith School of Music, which operated here from 1923 until 1966. 

    
One of the more prominent students to emerge from the Griffith School of Music was Miss Joe Beth Apperson of Atlanta. She played the harp and appeared in numerous concerts with the Atlanta Symphony. 

Habersham Memorial Hall

 

The building, named in honor of Joseph Habersham, was designed by Henry Hornbostel to serve as the headquarters for the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

  

Hapeville Historic District

The community that began as a village centered on a railroad depot, thrived with the designation of U.S. Highway 41 through the city, and evolved into a  metropolitan suburban community bordered by two interstate highways and the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. 

 

In terms of residential architecture, styles ranging from the Craftsman to English Vernacular Revival and the Colonial Revival are represented. 

   

Original Home of Chick-fil-A.

 

Joel Chandler Harris House

 
 

Please don't throw me into that briar patch.

  

Healey Building

  

  

 
Has this beautiful early atrium of Atlanta. Dwarfed by the Hyatt Regency and Marriott Marquis atrium's. This was part of my walking tour of Atlanta.

Herndon Home

 

Alonzo Franklin Herndon (1858-1927) was born into slavery, but went on to become Atlanta's first black millionaire as founder and head of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company.

  

Highland School

The Highland School is significant in architecture as a good example of an in-town early 20th century public elementary school reflecting the latest design trends of the era, that of a large, red-brick building, in the Classical Revival style, with long corridors and classrooms opening onto the corridor on both levels. 

  

Serving for sixty years as an inner city elementary school for grades K-6 for the 9th Ward

  
Originally a school, it was converted into offices and recently was rehabilitated as condominiums.

Home Park School

Home Park School is significant in architecture, because the building retains much of its historic architectural characteristics popular during the early 20th century. 

 

The building is significant as a 1911 educational facility designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival style by Atlanta architect Edward Dougherty. 

  
Also Condos now.

B. Mifflin Hood Brick Company Building

 

B. Mifflin Hood distinguished his company from his competitors by marketing his products as "non-convict brick", as Hood did not participate in the convict leasing system that was prevalent in Georgia at this time.

 

  
Apartments now. 

  

Hotel Clermont

 
From abandoned to boutique apartments.

 
Neon lighting and a hidden jewel of Atlanta around the back. Atlanta's oldest strip lounge. 

Famous for Blondie, real name Anita Rae Strange, is a legendary 67-year-old dancer who has performed at Atlanta's iconic Clermont Lounge since 1979. 

 

She is best known for her signature act of crushing Pabst Blue Ribbon beer cans with her breasts, a performance that has made her a staple of the city's nightlife and a famous Atlanta cultural icon.

Hotel Row Historic District

 

This area is down by City Hall on Mitchell Street. 

 

 
You can tell the Star Hotel cause it's got the big dead Florida Gator on the side.

House at 690 South Boulevard

The House at 690 South Boulevard is significant at the local level of significance under National Register Criterion C in the area of architecture as a good, representative example of a cross-gable bungalow. 

 

It exhibits character-defining features of the type including a low, horizontally-oriented form; overall rectangular massing; an integral front porch; and the namesake cross-gable roof with wide overhangs.

  

The bungalow, and the Craftsman style that often accompanied the type, were made more popular by Sears, Roebuck and Co., which offered ready-made site plans or kit homes delivered for assembly. This popularity resulted in the proliferation of the bungalow type not only in the Grant Park neighborhood, but also in many of Atlanta’s burgeoning early twentieth century suburbs.

  
Eric and Christine Bloomquist purchased the house in 2014 and completed a certified rehabilitation of the house and improvement of the lot in 2015.

Howell Interlocking Historic District

 

  

Bacchanalia is in this neighborhood. It is an actual 5 Star restaurant here in Atlanta. 

  

King Plow is now Terminal West Theater. Have seen tribute bands of Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, and Allman Brothers in here. Drinks on back deck as trains come by. 

  

Called West Midtown, this part of Atlanta has exploded.

 

Howell Station Historic District

  

  

You can certainly tell this part of Atlanta has changed.

  

T.I. the Rapper has the Trap Music Museum in this area. 

  

Northside Tavern still alive. Used in Ozark episodes.

  

Mrs. George Arthur Howell Jr. House

The Howell House is significant in architecture because it is a fine example of the Neo-classical Revival style of the 1930s, during which many previously popular architectural styles were revived. 

  

It contains a symmetrical front facade, a centered, four-columned Greek Revival portico and a symmetrical first floor plan. 

   

It is also significant as a work of Cooper and Cooper, a firm consisting of two Atlanta-born architects who were brothers. They designed this along with many other fine homes.

Hurt Building

 
Forms two towers.

 

 

 
Not as glamorous on inside. 

Imperial Hotel

  

 
Homeless Shelter now. 

  

Enough for this post, will stick to Monroe theme on next few wonders. Our Georgia Natural Wonder Girls were at the tables for the Indigo Girls at Chastain Park.



]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #276 - Chastain Park

As we move around Fulton County looking for Natural Wonders of Georgia, we come upon Chastain Park. It is well known for its beautiful residential neighborhood and outdoor concert amphitheater. It’s also well-known for recreation, with a pool, golf course, tennis center, and horse park. There was a Civil War Calvary battle by the golf course, we covered in (GNW #263).  But we chose this park as a Natural Wonder of Georgia primarily because of it's connection to William Lott Monroe, Sr. (1892-1965). 



He was an early Atlanta landscape designer who played an important role in the design and construction of Atlanta’s gardens and parks between 1925 and 1963. We discovered Monroe first as the designer of the Glen Emerald Park, and Glen Emerald Rock Garden in DeKalb County. (GNW #260)

 

Our TRD Scrolling Nugget comes from the time I saw Neil Young at the Amphitheater.



William Lott Monroe, Sr. was born in 1892 in Biscoe, North Carolina, a crossroads community in the central part of the state. He graduated from Elon College in North Carolina and later studied at Duke and Cornell universities. He first came to Atlanta in 1917, when his military service brought him to Camp Gordon in Chamblee. He was working for the C.A. Dahl Company, a florist and nursery on Peachtree Street in Atlanta by 1920.

  

One of Atlanta’s earliest professional landscape architects, he founded Monroe's Landscape and Nursery Company in 1925, specializing in rock gardens, waterfalls, and native stonework. That company does not appear in the city directories until 1932. The company was located on what is now his namesake road, Monroe Drive, near the Ansley Park neighborhood of Atlanta.

  

Monroe’s reputation as a significant influence on landscaping in the city is generally recognized in Atlanta’s community of landscape architects and gardeners, although much of his work is lost or undocumented. 

 

His fascinating gardens, with their well-crafted stonework, soothing water features, and ambitious scale, are good examples of recreational retreats created during the Great Depression era and later. 

  

The myriad paths, stone furniture, and picnic areas found in both his public and private gardens were conceived to encourage exploration and activity rather than to present a formalized architectural statement. 

  

Monroe’s gardens expertly reflected an emphasis on inviting natural spaces where the structural elements are woven into the environment, suggesting the close connection between man and nature. 

  

A landscape designer and nurseryman, he is recognized in newspaper articles as the “landscape artist” during the development of North Fulton Park (later renamed Chastain Memorial Park) in the late 1930s and early 1940s. This work was financed partially through WPA (Works Progress Administration) funds and supported with local prison labor.

  

The Chastain Park 2008 Master Plan states: “The park was envisioned as a recreational showplace with a wide variety of high-quality facilities to set the tone for the neighborhood.” While he did not design the entire park, Monroe oversaw the creation of the original stone grills, fireplaces, walls, benches.

  

I was fascinated by the  storm water drainage systems in the “Master Grill Area” and in the picnic grounds area in between the Chastain Arts Center and the Chastain Park Playground.

  

Unfortunately, these features suffer from occasional acts of vandalism, but those that remain are essential design elements and should be preserved. 

  

Similarly, the amphitheater – designed at the same time as the picnic grounds and completed in 1941 – maintains original stone walls, steps, and stage orientation, with more recent updates and renovations in the past decades. The original features that exist within the amphitheater should be preserved as well. 

 

Several features are still visible and intact in the master grill area, but much of this area was backfilled in the 1970s or 1980s, covering up stone work, grills, steps, benches, water features, and a 100-foot rock tunnel often nicknamed “the witches’ cave” by visitors. 

  
People standing in line for the Witches Cave. 

Chastain Park Conservancy considers this location a possible focus for future restoration.

 
You can see where a portion of the tunnel was bricked over.

There are three main areas in Chastain Park with Monroe’s signature style as a landscape designer: 1) the master grill area; (2) the picnic grounds area; and (3) the amphitheater.

(1) The original master grill area covers approximately five acres and is accessed via unmarked gravel driveway from West Wieuca Road, about halfway between the Galloway School campus and the Chastain Arts Center. This narrow driveway opens up to a large, flat gravel parking area surrounded by wooded hillsides in all directions. 

 

To the west is a set of steps that lead up to a concrete pad, flanked by other steps on either side; Ray Mock of the Chastain Park Conservancy said this was a restroom facility at one time. 

 

To the north of the clearing is what remains of the original master grill shed area: the upper portion of a stone fireplace, stone ledges, large boulders, and an undulating stone wall in the hillside behind it. 

 

Over toward the east is a large concrete pad set up with non-historic picnic tables and the remains of two additional fireplace/grills. The undulating wall continues behind these structures. 

  

Farthest to the east in the clearing is a rustic stone staircase with the remains of stone gazebo walls at the top of the hill. This staircase is often seen in historical photos of the master grill area with a wooden gazebo picnic shelter at the top. 

 

From this high vantage point, one can view the entire valley and see additional picnic shelters farther up on the hillside. 

   

It is estimated there is at least six feet of leveled fill in the clearing when compared to historical photos. An entire hillside, including a water feature and additional stone steps, has been removed. However, there is evidence of stone-lined drainage areas in the hillside to the east of the master grill shed area.

   

(2) The picnic grounds area is composed of multiple outdoor stone grills, fireplaces, and picnic shelters set into the wooded hillside; it is generally connected to the original master grill area by trail. 

  

It can be accessed from many different locations, including behind the Chastain Arts Center and south of Chastain Memorial Parkway (Park Road). 

 

These stone grills and fireplaces are not identical in design, but maintain a common style of stacked stone. 

  

They are connected throughout the hillside via pathways, with stone benches, walls, and tree wells interspersed. 

  

The covered picnic shelters are not original to Monroe’s time, but have been replicated from designs that are characteristic of his work. 

  

There are a few features north of Chastain Memorial Parkway, including an additional stone grill, steps in various locations, and portions of stone walls. 

  

This northernmost area of the park is not as wooded, and is within view of private residences. It was once the campground area for boys and girls groups.

(3) The Delta Classic Chastain Park Amphitheater is generally bounded by Stella Drive, Chastain Memorial Parkway (Park Drive), and Elliott Galloway Way (Pool Drive); it maintains its original orientation in a natural bowl-shaped depression in the land. It is not open to the public on a daily basis and is closed off with a series of gates and tall, chain-link fences. 

   

The amphitheater operates during the summer and can seat approximately 6,900 guests for outdoor concerts and other ticketed events. The stone walls and steps are original to the amphitheater, but the additions on either side of the stage have been built up over time. The cantilevered concrete “all-weather shelters” towards the rear of the amphitheater were installed in 1956.

 

Chastain Park is the largest city-owned park in Atlanta. The park project began in July 1938 with funds partially provided by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) and labor provided by prison camp inmates. 

 

William Lott Monroe, Sr. is indicated in newspaper articles as the “landscape artist” during development. Monroe’s name and company are on various plans and landscape drawings for the park in the collections at the Atlanta History Center; some of these are undated, but others are marked 1939 and 1940. Monroe’s influence and signature rustic, naturalistic style is seen specifically in the stone work of the master grill area, picnic grounds area, and amphitheater. 

  

Monroe did not design the North Fulton Golf Course – it was the last course laid out by Chandler Egan before Egan’s death in 1936. 

 



The Atlanta Horse Show officially opened the park in early May 1939, and Ray Mock of the Chastain Park Conservancy reports that there are original Monroe stone walls within the horse park. 

 

The park dedication ceremony and opening of the golf course took place on July 4, 1940, and Monroe was on the publicity committee. However, by January 1941, Monroe’s landscape company was removed from Fulton County’s payroll. The amphitheater was completed in December 1941, but the opening was postponed due to the war. Its first show was in June 1944. 

 

1939 (Apr.) The park was a huge project for Fulton County, and Monroe’s stone work was often praised. But many more people were involved and Monroe’s designs were not the only features in development at the park. One article describes work continuing on the tennis courts, golf course, man made lake, swimming pool, other athletic courts and fields, and horseback riding trails. 

  
Even the curbs had a Monroe style rocky design.

(“North Fulton Park Work Is Pushed.” Atlanta Constitution, Apr. 30, 1939)

Still, many articles during this time return to admire the master grill area and picnic grounds: 

“Dotting the cool hillsides of the park are rustic shelters with open fire grills and stone iceboxes for picnickers. Atop one hill, almost finished, is a Boy Scout center and another center for the Girl Scouts is planned for the hill across the valley. Four conical-shaped huts with showers and bunks, capable of accommodating 60 Scouts on overnight outings, have been built in a semi-circle that borders a Scout council ring of seats hewn from halves of huge tree trunks. The Nucleus of the shingled shelters for picnickers and Scouts is a silvery spring where cool water splashes over mossy rocks to brim small mirror pools flanked by ferns and flowers. Here, the mechanics of man add to the natural assembled beauties and a waterfall that is controlled by an electric switch cascades over slabs of granite. Designed like a grotto one might find in a Graustarkian country, this spot in the park nestles below high trees in a valley nook. A rock-lined tunnel cuts through jutting earth at one place to give an added impression of craggy wilderness to motorized Atlantans who have to ride only eight miles from Five Points to reach this garden."

  
Realized it was easier to turn camera around to take images of these grand trees. 

Troy Chastain

Commissioner Troy Chastain lived on Habersham Road in the Peachtree Heights subdivision in Buckhead. The steeply sloping rear yard of the house presented challenges in terms of controlling water run-off, but was perfectly suited to Monroe’s penchant for waterfalls and cascades. He constructed a meandering stream that travels through rock-lined channels, dropping into three pools as it descends. A rock walkway with short sections of steps ascends the hill, at one point crossing the stream with a large flat stone. To control run-off from the hill, Monroe constructed concrete channels that flow toward the side yard and around a hillside to a catch basin that carried the water to the street. There is another stream in the front yard that may have been fed by a spring. Monroe also constructed a large rock retaining wall with a stairwell cut into it to separate the driveway from the rear yard. Another interesting feature of the Chastain property is the two millstones that were used as paving stones at the front and rear entrances. Cut pieces of slate were arranged around the stones to create a sunburst effect.

  

Chastain had Monroe also serve as a special consultant for Fulton County and assisted in development of several parks in Atlanta. Most notably, he designed Adams Park and Chastain Park, which were championed by Commissioners Tony Chastain and Charles Adams. At Chastain, Monroe oversaw the construction of a number of stone features using WPA labor, including an amphitheater, retaining walls, grills, shelters, steps, and bridges. 

  

News articles from 1939 discussed a grand jury probe of commissioners Adams and Troy Chastain for using their positions to further their interests in property near the park. Chastain and Adams were not indicted, but there were many questions over the amount of money going towards parks, particularly parks with expensive golf courses, which were not considered affordable for the average person.

  
And I can get in some images. 

Lest we forget, the Federal government helped with Labor

The early 20th century was a period of economic growth and development for Fulton County and Atlanta. From about 1936 through 1950, Fulton County made significant investments in parks to help promote population growth. Chastain Park to the north of Atlanta (now part of the city) was designed by William L. Monroe, Sr. almost simultaneously with Adams Park in the city’s southwest sector using the same rustic-style influences. Both parks used federal relief agency funds to construct stonework and landscape features. These projects were direct results of the county’s strategy to use parks to attract a middle-class population with the economic means to have leisure time to enjoy nature and recreational amenities.

  

In the mid-1920s plans were underway by Fulton County to increase residential development in the unincorporated county to the south and north of the city of Atlanta. Land was purchased for the development of parks as a tool to encourage growth in the new suburban neighborhoods that were being developed. A key component of the funding came from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), created in 1935 by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act to provide useful work for needy unemployed individuals. According to the Atlanta Constitution on July 28, 1935.

  

In November 1938, the Atlanta Journal reported that Chastain and a number of guests inspected the site of the park then under construction. Among the guests were William Monroe and Robert L. MacDougall and C.M. Johnson of the WPA.

 
WPA in Atlanta. The trees they planted are 90 years old now.

Under the 1952 “Plan of Improvement,” the city of Atlanta expanded its borders to the south and to the north by annexing large portions of unincorporated Fulton County. As a result of the annexation, Adam Park and Chastain Park both became incorporated into Atlanta’s city boundaries.

Wikipedia

Chastain Memorial Park (originally known as the North Fulton Park, commonly known as Chastain Park) is the second-largest city park in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a 268-acre park near the northern edge of the city. Included in the park are jogging paths, playgrounds, NYO ball fields, tennis courts, a golf course, swimming pool, horse park and amphitheater. Now I want you to see Wikipedia doesn't mention Monroe not once. 

 
Random TRD images rocky drainage and playground.  

Location

The wedge-shaped park is bounded on the east side by Lake Forrest Drive, on the west-southwest side by Powers Ferry Road, and on the north-northwest end by West Wieuca Road. Nancy Creek bisects the park, flowing from east to west. 

  

It is surrounded by forested neighborhoods in the Buckhead area of the city, and is northwest of the original Buckhead Village and the uptown Lenox area.

History

The land was originally home of Creek Indians, near the floodplain Nancy Creek. In 1840, the land was acquired by DeKalb County and used as a site for town hall meetings. In 1900, the land was sold to Fulton County with plans to build an almshouse for the poor. In 1909, the North Fulton Alm House opened. The housing was designed in a Neoclassical style by architectural firm Morgan and Dillon. At the start of the Great Depression, the Almshouse Cemetery was constructed.

  

In 1940, Fulton County proposed to construct a residential area on a large portion of the land. Both almshouses were planned to be demolished, although the cemetery would be left unharmed. Under the direction of Troy Green Chastain (Fulton County Commissioner) and with help from the Works Progress Administration, the North Fulton neighborhood was born. Out of the original 1,000 acres, 268 became "North Fulton Park". The park was composed of the North Fulton Golf Course, a clubhouse, Olympic-sized swimming pool, tennis courts, gymnasium, bathhouse, horse stables and polo field. 

  
Ravine across upper street. 

The construction of the park was completed in 1945, a year after the death of Chastain. To honor his contribution of the park, the county renamed the park, the "Chastain Memorial Park" on September 25, 1946.

Path Trails

Throughout the park, color-coded trails loop through the Chastain’s rolling landscape, exploring the scenic stretches of the park’s landscaped perimeter. Paved by the PATH Foundation, it’s one of the most popular running and walking trails in Atlanta. 

  
Squirrel seen (On Log). Mostly Internet images starting here. 

PATH Foundation began constructing a trail in Chastain Park in 1994, which has since expanded to a three-mile trail around Chastain Park and North Fulton Golf Course. PATH estimates an average of 250 people use the trail each hour, and is developing a second loop in the northern area of the park to meet demand.

Pool

A pool is also located within Chastain Park. It is a city pool, meaning it is open to the public most of the time, but nonmembers must pay to get in, and there are some times when only members can swim. 


The Chastain Park Athletic Club swim-team practices at this pool.

Chastain Park Amphitheater

The Synovus Bank Amphitheater (originally known as North Fulton Park Amphitheater; formerly the Cadence Bank Amphitheater and the Chastain Park Amphitheater) is an outdoor amphitheater within historic Chastain Park in Atlanta, Georgia. The venue, designed by Nelson Brackin, opened in 1944 and is decreed "Atlanta’s Oldest Outdoor Music Venue". The venue attracts more than 200,000 spectators per season.

  

The outdoor amphitheater operates only during the summer months. While during most years there are shows between April and October, the majority fall between the end of May and early September. The two main promoters of concerts are the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Live Nation. The capacity is roughly 6,900, with the vast majority of tickets being reserved seating. There is also limited general admission lawn seating at the back of the amphitheater and at stage right. Only a small number of seats are covered.

 

For all but a few shows a season, tables are set up in the pit and lower part of the orchestra section. Tables seat six, and all six tickets must be purchased together. Those who do not purchase table seats are allowed to bring in tray-sized tables. Also for the table setup shows, food and drinks, including alcohol, are allowed to be brought in for consumption. Elaborate setups with nice food, tablecloths and candles are common. However, there are a small number of shows each season with a "rock" setup. Here there are no tables or carry-ins. Instead of tables in the pit, only rows of chairs are set up. Parking is limited, and traffic can be heavy on nights when the show is sold out. 

Chastain Park Trail: the run

Top Atlanta walking and running trails: the Chastain Park Trail visits a beautifully landscaped park in Buckhead.

 
Use to play Frisbee Golf on this side of upper road. View down main hill of Monroe Grills. Last two TRD images, found a place for all my pictures from my walk about. 

The park is tucked off Roswell Road in Buckhead’s northernmost stretches, just inside Atlanta’s I-285 Perimeter – a short drive or moderate bike ride from Midtown Atlanta. 

 

While most of the park’s trails border the often-car-filled Powers Ferry Road and Lake Forest Drive, the trail does score ample scenic beauty, skirting the rolling terrain of North Fulton Golf Course and winding through the beautifully landscaped park. It’s a great spot for a 5k run or scenic walk, and one of our favorite running spots near Buckhead.

 

The trail is well-marked at intersections as the multiple trails merge and diverge around the park. The trails are also signed for distance – a great feature for pace-training runners who aren’t tracking distance via GPS. Three color-coded loop trails offer varying distances, including two 5k loops (the 3.1 mile red and blue trails) as well as a 3k (the 1.6-mile gold trail). The red and blue share a common path for most of their length, separating into distinct trails in the park’s northern stretches.

 
Run the Chastain Park Trail in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood, following color-coded 5k and 3k loops

The trail explores its most scenic stretch on the park’s eastern perimeter along Lake Forest Drive. Along this stretch, the trail crosses a bridge spanning Nancy Creek, catching views of the creek’s rocky banks and pebble-lined bed. Benches offer shaded resting spots nestled along the stream, perfect for a post-workout cool off.

 
Top places to run in Atlanta: the 5k trail at Chastain Park loops through a scenic park setting in Buckhead

The northwestern stretches of the park’s yellow and blue trails skirt the banks of a pond, winding in a gentle southwestern arc along its tree-lined shores. Ducks and geese are a common sight here, and fish bask in the pond’s sunny shallows. 

 
Chastain Park Pond, often called the "Hamburger Pond" due to the shape of its central island, is a serene, spring-fed feature located within Atlanta's largest park. It serves as a popular spot for fishing (largemouth bass), birdwatching, and walking, surrounded by lush greenery and a paved trail.



The trail doesn’t completely escape traffic and the sounds of the city, especially compared to some of our other favorite Atlanta running trails like the unpaved and traffic-free 3.1 mile (5k) loop at Cochran Shoals. But the trail is well worth the visit for a workout on a well-maintained, well-signed and paved trail in the Buckhead area.

Fulton County (Part 5)

Whew that was pretty full. Lets see how many National Register of Historic Properties we can add to our post. We have 140 left. 

Granada Apartments

The Granada Apartments is locally significant under Criterion C in the area of architecture, as an excellent and rare local example of the Spanish Revival/Spanish Colonial Revival style applied to an apartment building in Atlanta. 

 

Designed by the short-lived architectural alliance of Barney Havis and Augustus E. Constantine, the building embodies particularly well-executed distinctive characteristics of the Spanish Revival style.

 

Grant Park Historic District

 
We covered Grant Park with (GNW #269).

  

This is the Grant Park neighborhood. 

  

Grant Park North

The Grant Park North Historic District is a city neighborhood characterized by late Victorian houses of varying degrees of detailing and size. 

 

Many of the houses retain all of their Victorian trim around porches and other elements such as stained and leaded glass windows. The district is well shaded by oak trees in most areas. 

 

It is significant in architecture for its collection of historic houses reflecting various styles and elements of the late Victorian period. 

 

These include some houses reflecting elements of the Eastlake and Queen Anne styles, and others that are more eclectic, all reflecting variety in the use of ornamentation, glass, porches, and gables. 

W. D. Grant Building

  

   



Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company

It is significant in the area commerce because of its association with the A & P company, one of the first nationwide grocery store chains, and for its role as a regional headquarters during a period of company expansion.

 

It is also an excellent example of a concrete frame industrial building that was used by the company as a warehouse, bakery, and its local offices. 

    

Between 1997 and 2002, the A & P building was rehabilitated as residential loft apartments with retail space in the basement.

  

Griffith School of Music

It is significant in architecture as a fine and very intact example of the Craftsman style for a residence. The house retains almost all of its original features.

 

The house was designed to resemble an estate, and thus has a much larger presence on what is actually a small intown city location. The house setting is on a rise giving it a great view from the rear of the city of Atlanta.

  

It was also significant in the performing arts because it was purchased in 1923 by the Griffith family. 

  

The Griffiths used the house as a residence and the location for the Griffith School of Music, which operated here from 1923 until 1966. 

    
One of the more prominent students to emerge from the Griffith School of Music was Miss Joe Beth Apperson of Atlanta. She played the harp and appeared in numerous concerts with the Atlanta Symphony. 

Habersham Memorial Hall

 

The building, named in honor of Joseph Habersham, was designed by Henry Hornbostel to serve as the headquarters for the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

  

Hapeville Historic District

The community that began as a village centered on a railroad depot, thrived with the designation of U.S. Highway 41 through the city, and evolved into a  metropolitan suburban community bordered by two interstate highways and the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. 

 

In terms of residential architecture, styles ranging from the Craftsman to English Vernacular Revival and the Colonial Revival are represented. 

   

Original Home of Chick-fil-A.

 

Joel Chandler Harris House

 
 

Please don't throw me into that briar patch.

  

Healey Building

  

  

 
Has this beautiful early atrium of Atlanta. Dwarfed by the Hyatt Regency and Marriott Marquis atrium's. This was part of my walking tour of Atlanta.

Herndon Home

 

Alonzo Franklin Herndon (1858-1927) was born into slavery, but went on to become Atlanta's first black millionaire as founder and head of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company.

  

Highland School

The Highland School is significant in architecture as a good example of an in-town early 20th century public elementary school reflecting the latest design trends of the era, that of a large, red-brick building, in the Classical Revival style, with long corridors and classrooms opening onto the corridor on both levels. 

  

Serving for sixty years as an inner city elementary school for grades K-6 for the 9th Ward

  
Originally a school, it was converted into offices and recently was rehabilitated as condominiums.

Home Park School

Home Park School is significant in architecture, because the building retains much of its historic architectural characteristics popular during the early 20th century. 

 

The building is significant as a 1911 educational facility designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival style by Atlanta architect Edward Dougherty. 

  
Also Condos now.

B. Mifflin Hood Brick Company Building

 

B. Mifflin Hood distinguished his company from his competitors by marketing his products as "non-convict brick", as Hood did not participate in the convict leasing system that was prevalent in Georgia at this time.

 

  
Apartments now. 

  

Hotel Clermont

 
From abandoned to boutique apartments.

 
Neon lighting and a hidden jewel of Atlanta around the back. Atlanta's oldest strip lounge. 

Famous for Blondie, real name Anita Rae Strange, is a legendary 67-year-old dancer who has performed at Atlanta's iconic Clermont Lounge since 1979. 

 

She is best known for her signature act of crushing Pabst Blue Ribbon beer cans with her breasts, a performance that has made her a staple of the city's nightlife and a famous Atlanta cultural icon.

Hotel Row Historic District

 

This area is down by City Hall on Mitchell Street. 

 

 
You can tell the Star Hotel cause it's got the big dead Florida Gator on the side.

House at 690 South Boulevard

The House at 690 South Boulevard is significant at the local level of significance under National Register Criterion C in the area of architecture as a good, representative example of a cross-gable bungalow. 

 

It exhibits character-defining features of the type including a low, horizontally-oriented form; overall rectangular massing; an integral front porch; and the namesake cross-gable roof with wide overhangs.

  

The bungalow, and the Craftsman style that often accompanied the type, were made more popular by Sears, Roebuck and Co., which offered ready-made site plans or kit homes delivered for assembly. This popularity resulted in the proliferation of the bungalow type not only in the Grant Park neighborhood, but also in many of Atlanta’s burgeoning early twentieth century suburbs.

  
Eric and Christine Bloomquist purchased the house in 2014 and completed a certified rehabilitation of the house and improvement of the lot in 2015.

Howell Interlocking Historic District

 

  

Bacchanalia is in this neighborhood. It is an actual 5 Star restaurant here in Atlanta. 

  

King Plow is now Terminal West Theater. Have seen tribute bands of Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, and Allman Brothers in here. Drinks on back deck as trains come by. 

  

Called West Midtown, this part of Atlanta has exploded.

 

Howell Station Historic District

  

  

You can certainly tell this part of Atlanta has changed.

  

T.I. the Rapper has the Trap Music Museum in this area. 

  

Northside Tavern still alive. Used in Ozark episodes.

  

Mrs. George Arthur Howell Jr. House

The Howell House is significant in architecture because it is a fine example of the Neo-classical Revival style of the 1930s, during which many previously popular architectural styles were revived. 

  

It contains a symmetrical front facade, a centered, four-columned Greek Revival portico and a symmetrical first floor plan. 

   

It is also significant as a work of Cooper and Cooper, a firm consisting of two Atlanta-born architects who were brothers. They designed this along with many other fine homes.

Hurt Building

 
Forms two towers.

 

 

 
Not as glamorous on inside. 

Imperial Hotel

  

 
Homeless Shelter now. 

  

Enough for this post, will stick to Monroe theme on next few wonders. Our Georgia Natural Wonder Girls were at the tables for the Indigo Girls at Chastain Park.



]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-13048.html Mon, 29 Dec 2025 23:50:29 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-13048.html Georgia Natural Wonder #275 - Winn Park

Reaching for Natural Wonders in Atlanta, I found this really cool park with Rock landscaping. And it gave me a chance to travel there on a Sunday recently when it was trying to rain. Atlanta's oldest car neighborhood, they made the streets extra wide being wary of room needed. Almost all the images are from my visit. 

 

Not hard to figure a scrolling nugget for this post. I could have used a Hot Chocolate as I was walking around this misty day. 



Less than two blocks from the hustle and bustle of Peachtree Street, Winn Park is a quiet sanctuary for strolling amongst the huge old oaks and babbling brook. 

 

I thought this park was designed by William Monroe, but it turned out to be designed by Julia Orme Martin the principal of Julia O. Martin Landscape Design. She was a landscape designer who helped restore and preserve Ansley Park in Atlanta, Georgia. She was a member of the Ansley Park Garden Club and served on the Board of the Ansley Park Beautification Foundation. A longtime member of the Board of Managers of the A. G. Rhodes Homes, she was also a sustaining member of the Junior League of Atlanta and a member of the Atlanta Town Committee of the National Society of the Colonial Dames in the state of Georgia. 

 
Martin and the old Governor's mansion in Ansley Park. 

Julia Martin designed gardens in the Southeast for two decades, beginning in the early 1970s. Like most women landscape designers of this period, Martin primarily worked in the arena of residential landscape design. Her most notable projects include the A. G. Rhodes Home on Boulevard Avenue (Atlanta, Georgia); the Henry B. Tompkins property on West Wesley Road (Atlanta, Georgia); and the Columbus Museum, once the home of W. C. Bradley (Columbus, Georgia). She is also known for her landscape designs for her primary home located on Westminster Drive in Ansley Park (Atlanta, Georgia) as well as the gardens she designed for Oldfield, her vacation home in Sargentville, Maine. Martin died on January 6, 1999 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Located in a natural ravine in the Ansley Park neighborhood (Atlanta's oldest auto-oriented suburb), Winn Park is a great place to visit to unwind and enjoy nature.

 
The buildings of Midtown tower over Ansley Park neighborhood. Stone work extends to sidewalk. 

A Hidden Urban Oasis

Found in Atlanta's Ansley Park neighborhood, Winn Park feels like a secret you've stumbled upon. 


You would not even know there was a park here at first. 

This 10-acre green space sits below street level, creating a natural sanctuary that somehow manages to muffle the sounds of city life just beyond its borders. 

 

Even on days when others are enjoying the park alongside you, there's a certain peacefulness that hangs in the air.

  
You enter the ravine from either side down stone steps. 

Perhaps it's the magnificent mature trees that do the trick .......

  
Their sprawling canopies create a shaded haven that makes even the hottest Georgia afternoons bearable. 

 
There is the main waterfall at the top of the park. 



It's the kind of place where you can actually hear yourself think again.


Nature's Touches

As you wander the winding paths through the park, you'll come across some small ponds that reflects the surrounding greenery. 

 

The gentle sounds from the charming waterfall provide a soundtrack to your visit.

   

Nature's own white noise machine cutting through any remaining city sounds.

 
First of many benches. Peering back at the skyscrapers overlooking the park. 

Don't miss the stone bridge that arches over part of the water feature. 

  
It's not just functional, middle image was from atop bridge, it's one of those spots where you'll instinctively reach for your camera. 

 
The second pond has rocky landscaped shoreline. 

These paths see a steady stream of neighbors walking dogs or getting in their daily steps, especially during weekday afternoons.

  
I found 20 different flowers in here. Daffodils, first flower of Spring leads us off. 

The park's undulating terrain adds dimension to your explorations, offering different viewpoints as you move through the space. 

 

If you can time your visit for sunset, you're in for a treat - the light filtering through the tree canopy creates a golden glow that transforms the ordinary into something rather magical.

  
Flowers on bark of tree. 

A Community Treasure

Within the park, you can find strategically placed benches that invite you to sit and stay awhile. 

  

They're perfect spots to read a book, have a conversation, or simply watch the world go by at a slower pace.

  

It's no wonder that photographers have discovered this location. 



Most photographers have figured out a better way to take panoramic images.



The natural beauty makes it a sought-after backdrop for engagement photos, family portraits, and wedding photography. 

  

The varied landscapes within this compact park offer countless framing opportunities for capturing special moments.

   
Dogwood trees were blooming.

The legend of the dogwood tree tells that the dogwood was once a massive tree chosen for the cross of Jesus Christ's crucifixion. Pitying the tree’s distress over this use, Jesus decreed it would henceforth be small and twisted so it could never be used for a cross again. The four-petaled flower forms the shape of a cross. The vertical petals are longer while the horizontal petals are shorter.  Each petal has an indentation at the tip, stained with rust and red, representing the rusty nail prints from the crucifixion and the blood-stained flowers, forever acting as a reminder of his crucifixion. The center of the flower resembles a crown of thorns. This American legend often appears around Easter, as dogwoods typically bloom during the spring season. The story is regarded as a powerful, faith-based narrative rather than a literal botanical history, as dogwood trees are not native to Israel.

Ways to Enjoy Your Visit

The expansive grassy areas practically beg for a picnic blanket and a basket of snacks. 

  

It's nice to enjoy a sandwich while surrounded by so much greenery, especially when you're technically still in the heart of the city.

  
Little memorial in the park and patriotism among the neighbors. 

Early mornings often bring yoga enthusiasts who unroll their mats in quiet corners of the park. 

 

The tranquil environment creates a wonderful setting for mindful movement. 

  
Even the dandelions are picturesque. 

Meanwhile, four-legged visitors and their humans make regular appearances - though do keep your dogs leashed as per park rules.

  
Daisy's, Red Bud and Forsythia. 

YELP

This is a decent 10-acre nature park that is in 3 sections that runs in a zig-zag formation. It is smack dab in the middle of the historic Ansley Park neighborhood. There is tons of free street parking available for the park's visitors.

  

The park is situated in a low-lying ravine. You either have to take stairs or walk down a semi step hill. One section of the park has a small stream that runs along it and is located between houses. It has a few picnic tables, some green space and trail that goes through it. The main section of the park has lots of green space and it's a decent option to spend a few hours.

  

Make a day out of it and couple this shady quiet park with a visit to the high museum. Old growth trees coupled with a slow paced neighborhood make this a great option to spend a few relaxing hours.

  

Nestled amongst the winding streets between Peachtree and Piedmont, Winn Park features an intimate charm that the far-larger Piedmont Park lacks.

  

You'll find the park itself can insulate you from the harried hurry of city life, and even deliver some measure of the peace that stressed executives move to the country for.

  
Thrift, stone steps, and a Tulip Tree.

Patricia W said Atlanta is my home town. My family and I have been coming to Winn Park for just under sixty years. I absolutely love it and find peace here. Sitting on "our" bench, basking in the sun, we look up and see the skyscrapers peeping above the graceful oak trees. Then we take our labs to play fetch in the ponds. I recharge by the waterfall, my favorite spot. This is our Central Park.

   
Azaleas, decorative landscaping neighborhood, and Pansies with an encore of the Tulip Tree. 

One word of caution: after a good rain, parts of Winn Park can get quite muddy, and some paths become slippery. Consider your footwear accordingly if you're visiting after wet weather. Despite this small drawback, this green space offers a little glimpse of nature just minutes from the Woodruff Arts Center.

Fulton County (Part 4)

Wow, 84 images little neighborhood park. We continue with our National Register of Historic Properties in Fulton County. 181 to go. Going to sneak in 41 today's post. 

College Park Historic District

The College Park Historic District represents the intact historic core of the community of College Park including its historic commercial and residential development, transportation corridor, planning and landscape features, and community landmark buildings. 

  

  

It became "College Park" due to the presence of Cox College and the influence of Dr. Charles Cox on the city's growth, street naming, and landscaping. 

 
Cox College then, Woodward Academy today. 

Georgia Military Academy (now Woodward Academy) was also a very important part of the city's educational heritage.



 
College Park has a beautiful residential neighborhood also. 

College Street School

The College Street School is significant in architecture because it is a good example of early 20th-century public school design featuring central hallway plans and large windows for light and air.

 
The College Street School meets National Register Criterion A because it served as the city's only white elementary school for nearly twenty years. 

  

Collier Heights Historic District

  

Collier-Perry-Bentley House

The Collier Perry Bentley House, c1823/1868. Built by George Washington Collier, Atlanta's first postmaster. Collier and his brothers owned hundreds of acres along Peachtree Road. 

  

In the late 1940s, everyone expected this home to be demolished in the name of progress. Noted architect R. Kennan Perry preserved and restored this house in the early 1950s, in one of Atlanta's first modern historic preservation efforts!

F. J. Cooledge and Sons, Company-Hastings' Seed Company

The F.J. Cooledge and Sons Company-Hastings' Seed Company Building fronts Marietta Street and abuts the Western and Atlantic railroad tracks in an industrial section northwest of Atlanta. 

  

The building was constructed in 1913 by the Mackle & Crawford Construction Company for F.J. Cooledge and Sons, as an industrial building which has housed glass, paint, and seed companies.

  

It is significant in architecture as a good and intact example of a utilitarian industrial design used for manufacturing facilities in the early 20th century.

Cox-Carlton Hotel

  
Hotel Indigo now.

  

 

Crescent Apartments

 
German Consulate during Olympics. Burned down twice.

 

  
This is where Margaret Mitchell typed away on a Remington Typewriter for five years to write Gone With the Wind.

William H. Crogman School

The William H. Crogman School is a two-story Romanesque Revival-style urban public school located in the African-American neighborhood of Pittsburgh in southwest Atlanta. Designed by Atlanta architect A. Ten Eyck Brown and built in 1922, the long rectangular school is clad in brick and supported by a reinforced-concrete frame. 

 

It is significant in the area of architecture as an excellent example of urban public school built in the Romanesque Revival style. Lofts now. 

   

The Crogman school is also significant for its association with education and black ethnic heritage because it represents the first generation of modern public schools in Atlanta that were built to serve the city's African-American students.

Cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta

 
Building still at Zoo. Painting and Texas Locomotive have moved to new building Atlanta History Center in Buckhead.

 
Action at Degress Battery and Troup Hurt House (GNW #265).

H. B. Davis Building-Hotel Roxy

  

  

Degive's Grand Opera House

    
Also know as Lowes Grand Theater where they premiered Gone With the Wind  in 1939. Burned down, Georgia Pacific Building there now.

Dixie Coca-Cola Bottling Company Plant

 
  

East Point Industrial District

The East Point Industrial District is located in downtown East Point in the area to the east side of the railroad tracks, west of Martin Street, south of Norman Berry Drive, and north of Taylor Street. The district is comprised of five late 19th-and early 20th-century industrial complexes. These complexes include the White Hickory Wagon Works, Blount Carriage and Buggy Works, Couch Brothers Cotton Mills, the Atlanta Utility Works, and the Oak Knitting Mill Buildings.

   

These buildings with their relatively simple unadorned exteriors and heavy timber-framed interiors are good examples of late 19th century industrial architecture found in small towns and cities in Georgia and the southeast at the turn of the century.

  

Rutherford and Martha Ellis House



Empire Manufacturing Company Building

 

 

  

English-American Building (Flatiorn Building)

   

English Avenue School

 

  

Thomas and Rae Epting Lustron House

The Thomas and Rae Epting Lustron House is located at 1692 Brewer Blvd., Atlanta, Fulton Co., Georgia. 

 

The Epting Lustron House is significant in architecture and engineering as a good example of post-World War II prefabricated housing and an excellent and intact example of the "Lustron" type of prefabricated house. This innovative and unusual type of prefabrication employed porcelain-enamel baked on steel panels. 

 

Erected on a steel frame, easy to maintain, and supposedly well-priced, the Lustron house was touted as the technologically advanced prefab answer to the housing shortage after WWII.

Fairburn Commercial Historic District

 

 

  
Two Depots and you have to drive under the train tracks to get to the main drag. 

Fairlie-Poplar Historic District

 

Atlanta's oldest skyscrapers are located in the district.  

  
I use to walk this section of Atlanta as part of my walking tours of Atlanta. 

There also smaller Victorian, turn-of-the-century, and early twentieth century commercial and office buildings, and early twentieth century loft-type structures. 

  

Styles represented by these buildings include Victorian Eclectic, Chicago, Renaissance Revival, Neoclassical, Commercial, Georgian Revival, and Art Deco. 

  

The Fairlie-Poplar Historic District is significant as the largest and most concentrated intact part of Atlanta's late nineteenth and early twentieth century central business district.

Farlinger

The Farlinger, built in 1898, is a four-story Victorian Eclectic apartment/hotel building with commercial space on the first floor. Its triangular plan conforms to its wedge-shaped lot, located at the intersection of Peachtree Street and Ivy Street in downtown Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia.

 

In terms of architecture, the building is significant as one of Atlanta's finest High Victorian Eclectic buildings. Its distinctive wedge-shaped plan, dramatic site and handsome detailing have made it a landmark in downtown Atlanta for more than eighty years.

  

The Farlinger is significant for its association with Alexander W. Farlinger. Farlinger was at one time president of the National Retail Grocers' Association. 

 

His elegant grocery store, located on the ground floor, was advertised as "the model grocery store of the United States".

Fire Station No. 11

 

  

First Congregational Church

 

First Methodist Episcopal Church, South

  

First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta

  



Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant

  

Forscom Command Sergeant Major's Quarters

'This building is the oldest structure still remaining in use at Fort McPherson. It was originally built as a civilian employee's quarters and was first occupied by the Civilian Post Engineer.


Front and back. 

The quarters were occupied by CWO Ulie H. Jeffers, then chief field clerk. CWO Jeffers occupied the quarters until late 1949 which was a period of approximately 27 years and probably establishes a record for continuous occupancy of Army quarters by one individual.


There is another house with even more history at Fort McPherson, Quarters 10. In 1925, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was assigned to Fort McPherson as post commander. Since his wife refused to live in the quarters, they rented an apartment downtown near the Fox Theatre. The MacArthurs left after having spent 89 days at Fort McPherson, when he was reassigned to Baltimore. A sleeping porch was added to the back of the quarters in 1935 for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's visits while he was en route to Warm Springs, Georgia. 

 
Ft. McPherson all about Tyler Perry Studios now.

Fort Peace (The Castle)

 

   

   

Fox Theatre

   
I saw the Rolling Stones, Patti Smith and the Ramones on the "Miss You" Tour. Tickets said "Cock Roaches." All three in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Saw Frank Zappa, Santana in here too. 

 
Stars twinkle in ceiling. Gilded gold every where, even men's urinals. 



Fox Theatre Historic District



Freeman Ford Building

Located just northeast from the heart of downtown Atlanta, the Freeman Ford Building is a three-story, Art Deco-style building which was originally built to house the C. E. Freeman Ford automobile dealership.

  

The interior was originally open with three automobile ramps connecting the levels and an entry ramp into the building. There are now large apartment lofts on each level and the ramps remain with wood platforms built over some of them. 

   

With its terra-cotta frieze with abstract floral and geometric patterns and vertical projections, the Freeman Ford Building has impressive Art Deco detailing.

Fulton County Courthouse

  

Garden Hills Historic District

The Garden Hills Historic District in Buckhead is characterized by curvilinear streets set into the natural topography. 

 

The result is a subdivision which follows the tenets of Frederick Law Olmsted. 

  

The roots of this planned community, a great distance from the downtown Atlanta business hub, came from the rapid spread of the use of private automobiles after World War One, allowing citizens to live further away.

  
They even had apartments in here. This shopping strip gone now, but they had Fantasy Land Record Store here and the theater that played the Rocky Horror Picture Show for years. 

Garrison Apartments

 

 

 

General Electric Company Repair Shop Warehouse

The General Electric Repair Shop and Warehouse comprises two, large masonry buildings constructed in 1922 in Atlanta's Mechanicsville neighborhood, roughly ten blocks west of Turner  Field.

 

It's significant in the area of architecture because the two buildings are excellent examples of large industrial buildings that were used by General Electric as its Southeast regional repair shop and warehouse. Concrete-framed warehouses with brick infill and metal factory windows were commonly built throughout the United States in the 1920s and 1930s because they could be built quickly, they were fireproof, and their open interior plans could serve a variety of uses. 



It's significant in the area of commerce because it represents Atlanta's rise as a center for regional corporate headquarters and because it represents the increasing use and availability of electricity and electrical appliances in the Southeastern United States in the first half of the 20th century.

  
Apartments now. 

Georgia Institute of Technology Historic District

  
College of Management - George Woodruff School of Mechanics - Lorraine. 

  
College of Management at night - Technology Square - Uncle Henie Way.

  
Knowles Dorm - Power Plant, Engineering Lab - Ariel view Tech and Atlanta.


Original Campus.


Grant Field before the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game 1925.

  
East Stands 1917 - West Stands 1967 - Champagne Jam 1978.

Georgia State Capitol



 
Hall where my Father In Law, Salvador Richard Pipitone, got French Légion d'Honneur. Bombardier 30 missions over France and Germany. 

 
General John B. Gordan, 3rd highest ranking Confederate General at end of Civil War. Multiple times Governor and Senator for Georgia. 

 
Looking up and down rotunda. Bust and portraits all the men who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. 

 
House and Senate State Capital. 



Jeremiah S. Gilbert House

  

   

Glenn Building

  

May Patterson Goodrum House

 
Front and back.



Designed by Philip T. Shutze and is considered one of his "finest works."

  

 

Grady Hospital

    

Todays GNW gals are all UGA winner's for Winn Park.

   
Elena Kulichenko (High Jump) Kim Arnold & Courtney Kupets (Gymnastics) Kara Lynn Joyce (Swimming)

]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #275 - Winn Park

Reaching for Natural Wonders in Atlanta, I found this really cool park with Rock landscaping. And it gave me a chance to travel there on a Sunday recently when it was trying to rain. Atlanta's oldest car neighborhood, they made the streets extra wide being wary of room needed. Almost all the images are from my visit. 

 

Not hard to figure a scrolling nugget for this post. I could have used a Hot Chocolate as I was walking around this misty day. 



Less than two blocks from the hustle and bustle of Peachtree Street, Winn Park is a quiet sanctuary for strolling amongst the huge old oaks and babbling brook. 

 

I thought this park was designed by William Monroe, but it turned out to be designed by Julia Orme Martin the principal of Julia O. Martin Landscape Design. She was a landscape designer who helped restore and preserve Ansley Park in Atlanta, Georgia. She was a member of the Ansley Park Garden Club and served on the Board of the Ansley Park Beautification Foundation. A longtime member of the Board of Managers of the A. G. Rhodes Homes, she was also a sustaining member of the Junior League of Atlanta and a member of the Atlanta Town Committee of the National Society of the Colonial Dames in the state of Georgia. 

 
Martin and the old Governor's mansion in Ansley Park. 

Julia Martin designed gardens in the Southeast for two decades, beginning in the early 1970s. Like most women landscape designers of this period, Martin primarily worked in the arena of residential landscape design. Her most notable projects include the A. G. Rhodes Home on Boulevard Avenue (Atlanta, Georgia); the Henry B. Tompkins property on West Wesley Road (Atlanta, Georgia); and the Columbus Museum, once the home of W. C. Bradley (Columbus, Georgia). She is also known for her landscape designs for her primary home located on Westminster Drive in Ansley Park (Atlanta, Georgia) as well as the gardens she designed for Oldfield, her vacation home in Sargentville, Maine. Martin died on January 6, 1999 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Located in a natural ravine in the Ansley Park neighborhood (Atlanta's oldest auto-oriented suburb), Winn Park is a great place to visit to unwind and enjoy nature.

 
The buildings of Midtown tower over Ansley Park neighborhood. Stone work extends to sidewalk. 

A Hidden Urban Oasis

Found in Atlanta's Ansley Park neighborhood, Winn Park feels like a secret you've stumbled upon. 


You would not even know there was a park here at first. 

This 10-acre green space sits below street level, creating a natural sanctuary that somehow manages to muffle the sounds of city life just beyond its borders. 

 

Even on days when others are enjoying the park alongside you, there's a certain peacefulness that hangs in the air.

  
You enter the ravine from either side down stone steps. 

Perhaps it's the magnificent mature trees that do the trick .......

  
Their sprawling canopies create a shaded haven that makes even the hottest Georgia afternoons bearable. 

 
There is the main waterfall at the top of the park. 



It's the kind of place where you can actually hear yourself think again.


Nature's Touches

As you wander the winding paths through the park, you'll come across some small ponds that reflects the surrounding greenery. 

 

The gentle sounds from the charming waterfall provide a soundtrack to your visit.

   

Nature's own white noise machine cutting through any remaining city sounds.

 
First of many benches. Peering back at the skyscrapers overlooking the park. 

Don't miss the stone bridge that arches over part of the water feature. 

  
It's not just functional, middle image was from atop bridge, it's one of those spots where you'll instinctively reach for your camera. 

 
The second pond has rocky landscaped shoreline. 

These paths see a steady stream of neighbors walking dogs or getting in their daily steps, especially during weekday afternoons.

  
I found 20 different flowers in here. Daffodils, first flower of Spring leads us off. 

The park's undulating terrain adds dimension to your explorations, offering different viewpoints as you move through the space. 

 

If you can time your visit for sunset, you're in for a treat - the light filtering through the tree canopy creates a golden glow that transforms the ordinary into something rather magical.

  
Flowers on bark of tree. 

A Community Treasure

Within the park, you can find strategically placed benches that invite you to sit and stay awhile. 

  

They're perfect spots to read a book, have a conversation, or simply watch the world go by at a slower pace.

  

It's no wonder that photographers have discovered this location. 



Most photographers have figured out a better way to take panoramic images.



The natural beauty makes it a sought-after backdrop for engagement photos, family portraits, and wedding photography. 

  

The varied landscapes within this compact park offer countless framing opportunities for capturing special moments.

   
Dogwood trees were blooming.

The legend of the dogwood tree tells that the dogwood was once a massive tree chosen for the cross of Jesus Christ's crucifixion. Pitying the tree’s distress over this use, Jesus decreed it would henceforth be small and twisted so it could never be used for a cross again. The four-petaled flower forms the shape of a cross. The vertical petals are longer while the horizontal petals are shorter.  Each petal has an indentation at the tip, stained with rust and red, representing the rusty nail prints from the crucifixion and the blood-stained flowers, forever acting as a reminder of his crucifixion. The center of the flower resembles a crown of thorns. This American legend often appears around Easter, as dogwoods typically bloom during the spring season. The story is regarded as a powerful, faith-based narrative rather than a literal botanical history, as dogwood trees are not native to Israel.

Ways to Enjoy Your Visit

The expansive grassy areas practically beg for a picnic blanket and a basket of snacks. 

  

It's nice to enjoy a sandwich while surrounded by so much greenery, especially when you're technically still in the heart of the city.

  
Little memorial in the park and patriotism among the neighbors. 

Early mornings often bring yoga enthusiasts who unroll their mats in quiet corners of the park. 

 

The tranquil environment creates a wonderful setting for mindful movement. 

  
Even the dandelions are picturesque. 

Meanwhile, four-legged visitors and their humans make regular appearances - though do keep your dogs leashed as per park rules.

  
Daisy's, Red Bud and Forsythia. 

YELP

This is a decent 10-acre nature park that is in 3 sections that runs in a zig-zag formation. It is smack dab in the middle of the historic Ansley Park neighborhood. There is tons of free street parking available for the park's visitors.

  

The park is situated in a low-lying ravine. You either have to take stairs or walk down a semi step hill. One section of the park has a small stream that runs along it and is located between houses. It has a few picnic tables, some green space and trail that goes through it. The main section of the park has lots of green space and it's a decent option to spend a few hours.

  

Make a day out of it and couple this shady quiet park with a visit to the high museum. Old growth trees coupled with a slow paced neighborhood make this a great option to spend a few relaxing hours.

  

Nestled amongst the winding streets between Peachtree and Piedmont, Winn Park features an intimate charm that the far-larger Piedmont Park lacks.

  

You'll find the park itself can insulate you from the harried hurry of city life, and even deliver some measure of the peace that stressed executives move to the country for.

  
Thrift, stone steps, and a Tulip Tree.

Patricia W said Atlanta is my home town. My family and I have been coming to Winn Park for just under sixty years. I absolutely love it and find peace here. Sitting on "our" bench, basking in the sun, we look up and see the skyscrapers peeping above the graceful oak trees. Then we take our labs to play fetch in the ponds. I recharge by the waterfall, my favorite spot. This is our Central Park.

   
Azaleas, decorative landscaping neighborhood, and Pansies with an encore of the Tulip Tree. 

One word of caution: after a good rain, parts of Winn Park can get quite muddy, and some paths become slippery. Consider your footwear accordingly if you're visiting after wet weather. Despite this small drawback, this green space offers a little glimpse of nature just minutes from the Woodruff Arts Center.

Fulton County (Part 4)

Wow, 84 images little neighborhood park. We continue with our National Register of Historic Properties in Fulton County. 181 to go. Going to sneak in 41 today's post. 

College Park Historic District

The College Park Historic District represents the intact historic core of the community of College Park including its historic commercial and residential development, transportation corridor, planning and landscape features, and community landmark buildings. 

  

  

It became "College Park" due to the presence of Cox College and the influence of Dr. Charles Cox on the city's growth, street naming, and landscaping. 

 
Cox College then, Woodward Academy today. 

Georgia Military Academy (now Woodward Academy) was also a very important part of the city's educational heritage.



 
College Park has a beautiful residential neighborhood also. 

College Street School

The College Street School is significant in architecture because it is a good example of early 20th-century public school design featuring central hallway plans and large windows for light and air.

 
The College Street School meets National Register Criterion A because it served as the city's only white elementary school for nearly twenty years. 

  

Collier Heights Historic District

  

Collier-Perry-Bentley House

The Collier Perry Bentley House, c1823/1868. Built by George Washington Collier, Atlanta's first postmaster. Collier and his brothers owned hundreds of acres along Peachtree Road. 

  

In the late 1940s, everyone expected this home to be demolished in the name of progress. Noted architect R. Kennan Perry preserved and restored this house in the early 1950s, in one of Atlanta's first modern historic preservation efforts!

F. J. Cooledge and Sons, Company-Hastings' Seed Company

The F.J. Cooledge and Sons Company-Hastings' Seed Company Building fronts Marietta Street and abuts the Western and Atlantic railroad tracks in an industrial section northwest of Atlanta. 

  

The building was constructed in 1913 by the Mackle & Crawford Construction Company for F.J. Cooledge and Sons, as an industrial building which has housed glass, paint, and seed companies.

  

It is significant in architecture as a good and intact example of a utilitarian industrial design used for manufacturing facilities in the early 20th century.

Cox-Carlton Hotel

  
Hotel Indigo now.

  

 

Crescent Apartments

 
German Consulate during Olympics. Burned down twice.

 

  
This is where Margaret Mitchell typed away on a Remington Typewriter for five years to write Gone With the Wind.

William H. Crogman School

The William H. Crogman School is a two-story Romanesque Revival-style urban public school located in the African-American neighborhood of Pittsburgh in southwest Atlanta. Designed by Atlanta architect A. Ten Eyck Brown and built in 1922, the long rectangular school is clad in brick and supported by a reinforced-concrete frame. 

 

It is significant in the area of architecture as an excellent example of urban public school built in the Romanesque Revival style. Lofts now. 

   

The Crogman school is also significant for its association with education and black ethnic heritage because it represents the first generation of modern public schools in Atlanta that were built to serve the city's African-American students.

Cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta

 
Building still at Zoo. Painting and Texas Locomotive have moved to new building Atlanta History Center in Buckhead.

 
Action at Degress Battery and Troup Hurt House (GNW #265).

H. B. Davis Building-Hotel Roxy

  

  

Degive's Grand Opera House

    
Also know as Lowes Grand Theater where they premiered Gone With the Wind  in 1939. Burned down, Georgia Pacific Building there now.

Dixie Coca-Cola Bottling Company Plant

 
  

East Point Industrial District

The East Point Industrial District is located in downtown East Point in the area to the east side of the railroad tracks, west of Martin Street, south of Norman Berry Drive, and north of Taylor Street. The district is comprised of five late 19th-and early 20th-century industrial complexes. These complexes include the White Hickory Wagon Works, Blount Carriage and Buggy Works, Couch Brothers Cotton Mills, the Atlanta Utility Works, and the Oak Knitting Mill Buildings.

   

These buildings with their relatively simple unadorned exteriors and heavy timber-framed interiors are good examples of late 19th century industrial architecture found in small towns and cities in Georgia and the southeast at the turn of the century.

  

Rutherford and Martha Ellis House



Empire Manufacturing Company Building

 

 

  

English-American Building (Flatiorn Building)

   

English Avenue School

 

  

Thomas and Rae Epting Lustron House

The Thomas and Rae Epting Lustron House is located at 1692 Brewer Blvd., Atlanta, Fulton Co., Georgia. 

 

The Epting Lustron House is significant in architecture and engineering as a good example of post-World War II prefabricated housing and an excellent and intact example of the "Lustron" type of prefabricated house. This innovative and unusual type of prefabrication employed porcelain-enamel baked on steel panels. 

 

Erected on a steel frame, easy to maintain, and supposedly well-priced, the Lustron house was touted as the technologically advanced prefab answer to the housing shortage after WWII.

Fairburn Commercial Historic District

 

 

  
Two Depots and you have to drive under the train tracks to get to the main drag. 

Fairlie-Poplar Historic District

 

Atlanta's oldest skyscrapers are located in the district.  

  
I use to walk this section of Atlanta as part of my walking tours of Atlanta. 

There also smaller Victorian, turn-of-the-century, and early twentieth century commercial and office buildings, and early twentieth century loft-type structures. 

  

Styles represented by these buildings include Victorian Eclectic, Chicago, Renaissance Revival, Neoclassical, Commercial, Georgian Revival, and Art Deco. 

  

The Fairlie-Poplar Historic District is significant as the largest and most concentrated intact part of Atlanta's late nineteenth and early twentieth century central business district.

Farlinger

The Farlinger, built in 1898, is a four-story Victorian Eclectic apartment/hotel building with commercial space on the first floor. Its triangular plan conforms to its wedge-shaped lot, located at the intersection of Peachtree Street and Ivy Street in downtown Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia.

 

In terms of architecture, the building is significant as one of Atlanta's finest High Victorian Eclectic buildings. Its distinctive wedge-shaped plan, dramatic site and handsome detailing have made it a landmark in downtown Atlanta for more than eighty years.

  

The Farlinger is significant for its association with Alexander W. Farlinger. Farlinger was at one time president of the National Retail Grocers' Association. 

 

His elegant grocery store, located on the ground floor, was advertised as "the model grocery store of the United States".

Fire Station No. 11

 

  

First Congregational Church

 

First Methodist Episcopal Church, South

  

First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta

  



Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant

  

Forscom Command Sergeant Major's Quarters

'This building is the oldest structure still remaining in use at Fort McPherson. It was originally built as a civilian employee's quarters and was first occupied by the Civilian Post Engineer.


Front and back. 

The quarters were occupied by CWO Ulie H. Jeffers, then chief field clerk. CWO Jeffers occupied the quarters until late 1949 which was a period of approximately 27 years and probably establishes a record for continuous occupancy of Army quarters by one individual.


There is another house with even more history at Fort McPherson, Quarters 10. In 1925, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was assigned to Fort McPherson as post commander. Since his wife refused to live in the quarters, they rented an apartment downtown near the Fox Theatre. The MacArthurs left after having spent 89 days at Fort McPherson, when he was reassigned to Baltimore. A sleeping porch was added to the back of the quarters in 1935 for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's visits while he was en route to Warm Springs, Georgia. 

 
Ft. McPherson all about Tyler Perry Studios now.

Fort Peace (The Castle)

 

   

   

Fox Theatre

   
I saw the Rolling Stones, Patti Smith and the Ramones on the "Miss You" Tour. Tickets said "Cock Roaches." All three in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Saw Frank Zappa, Santana in here too. 

 
Stars twinkle in ceiling. Gilded gold every where, even men's urinals. 



Fox Theatre Historic District



Freeman Ford Building

Located just northeast from the heart of downtown Atlanta, the Freeman Ford Building is a three-story, Art Deco-style building which was originally built to house the C. E. Freeman Ford automobile dealership.

  

The interior was originally open with three automobile ramps connecting the levels and an entry ramp into the building. There are now large apartment lofts on each level and the ramps remain with wood platforms built over some of them. 

   

With its terra-cotta frieze with abstract floral and geometric patterns and vertical projections, the Freeman Ford Building has impressive Art Deco detailing.

Fulton County Courthouse

  

Garden Hills Historic District

The Garden Hills Historic District in Buckhead is characterized by curvilinear streets set into the natural topography. 

 

The result is a subdivision which follows the tenets of Frederick Law Olmsted. 

  

The roots of this planned community, a great distance from the downtown Atlanta business hub, came from the rapid spread of the use of private automobiles after World War One, allowing citizens to live further away.

  
They even had apartments in here. This shopping strip gone now, but they had Fantasy Land Record Store here and the theater that played the Rocky Horror Picture Show for years. 

Garrison Apartments

 

 

 

General Electric Company Repair Shop Warehouse

The General Electric Repair Shop and Warehouse comprises two, large masonry buildings constructed in 1922 in Atlanta's Mechanicsville neighborhood, roughly ten blocks west of Turner  Field.

 

It's significant in the area of architecture because the two buildings are excellent examples of large industrial buildings that were used by General Electric as its Southeast regional repair shop and warehouse. Concrete-framed warehouses with brick infill and metal factory windows were commonly built throughout the United States in the 1920s and 1930s because they could be built quickly, they were fireproof, and their open interior plans could serve a variety of uses. 



It's significant in the area of commerce because it represents Atlanta's rise as a center for regional corporate headquarters and because it represents the increasing use and availability of electricity and electrical appliances in the Southeastern United States in the first half of the 20th century.

  
Apartments now. 

Georgia Institute of Technology Historic District

  
College of Management - George Woodruff School of Mechanics - Lorraine. 

  
College of Management at night - Technology Square - Uncle Henie Way.

  
Knowles Dorm - Power Plant, Engineering Lab - Ariel view Tech and Atlanta.


Original Campus.


Grant Field before the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game 1925.

  
East Stands 1917 - West Stands 1967 - Champagne Jam 1978.

Georgia State Capitol



 
Hall where my Father In Law, Salvador Richard Pipitone, got French Légion d'Honneur. Bombardier 30 missions over France and Germany. 

 
General John B. Gordan, 3rd highest ranking Confederate General at end of Civil War. Multiple times Governor and Senator for Georgia. 

 
Looking up and down rotunda. Bust and portraits all the men who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. 

 
House and Senate State Capital. 



Jeremiah S. Gilbert House

  

   

Glenn Building

  

May Patterson Goodrum House

 
Front and back.



Designed by Philip T. Shutze and is considered one of his "finest works."

  

 

Grady Hospital

    

Todays GNW gals are all UGA winner's for Winn Park.

   
Elena Kulichenko (High Jump) Kim Arnold & Courtney Kupets (Gymnastics) Kara Lynn Joyce (Swimming)

]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-13047.html Mon, 29 Dec 2025 23:49:16 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-13047.html Georgia Natural Wonder #274 - Morningside Nature Preserve

Searching for Natural Wonders in Fulton County and Atlanta, we come upon this newer neighborhood park, and we come back to Peachtree Creek again. Preserved by dedicated neighborhood residents and The Nature Conservancy in the mid-2000s, the Morningside Nature Preserve offers a wonderful woodland retreat from the surrounding urban landscape of Atlanta. 



The Grateful Dead give us our scrolling Nugget for today's post. Walk me out in the Morning Side Nature Preserve. 



Tucked into the northern fringes of Atlanta’s upscale Morningside neighborhood, the Morningside Nature Preserve is a hidden yet well-loved matrix of hiking, walking and running trails that traverse over 30 acres of rolling forest.

 

The park gives a chance for Midtown residents to grab a bit of nature without a long drive. We came to Peachtree Creek with 3 previous post as follows:

Georgia Natural Wonder #254 - Lullwater Preserve

Georgia Natural Wonder #255 - South Peachtree Creek - Mason Mill 

Georgia Natural Wonder #264 - Battle of Peachtree Creek

 

Morningside Nature Preserve: the hike

The hike departs a trailhead on Lenox Road (view maps and driving directions), climbing steadily in a clearing beneath power lines. 

 

The trail turns right to cross the clearing, entering the wooded forest and descending a small ridge via wooden stairs.

 

The trail exits the wooded canopy and enters a clearing, where a small trail marker at .25 mile points left. Here, the trail hikes through a cleared meadow filled with a tangled landscape of kudzu and waist-high grasses and brush. The trail curves a gradual right, reaching South Fork Peachtree Creek at .5 mile.

 

The shores of South Fork Peachtree are sandy and broad. The creek meanders sharply through the forest, carving a steep-walled shore on the opposite side while slowing to drop sandy sediment on the east bank. These sandy shores are popular with dogs and their owners, earning the ‘dog beach’ nickname with Atlanta locals.

  

A beautifully constructed wooden suspension bridge arcs over the creek, leading to an extensive 2-mile network of hiking and walking trails on the western banks of the creek. The trail crosses the bridge to continue the hike.

 

The western shores of South Fork Peachtree Creek comprise the majority of the hiking and walking trails at Morningside Nature Preserve. A trail network weaves over terraced ridges flanking the shores of the creek and cross several small streams. Keep an eye out for wildlife here; foxes, beavers, birds, turtles and raccoons frequent these forested sections of the preserve. 

  

Looping back to the suspension bridge over South Peachtree Creek, the hike completes the loop portion of this adventure and re-crosses the bridge. From the suspension bridge, the hike retraces its steps to the trailhead, completing at 2 miles.



All Trails

This trail winds through dense, jungle-like vegetation, with diverse and varying landscapes to enjoy. With some changes in elevation, this trail is somewhat brief but can provide a decent challenge. The major payoff is a spot on the river underneath the suspension bridge, affectionately called "Dog Beach" by locals, where hikers allow their dogs to play in the water while off-leash.

   

This trail is popular with dog owners, who let their pets swim in the steam that flows through the Preserve. The upside is that few of them cross the bridge and hike the loop, so that section isn't crowded. There's one decent climb and some stairs, but otherwise easy.

 

Peaceful trail along power lines and a river. Lots of bird life and very few people. Benches to take rest along the way. Sandy beaches along the river.



I love this in-town, dog friendly trail that has creek access and a couple different trail options. Perfect for an anytime walk!

Explore Georgia

The Morningside Nature Preserve is 33.1 acres of woods in northeast Atlanta that is bisected by the South Fork Peachtree Creek. There are about 2 miles of trails on both sides of the creek. The Morningside Nature Preserve has two trailheads: one at Wellbourne Road and the other at the Georgia Power Substation on Lenox Road. A suspension bridge over the creek connects the trails on both sides. 


Dog owners frequently bring their dogs to play on the shore and shallow water under the bridge, so the area has become known as Atlanta's "dog beach."

Atlanta

Once slated for residential development, the preserve was saved when residents and the Nature Conservancy rallied in the early 2000s to protect the area, purchasing the land from developers before transferring it to the city to be made into a park. 

 

Today, the only signs of development are a unique wooden suspension bridge that connects the east and west sides of the park across the South Fork of Peachtree Creek and a wooden staircase.

Trip Advisor - Jim W.

We explored the Preserve as part of a larger neighborhood walk. We entered at the Lenox Road side, where they appear to have some parking available. From that point, you ascend a steep hill adjacent to the cleared area for the large power lines that pass through. The trails are dirt, but they do have some embedded plastic traction mats to assist versus mud.

 

At the top of the hill you cross under the power lines and descend an even steeper hill, this time with a stairway. This bottoms out in a boardwalk over a creek / swamp. When we visited, something had smashed at least one area of the boardwalk, so it was a bit challenging to navigate.

 

After that, the park expands somewhat. We next crossed a large creek via a bridge. This spot had a wide sandy beach which appeared popular with dog-owners.
  
 

From that point, the trail branches but is not marked. We ended up taking a different route than planned and were a bit confused once we exited back onto a residential street. We were able to get our bearings from map apps, though.

  

Depending on what you are looking for, this area can provide a nice woodsy respite from the city. However, aside from the occasional bridge or boardwalk it is mostly in its natural state. It is also fairly hilly.

  

Wikipedia

The Morningside Nature Preserve is a project initiated by the Wildwood Urban Forest Committee to stop the destruction of 30 acres of forest located in northeast Atlanta.

 

And to develop this land for leisure and educational uses, but in a way that is consistent with conservation principles.

 

Including protection of water resources and native vegetation.

TRD Addendum Daughter's Visit

My daughter and her friend, Ashley (Also my room mate for three months) visited and these are their images and videos. 

  
Meagan, Ashley, Oynx stomping through the woods.

  

  
Over the bridge. 

  
Under the bridge and in the water. 

  
Ashley and Oynx wagging tails. 

Fulton County (Part 3)

Another short and sweet Natural Wonder of Atlanta, didn't even have to visit, all Internet images. Gives us a large opportunity to continue our exploration of Fulton County, we continue on the National Register of Historic Properties. We have 211 to go. 

John F. Beavers House

The John F. Beavers House is a one-story, frame, weatherboarded house resting on rock piers that originally was a one-story, two-room, plain-style Antebellum house. 

 

The history of the John F. Beavers House is inextricably interwoven with the history of Campbellton and Campbell County. 

  

The Superior and Inferior courts and Elections of said county, were held at the house of John F. Beavers, till such time as a courthouse may be made permanent.

Berkeley Park Historic District

  

Bolton Lodge No. 416

Significant for its association with Freemasonry, a fraternal organization which has been an integral part of communities in the United States since the Colonial Era. 
 
Classical features include the pedimented entryways and symmetrical front façade crowned by a large modillioned cornice and entablature. 

Dr. Brailsford R. Brazeal House

The Brazeal House is primarily significant at the national level in the related areas of education and ethnic black heritage: as the long-time home of Dr. Brailsford R. Brazeal.

 

He was a prominent African-American scholar, teacher, and administrator at nearby Morehouse College, who from the late 1920s through the 1960s.

 

He made significant contributions to research, publication, teaching, and academic standards at this nationally significant African-American institution of higher learning. 

 

Briarcliff Hotel

 
  
Chuck Dowdle married my next door neighbor, Dianne Matthews, reception was here.

  

Briarcliff Plaza

 
Urban Outfitters is where the Plaza Pharmacy was.

 
The Majestic Diner and the plaza Theatre, still showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show (with live cast from audience).

Dr. Marion Luther Brittain Sr. House

The house is significant in education because it was built for, and owned and occupied by, Dr. Marion Luther Brittain, Sr. (1866-1953), one of the state's renown educators. 

 

Dr. Brittain was state school superintendent from 1910 to 1922. During this time he saw the consolidation of many county school systems and the building of more modern schools in most every county. At this same time, he served as president of several regional and national educational organizations. 

 

In 1922, he became the fourth president of Georgia Tech, from which he retired in 1944. 

 
The house became a Rambling Wreck in 2017.

Brookhaven Historic District

 

  

  

Brookwood Hills Historic District

 

  

Building at 161 Spring St.

The building at 161 Spring Street is an eight-story Neoclassical Revival-style building. The first three floors were designed by the Atlanta architectural firm R.C. Snow Company in 1928. The Atlanta firm of Barili and Humphreys designed floors four through eight, which were completed in 1948. 

 

It is an excellent example of the Neoclassical Revival style in Atlanta in the first decades of the 20th century. 

  

It is significant in the area of religion because it was the organizational center for domestic evangelical activities of the Southern Baptist Convention during the post-World War II era.

  
Hampton Inn now.

Building at 220 Sunset Avenue, NW

220 Sunset is a historic property associated with the Maynard Jackson family including Irene Dobbs-Jackson who integrated the Atlanta Public Library and Maynard Jackson Jr. the first Black mayor of Atlanta. It was a temporary home of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. 

 

The King Center and Westside Future Fund saved this building from demolition in order to restore the property and apply for historic designation on the National Register of Historic Places.

Building at 760–768 Confederate Avenue

This building was built c.1927 and has elements of the Mediterranean Revival style. It has five retail storefronts. It is significant in the area of commerce for its longtime use in a variety of commercial endeavors in the Grant Park neighborhood of Atlanta.

 

The building is also significant in the area of architecture as an excellent example of the multiple retail type, through its one-story height, flat roof, identical storefronts, and early 20th century construction date.

  

Buildings at 523-549 Stewart Avenue

The buildings represent the evolution of commerce in Atlanta over time, serving as a record of the commercial and industrial importance of the companies that occupied them. 

 

The 1920 and 1926 portions of the property are examples of “mill” or “slow-burning construction.” This construction method slowed the spread of fire by employing a combination of steel and heavy timber. 

 

Slow-burning construction was a state of the art, fire-safety solution for industrial buildings at the time, being both effective and affordable.

Bulloch Hall


Where Teddy Roosevelt's mom grew up, Mittie Bulloch. Home where his parents married. We covered this on an earlier post on Roswell (GNW #144 - Part 2).

Burns Cottage

 

   

46 Butler Street Colored Methodist Episcopal Church

The Butler Street C.M.E. Church is a vernacular Neo-Gothie Revival structure located on a small corner lot just south of Atlanta's Sweet Auburn Historic District. 

 

The stained glass windows are dedicated to various people involved with the founding of the church or the building of this structure. One is dedicated to Bishop L.H. Holsey who was instrumental in the church's founding in 1882. 

 

Architecturally, the Butler Street C.M.E. Church is significant as an example of a vernacular Neo-Gothic style church built for and by'Atlanta's black community.



In 1923, Theodore “Tiger” Flowers (1895-1927), the first Black man to win the world middleweight boxing championship, was a long-time steward in the church.

 
Holsey - Flowers.

Philanthropist Robert Woodruff, retired chairman of Coca-Cola, first contributed to the church in 1945 as a tribute to his chauffeur, Lawrence Calhoun, a member of the congregation.

Cabbagetown District

 

 
Carroll Street then and now.

   
Planned Graffiti and Mill Houses. 

 
Cotton Mill and condos inside. Made national news when crane worker had to be rescued by Helicopter during restoration. A fire in mill had stranded him on crane and he was cooking like a marshmallow. 

  

Campbell County Courthouse

 

Candler Building

  
There is a frieze of all these leaders of Arts, Science, Culture on this building along Peachtree Street. (Buffalo Bill, Ben Franklin, Beethoven)

  

   
I liked to visit this lobby when I did walking tours of Atlanta.

Canton Apartments

The Canton Apartments are signficant architecturally as a good example of apartment dwellings built in the 1920s in the English Renaissance style rather than as a garden apartment facing a courtyard. It appears more like a mansion would in the West Paces Ferry Road area than as an apartment.



It and other apartments nearby served as a buffer between thfe large homes and mansions and Peachtree Road and its rapid commercialization.

 

Capital City Club

 
Went to a Civil War round table in here once. 

   

Capitol View Apartments

Constructed in 1947 through the Federal Housing Administration’s Veterans Emergency Housing program, Capitol View Apartments is a classic example of a modern mid-century apartment building. 

 

Featuring ten rectangular two-story buildings arranged in “U”-shaped configurations around five landscaped courtyards. 

  

Capitol View Historic District

  

Capitol View Manor Historic District

 
Postal Union Building and former Capital View Manor Baptist Church.

  
Capitol View Manor was originally developed by the same developer of the Morningside and Virginia Highland neighborhood.

Cascade Heights Commercial Historic District

The Cascade Heights Commercial Historic District is a, listed on the Georgia Register of Historic Places located in Southwest Atlanta, recognized for its, well-preserved mid-century commercial architecture. 



It serves as a central hub for surrounding, historically affluent African American neighborhoods, characterized by local, "Mom and Pop" establishments and a strong, community-driven identity.

  

Since the 1970s, Cascade Heights has been a premier residential and business area for African-American professionals, including notable leaders like Hank Aaron and former Mayor Shirley Franklin.

  
Herman J. Russell Construction Company personal home and two other sample homes Cascade Heights. 

Castleberry Hill Historic District

 

  

Central Presbyterian Church

 

 

Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

 
Mother Theresa gave mass here 1995.

 

Citizens and Southern Bank Building

 

OK, I have a story in this building. I took my Criminal Justice degree and rose to rank of Colonel with company who served all the C&S properties. I checked on the guard here the night the Braves played that 19 inning game against the Mets on the 4th of July in 1985. It was already late in the night (18th inning) when we made our way up to the roof to see the post game fireworks. We were just waiting on Rick Camp to strike out. Needless to say, I had to move on and inspect another post and did not see the fireworks that night as the game went a bit longer.

  
There these big old 84 year old boilers (As of 1985) in the sub basement. Whole building was ornate and steeped in history. I included a peek in lobby on my walking tour of Atlanta. 

Coca-Cola Building Annex

The Coca-Cola Building Annex is a three-story, Classical Revival-style, brick industrial building located on the south side of Edgewood Avenue in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. Built c.1903-1904, the trapezoid-shaped building occupies the entire 4,331-square-foot lot, with the main facade on Edgewood Avenue and the rear facade on Coca-Cola Place.

 

The richly-ornamented Classical Revival-style facade is typical of early-2Oth-century commercial architecture in Atlanta and reflects the rapid growth and early success of the Atlanta-based soft drink company.

  
Lofts now. 

Another 30 National Register Historic Properties covered and another spot in Fulton County to enjoy a natural wonder on Peachtree Creek. 

My GNW Gals today are women with their dogs on a creek beach. 

  

 Meagan and Ashley deserve some credit as GNW Gals. 

]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #274 - Morningside Nature Preserve

Searching for Natural Wonders in Fulton County and Atlanta, we come upon this newer neighborhood park, and we come back to Peachtree Creek again. Preserved by dedicated neighborhood residents and The Nature Conservancy in the mid-2000s, the Morningside Nature Preserve offers a wonderful woodland retreat from the surrounding urban landscape of Atlanta. 



The Grateful Dead give us our scrolling Nugget for today's post. Walk me out in the Morning Side Nature Preserve. 



Tucked into the northern fringes of Atlanta’s upscale Morningside neighborhood, the Morningside Nature Preserve is a hidden yet well-loved matrix of hiking, walking and running trails that traverse over 30 acres of rolling forest.

 

The park gives a chance for Midtown residents to grab a bit of nature without a long drive. We came to Peachtree Creek with 3 previous post as follows:

Georgia Natural Wonder #254 - Lullwater Preserve

Georgia Natural Wonder #255 - South Peachtree Creek - Mason Mill 

Georgia Natural Wonder #264 - Battle of Peachtree Creek

 

Morningside Nature Preserve: the hike

The hike departs a trailhead on Lenox Road (view maps and driving directions), climbing steadily in a clearing beneath power lines. 

 

The trail turns right to cross the clearing, entering the wooded forest and descending a small ridge via wooden stairs.

 

The trail exits the wooded canopy and enters a clearing, where a small trail marker at .25 mile points left. Here, the trail hikes through a cleared meadow filled with a tangled landscape of kudzu and waist-high grasses and brush. The trail curves a gradual right, reaching South Fork Peachtree Creek at .5 mile.

 

The shores of South Fork Peachtree are sandy and broad. The creek meanders sharply through the forest, carving a steep-walled shore on the opposite side while slowing to drop sandy sediment on the east bank. These sandy shores are popular with dogs and their owners, earning the ‘dog beach’ nickname with Atlanta locals.

  

A beautifully constructed wooden suspension bridge arcs over the creek, leading to an extensive 2-mile network of hiking and walking trails on the western banks of the creek. The trail crosses the bridge to continue the hike.

 

The western shores of South Fork Peachtree Creek comprise the majority of the hiking and walking trails at Morningside Nature Preserve. A trail network weaves over terraced ridges flanking the shores of the creek and cross several small streams. Keep an eye out for wildlife here; foxes, beavers, birds, turtles and raccoons frequent these forested sections of the preserve. 

  

Looping back to the suspension bridge over South Peachtree Creek, the hike completes the loop portion of this adventure and re-crosses the bridge. From the suspension bridge, the hike retraces its steps to the trailhead, completing at 2 miles.



All Trails

This trail winds through dense, jungle-like vegetation, with diverse and varying landscapes to enjoy. With some changes in elevation, this trail is somewhat brief but can provide a decent challenge. The major payoff is a spot on the river underneath the suspension bridge, affectionately called "Dog Beach" by locals, where hikers allow their dogs to play in the water while off-leash.

   

This trail is popular with dog owners, who let their pets swim in the steam that flows through the Preserve. The upside is that few of them cross the bridge and hike the loop, so that section isn't crowded. There's one decent climb and some stairs, but otherwise easy.

 

Peaceful trail along power lines and a river. Lots of bird life and very few people. Benches to take rest along the way. Sandy beaches along the river.



I love this in-town, dog friendly trail that has creek access and a couple different trail options. Perfect for an anytime walk!

Explore Georgia

The Morningside Nature Preserve is 33.1 acres of woods in northeast Atlanta that is bisected by the South Fork Peachtree Creek. There are about 2 miles of trails on both sides of the creek. The Morningside Nature Preserve has two trailheads: one at Wellbourne Road and the other at the Georgia Power Substation on Lenox Road. A suspension bridge over the creek connects the trails on both sides. 


Dog owners frequently bring their dogs to play on the shore and shallow water under the bridge, so the area has become known as Atlanta's "dog beach."

Atlanta

Once slated for residential development, the preserve was saved when residents and the Nature Conservancy rallied in the early 2000s to protect the area, purchasing the land from developers before transferring it to the city to be made into a park. 

 

Today, the only signs of development are a unique wooden suspension bridge that connects the east and west sides of the park across the South Fork of Peachtree Creek and a wooden staircase.

Trip Advisor - Jim W.

We explored the Preserve as part of a larger neighborhood walk. We entered at the Lenox Road side, where they appear to have some parking available. From that point, you ascend a steep hill adjacent to the cleared area for the large power lines that pass through. The trails are dirt, but they do have some embedded plastic traction mats to assist versus mud.

 

At the top of the hill you cross under the power lines and descend an even steeper hill, this time with a stairway. This bottoms out in a boardwalk over a creek / swamp. When we visited, something had smashed at least one area of the boardwalk, so it was a bit challenging to navigate.

 

After that, the park expands somewhat. We next crossed a large creek via a bridge. This spot had a wide sandy beach which appeared popular with dog-owners.
  
 

From that point, the trail branches but is not marked. We ended up taking a different route than planned and were a bit confused once we exited back onto a residential street. We were able to get our bearings from map apps, though.

  

Depending on what you are looking for, this area can provide a nice woodsy respite from the city. However, aside from the occasional bridge or boardwalk it is mostly in its natural state. It is also fairly hilly.

  

Wikipedia

The Morningside Nature Preserve is a project initiated by the Wildwood Urban Forest Committee to stop the destruction of 30 acres of forest located in northeast Atlanta.

 

And to develop this land for leisure and educational uses, but in a way that is consistent with conservation principles.

 

Including protection of water resources and native vegetation.

TRD Addendum Daughter's Visit

My daughter and her friend, Ashley (Also my room mate for three months) visited and these are their images and videos. 

  
Meagan, Ashley, Oynx stomping through the woods.

  

  
Over the bridge. 

  
Under the bridge and in the water. 

  
Ashley and Oynx wagging tails. 

Fulton County (Part 3)

Another short and sweet Natural Wonder of Atlanta, didn't even have to visit, all Internet images. Gives us a large opportunity to continue our exploration of Fulton County, we continue on the National Register of Historic Properties. We have 211 to go. 

John F. Beavers House

The John F. Beavers House is a one-story, frame, weatherboarded house resting on rock piers that originally was a one-story, two-room, plain-style Antebellum house. 

 

The history of the John F. Beavers House is inextricably interwoven with the history of Campbellton and Campbell County. 

  

The Superior and Inferior courts and Elections of said county, were held at the house of John F. Beavers, till such time as a courthouse may be made permanent.

Berkeley Park Historic District

  

Bolton Lodge No. 416

Significant for its association with Freemasonry, a fraternal organization which has been an integral part of communities in the United States since the Colonial Era. 
 
Classical features include the pedimented entryways and symmetrical front façade crowned by a large modillioned cornice and entablature. 

Dr. Brailsford R. Brazeal House

The Brazeal House is primarily significant at the national level in the related areas of education and ethnic black heritage: as the long-time home of Dr. Brailsford R. Brazeal.

 

He was a prominent African-American scholar, teacher, and administrator at nearby Morehouse College, who from the late 1920s through the 1960s.

 

He made significant contributions to research, publication, teaching, and academic standards at this nationally significant African-American institution of higher learning. 

 

Briarcliff Hotel

 
  
Chuck Dowdle married my next door neighbor, Dianne Matthews, reception was here.

  

Briarcliff Plaza

 
Urban Outfitters is where the Plaza Pharmacy was.

 
The Majestic Diner and the plaza Theatre, still showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show (with live cast from audience).

Dr. Marion Luther Brittain Sr. House

The house is significant in education because it was built for, and owned and occupied by, Dr. Marion Luther Brittain, Sr. (1866-1953), one of the state's renown educators. 

 

Dr. Brittain was state school superintendent from 1910 to 1922. During this time he saw the consolidation of many county school systems and the building of more modern schools in most every county. At this same time, he served as president of several regional and national educational organizations. 

 

In 1922, he became the fourth president of Georgia Tech, from which he retired in 1944. 

 
The house became a Rambling Wreck in 2017.

Brookhaven Historic District

 

  

  

Brookwood Hills Historic District

 

  

Building at 161 Spring St.

The building at 161 Spring Street is an eight-story Neoclassical Revival-style building. The first three floors were designed by the Atlanta architectural firm R.C. Snow Company in 1928. The Atlanta firm of Barili and Humphreys designed floors four through eight, which were completed in 1948. 

 

It is an excellent example of the Neoclassical Revival style in Atlanta in the first decades of the 20th century. 

  

It is significant in the area of religion because it was the organizational center for domestic evangelical activities of the Southern Baptist Convention during the post-World War II era.

  
Hampton Inn now.

Building at 220 Sunset Avenue, NW

220 Sunset is a historic property associated with the Maynard Jackson family including Irene Dobbs-Jackson who integrated the Atlanta Public Library and Maynard Jackson Jr. the first Black mayor of Atlanta. It was a temporary home of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. 

 

The King Center and Westside Future Fund saved this building from demolition in order to restore the property and apply for historic designation on the National Register of Historic Places.

Building at 760–768 Confederate Avenue

This building was built c.1927 and has elements of the Mediterranean Revival style. It has five retail storefronts. It is significant in the area of commerce for its longtime use in a variety of commercial endeavors in the Grant Park neighborhood of Atlanta.

 

The building is also significant in the area of architecture as an excellent example of the multiple retail type, through its one-story height, flat roof, identical storefronts, and early 20th century construction date.

  

Buildings at 523-549 Stewart Avenue

The buildings represent the evolution of commerce in Atlanta over time, serving as a record of the commercial and industrial importance of the companies that occupied them. 

 

The 1920 and 1926 portions of the property are examples of “mill” or “slow-burning construction.” This construction method slowed the spread of fire by employing a combination of steel and heavy timber. 

 

Slow-burning construction was a state of the art, fire-safety solution for industrial buildings at the time, being both effective and affordable.

Bulloch Hall


Where Teddy Roosevelt's mom grew up, Mittie Bulloch. Home where his parents married. We covered this on an earlier post on Roswell (GNW #144 - Part 2).

Burns Cottage

 

   

46 Butler Street Colored Methodist Episcopal Church

The Butler Street C.M.E. Church is a vernacular Neo-Gothie Revival structure located on a small corner lot just south of Atlanta's Sweet Auburn Historic District. 

 

The stained glass windows are dedicated to various people involved with the founding of the church or the building of this structure. One is dedicated to Bishop L.H. Holsey who was instrumental in the church's founding in 1882. 

 

Architecturally, the Butler Street C.M.E. Church is significant as an example of a vernacular Neo-Gothic style church built for and by'Atlanta's black community.



In 1923, Theodore “Tiger” Flowers (1895-1927), the first Black man to win the world middleweight boxing championship, was a long-time steward in the church.

 
Holsey - Flowers.

Philanthropist Robert Woodruff, retired chairman of Coca-Cola, first contributed to the church in 1945 as a tribute to his chauffeur, Lawrence Calhoun, a member of the congregation.

Cabbagetown District

 

 
Carroll Street then and now.

   
Planned Graffiti and Mill Houses. 

 
Cotton Mill and condos inside. Made national news when crane worker had to be rescued by Helicopter during restoration. A fire in mill had stranded him on crane and he was cooking like a marshmallow. 

  

Campbell County Courthouse

 

Candler Building

  
There is a frieze of all these leaders of Arts, Science, Culture on this building along Peachtree Street. (Buffalo Bill, Ben Franklin, Beethoven)

  

   
I liked to visit this lobby when I did walking tours of Atlanta.

Canton Apartments

The Canton Apartments are signficant architecturally as a good example of apartment dwellings built in the 1920s in the English Renaissance style rather than as a garden apartment facing a courtyard. It appears more like a mansion would in the West Paces Ferry Road area than as an apartment.



It and other apartments nearby served as a buffer between thfe large homes and mansions and Peachtree Road and its rapid commercialization.

 

Capital City Club

 
Went to a Civil War round table in here once. 

   

Capitol View Apartments

Constructed in 1947 through the Federal Housing Administration’s Veterans Emergency Housing program, Capitol View Apartments is a classic example of a modern mid-century apartment building. 

 

Featuring ten rectangular two-story buildings arranged in “U”-shaped configurations around five landscaped courtyards. 

  

Capitol View Historic District

  

Capitol View Manor Historic District

 
Postal Union Building and former Capital View Manor Baptist Church.

  
Capitol View Manor was originally developed by the same developer of the Morningside and Virginia Highland neighborhood.

Cascade Heights Commercial Historic District

The Cascade Heights Commercial Historic District is a, listed on the Georgia Register of Historic Places located in Southwest Atlanta, recognized for its, well-preserved mid-century commercial architecture. 



It serves as a central hub for surrounding, historically affluent African American neighborhoods, characterized by local, "Mom and Pop" establishments and a strong, community-driven identity.

  

Since the 1970s, Cascade Heights has been a premier residential and business area for African-American professionals, including notable leaders like Hank Aaron and former Mayor Shirley Franklin.

  
Herman J. Russell Construction Company personal home and two other sample homes Cascade Heights. 

Castleberry Hill Historic District

 

  

Central Presbyterian Church

 

 

Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

 
Mother Theresa gave mass here 1995.

 

Citizens and Southern Bank Building

 

OK, I have a story in this building. I took my Criminal Justice degree and rose to rank of Colonel with company who served all the C&S properties. I checked on the guard here the night the Braves played that 19 inning game against the Mets on the 4th of July in 1985. It was already late in the night (18th inning) when we made our way up to the roof to see the post game fireworks. We were just waiting on Rick Camp to strike out. Needless to say, I had to move on and inspect another post and did not see the fireworks that night as the game went a bit longer.

  
There these big old 84 year old boilers (As of 1985) in the sub basement. Whole building was ornate and steeped in history. I included a peek in lobby on my walking tour of Atlanta. 

Coca-Cola Building Annex

The Coca-Cola Building Annex is a three-story, Classical Revival-style, brick industrial building located on the south side of Edgewood Avenue in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. Built c.1903-1904, the trapezoid-shaped building occupies the entire 4,331-square-foot lot, with the main facade on Edgewood Avenue and the rear facade on Coca-Cola Place.

 

The richly-ornamented Classical Revival-style facade is typical of early-2Oth-century commercial architecture in Atlanta and reflects the rapid growth and early success of the Atlanta-based soft drink company.

  
Lofts now. 

Another 30 National Register Historic Properties covered and another spot in Fulton County to enjoy a natural wonder on Peachtree Creek. 

My GNW Gals today are women with their dogs on a creek beach. 

  

 Meagan and Ashley deserve some credit as GNW Gals. 

]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-13046.html Mon, 29 Dec 2025 23:47:42 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-13046.html Georgia Natural Wonder #273 - Boat Rock Nature Preserve 

I visited this next Atlanta Georgia Natural Wonder over a year ago, back when I was doing the Battle of Utoy Creek (GNW #267). Boat Rock is a small urban boulderfield located in southwest Atlanta, Georgia. Boat Rock has a long history of climbing and held one of the first bouldering competitions in the U.S. back in 1985. Names like Robyn Ebersfield, Ron Kauk, Bob Cormany, Curtis Glass, Shannon Stegg, Rich Gottlieb and Jerry Roberts ring throughout the nearly mile long stretch of egg shaped granite boulders. In the late 1990’s access to Boat Rock was threatened by an encroaching subdivision development. Local climbers, along with SCC, jumped into action to save this beloved boulder field. In 2005, SCC worked with the developer to purchase 7.8 acres, with another 4.5 acres donated by a climber. 

  
All these photo's this post were taken by TRD on his 1st date a year ago with Jill from California. 

My TRD scrolling Nugget comes from a Disco song by the Hues Corporation



Boat Rock is not only known for it’s unique granite boulders, but also as SCC’s first purchase and major acquisition project. Iconic photos of construction workers blowing up boulders while climbers scale rocks in the forefront have become a battlecry image for SCC, reminding us that access is not permanent, easy or cheap. 

 
Jill was a customer on an Atlanta Sightseeing Bus Tour and she was interested in exploring Atlanta further with me. I had never been here and this was a first date. I found an area with Boulders but it was not the Boat Rock Preserve, I was beginning to feel a little disappointed. 

You know how I like Boulders:

Rocktown (GNW #11)
Rock City (GNW #22)
Zahnd Tract (GNW #81)
Rocky Face (GNW #97)
Shaking Rock Park (GNW #124)
Alcovy Mountain (GNW #129)
Pigeon Hill, Little Kennesaw Mountain (GNW #131)
Sweat Mountain (GNW #143)
Etowah River Gorge (GNW #156)
Bell Mountain (GNW #164)
Sosebee Cove (GNW #187)
Cherokee Bluffs (GNW #233)
Broxton Rocks (GNW #242)
Glen Emerald Rock Garden (GNW #260)

   
This wasn't the Boat Rock I read about, Jill was looking for snakes more than at the Boulders.

In 2018, in an effort to curb vehicle break-in’s, SCC installed a gate and game cameras at the Boat Rock parking lot. Please lock the gate behind you when you enter and leave, and do not leave valuables in your car! 


We got back in the car and drove further down the road and found the parking area. The gate was open. There was signage. 

The climbing at Boat Rock is exclusively granite bouldering–very technical and takes a great deal of balance and foot work. A miscue can cost you flesh or shoe rubber. But the rewards far outweigh the risk as this area will literally “blow open your bouldering pallette” and make you not only a better, but more humble, climber. There are lots of delicate slabs; but just when you think you’ve figured out Boat Rock, you come across a climb like the bulgey “Paint Can” which are sure to stretch your climbing imagination. 


Jill says this is more like it.

Access is offered in accordance with the Georgia Recreational Use Statute (Georgia Code 51-3-22 et seq.).  If you choose to enter this area you are voluntarily choosing to assume all risk of personal injury and/or property loss. 

  
Boat Rock is really impressive. 

Numerous hazards exist on the property, some of which may not be obvious or apparent. These hazards include, but not limited to: steep open cliffs; slippery surfaces; steep and natural walkways, trails, and roadways; loose unstable rocks; falling objects; the possible failure of fixed climbing anchors; and the conduct of other users.

  
This was great fun for just outside I-285. 

Few people (except rock climbers) are aware of this fairly small but amazing park in south Fulton County just outside City of Atlanta that holds an impressive array of large rounded boulders – some the size of whales, some the size of buildings. 

   
Found a cool couple practicing.

These rocks were formed millions of years ago, and are part of an ancient land form that can been seen on Atlanta’s westside from Boulder Park to Palmetto, GA. In addition to climbing practice, these boulders are great for photographs and are interesting forms to walk through and experience. Due to the presence of more soil minerals, unusual plants and a high diversity of trees are found in the forest surrounding the boulders. A trail leads down to a small lake that harbors much wildlife.

  
Jill said our first date rocked.

You walk about 1-1.5 miles total on natural trails that includes a slope from the hill. You can identify trees and visualize the timing of the earth’s events that created the distinctive features of the metro-Atlanta area, including the Boat Rock boulders. 

   
Great fun so close to Atlanta. 

One of the great conundrums of life is that everyone wants to live in a suburbia,  and no one wants to live in suburbia. To deal with this some awesome people banded together and said no, you can’t blow up the amazing massive boulders to build a subdivision, we’re turning this baby into a preserve. Thank you Southeastern Climbers Coalition for giving something to the future besides a 7 lane freeway and a Starbucks!

  
Weaving in and out of the boulders and trees.

Is it goat approved? Oh man, a goat would love this place. However, I can’t recommend bringing the goat during normal business hours because it might be disruptive for the climbers for which this place was created. In the rain though, when nobody else would want to climb? A goat would be pretty awesome. The rear of the preserve is also less heavily climbed than right next to the parking area, so that would make a way better hang out for goat rock climbing.

  
Jill doing a little Jill Jig.

How you get there: The parking area is located at 33.721847, -84.564150. Parking is behind a gate that you must register online to get the code for – the registration is free, but it does require you to certify you will not trash the area. Google it – I’m not providing the link here because this is one of those things you shouldn’t make too easy I suspect. The code will get you through the gate, after which you can park or drive down the two track to a second parking area.

  
Found another pair of climbing dudes.

Time for the hike: At best you’ve got maybe 2 miles, maybe less of walking here between scaling boulders and walking around the small pond. There are no official trails, but many unofficial trails running among the boulders. The boulders range from small kid and timid girlfriend to actual rock climber difficulty. There are caves and various interesting formations that both experienced climbers and people who get vertigo on a six foot ladder can enjoy.

  
Best season to do this hike: I think any time, but the rocks are best scaled when dry.

Trails to Take

From the front, first parking area if you walk up the two track you can get to your first bouldering areas on the left and right. Right hand one is smaller, but with a small cave. To your left you can go into the boulder field…and just keep going. The trails will lead you to various boulders of various difficulty, from running up them to actual climbing and jumping from stone to stone. 

  
The foot trail(s) descend down to a rough and ready crossing of a small boggy creek at the pond, then up the hill again to more boulders just before you reach a road at the subdivision.

 
Coming back down there is a paved path around the pond, long fallen into disrepair and covered in downed trees that’s fun to go around

Then you can make your way back via foot trail to the rear of the boulder field, passed the outhouse and to your car. It sounds short, but we spent close to 3 hours here on bouldering and walking around. For a Sunday in passable weather it was not super crowded either.

  
Boat Rock is a granite playground nestled in the heart of a bustling metropolis. 

It consists of monstrous boulders hidden within a beautiful southern forest. The contrast between this amazing paradise of sharp boulders and the fast-moving cement city that has enveloped this climbing Eden is stark and dramatic. Boat Rock is an amazing respite for the climber stranded in the city, and is the most extensive and varied bouldering park within a few hours of Atlanta.

  
Great place for a 1st date.

Boat Rock boasts a variety of climbers that called the Boat their stomping grounds, including Robyn Erbesfield, Bob Cormany, Ron Kauk, Curtis Glass, Shannon Stegg, Jerry Roberts, and Rich Gottlieb who all have made Boat Rock a destination for those looking to develop technical skills in this slab filled area.

  
Still just friends with Jill here a year later, but we sure had fun this day. 

Boat Rock is notorious for being saved from urban progress by advocacy groups, especially the Southeastern Climber’s Coalition. Today, the area is divided between being held for climbers, and still owned by others, so climbers have to be aware of where boundaries are. Future plans seem to incorporate the outlying areas that possess interesting problems into use for climbers of Boat Rock permanently.

  
Jill was a little dolled up for bouldering.

The pinnacle of climbing season is late January, where it doesn’t usually get blistering cold in this area of Georgia. The closer to summer, the ever-present humidity makes its presence known to climbers. Spring and fall are beautiful times to enjoy this park, but as the foliage is beautiful on the trees, it does inhibit navigating the boulders for beginners and new-comers.

   
Boat Rock is a place for climbers of all varying ability level.

 

Directions

1) From Atlanta, take I-20 W past I-285 to GA-70 S/Fulton Industrial Blvd. SW. Take exit 49 from I-20 W.

2 ) Use any lane to turn south (left from Atlanta) onto GA-70 S/Fulton Industrial Blvd. SW

3) Go 3.8 miles  Take slight left onto Bakers Ferry Rd.

4) Go 0.5 miles  Turn left onto Boat Rock Rd. SW

Boat Rock Bouldering Area
1238 Boat Rock Rd SW, Atlanta, GA 30331

Fulton County (Part 2)

We've had such long Wonders recently, we have not been able to do history or other tangents on Fulton County. We did our first tangent on Fulton County and Atlanta as just a general introduction with (GNW #263). There are 241 Properties on the National Register of Historic Places in Fulton County. Heard on Radio recently, they added 8 more. There are 530 Historical Markers or Monuments, we have touched on a lot of those with our post on the Civil War. There are 15 Towns and Cities in Fulton County but we already covered Roswell in (GNW #144 - Part 1) (GNW #144 - Part 2) (GNW #144 - Part 3) There are six former unincorporated communities. Let's continue with the Properties on the National Register of Historic Places in Fulton County.

61 16th Street Apartment Building



The 61 16th Street Apartment Building is an early 20th century apartment building and falls within an era of prolific apartment construction in Atlanta. Apartment construction was prominent during this period due in large part to the extension of streetcar lines into suburban areas of Atlanta in the early 1900s. It is a good and intact example of the Colonial Revival style. 

  

63 Mangum Street Industrial Building



The nomination meets National Register Criterion A because its use as a manufacturing plant and southeastern headquarters for Westinghouse Electric fits into the broad patterns of our history as an industrialized nation. The property meets Criterion C because it is a good example of an industrial building built to be a factory/assembly plant with a large work area, small office area, and plenty of windows. In this typical interior format for this type of industry, it functioned during the historic period.

 
Apartments now.

696 Peachtree Street Apartments

 

The 696 Peachtree Street Apartments is significant at the local level under Criterion C in the area of architecture as an excellent example of an early 1920s Georgian Revival-style apartment building designed by the architectural firm of Hentz, Reid and Adler. 

 

The firm was among the most important architectural firms of the 20th century in Atlanta. The building retains its historic Georgian Revival-style character-defining features that it had upon its completion in 1923 and retains its original use as apartments.

 

705 Piedmont Avenue Apartments

 

705 Piedmont Avenue is significant in architecture as a good example of a "country house" type apartment building. Designed to be compatible in scale and character with the surrounding residential neighborhood, this type of design was popular in Atlanta during the early 20th century. Designed by architect Russel Conklin, the building reflects minimal Italian Renaissance Revival detailing.

 

Academy of Medicine

 
Just click to get to Wikipedia description some of these next properties. 

 

 

Was looking for a second TRD Scrolling Nugget to finish out this post and Academy of Medicine leads to a song by Paul McCartney and Wings. 



Adair Park Historic District

The Adair Park Historic District is significant in the areas of architecture and community planning and development as an intact and historic in-town Atlanta neighborhood which developed from the 1890s to the 1940s. 

   

The most predominant house type and style within the district is the Craftsman bungalow. 

 

Charles R. Adams Park

Charles R. Adams Park is nominated under Criteria A and C at the local level of significance as a good example of an urban park designed by William L. Monroe, Sr., who played a role in several Atlanta parks and gardens between the 1920s and 1960s. 

  

The park is significant in the area of landscape architecture for utilizing the principles of naturalistic landscape design that relied on local materials and skilled labor-intensive craftsmanship, as was common in many larger state and national parks during this period. 

   

The design works with the park’s rugged topography and flowing stream to create an urban oasis with rustic stonework, picturesque views, native and exotic plant species, and recreational amenities. 

 

Dang, I'm going to make this a separate GNW. Love this Monroe fellow.

Jack and Helen Adams Lustron House

The Adams Lustron House is significant in architecture and engineering as a good example of post-World War II prefabricated housing and an excellent and intact example of the "Lustron" type of prefabricated house. This innovative and unusual type of prefabrication employed porcelain-enamel baked on steel panels. 

 

Erected on a steel frame, easy to maintain, and supposedly well-priced, the Lustron house was touted as the technologically advanced prefab answer to the housing shortage after WWII.

Alberta Drive-Mathieson Drive-West Shadowlawn Avenue Historic District

The Alberta Drive-Mathieson Drive-West Shadowlawn Avenue Historic District is a small residential neighborhood located within the densely-developed triangle of land bounded by the busy thoroughfares of Peachtree, Piedmont, and Roswell roads, north of downtown in Atlanta's Buckhead community. 

 

In 1907, the Georgia Railway and Electric Company extended its trolley line from downtown Atlanta along Peachtree Road, north to Buckhead and beyond into largely undeveloped land. This accessibility spurred a building boom of which the Alberta Drive-Mathieson Drive-West Shadowlawn Avenue Historic District is an extant remnant. 

  

The Alberta Drive-Mathieson Drive-West Shadowlawn Avenue Historic District is significant at the local level under Criterion A in the area of community planning and development as a good representative example of middle-class garden suburbs that were developed extensively in Atlanta during the early 20th century.

Cecil and Hermione Alexander House

 
Round House in Buckhead.

Ansley Park Historic District

  

 

  
The Apartment building on the right, has the columns from an original antebellum home in downtown Atlanta. Old Governors mansion was in here until 1966.

Apartments at 2 Collier Road

  

 

Apartments at 22–24 Collier Road

 

 

Thomas P. Arnold House

 

 

  

Ashby Street Car Barn

 

 

Atkins Park District

 
Virginia Highlands area. 

  

Atlanta and West Point Railroad Freight Depot

The Atlanta and West Point Freight Depot had great significance to the historical and architectural growth of Atlanta, due to this city's importance in the mid-nineteenth century as a transportation center for the southeast. This railroad depot, built c.1871, was the oldest extant and intact railroad structure associated with the historic center of Atlanta. 



Based on 2026 information, the historic Atlanta and West Point Railroad freight depot located in downtown Atlanta is  generally gone, with some areas formerly holding such structures now serving as parking lots.

Atlanta Biltmore Hotel and Biltmore Apartments

 

 
WSB AM broadcast from atop the Biltmore. Wally Butts conspired with Bear Bryant at the Oak Room here, in a fake news story fixing football games. Both coaches won defamation law suits.

  



Atlanta Buggy Company and Warehouse-Hatcher Bros. Furniture Company

The Atlanta Buggy Company building and the adjoining Ware-Hatcher Bros. Furniture building are significant in architecture as good examples of the utilitarian industrial design used for large manufacturing facilities during the early 20th century. 

 

 

Significant features include load-bearing brick walls, segmentally arched windows, and heavy timber framing and flooring. These two buildings represent the typical utilitarian design used for industrial buildings during the early 20th century.

Atlanta City Hall

  
Across street from State Capital. 

 

I visited this lobby in my walking tour of Atlanta. 

  

Atlanta Constitution Building

  
There were a couple of Pulitzer Prizes won here back in the day.

Atlanta Spring and Bed Company-Block Candy Company

The Atlanta Spring Bed Company-Block Candy Company Building is significant in architecture as a good example of the utilitarian industrial design used for large manufacturing facilities at the turn of the century. Significant features include the masonry construction, segmentally arched windows, elevator tower, fire doors, and heavy timber framing and flooring.

 

This property is one of two surviving resources associated with Atlanta's first confectionery manufacturer started by the post-Civil War entrepreneur, Frank E. Block. 

  

Atlanta Stockade

The Atlanta Stockade is significant in architecture because it was functionally designed to be a city jail or prison. At the time it was built, it was the largest and most prestigious city-built penal facility in the state. The 1905 addition or enlargement employed both the Neoclassical style from the 1890s and often used for governmental buildings with the Gothic-influenced Medieval styled towers and wings often used for other penal institutions.

 
I remember my pop pointing out this prison up on hill to left (South) coming in to Atlanta on I-20 from DeKalb County.

  

 
Imagine paying rent to live in Jail. 

Atlanta University Center District

The Atlanta University District is an area to the west of Atlanta's central business district occupied by the campuses of the colleges of the Atlanta University Center and related historic structures. Largest collection of HBCU's in America.

 
Gaines Hall and Fountain Hall at Morris Brown College.

Included in the district are the institutions which make up the Atlanta University Center, Morris Brown College, Clark College, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Interdenominational Theological Center, and Atlanta University. 

  
Oglethorpe Building, Morris Brown. Herndon House.  Giles Hall, Spellman College.

Also located within the district are E. A. Ware School,Friendship Church, West Hunter Street Baptist Church building, University Homes residential development, and residential areas that have been associated with the development of the educational complex.

  
Friendship Baptist Church and Trevor Arnett Library.

The Atlanta University District is significant as the location of a group of the country's major institutions of higher learning for Afro-Americana. 

  
Packard Hall, Spellman College. Graves Hall and John Hope Hall, Morehouse College.

These colleges have not only pioneered in offering educational opportunities to blacks, but have been a progressive force in the development of a viable and progressive black community in the City of Atlanta which has had considerable impact upon the nation as a whole. 

  
Quarles Hall, Atlanta University. Sisters Chapel, Spellman College. West Hunter Church.

Atlanta Waterworks Hemphill Avenue Station

Not withstanding the significance of the Hemphill Avenue Station to the city of Atlanta as its second water processing complex, this water-works plant also stands as a good example architecturally of the late Victorian style as applied to an industrial complex.

 
Sits upon the highest geographical spot in Atlanta so uses gravity to move water through City pipes.

 

Atlanta Women's Club

 
Known as Wimbush House. Lot of Weddings and receptions. 

   

Margaret Mitchell was having drinks at Wimbush House with husband, and jaywalked across Peachtree when she was killed by a Taxi Driver. 


13th Street and Peachtree Street. 

Levi Ballard House

The Levi Ballard House is significant in the history of architecture, landscape architecture, historic archaeology, as well as the local history of Palmetto. Architecturally, the Ballard House is an excellent example of the persistence of the Greek Revival style of architecture into the Victorian period. The house retains an exceptional amount of architectural integrity, the only changes made being the addition of electricity, a new roof, and some 1908 second floor redecorating. The house retains the original wallpaper and other decorative features. Excellent examples of craftsmanship are found in the grained wainscoting and doors and the marbleized mantle.

 

House was shamefully torn down before it could be declared an Historical Home in Palmetto, to make room for a Chevron Gas Station.

   

Baltimore Block

 

Modern addition to historic section.

  

Barrington Hall


We explored Barrington Hall back with our post on Roswell. 

Bass Furniture Building

The Bass Furniture Building is significant to both the architectural and historic development of Atlanta. Architect A. Ten Eyck Brown was commissioned to build the east section and design the facade for the east and west section. It is located in an area that, for a century, was considered the social and commercial center for the city; its history and development reflect the growth and change of the City of Atlanta.

 

 

Whew, snuck in 30 NRHP properties on top of today's GNW. Only 210 left for Fulton County.

  
Today's GNW Gals were climbing at the Boat Rock. 

]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #273 - Boat Rock Nature Preserve 

I visited this next Atlanta Georgia Natural Wonder over a year ago, back when I was doing the Battle of Utoy Creek (GNW #267). Boat Rock is a small urban boulderfield located in southwest Atlanta, Georgia. Boat Rock has a long history of climbing and held one of the first bouldering competitions in the U.S. back in 1985. Names like Robyn Ebersfield, Ron Kauk, Bob Cormany, Curtis Glass, Shannon Stegg, Rich Gottlieb and Jerry Roberts ring throughout the nearly mile long stretch of egg shaped granite boulders. In the late 1990’s access to Boat Rock was threatened by an encroaching subdivision development. Local climbers, along with SCC, jumped into action to save this beloved boulder field. In 2005, SCC worked with the developer to purchase 7.8 acres, with another 4.5 acres donated by a climber. 

  
All these photo's this post were taken by TRD on his 1st date a year ago with Jill from California. 

My TRD scrolling Nugget comes from a Disco song by the Hues Corporation



Boat Rock is not only known for it’s unique granite boulders, but also as SCC’s first purchase and major acquisition project. Iconic photos of construction workers blowing up boulders while climbers scale rocks in the forefront have become a battlecry image for SCC, reminding us that access is not permanent, easy or cheap. 

 
Jill was a customer on an Atlanta Sightseeing Bus Tour and she was interested in exploring Atlanta further with me. I had never been here and this was a first date. I found an area with Boulders but it was not the Boat Rock Preserve, I was beginning to feel a little disappointed. 

You know how I like Boulders:

Rocktown (GNW #11)
Rock City (GNW #22)
Zahnd Tract (GNW #81)
Rocky Face (GNW #97)
Shaking Rock Park (GNW #124)
Alcovy Mountain (GNW #129)
Pigeon Hill, Little Kennesaw Mountain (GNW #131)
Sweat Mountain (GNW #143)
Etowah River Gorge (GNW #156)
Bell Mountain (GNW #164)
Sosebee Cove (GNW #187)
Cherokee Bluffs (GNW #233)
Broxton Rocks (GNW #242)
Glen Emerald Rock Garden (GNW #260)

   
This wasn't the Boat Rock I read about, Jill was looking for snakes more than at the Boulders.

In 2018, in an effort to curb vehicle break-in’s, SCC installed a gate and game cameras at the Boat Rock parking lot. Please lock the gate behind you when you enter and leave, and do not leave valuables in your car! 


We got back in the car and drove further down the road and found the parking area. The gate was open. There was signage. 

The climbing at Boat Rock is exclusively granite bouldering–very technical and takes a great deal of balance and foot work. A miscue can cost you flesh or shoe rubber. But the rewards far outweigh the risk as this area will literally “blow open your bouldering pallette” and make you not only a better, but more humble, climber. There are lots of delicate slabs; but just when you think you’ve figured out Boat Rock, you come across a climb like the bulgey “Paint Can” which are sure to stretch your climbing imagination. 


Jill says this is more like it.

Access is offered in accordance with the Georgia Recreational Use Statute (Georgia Code 51-3-22 et seq.).  If you choose to enter this area you are voluntarily choosing to assume all risk of personal injury and/or property loss. 

  
Boat Rock is really impressive. 

Numerous hazards exist on the property, some of which may not be obvious or apparent. These hazards include, but not limited to: steep open cliffs; slippery surfaces; steep and natural walkways, trails, and roadways; loose unstable rocks; falling objects; the possible failure of fixed climbing anchors; and the conduct of other users.

  
This was great fun for just outside I-285. 

Few people (except rock climbers) are aware of this fairly small but amazing park in south Fulton County just outside City of Atlanta that holds an impressive array of large rounded boulders – some the size of whales, some the size of buildings. 

   
Found a cool couple practicing.

These rocks were formed millions of years ago, and are part of an ancient land form that can been seen on Atlanta’s westside from Boulder Park to Palmetto, GA. In addition to climbing practice, these boulders are great for photographs and are interesting forms to walk through and experience. Due to the presence of more soil minerals, unusual plants and a high diversity of trees are found in the forest surrounding the boulders. A trail leads down to a small lake that harbors much wildlife.

  
Jill said our first date rocked.

You walk about 1-1.5 miles total on natural trails that includes a slope from the hill. You can identify trees and visualize the timing of the earth’s events that created the distinctive features of the metro-Atlanta area, including the Boat Rock boulders. 

   
Great fun so close to Atlanta. 

One of the great conundrums of life is that everyone wants to live in a suburbia,  and no one wants to live in suburbia. To deal with this some awesome people banded together and said no, you can’t blow up the amazing massive boulders to build a subdivision, we’re turning this baby into a preserve. Thank you Southeastern Climbers Coalition for giving something to the future besides a 7 lane freeway and a Starbucks!

  
Weaving in and out of the boulders and trees.

Is it goat approved? Oh man, a goat would love this place. However, I can’t recommend bringing the goat during normal business hours because it might be disruptive for the climbers for which this place was created. In the rain though, when nobody else would want to climb? A goat would be pretty awesome. The rear of the preserve is also less heavily climbed than right next to the parking area, so that would make a way better hang out for goat rock climbing.

  
Jill doing a little Jill Jig.

How you get there: The parking area is located at 33.721847, -84.564150. Parking is behind a gate that you must register online to get the code for – the registration is free, but it does require you to certify you will not trash the area. Google it – I’m not providing the link here because this is one of those things you shouldn’t make too easy I suspect. The code will get you through the gate, after which you can park or drive down the two track to a second parking area.

  
Found another pair of climbing dudes.

Time for the hike: At best you’ve got maybe 2 miles, maybe less of walking here between scaling boulders and walking around the small pond. There are no official trails, but many unofficial trails running among the boulders. The boulders range from small kid and timid girlfriend to actual rock climber difficulty. There are caves and various interesting formations that both experienced climbers and people who get vertigo on a six foot ladder can enjoy.

  
Best season to do this hike: I think any time, but the rocks are best scaled when dry.

Trails to Take

From the front, first parking area if you walk up the two track you can get to your first bouldering areas on the left and right. Right hand one is smaller, but with a small cave. To your left you can go into the boulder field…and just keep going. The trails will lead you to various boulders of various difficulty, from running up them to actual climbing and jumping from stone to stone. 

  
The foot trail(s) descend down to a rough and ready crossing of a small boggy creek at the pond, then up the hill again to more boulders just before you reach a road at the subdivision.

 
Coming back down there is a paved path around the pond, long fallen into disrepair and covered in downed trees that’s fun to go around

Then you can make your way back via foot trail to the rear of the boulder field, passed the outhouse and to your car. It sounds short, but we spent close to 3 hours here on bouldering and walking around. For a Sunday in passable weather it was not super crowded either.

  
Boat Rock is a granite playground nestled in the heart of a bustling metropolis. 

It consists of monstrous boulders hidden within a beautiful southern forest. The contrast between this amazing paradise of sharp boulders and the fast-moving cement city that has enveloped this climbing Eden is stark and dramatic. Boat Rock is an amazing respite for the climber stranded in the city, and is the most extensive and varied bouldering park within a few hours of Atlanta.

  
Great place for a 1st date.

Boat Rock boasts a variety of climbers that called the Boat their stomping grounds, including Robyn Erbesfield, Bob Cormany, Ron Kauk, Curtis Glass, Shannon Stegg, Jerry Roberts, and Rich Gottlieb who all have made Boat Rock a destination for those looking to develop technical skills in this slab filled area.

  
Still just friends with Jill here a year later, but we sure had fun this day. 

Boat Rock is notorious for being saved from urban progress by advocacy groups, especially the Southeastern Climber’s Coalition. Today, the area is divided between being held for climbers, and still owned by others, so climbers have to be aware of where boundaries are. Future plans seem to incorporate the outlying areas that possess interesting problems into use for climbers of Boat Rock permanently.

  
Jill was a little dolled up for bouldering.

The pinnacle of climbing season is late January, where it doesn’t usually get blistering cold in this area of Georgia. The closer to summer, the ever-present humidity makes its presence known to climbers. Spring and fall are beautiful times to enjoy this park, but as the foliage is beautiful on the trees, it does inhibit navigating the boulders for beginners and new-comers.

   
Boat Rock is a place for climbers of all varying ability level.

 

Directions

1) From Atlanta, take I-20 W past I-285 to GA-70 S/Fulton Industrial Blvd. SW. Take exit 49 from I-20 W.

2 ) Use any lane to turn south (left from Atlanta) onto GA-70 S/Fulton Industrial Blvd. SW

3) Go 3.8 miles  Take slight left onto Bakers Ferry Rd.

4) Go 0.5 miles  Turn left onto Boat Rock Rd. SW

Boat Rock Bouldering Area
1238 Boat Rock Rd SW, Atlanta, GA 30331

Fulton County (Part 2)

We've had such long Wonders recently, we have not been able to do history or other tangents on Fulton County. We did our first tangent on Fulton County and Atlanta as just a general introduction with (GNW #263). There are 241 Properties on the National Register of Historic Places in Fulton County. Heard on Radio recently, they added 8 more. There are 530 Historical Markers or Monuments, we have touched on a lot of those with our post on the Civil War. There are 15 Towns and Cities in Fulton County but we already covered Roswell in (GNW #144 - Part 1) (GNW #144 - Part 2) (GNW #144 - Part 3) There are six former unincorporated communities. Let's continue with the Properties on the National Register of Historic Places in Fulton County.

61 16th Street Apartment Building



The 61 16th Street Apartment Building is an early 20th century apartment building and falls within an era of prolific apartment construction in Atlanta. Apartment construction was prominent during this period due in large part to the extension of streetcar lines into suburban areas of Atlanta in the early 1900s. It is a good and intact example of the Colonial Revival style. 

  

63 Mangum Street Industrial Building



The nomination meets National Register Criterion A because its use as a manufacturing plant and southeastern headquarters for Westinghouse Electric fits into the broad patterns of our history as an industrialized nation. The property meets Criterion C because it is a good example of an industrial building built to be a factory/assembly plant with a large work area, small office area, and plenty of windows. In this typical interior format for this type of industry, it functioned during the historic period.

 
Apartments now.

696 Peachtree Street Apartments

 

The 696 Peachtree Street Apartments is significant at the local level under Criterion C in the area of architecture as an excellent example of an early 1920s Georgian Revival-style apartment building designed by the architectural firm of Hentz, Reid and Adler. 

 

The firm was among the most important architectural firms of the 20th century in Atlanta. The building retains its historic Georgian Revival-style character-defining features that it had upon its completion in 1923 and retains its original use as apartments.

 

705 Piedmont Avenue Apartments

 

705 Piedmont Avenue is significant in architecture as a good example of a "country house" type apartment building. Designed to be compatible in scale and character with the surrounding residential neighborhood, this type of design was popular in Atlanta during the early 20th century. Designed by architect Russel Conklin, the building reflects minimal Italian Renaissance Revival detailing.

 

Academy of Medicine

 
Just click to get to Wikipedia description some of these next properties. 

 

 

Was looking for a second TRD Scrolling Nugget to finish out this post and Academy of Medicine leads to a song by Paul McCartney and Wings. 



Adair Park Historic District

The Adair Park Historic District is significant in the areas of architecture and community planning and development as an intact and historic in-town Atlanta neighborhood which developed from the 1890s to the 1940s. 

   

The most predominant house type and style within the district is the Craftsman bungalow. 

 

Charles R. Adams Park

Charles R. Adams Park is nominated under Criteria A and C at the local level of significance as a good example of an urban park designed by William L. Monroe, Sr., who played a role in several Atlanta parks and gardens between the 1920s and 1960s. 

  

The park is significant in the area of landscape architecture for utilizing the principles of naturalistic landscape design that relied on local materials and skilled labor-intensive craftsmanship, as was common in many larger state and national parks during this period. 

   

The design works with the park’s rugged topography and flowing stream to create an urban oasis with rustic stonework, picturesque views, native and exotic plant species, and recreational amenities. 

 

Dang, I'm going to make this a separate GNW. Love this Monroe fellow.

Jack and Helen Adams Lustron House

The Adams Lustron House is significant in architecture and engineering as a good example of post-World War II prefabricated housing and an excellent and intact example of the "Lustron" type of prefabricated house. This innovative and unusual type of prefabrication employed porcelain-enamel baked on steel panels. 

 

Erected on a steel frame, easy to maintain, and supposedly well-priced, the Lustron house was touted as the technologically advanced prefab answer to the housing shortage after WWII.

Alberta Drive-Mathieson Drive-West Shadowlawn Avenue Historic District

The Alberta Drive-Mathieson Drive-West Shadowlawn Avenue Historic District is a small residential neighborhood located within the densely-developed triangle of land bounded by the busy thoroughfares of Peachtree, Piedmont, and Roswell roads, north of downtown in Atlanta's Buckhead community. 

 

In 1907, the Georgia Railway and Electric Company extended its trolley line from downtown Atlanta along Peachtree Road, north to Buckhead and beyond into largely undeveloped land. This accessibility spurred a building boom of which the Alberta Drive-Mathieson Drive-West Shadowlawn Avenue Historic District is an extant remnant. 

  

The Alberta Drive-Mathieson Drive-West Shadowlawn Avenue Historic District is significant at the local level under Criterion A in the area of community planning and development as a good representative example of middle-class garden suburbs that were developed extensively in Atlanta during the early 20th century.

Cecil and Hermione Alexander House

 
Round House in Buckhead.

Ansley Park Historic District

  

 

  
The Apartment building on the right, has the columns from an original antebellum home in downtown Atlanta. Old Governors mansion was in here until 1966.

Apartments at 2 Collier Road

  

 

Apartments at 22–24 Collier Road

 

 

Thomas P. Arnold House

 

 

  

Ashby Street Car Barn

 

 

Atkins Park District

 
Virginia Highlands area. 

  

Atlanta and West Point Railroad Freight Depot

The Atlanta and West Point Freight Depot had great significance to the historical and architectural growth of Atlanta, due to this city's importance in the mid-nineteenth century as a transportation center for the southeast. This railroad depot, built c.1871, was the oldest extant and intact railroad structure associated with the historic center of Atlanta. 



Based on 2026 information, the historic Atlanta and West Point Railroad freight depot located in downtown Atlanta is  generally gone, with some areas formerly holding such structures now serving as parking lots.

Atlanta Biltmore Hotel and Biltmore Apartments

 

 
WSB AM broadcast from atop the Biltmore. Wally Butts conspired with Bear Bryant at the Oak Room here, in a fake news story fixing football games. Both coaches won defamation law suits.

  



Atlanta Buggy Company and Warehouse-Hatcher Bros. Furniture Company

The Atlanta Buggy Company building and the adjoining Ware-Hatcher Bros. Furniture building are significant in architecture as good examples of the utilitarian industrial design used for large manufacturing facilities during the early 20th century. 

 

 

Significant features include load-bearing brick walls, segmentally arched windows, and heavy timber framing and flooring. These two buildings represent the typical utilitarian design used for industrial buildings during the early 20th century.

Atlanta City Hall

  
Across street from State Capital. 

 

I visited this lobby in my walking tour of Atlanta. 

  

Atlanta Constitution Building

  
There were a couple of Pulitzer Prizes won here back in the day.

Atlanta Spring and Bed Company-Block Candy Company

The Atlanta Spring Bed Company-Block Candy Company Building is significant in architecture as a good example of the utilitarian industrial design used for large manufacturing facilities at the turn of the century. Significant features include the masonry construction, segmentally arched windows, elevator tower, fire doors, and heavy timber framing and flooring.

 

This property is one of two surviving resources associated with Atlanta's first confectionery manufacturer started by the post-Civil War entrepreneur, Frank E. Block. 

  

Atlanta Stockade

The Atlanta Stockade is significant in architecture because it was functionally designed to be a city jail or prison. At the time it was built, it was the largest and most prestigious city-built penal facility in the state. The 1905 addition or enlargement employed both the Neoclassical style from the 1890s and often used for governmental buildings with the Gothic-influenced Medieval styled towers and wings often used for other penal institutions.

 
I remember my pop pointing out this prison up on hill to left (South) coming in to Atlanta on I-20 from DeKalb County.

  

 
Imagine paying rent to live in Jail. 

Atlanta University Center District

The Atlanta University District is an area to the west of Atlanta's central business district occupied by the campuses of the colleges of the Atlanta University Center and related historic structures. Largest collection of HBCU's in America.

 
Gaines Hall and Fountain Hall at Morris Brown College.

Included in the district are the institutions which make up the Atlanta University Center, Morris Brown College, Clark College, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Interdenominational Theological Center, and Atlanta University. 

  
Oglethorpe Building, Morris Brown. Herndon House.  Giles Hall, Spellman College.

Also located within the district are E. A. Ware School,Friendship Church, West Hunter Street Baptist Church building, University Homes residential development, and residential areas that have been associated with the development of the educational complex.

  
Friendship Baptist Church and Trevor Arnett Library.

The Atlanta University District is significant as the location of a group of the country's major institutions of higher learning for Afro-Americana. 

  
Packard Hall, Spellman College. Graves Hall and John Hope Hall, Morehouse College.

These colleges have not only pioneered in offering educational opportunities to blacks, but have been a progressive force in the development of a viable and progressive black community in the City of Atlanta which has had considerable impact upon the nation as a whole. 

  
Quarles Hall, Atlanta University. Sisters Chapel, Spellman College. West Hunter Church.

Atlanta Waterworks Hemphill Avenue Station

Not withstanding the significance of the Hemphill Avenue Station to the city of Atlanta as its second water processing complex, this water-works plant also stands as a good example architecturally of the late Victorian style as applied to an industrial complex.

 
Sits upon the highest geographical spot in Atlanta so uses gravity to move water through City pipes.

 

Atlanta Women's Club

 
Known as Wimbush House. Lot of Weddings and receptions. 

   

Margaret Mitchell was having drinks at Wimbush House with husband, and jaywalked across Peachtree when she was killed by a Taxi Driver. 


13th Street and Peachtree Street. 

Levi Ballard House

The Levi Ballard House is significant in the history of architecture, landscape architecture, historic archaeology, as well as the local history of Palmetto. Architecturally, the Ballard House is an excellent example of the persistence of the Greek Revival style of architecture into the Victorian period. The house retains an exceptional amount of architectural integrity, the only changes made being the addition of electricity, a new roof, and some 1908 second floor redecorating. The house retains the original wallpaper and other decorative features. Excellent examples of craftsmanship are found in the grained wainscoting and doors and the marbleized mantle.

 

House was shamefully torn down before it could be declared an Historical Home in Palmetto, to make room for a Chevron Gas Station.

   

Baltimore Block

 

Modern addition to historic section.

  

Barrington Hall


We explored Barrington Hall back with our post on Roswell. 

Bass Furniture Building

The Bass Furniture Building is significant to both the architectural and historic development of Atlanta. Architect A. Ten Eyck Brown was commissioned to build the east section and design the facade for the east and west section. It is located in an area that, for a century, was considered the social and commercial center for the city; its history and development reflect the growth and change of the City of Atlanta.

 

 

Whew, snuck in 30 NRHP properties on top of today's GNW. Only 210 left for Fulton County.

  
Today's GNW Gals were climbing at the Boat Rock. 

]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-11797.html Sun, 26 Oct 2025 23:53:38 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-11797.html Georgia Natural Wonder #272 - Atlanta Botanical Garden

We are already at Piedmont Park with Georgia Natural Wonder #271, so we may as well move north to the sister Georgia Natural Wonder. The Atlanta Botanical Garden is a 30 acres botanical garden located adjacent to Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Incorporated in 1976, the garden's mission is to "develop and maintain plant collections for the purposes of display, education, conservation, research and enjoyment." 


Renowned plant collections, beautiful displays, and spectacular exhibitions make the Atlanta Botanical Garden the loveliest place in town to visit or host an event in every season. The Garden has earned a reputation as one of the nation's foremost public gardens. Visit the Garden and feel human again.

Our first TRD Scrolling Nugget is The Garden Of Earthly Delights by the The United States of America.



History

Piedmont Park was transformed for the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition, a major World's Fair showcasing Atlanta's post-Civil War recovery, with features like Lake Clara Meer and tropical gardens created for the event, which later became the Atlanta Botanical Garden. The fair's elaborate tropical gardens formed the basis for the modern Botanical Garden, now located within Piedmont park.


The arts and government exposition buildings flank the carillon, 1895. The granite steps and the lake, Clara Meer, are the only surviving features on the site of today’s Piedmont Park and Atlanta Botanical Gardens.


The stonework from the Cotton States Exposition. 

Following a petition by citizens of Atlanta in 1973, the garden was incorporated in 1976, as the private non-profit corporation Atlanta Botanical Garden Inc.. 



The garden incorporated the preexisting Dr. A. Leslie Stephens Memorial Bonsai Garden, now known as the Japanese Garden. 



Within a year Bill Warner, previously employed at Holden Arboretum in Ohio, was assigned office as the first executive director. He was soon followed by Ann L. Crammond in 1979. The following year marked a turning point in the history of the garden as a 50-year lease was negotiated with the city, securing the site of the Garden for years to come.


Treehouse Holden Arboretum in Ohio.

A number of promotional activities started taking place, including social events, major art exhibitions and the annual Garden of Eden Ball. The Atlanta Botanical Garden welcomed its 50,000th visitor within a mere three years after the lease was arranged - this was even before any permanent structures had been erected. 

 
Garden of Eden Ball.

In 1985, the Atlanta Botanical Garden built its first permanent structure, the Gardenhouse. 


Gardenhouse wraps around the Mediterranean-inspired Cox Courtyard and houses the majority of the Garden's administrative offices. 

Expansions following this were the Fuqua Conservatory in 1989. 



“Conservation” added to Atlanta Botanical Garden mission statement; Alston Overlook constructed in 1991. 

 

In 1992, “Concerts on the Lawn” held; Atlanta Botanical Garden hosts International Waterlily Society conference.

 

In 1995, the Iseli Award recognizes the Garden’s Southern Conifer Garden; Garden becomes founding member of the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance.



In 1997, the Garden hosts International Carnivorous Plant Society Conference.



The Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Garden (1999), 

 

The Fuqua Orchid Center was added in 2002.



Blockbuster summertime exhibitions began in 2003 with TREEmendous TREEhouses. Cocktails in the Garden begins.

 
 
In 2004, the Atlanta Botanical Garden hosted an exhibition of glass art by Dale Chihuly titled "Chihuly in the Garden". The exhibit ran through the end of October and was extended until December 31, 2004. During the eight-month run, an estimated 425,000 attendees visited the exhibit. The peak per-day rates of 7,500 were double the previous single-day attendance record at the Garden. 

   

In 2005 Locomotion in the Garden featured G-scale model trains. 

 

On April 29, 2006, an exhibition of the sculpture of Niki de Saint Phalle opened to the public. These huge mosaic sculptures came to the Garden from France, Germany, and California. 

 

In 2007, the exhibition was David Rogers' Big Bugs and Killer Plants. 

 

2008 was Sculpture in Motion, Art Choreographed by Nature, a display of moving, kinetic art. 

 

In 2009, the Garden hosted an exhibition of the monumental bronze sculptures of Henry Moore. 

 

The new Visitor Center and Garden Gift Shop debut, and the SAGE green parking facility opens along with new gardens.

 
Gift shop to left of entrance. Henry Moore sculpture at time of image. SAGE Parking you have wind 6 times times to get to Monroe Drive entrance.

The summers of 2010 and 2011 showcased the Garden's green expansion. The Grand opening of the Canopy Walk, Edible Garden and Cascades Garden marks completion of expansion project nearly doubling the size of the Garden.


The Edible Garden not only showcases edible and medicinal plants but also hosts cooking demonstrations. The garden’s amphitheater is a venue for concerts and other events throughout the year.

In 2012, the Garden hosted Independent Visions, an exhibition of contemporary sculptures by nine artists. 

 

In 2013, the Garden unveiled Imaginary Worlds: Plants Larger than Life, made up of 19 mosaic culture sculptures. 

 

In 2016, Chihuly in the Garden open again with 19 installations throughout the Garden.

  
Chihuly still in the Garden permanent sculptures.

In 2017, the restaurant is renamed Longleaf, and a major new expansion opens, the Skyline Garden, offering breathtaking views of the city. 

 

In 2023, the Garden announces plans for major expansion by purchasing nearly 8 acres to the north which would place it contiguous to the Atlanta Beltline and allow for a second Garden entrance. 



In 2024 an unprecedented agreement is struck between the Garden and the Indian government that will allow the two to collaborate to document, collect and identify new plant species in vastly underexplored regions of the country, similar to a partnership the Garden shares with Vietnam. The Garden also encourages knowledge exchange, targeting plant groups such as Magnolias, Hydrangeas, Gingers and Begonia. The Garden hosts a regional conference of the Southeastern Partners in Plant Conservation to promote novel partnerships for plant conservation.

 
Arisaema mcmahanii, the new plant species, was discovered in Vietnam. Dracaena reflexa (commonly called song of India) is a tree native to Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, and other nearby islands of the Indian Ocean.

Holiday Lights.

In the winter the Garden has a holiday light show. 



"Garden Lights, Holiday Nights" began in 2011 featuring displays created with more than 1 million lights, most of them LED. 



The following year, the show grew to more than 1.5 million lights and attracted more than 160,000 visitors.



The “Garden Lights, Holiday Nights” event transforms the garden during the winter season, making it a top attraction in Atlanta.

 

Green Expansion Plan

The Green Expansion Plan was a large-scale expansion project that was completed in the spring of 2010 that doubled the size of the Garden while modernizing them at the same time. The expansion plan encompassed the construction of a number of new facilities, the most noticeable of which are the new visitor center and 600-foot-long canopy walk.

 
TRD's recent date with his girlfriend, Jean, taking the Canopy Walk.

The plan was built around five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. By employing an array of energy-saving strategies with environmental sustainability considered throughout the project and recycling any trees removed as a result of construction, considerable efforts were made to make this expansion eco-friendly. A 100,000-gallon cistern was installed underground in December 2007 to aid in water conservation; the cistern fills with only an inch and a quarter of rain and waters about 40% of the new gardens.

   
View of new sections of Botanical Gardens from the Canopy Walk. 

One striking feature of the new visitor center is the innovative green roof, with plants covering nearly 50% of the roof area. It provides natural cooling, sound insulation and additional garden area for visitors, and even a new wildlife habitat. The visitor center leads visitors to the canopy walk.



The garden's old parking lot is now a Edible Garden featuring an outdoor kitchen; this new garden reconnects people with food and healthful eating. And the final aspect of the garden expansion plan is the conversion of its old entry drive to a large cascades garden filled with tropical plants and gently flowing waterfalls. 

Canopy Walk

The Atlanta Botanical Garden is home to the Kendeda Canopy Walk, a 600-foot-long skywalk that allows the visitors to tour one of the city's last remaining urban forests from around 40 feet in the air through the treetops of the Storza Woods. The skywalk extends from a bluff in the Garden into the branches of oaks, hickories and poplars. The structure also provides an aerial view of the woodland garden below.

 
Internet image and TRD attempted panoramic of Canopy Walk.  

The Canopy Walk was built for $55 million and opened in 2010. It was originally set to open in 2009, but during its construction in 2008, the skywalk collapsed, killing one worker and injuring 18 others. 

 
TRD images. Nets are from Christmas Lights. 

Because of the uniqueness of the Canopy Walk, city leaders believed it would become an icon for Atlanta and it really has.

Earth Goddess

The Earth Goddess is a 25-foot sculpture that is a centerpiece of the Cascades Garden. 



It was the highlight of the "Imaginary Worlds" exhibition that was showcased in 2013–2014. It has since become a permanent part of the Cascades Garden.


Water flows from her hand.

Gardens within the Atlanta Botanical Garden

The Botanical Garden is composed of a number of smaller themed gardens. Each contains different landscapes to display a variety of plants. 


The botanical garden is a haven of diverse plant species spread across several landscapes. As you enter, you are greeted by several formal gardens, including a serene Japanese garden, a fragrant herb garden, and a vibrant rose garden. These gardens offer a unique opportunity to explore and appreciate the beauty and diversity of plant life. TRD images of the Japanese garden ......

 

Two woodland areas, the 5 acres Upper Woodland.


Bridge in Upper Woodlands from Canopy Walk. 

The 10 acres Storza Woods feature large trees and shade-loving flowers and undergrowth. 



The Children's Garden features whimsical sculptures, fountains, and interpretive exhibits on botany, ecology, and nutrition.  



The Ada Mae Pass Ivester Children's Garden at the Atlanta Botanical Garden is a 2.5-acre interactive, nature-based play space featuring a treehouse, rock climb, and a carnivorous plant bog.



In the northwest corner of Piedmont Park, this stunning 30-acre botanical garden has a Japanese garden, winding paths and the amazing Fuqua Orchid Center.

Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory

The 16,000 square feet Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory contains indoor exhibits of plants from tropical rainforests ......



and deserts. 

 

The rain forest room of the Fuqua Conservatory is also populated by tropical birds, turtles, and several exhibits of poison dart frogs, the last of which is a collaboration in conservation efforts with Zoo Atlanta. 

  
Dart's.

The Fuqua Conservatory is an organic biosphere and home to important collections of tropical palms and conifers; the Fuqua Orchid Center is home to the foremost collection of species orchids in the United States. Conservation gardens and amphibian displays highlight the Garden’s work with carnivorous plant bogs across the Southeast as well as endangered species of frogs from around the world. The Garden offers lovely indoor and outdoor rental options for elegant meetings and celebrations.

 
The Atlanta Botanical Garden is deeply involved in conservation and botanical research, focusing on the preservation of native plant species in Georgia. It offers a range of educational programs for all age groups, with classes and workshops in horticulture, art, and more.
 
Almost all TRD and girlfriend Jean images starting here. My second TRD Scrolling Nugget comes from The Seeds about Jean and me just tagging along.

 

Adjoining this building, the Fuqua Orchid Center contains separate rooms simulating the tropics and high elevations in order to house rare orchids from around the world.

   
TRD or Jean went overboard in the Orchid Center.

The Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory is a significant feature of the Atlanta Botanical Garden. It houses a variety of plants from tropical rainforests and deserts. The conservatory is not just about plants; it also hosts tropical birds, turtles, and an exhibition of poison dart frogs, adding an extra layer of interest for visitors.

Fuqua Orchid Center

The Fuqua Orchid Center is home to the largest collection of species orchids on permanent display in the U.S. and hosts a wintertime display known as Orchid Daze. Its unique Tropical High Elevation House provides the correct habitat for montane orchids and companion plants from around the equator at elevations of 6,000 to 10,000 feet. 

   
More TRD or Jean Orchid Center images.

An Air Washer System, technology adapted from the textile industry, was combined with traditional greenhouse heating and cooling to create this environment and allows rare orchids to thrive. The Tropical Display House is filled with fragrant orchids from around the world.

   

TRD Visit February 2026 With Jean

The first thing I recommend is to enter the place off Piedmont Avenue if there is not a crowd. You circle the parking deck from the Monroe entrance. If there is an event you can park low and take the elevator to the entrance, will leave it up to you. 

  
We went straight to the Canopy Walk. Already featured some TRD Canopy Walk images in post.

  
We were really up in the trees, there was a fellow taking down the Christmas lights. 


Decorative seating on Canopy Walk. 

  
Jean's images of the Canopy Walk.

 
Then we went through the tunnel under the Piedmont Road entrance.

  
Camilla Bushes provide excellent wintertime flowers in Georgia. 

  
The first flower of spring in Atlanta, the Daffodil. Beautiful trees in this part of the Botanical Garden. 

 
The Earth Goddess was in Wintertime mode.

 

Jean got some images of the Ice Goddess.

  

  
Squirrel action and Pansies are another Wintertime Atlanta flower. TRD telling Jean we need to head to Day Hall next. 

 
Jean walks in front of the Long Leaf Restaurant and TRD image of the Levy Parterre with the Chihuly sculpture in the center fountain. 

  
Jean image from the Alston Overlook. Her close up of Chihuly sculpture. TRD was resting after hike uphill from Canopy Walk. Had busted leg from fall few weeks earlier. 

Then we made our way to the Japanese Garden. No garden room has a richer history than the charming Japanese Garden. In the 1960s, the Atlanta Bonsai Society started a Japanese Garden on the site of the current one – long before the botanical garden was even established. Largely consisting of bonsai plants, it was then part of Piedmont Park. The society eventually gave it up. In 1980, the newly established Garden restored this site, replaced its white sand representing "pools" with a small pond and added stone walls and fences. The current design combines several styles of traditional Japanese gardens, including elements of hill-and-pond, courtyard and tea gardens. On the ground is a chozubachi stone basin used as a purification ritual before a tea ceremony, and the tea garden includes a waiting bench for reflecting and enjoying the garden.

 
You have to tilt your head a little for this image. Jean found a hidden marker.

The Moon Gate provides a vista through the garden. 



By design, nearly all plantings are green, except for spring-blooming azaleas and irises, and maples that change color in the fall. A large Virginia pine provides a focal point, along with trees such as Japanese maples (Acer palmatum), dwarf conifers and weeping Japanese persimmons. Just outside the gate is a collection of rare harp-string Nandina, bamboo popular in Japan from the 1600s to 1800s. The Japanese Garden is a popular location for intimate weddings.

 
Jean models the Moon Gate. 

An urban oasis in Midtown, the Garden includes 30 acres of outdoor gardens. 

  
We came upon the Great Lawn and went to the right to the Vine Arbor. We found a Tiny Door of Atlanta.

  
Found the Conifer Forest and a Frog sculpture.

Then we made our way into the Orchid Center. 

  

The orchid family is the largest and most diverse in the plant world, and its more than 25,000 species account for about 8 percent of all flowering plant species.

  
TRD Orchid images. 

  
The Center’s two display houses, which opened in 2002, contain a dazzling array of orchid species of all colors, sizes, scents and shapes. 

 
Featured collections include orchids of Madagascar, tropical Asian slipper orchids, Euglossine bee-pollinated orchids, high elevation genera and moth orchids.

  
I came around the corner and this young lady scared me like the Texas Bushman, she blended in with the flowers so well. More Jean images. She had a good eye, the Flower Lady. 

  
This indoor part of the Atlanta Botanical Garden is good any time of the year. We were visiting in February. 

Then we wandered the Fuqua Conservatory. Man, it was hot in there. 

  
Jean found the chocolate tree. 

  
Jean in the Rain Forest. Bad Ass turtle, stay on path.  Poisonous frog too, at least he was behind glass. 

  
TRD wanders the Rain Forest, as Jean took some more images. Found some more Orchids in here, 8% of all the flowers in the world. Jean going crazy with images. 

  
Too hot for some flowers. Flowers on my mind. Flowers stacked on top of each other.

 
Last of Jean Conservatory plant images.

Escaping the heat of the Conservatory to the Skyline Garden overlooking Piedmont Park. 


This garden used the stonework left over from the 1895 Cotton States Exposition.

  
TRD searching for 1895 Stonework. 

  
Beyond the metal steel fence is Piedmont Park. 

 
Pool and garden of the Skyline Garden. 


Jean at 1895 Stone Pool with Midtown Skyline in background. 


Can see tennis center and bandstand of Piedmont Park in distance.

  
Jean images. Can see Softball fields of Piedmont Park, skyline of Midtown, plants and trees of Skyline garden from Jean's view.


Looking back to Conservatory, where the arts and government exposition buildings flanked the carillon in 1895. 

  
We strolled the Robinson Gazebo to the Rock Garden and found another Frog. 


We had lunch back up by the Garden House. Had some King of Pops handcrafted popsicles. (Chocolate Sea Salt)

Discovered a side Sculpture garden.

  
First there was Pan. Others followed (Oh Look another frog). Whimsical Sculptures in the garden.

 
Priest with bird and head of Helen in the grass.

This expansive garden is home to a variety of landscapes featuring diverse plant species, making it a perfect destination for nature lovers and botany enthusiasts.

 
And I finally found someone to go with me so I can finish this post.

Jean bought me some flowers so I have a little Atlanta Botanical Garden in my new windows at the TRD penthouse.

  

Today's TRD Georgia Natural Wonder Gals are at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

  


The cat tells you this one was a good GNW Gal.

]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #272 - Atlanta Botanical Garden

We are already at Piedmont Park with Georgia Natural Wonder #271, so we may as well move north to the sister Georgia Natural Wonder. The Atlanta Botanical Garden is a 30 acres botanical garden located adjacent to Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Incorporated in 1976, the garden's mission is to "develop and maintain plant collections for the purposes of display, education, conservation, research and enjoyment." 


Renowned plant collections, beautiful displays, and spectacular exhibitions make the Atlanta Botanical Garden the loveliest place in town to visit or host an event in every season. The Garden has earned a reputation as one of the nation's foremost public gardens. Visit the Garden and feel human again.

Our first TRD Scrolling Nugget is The Garden Of Earthly Delights by the The United States of America.



History

Piedmont Park was transformed for the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition, a major World's Fair showcasing Atlanta's post-Civil War recovery, with features like Lake Clara Meer and tropical gardens created for the event, which later became the Atlanta Botanical Garden. The fair's elaborate tropical gardens formed the basis for the modern Botanical Garden, now located within Piedmont park.


The arts and government exposition buildings flank the carillon, 1895. The granite steps and the lake, Clara Meer, are the only surviving features on the site of today’s Piedmont Park and Atlanta Botanical Gardens.


The stonework from the Cotton States Exposition. 

Following a petition by citizens of Atlanta in 1973, the garden was incorporated in 1976, as the private non-profit corporation Atlanta Botanical Garden Inc.. 



The garden incorporated the preexisting Dr. A. Leslie Stephens Memorial Bonsai Garden, now known as the Japanese Garden. 



Within a year Bill Warner, previously employed at Holden Arboretum in Ohio, was assigned office as the first executive director. He was soon followed by Ann L. Crammond in 1979. The following year marked a turning point in the history of the garden as a 50-year lease was negotiated with the city, securing the site of the Garden for years to come.


Treehouse Holden Arboretum in Ohio.

A number of promotional activities started taking place, including social events, major art exhibitions and the annual Garden of Eden Ball. The Atlanta Botanical Garden welcomed its 50,000th visitor within a mere three years after the lease was arranged - this was even before any permanent structures had been erected. 

 
Garden of Eden Ball.

In 1985, the Atlanta Botanical Garden built its first permanent structure, the Gardenhouse. 


Gardenhouse wraps around the Mediterranean-inspired Cox Courtyard and houses the majority of the Garden's administrative offices. 

Expansions following this were the Fuqua Conservatory in 1989. 



“Conservation” added to Atlanta Botanical Garden mission statement; Alston Overlook constructed in 1991. 

 

In 1992, “Concerts on the Lawn” held; Atlanta Botanical Garden hosts International Waterlily Society conference.

 

In 1995, the Iseli Award recognizes the Garden’s Southern Conifer Garden; Garden becomes founding member of the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance.



In 1997, the Garden hosts International Carnivorous Plant Society Conference.



The Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Garden (1999), 

 

The Fuqua Orchid Center was added in 2002.



Blockbuster summertime exhibitions began in 2003 with TREEmendous TREEhouses. Cocktails in the Garden begins.

 
 
In 2004, the Atlanta Botanical Garden hosted an exhibition of glass art by Dale Chihuly titled "Chihuly in the Garden". The exhibit ran through the end of October and was extended until December 31, 2004. During the eight-month run, an estimated 425,000 attendees visited the exhibit. The peak per-day rates of 7,500 were double the previous single-day attendance record at the Garden. 

   

In 2005 Locomotion in the Garden featured G-scale model trains. 

 

On April 29, 2006, an exhibition of the sculpture of Niki de Saint Phalle opened to the public. These huge mosaic sculptures came to the Garden from France, Germany, and California. 

 

In 2007, the exhibition was David Rogers' Big Bugs and Killer Plants. 

 

2008 was Sculpture in Motion, Art Choreographed by Nature, a display of moving, kinetic art. 

 

In 2009, the Garden hosted an exhibition of the monumental bronze sculptures of Henry Moore. 

 

The new Visitor Center and Garden Gift Shop debut, and the SAGE green parking facility opens along with new gardens.

 
Gift shop to left of entrance. Henry Moore sculpture at time of image. SAGE Parking you have wind 6 times times to get to Monroe Drive entrance.

The summers of 2010 and 2011 showcased the Garden's green expansion. The Grand opening of the Canopy Walk, Edible Garden and Cascades Garden marks completion of expansion project nearly doubling the size of the Garden.


The Edible Garden not only showcases edible and medicinal plants but also hosts cooking demonstrations. The garden’s amphitheater is a venue for concerts and other events throughout the year.

In 2012, the Garden hosted Independent Visions, an exhibition of contemporary sculptures by nine artists. 

 

In 2013, the Garden unveiled Imaginary Worlds: Plants Larger than Life, made up of 19 mosaic culture sculptures. 

 

In 2016, Chihuly in the Garden open again with 19 installations throughout the Garden.

  
Chihuly still in the Garden permanent sculptures.

In 2017, the restaurant is renamed Longleaf, and a major new expansion opens, the Skyline Garden, offering breathtaking views of the city. 

 

In 2023, the Garden announces plans for major expansion by purchasing nearly 8 acres to the north which would place it contiguous to the Atlanta Beltline and allow for a second Garden entrance. 



In 2024 an unprecedented agreement is struck between the Garden and the Indian government that will allow the two to collaborate to document, collect and identify new plant species in vastly underexplored regions of the country, similar to a partnership the Garden shares with Vietnam. The Garden also encourages knowledge exchange, targeting plant groups such as Magnolias, Hydrangeas, Gingers and Begonia. The Garden hosts a regional conference of the Southeastern Partners in Plant Conservation to promote novel partnerships for plant conservation.

 
Arisaema mcmahanii, the new plant species, was discovered in Vietnam. Dracaena reflexa (commonly called song of India) is a tree native to Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, and other nearby islands of the Indian Ocean.

Holiday Lights.

In the winter the Garden has a holiday light show. 



"Garden Lights, Holiday Nights" began in 2011 featuring displays created with more than 1 million lights, most of them LED. 



The following year, the show grew to more than 1.5 million lights and attracted more than 160,000 visitors.



The “Garden Lights, Holiday Nights” event transforms the garden during the winter season, making it a top attraction in Atlanta.

 

Green Expansion Plan

The Green Expansion Plan was a large-scale expansion project that was completed in the spring of 2010 that doubled the size of the Garden while modernizing them at the same time. The expansion plan encompassed the construction of a number of new facilities, the most noticeable of which are the new visitor center and 600-foot-long canopy walk.

 
TRD's recent date with his girlfriend, Jean, taking the Canopy Walk.

The plan was built around five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. By employing an array of energy-saving strategies with environmental sustainability considered throughout the project and recycling any trees removed as a result of construction, considerable efforts were made to make this expansion eco-friendly. A 100,000-gallon cistern was installed underground in December 2007 to aid in water conservation; the cistern fills with only an inch and a quarter of rain and waters about 40% of the new gardens.

   
View of new sections of Botanical Gardens from the Canopy Walk. 

One striking feature of the new visitor center is the innovative green roof, with plants covering nearly 50% of the roof area. It provides natural cooling, sound insulation and additional garden area for visitors, and even a new wildlife habitat. The visitor center leads visitors to the canopy walk.



The garden's old parking lot is now a Edible Garden featuring an outdoor kitchen; this new garden reconnects people with food and healthful eating. And the final aspect of the garden expansion plan is the conversion of its old entry drive to a large cascades garden filled with tropical plants and gently flowing waterfalls. 

Canopy Walk

The Atlanta Botanical Garden is home to the Kendeda Canopy Walk, a 600-foot-long skywalk that allows the visitors to tour one of the city's last remaining urban forests from around 40 feet in the air through the treetops of the Storza Woods. The skywalk extends from a bluff in the Garden into the branches of oaks, hickories and poplars. The structure also provides an aerial view of the woodland garden below.

 
Internet image and TRD attempted panoramic of Canopy Walk.  

The Canopy Walk was built for $55 million and opened in 2010. It was originally set to open in 2009, but during its construction in 2008, the skywalk collapsed, killing one worker and injuring 18 others. 

 
TRD images. Nets are from Christmas Lights. 

Because of the uniqueness of the Canopy Walk, city leaders believed it would become an icon for Atlanta and it really has.

Earth Goddess

The Earth Goddess is a 25-foot sculpture that is a centerpiece of the Cascades Garden. 



It was the highlight of the "Imaginary Worlds" exhibition that was showcased in 2013–2014. It has since become a permanent part of the Cascades Garden.


Water flows from her hand.

Gardens within the Atlanta Botanical Garden

The Botanical Garden is composed of a number of smaller themed gardens. Each contains different landscapes to display a variety of plants. 


The botanical garden is a haven of diverse plant species spread across several landscapes. As you enter, you are greeted by several formal gardens, including a serene Japanese garden, a fragrant herb garden, and a vibrant rose garden. These gardens offer a unique opportunity to explore and appreciate the beauty and diversity of plant life. TRD images of the Japanese garden ......

 

Two woodland areas, the 5 acres Upper Woodland.


Bridge in Upper Woodlands from Canopy Walk. 

The 10 acres Storza Woods feature large trees and shade-loving flowers and undergrowth. 



The Children's Garden features whimsical sculptures, fountains, and interpretive exhibits on botany, ecology, and nutrition.  



The Ada Mae Pass Ivester Children's Garden at the Atlanta Botanical Garden is a 2.5-acre interactive, nature-based play space featuring a treehouse, rock climb, and a carnivorous plant bog.



In the northwest corner of Piedmont Park, this stunning 30-acre botanical garden has a Japanese garden, winding paths and the amazing Fuqua Orchid Center.

Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory

The 16,000 square feet Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory contains indoor exhibits of plants from tropical rainforests ......



and deserts. 

 

The rain forest room of the Fuqua Conservatory is also populated by tropical birds, turtles, and several exhibits of poison dart frogs, the last of which is a collaboration in conservation efforts with Zoo Atlanta. 

  
Dart's.

The Fuqua Conservatory is an organic biosphere and home to important collections of tropical palms and conifers; the Fuqua Orchid Center is home to the foremost collection of species orchids in the United States. Conservation gardens and amphibian displays highlight the Garden’s work with carnivorous plant bogs across the Southeast as well as endangered species of frogs from around the world. The Garden offers lovely indoor and outdoor rental options for elegant meetings and celebrations.

 
The Atlanta Botanical Garden is deeply involved in conservation and botanical research, focusing on the preservation of native plant species in Georgia. It offers a range of educational programs for all age groups, with classes and workshops in horticulture, art, and more.
 
Almost all TRD and girlfriend Jean images starting here. My second TRD Scrolling Nugget comes from The Seeds about Jean and me just tagging along.

 

Adjoining this building, the Fuqua Orchid Center contains separate rooms simulating the tropics and high elevations in order to house rare orchids from around the world.

   
TRD or Jean went overboard in the Orchid Center.

The Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory is a significant feature of the Atlanta Botanical Garden. It houses a variety of plants from tropical rainforests and deserts. The conservatory is not just about plants; it also hosts tropical birds, turtles, and an exhibition of poison dart frogs, adding an extra layer of interest for visitors.

Fuqua Orchid Center

The Fuqua Orchid Center is home to the largest collection of species orchids on permanent display in the U.S. and hosts a wintertime display known as Orchid Daze. Its unique Tropical High Elevation House provides the correct habitat for montane orchids and companion plants from around the equator at elevations of 6,000 to 10,000 feet. 

   
More TRD or Jean Orchid Center images.

An Air Washer System, technology adapted from the textile industry, was combined with traditional greenhouse heating and cooling to create this environment and allows rare orchids to thrive. The Tropical Display House is filled with fragrant orchids from around the world.

   

TRD Visit February 2026 With Jean

The first thing I recommend is to enter the place off Piedmont Avenue if there is not a crowd. You circle the parking deck from the Monroe entrance. If there is an event you can park low and take the elevator to the entrance, will leave it up to you. 

  
We went straight to the Canopy Walk. Already featured some TRD Canopy Walk images in post.

  
We were really up in the trees, there was a fellow taking down the Christmas lights. 


Decorative seating on Canopy Walk. 

  
Jean's images of the Canopy Walk.

 
Then we went through the tunnel under the Piedmont Road entrance.

  
Camilla Bushes provide excellent wintertime flowers in Georgia. 

  
The first flower of spring in Atlanta, the Daffodil. Beautiful trees in this part of the Botanical Garden. 

 
The Earth Goddess was in Wintertime mode.

 

Jean got some images of the Ice Goddess.

  

  
Squirrel action and Pansies are another Wintertime Atlanta flower. TRD telling Jean we need to head to Day Hall next. 

 
Jean walks in front of the Long Leaf Restaurant and TRD image of the Levy Parterre with the Chihuly sculpture in the center fountain. 

  
Jean image from the Alston Overlook. Her close up of Chihuly sculpture. TRD was resting after hike uphill from Canopy Walk. Had busted leg from fall few weeks earlier. 

Then we made our way to the Japanese Garden. No garden room has a richer history than the charming Japanese Garden. In the 1960s, the Atlanta Bonsai Society started a Japanese Garden on the site of the current one – long before the botanical garden was even established. Largely consisting of bonsai plants, it was then part of Piedmont Park. The society eventually gave it up. In 1980, the newly established Garden restored this site, replaced its white sand representing "pools" with a small pond and added stone walls and fences. The current design combines several styles of traditional Japanese gardens, including elements of hill-and-pond, courtyard and tea gardens. On the ground is a chozubachi stone basin used as a purification ritual before a tea ceremony, and the tea garden includes a waiting bench for reflecting and enjoying the garden.

 
You have to tilt your head a little for this image. Jean found a hidden marker.

The Moon Gate provides a vista through the garden. 



By design, nearly all plantings are green, except for spring-blooming azaleas and irises, and maples that change color in the fall. A large Virginia pine provides a focal point, along with trees such as Japanese maples (Acer palmatum), dwarf conifers and weeping Japanese persimmons. Just outside the gate is a collection of rare harp-string Nandina, bamboo popular in Japan from the 1600s to 1800s. The Japanese Garden is a popular location for intimate weddings.

 
Jean models the Moon Gate. 

An urban oasis in Midtown, the Garden includes 30 acres of outdoor gardens. 

  
We came upon the Great Lawn and went to the right to the Vine Arbor. We found a Tiny Door of Atlanta.

  
Found the Conifer Forest and a Frog sculpture.

Then we made our way into the Orchid Center. 

  

The orchid family is the largest and most diverse in the plant world, and its more than 25,000 species account for about 8 percent of all flowering plant species.

  
TRD Orchid images. 

  
The Center’s two display houses, which opened in 2002, contain a dazzling array of orchid species of all colors, sizes, scents and shapes. 

 
Featured collections include orchids of Madagascar, tropical Asian slipper orchids, Euglossine bee-pollinated orchids, high elevation genera and moth orchids.

  
I came around the corner and this young lady scared me like the Texas Bushman, she blended in with the flowers so well. More Jean images. She had a good eye, the Flower Lady. 

  
This indoor part of the Atlanta Botanical Garden is good any time of the year. We were visiting in February. 

Then we wandered the Fuqua Conservatory. Man, it was hot in there. 

  
Jean found the chocolate tree. 

  
Jean in the Rain Forest. Bad Ass turtle, stay on path.  Poisonous frog too, at least he was behind glass. 

  
TRD wanders the Rain Forest, as Jean took some more images. Found some more Orchids in here, 8% of all the flowers in the world. Jean going crazy with images. 

  
Too hot for some flowers. Flowers on my mind. Flowers stacked on top of each other.

 
Last of Jean Conservatory plant images.

Escaping the heat of the Conservatory to the Skyline Garden overlooking Piedmont Park. 


This garden used the stonework left over from the 1895 Cotton States Exposition.

  
TRD searching for 1895 Stonework. 

  
Beyond the metal steel fence is Piedmont Park. 

 
Pool and garden of the Skyline Garden. 


Jean at 1895 Stone Pool with Midtown Skyline in background. 


Can see tennis center and bandstand of Piedmont Park in distance.

  
Jean images. Can see Softball fields of Piedmont Park, skyline of Midtown, plants and trees of Skyline garden from Jean's view.


Looking back to Conservatory, where the arts and government exposition buildings flanked the carillon in 1895. 

  
We strolled the Robinson Gazebo to the Rock Garden and found another Frog. 


We had lunch back up by the Garden House. Had some King of Pops handcrafted popsicles. (Chocolate Sea Salt)

Discovered a side Sculpture garden.

  
First there was Pan. Others followed (Oh Look another frog). Whimsical Sculptures in the garden.

 
Priest with bird and head of Helen in the grass.

This expansive garden is home to a variety of landscapes featuring diverse plant species, making it a perfect destination for nature lovers and botany enthusiasts.

 
And I finally found someone to go with me so I can finish this post.

Jean bought me some flowers so I have a little Atlanta Botanical Garden in my new windows at the TRD penthouse.

  

Today's TRD Georgia Natural Wonder Gals are at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

  


The cat tells you this one was a good GNW Gal.

]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-11075.html Fri, 26 Sep 2025 01:25:31 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-11075.html Georgia Natural Wonder #271 - Piedmont Park 

Piedmont Park is an urban forest and park in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, located about 1 mile northeast of Downtown, between the Midtown and Virginia Highland neighborhoods. It certainly qualifies as a Georgia Natural Wonder for it's Natural Beauty, the Olmsted Legacy, the History, and the site of the first college football game in the "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry".

 

Today's TRD Scrolling Nugget comes from the Allman Brothers Band playing 'Mountain Jam' live at Atlanta Georgia's Piedmont Park, during one of their notorious free concerts.



Atlanta was a rapidly growing city in the years before Piedmont Park. From 1860 to 1890, the population jumped from 9,554 to 65,533 residents. Those years saw the opening of many education institutions such as Morehouse College (1867), Clark College (1869), Spelman College (1881), Morris Brown College (1882), Georgia School of Technology (now known as the Georgia Institute of Technology) (1885), and Agnes Scott College (1890). John B. Gordon, a distinguished Confederate general, was Governor of Georgia.

 

The area soon to be known as Piedmont Park was owned by Benjamin Walker, who purchased the 189 acres in the 1830s from a man who had won the land in the land lottery. Walker farmed the land and used it as his out-of-town gentleman's farm and residence. He sold the land in 1887 to the Gentlemen's Driving Club (later renamed the Piedmont Driving Club), who wanted to establish an exclusive club and racing ground for horse enthusiasts. 

 

Soon after, a main building, grandstands, and club house were built for the track. 



The Driving Club entered an agreement with the Piedmont Exposition Company to use the land for fairs and expositions and later gave the park its name. A prominent Atlanta businessman and former lawyer, Charles A. Collier, was president of the company. 

  Collier and Johnson.

The park was originally designed by Joseph Forsyth Johnson to host the first of two major expositions held in the park in the late 19th century. 

Piedmont Exposition 1887

The Piedmont Exposition opened in October 10, 1887 to great fanfare. 



The main building constructed for the Exposition was 570 feet long, 126 feet wide, and two stories high. The first day opened with 20,000 visitors. Samuel J. Randall opened the Exposition with a speech on the success of the resurrected post-civil war south.  When his speech concluded, General Pierce M. B. Young and his men fired cannons to signal the opening of the events.



Exhibitors showed off a variety of items including works of art, local raw materials like manganese, marble, and wood work. Many prominent figures of the day were in attendance to see the displays. Governor David B. Hill of New York spoke at the event as well as President Grover Cleveland who attended with his wife, Frances Folsom. Over 50,000 people were in attendance for Cleveland's speech. When the exposition was over, civic leaders said that it had successfully expanded Atlanta's reputation as a place to visit and to conduct business. 

 
Cleveland at the Exposition.

The Exposition was also a chance for Atlanta to prove that it was ready to host a world's fair. The Executive Committee of the World Fair was invited to attend the event under the bidding of Charles Reynolds, Secretary of the Piedmont Exposition Company.

The "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry" 1892

Five years later, Piedmont Park was the location of the second football game in Georgia history, and the beginning of the "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry" between Auburn University (then named Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama) and the University of Georgia. The game was arranged by former Johns Hopkins classmates, Dr. Charles Herty of Georgia and Dr. George Petrie of Auburn. Auburn won the game 10–0.

 Actual image from 1892 game. 

"Sir William" 1892 – A goat. Appeared at the Georgia–Mercer game on January 30, 1892 and the first Auburn–Georgia game on February 22, 1892. It was dressed in a black coat with the letters "U.G." in red on each side. Auburn fans chanted, shoot the billy goat now. It was rumored afterward that he was the main course at a barbecue held by Georgia fans after the game. As for Auburn, legend has it an eagle broke loose from a faculty member during the game, circled the field, eventually fell to the ground dead, and thus the "War Eagle" battle cry.

 Sir William. 

Auburn halfback Rufus "Dutch" Dorsey, a Georgia native, scored the game's first touchdown (thus, tallying the Auburn program's first-ever points) on a rush from less than a yard out, and then followed it up with another touchdown, which covered 40 yards.  

 1892 Auburn. 

After the game, a disgruntled Red and Black player proclaimed to the Auburn team: "Well, you Alabama folks can't crow over Georgia, for you owe your victory to a Georgia boy."  Unfortunately for us UGA fans, a Georgia boy playing for Auburn and being an integral part of a victory over our team would become a recurring trend during the long-standing rivalry.

 1892 Georgia.

Finally, leading up to the game, there was some controversy brewing in regards to Auburn's practice sessions: "They say Auburn has had a professional training their men down there," declared a newspaper.  Therefore, whether 120 years ago, two years ago, and several others utilized in between, Auburn just can't help itself from cheating throughout the long history of the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry.


1895 Georgia Auburn game Piedmont Park.

In 1894, the Piedmont Exposition Company offered to sell the land to the city of Atlanta for $165,000.00, but Mayor John B. Goodwin refused. Thus, The park remained in private hands and outside the city limits for another ten years.

Cotton States and International Festival

The Piedmont Exposition event was a success and set the stage for the Cotton States and International Exposition which was held in the park seven years later in 1895. Both exhibitions showcased the prosperity of the region that had occurred during and after the Reconstruction period. 


Lithograph of Piedmont Park plans for the 1895 Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, GA c.1894



The Cotton States and International Exposition which opened for 100 days beginning on September 18, 1895 and ending December 31, 1895, attracted visitors from the U.S. and 13 countries. 



Over $2 million was spent on the transformation of Piedmont Park. 



The government allocated $250,000 for the construction of a government building and many states and countries such as Argentina also had their own buildings. 

 

Also constructed for the fair were the Tropical gardens, now known as the Atlanta Botanical Garden, and Lake Clara Meer which was originally a pond but was expanded to 11.5 acres for the event. 



Today, the stone balustrades scattered around the park are the only part of the enormous main building. 

 

The park remains largely as Joseph Forsyth Johnson designed it for the exposition although some changes were made during the Olmsted planning phase. 

 

However, most of the buildings that were constructed for the exposition were made of local Georgia granite and the buildings were dismantled after the event so that the granite could be sold to absolve the debt that the city incurred to hold the fair. 

 

Booker T. Washington delivered his famous Atlanta Exposition Speech at the Expo, which is "widely regarded as one of the most significant speeches in American history."

 
In his speech, Washington pushed for progress but not integration, a point that angered many other black leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois. 

Attractions included Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, 

 

the Liberty Bell,


Atlanta school children pose with the Liberty Bell at the Expo

 and the first public demonstration of C. Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat's motion picture projection device which they called the Phantoscope. 



John Philip Sousa's "King Cotton" march was created for the expo and was performed at the ceremony, and was conducted by the composer himself.

 

After the Exposition, the park continued to be extremely popular and was a magnet for growth in the area. State fairs and holiday celebrations were held at the park. Street car lines to the park increased. It was a generally prosperous time. 



The year 1904 for was a watershed time for the park. The preceding year, the prominent Atlantan George Washington Collier died. Collier had owned 202 acres of land to the west and north of the park that was sold for $300,000 to developers. The city bought the park for $98,000 in 1904, incorporating Piedmont Park into Atlanta's city limits. Mayor Evan Howell agreed to purchase the park, but only if it included those developed areas adjacent to the park which would add approximately $35,000 to $40,000 in tax revenues annually. 

 
Stonework left over from 1895 Exposition. 

The main developer of Collier's land was Edwin Ansley, who created the Ansley Park subdivision under the guidelines set by the Olmsteds. The result was curvy streets surrounding "mini-parks" comprising a total of 25 acres. In 1912, these parks were deeded to the city. 

The Olmsted plan 

Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. influenced Piedmont Park by consulting on the 1895 exposition large public green spaces, but it was his sons who created the 1912 master plan for Atlanta's park, shaping its scenic, winding paths, open lawns, and naturalistic design that mirrors Central Park. It was picturesque landscapes, woodlands, and open fields.



The plan emphasized natural beauty, meandering paths, varied topography, and areas for recreation, reflecting Olmsted's philosophy of parks as vital democratic spaces for all citizens.

 

Even though budget cuts left much of the full vision unrealized, it is still influencing today's layout with its iconic features like Lake Clara Meer and varied recreational spaces. 

Olmsted's Role & Influence

In 1909, the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. were asked to design the park's master plan while they were at work on Grant Park. The city agreed to pay $1,800 for the plan. 



John Charles Olmsted was the nephew and adopted son of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. After their father retired, Charles and his younger half-brother, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., took over leadership and founded Olmsted Brothers as a landscape design firm. The firm became well known for designing many urban parks, college campuses, and other public places. John Olmsted's body of work from over 40 years as a landscape architect has left its mark on the American urban landscape. During his visit to Grant Park, John Charles sketched and photographed the land.



In 1910, the brothers submitted a plan for the park that was to include a 5-mile scenic path and driveways that would link Piedmont Park to the streets of Ansley Park. Joining the parks was a success and thereafter, the parks were known as Twin Parks. Although never fully implemented, the Olmsted plan had a great effect on the development in the surrounding area.

Key Features Influenced by Olmsted
    
Winding Paths & Drives: Meandering roads and paths create changing views and a sense of discovery.

 
    
Open Lawns: Large, open grassy areas for community gathering and relaxation.

 
    
Lake Clara Meer: A central water feature designed for scenic enjoyment.

 
    
Wooded Areas: Shaded groves with walking trails. 

  

Legacy Today
    
Honoring the Design: The 1995 master plan for Piedmont Park honors the Olmsted Brothers' original vision, incorporating elements like the Bathhouse (now Visitor Center), tennis courts, and active recreation areas.


Stonework left over from 1895 Exposition. This is where the Allman Brothers played it looks like.
    
A "Central Park" for Atlanta: Piedmont Park, with its Olmsted-inspired design, serves as Atlanta's primary urban green space, offering nature, recreation, and large event venues.
 
The beginnings of Atlanta baseball

In March 1898, the baseball fields were finally completed. On April 16, 1898, the first baseball game between Georgia and Georgia Tech, then known as the Georgia School of Technology, was played. 

 

From 1902 through 1906, the Atlanta Crackers, the city's original professional baseball team played ball on the fields of Piedmont Park before moving to a stadium on Ponce de Leon Avenue. The Atlanta Crackers were a Minor League Baseball team based in Atlanta, Georgia, between 1901 and 1965. The Crackers were Atlanta's home team until the Atlanta Braves moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1966. For 60 years (until 1961), the Crackers were part of the Class AA Southern Association, a period during which they won more games than any other Association team, earning the nickname the "Yankees of the Minors".

 

Atlanta played its inaugural Southern Association game, against the Nashville Baseball Club, on Saturday, April 26, 1902 (Memorial Day) in Piedmont Park before a crowd of around 3,500. 

Piedmont Park baseball field as it looked in 1902

They had played earlier seasons at Brisbine Park about six blocks west of the future site of Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium. One of the most infamous events in college football history occurred here. During a game between Georgia and Virginia on October 30, 1897, Georgia player Richard Von Albade Gammon suffered a severe concussion during a scrimmage. He was taken to a hospital and died the next morning. Gammon's death nearly resulted in the state legislature outlawing football. Only a plea from Gammon's own mother persuaded the governor to veto the pending bill. (GNW #54)




20th-century growth and development


Piedmont Park in the winter

The park's first bathhouse was opened in 1911. A wooden structure built to support swimming in Lake Clara Meer, offering changing rooms and showers for park-goers enjoying lake activities like diving and sunbathing. 



The same year the first bathhouse was opened, the Peace Monument, a Confederate monument, was dedicated in the park, near the 14th Street gate. 

 
The monument features the "angel of peace" (modeled by Audrey Munson), holding an olive branch, standing over a Confederate soldier who has a gun in his hands, telling the soldier that peace has been proclaimed.

In 1913, seven clay courts were built where the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition's Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building once was. Eight more courts were added in 1914 to accommodate the overwhelming demand. 



That same year, the Sidney Lanier Monument was dedicated in the park. 

 

Notable additions and buildings include the bandstand, built in 1915; 



The historic Piedmont Park Bathhouse, built in 1927,



A picnic shelter constructed by the WPA in 1936; 



The Steffen Thomas-designed Pioneer Women memorial in 1938; 

 

By Spring 1969 midtown Atlanta's Piedmont Park had become the primary setting for free concerts, usually on Sundays, from the afternoon into the evening. The central location drew local and regional talent, most memorably the Allman Brothers Band, who had recently relocated from Jacksonville FL. to Macon GA. Atlanta had yet to open any substantial rock clubs, therefore the park became a key venue for musicians to showcase material to a large audience. 

 

Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks recalled: We went straight to Piedmont Park and found a perfect spot to set up. It was a rather large flat space at the top of some stairs with some electrical outlets within reach. We didn't ask permission, we just set up and started pouring out all of this music we had only played for ourselves up to that time.



This grew into a weekly event that went from that little place to a big flatbed stage set up on the end of a very large field that someone provided complete with a massive generator. Plus many more bands. Grateful Dead, Chicago Transit Authority, Spirit, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, It's A Beautiful Day, Allman Brothers Band, Hampton Grease Band - July 7 (Monday concert following July 4th weekend's Atlanta International Pop Festival in Hampton GA, arranged by festival promoters)

 
Chicago, Grateful Dead at Piedmont Park. 

Piedmont Park's swimming history began with swimming in Lake Clara Meer, supported by bathhouses built in 1911 (wooden) and 1926 (stone), featuring slides and diving platforms.

 
Quite the spot. First African Americans in lake. 



For decades, the lake was the primary swimming spot, attracting thousands with its diving platforms, sunning areas, and even a double water slide.







Until 1973, when the lake swimming stopped and the current, renovated Aquatic Center was built, offering a modern pool with lap lanes and a splash pad, all next to the historic Greystone event space (the old bathhouse).



On April 23, 2008, a ground-breaking ceremony was held at the Bathhouse for the 53-acre expansion of the Park. The pool and bathhouse are part of a huge Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) renovation that cost around $7.8 million and was completed in early summer 2009.



The renovation features accessibility, a warming kitchen, WiFi, a pool with beach entry, bubblers, current channel, vortex, fountains, separate splash pad, lap lanes, landscaped deck environment, and concessions. 

 
Dog Day at pool.

A new area featuring a Bocce ball court and green space with an arbor opened in May 2010.


Midtown.

The Noguchi Playscapes, completed in 1976 under the aegis of the High Museum and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and designed by world-renowned artist and sculptor Isamu Noguchi, noteworthy as the only public work by Noguchi in the U.S. 

 

It's a set of colorful, architectural, and flexible metal and concrete pieces set in a clearing in Atlanta’s wooded Piedmont Park. 

 

Perhaps more importantly, it’s the expression of decades of thinking and tinkering about the best way to get children moving, thinking, and exploring the natural world.



In 2002, the dog park was opened. 

 



Approximately 50 acres in the northwest portion of the 187-acre park had remained woodlands into the 21st century. In 2007, a park expansion plan called for a new parking deck as well as "open green space, bicycle and walking trails, formal and community gardens, an interactive water feature, children's playgrounds, a skate park, athletic fields, and woodlands". The project was expected to cost $72 million. 

2011 expansion


Looking south, new bridge over Clear Creek in the new section of the park, with the new dog park in the background


"Greensward", looking north at northern plaza with interactive fountain in the background.

  

On April 12, 2011, Mayor Kasim Reed cut the ribbon to open the first phase of a major expansion into the northern third of the park. Areas opened include two oval-shaped plazas ("The Greensward" and "The Promenade", which contains the interactive Legacy Fountain), the Lower Meadow, the Six Springs Wetlands, and a vastly expanded dog park. 


Promenade.

Construction began in early 2013 on areas at the far north of the park, including The Northwoods, Piedmont Commons, and Piedmont Gardens. New park entrances are to be added at the eastern end of Westminster Dr. (off Piedmont Ave.), the northern end of Dutch Valley Pl., and at 1514 Monroe just south of Piedmont Ave., on the site of Agnes & Muriel's restaurant. 

 
Northwoods boardwalk, Six Springs cascade. 



There are already dirt trails that follow Clear Creek and the BeltLine Eastside Trail northwards connecting the 2011 and 2013 expansion areas and providing pedestrian access to the Ansley Mall area north of the park, and to the BeltLine trails going further north to Ansley Park and Peachtree Creek in Buckhead. 

 
TRD image of new Piedmont Park Beltline and Internet image of proposed Beltline travel through I-85 tunnel. 

Activities and facilities Outdoor activities

The park hosts several miles of paved paths suitable for walking, running, biking, and inline skating. Skate Escape across from the park at the 12th Street entrance rents both bikes and skates. On weekend afternoons, skateboarders and inline skaters often share the open, paved area inside the 12th Street entrance. 



Piedmont Park has picnic shelters located just to the East of the north soccer field. There are also various picnic tables and benches throughout the park. Many visitors choose to picnic on the expansive lawns as well. The first grill in Piedmont Park was erected for the 1895 Cotton States Exposition where the administrative offices now sit. There are 22 grills throughout the park. No portable grills are allowed. 



The Noguchi "Playscape" is located near the 12th Street Gate. The geometrically shaped, modernist playground includes a soaring swing set, slide, sand pit, climbing dome and more made of bright and exciting colors. Also in the park is a new playground known as Mayor's Grove. It was designed as a Boundless Playgrounds and features a high level of accessibility and interactive play. 


TRD image Mayor's Grove. 

Sports

Piedmont Park is a popular place for organized sports. The Sharon E. Lester Tennis Center at Piedmont Park is a fully staffed, public facility with 12 lighted hard courts, offering leagues, lessons, and supplies. 


Can see tennis Courts and Active Oval this drone image. 

The Active Oval has two softball fields, two soccer fields, and two beach volleyball courts, all ringed by a dirt running path. Kickball leagues also use the softball fields.

The park's swimming center, once closed for renovations, re-opened in summer of 2009.


Popular sledding hill during winter snow storms. 

Fishing and the lake

The lake is located in the south east part of the park. Fishing is permitted in the lake, which is stocked with large mouth bass, crappie, bream, and catfish. A 2002 renovation of the lake added a new bridge connecting the two bodies of water and three fishing piers located around the lake.

 
 
Clara Meer Dock is located at the west corner of the lake. Just above the Dock sits the historic Visitor Center building. Clara Meer Dock forms an amphitheater-like space nestled into the western end of the lake. Clara Meer Dock is often used for wedding ceremonies. Rental of the dock also includes the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center features a barrel ceiling with a painted mural called "A Day at the Park" by Ralph Gilbert. The center seats 40 persons inside and over 200 more on the adjoining lawn and dock. The Dock seats up to 120 for ceremony, or up to 100 for table dining or possible dance floor area. 

Dogs

With the exception of some festival weekends and special events, dogs are permitted in Piedmont Park, on leashes 6 feet or shorter for safety reasons. Owners must clean up after their dogs, and the park has a half-dozen plastic bag dispensing stations to facilitate this. Several of the park's water fountains also have a ground-level basin for dogs to use.

  

Just north of the Park Road entrance bridge are two fenced-in Dog Parks that equal to three acres where friendly dogs (and their owners) can cavort with each other off-leash. Brand new, vastly expanded parks for small and large dogs were opened in April 2011.

 
TRD image of Dog Park and Dog Day at the Pool.   

The Piedmont Park Conservancy (a nonprofit) was responsible for the restoration of the Piedmont Park Dog Parks, and still manages the dog parks today.

Special events

Piedmont Park is a central focal point of Atlanta's Midtown community. The park is home to various annual celebrations and events, including Atlanta Pride Festival, the Atlanta Jazz Festival, 



the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, Music Midtown, Atlanta Black Pride, and Festival Peachtree Latino. A summer series of classic films, Screen on the Green, is also aired in the park for local residents.  

 
Dogwood Festival and Music Midtown.



The Peachtree Road Race finishes at Piedmont Park.


 
On the weekend and holidays, the park comes alive with music, intramural sports, and fun festivities. In 2004, Georgia Shakespeare Festival added an annual series of free performances entitled "Shake on the Lake" with Lake Clara Meer as a backdrop. A centennial celebration was held for the park in June 2004. In 2007, the Allman Brothers Band and Dave Matthews Band played a concert with proceeds benefiting the planned expansion to the park. Dave Matthews Band's performance was later released as a live DVD as well as their eighth live album, Live at Piedmont Park. Sir Paul McCartney performed in Piedmont Park to benefit the conservancy on August 15, 2009. The Eagles performed at the park on October 16, 2010, also as a benefit for the conservancy. In 2011, Music Midtown returned from its five-year hiatus, hosting headliners Coldplay and The Black Keys in Piedmont Park.

 
Paul McCartney and building the stage. 

 
2006 Dogwood Festival with Midtown Atlanta skyline in background

TRD Visit to Piedmont Park

 
I parked on Park Drive off Monroe by Dog park.

 
Walked across bridge and Beltline and dog park. 

 
Stone columns.


Vintage Lamps Midtown Skyline.

 
Piedmont Park obelisk. One of several. 

  
Right off I was impressed by the wintertime trees. 

 
Loved the Cypress trees and stumps. 

 
South Georgia feel. 
 
 
Park to left Lake to right. Feels like an Olmsted park.

 
Bought some Oatmeal to feed ducks. Websites say this is approved food not bread.

 
Wind kept blowing it back. Ducks just nibbled. Bringing white bread next time. Side Note, Ducks love left over sweet potato fries from the Nook.

  
Benches and swings along the lake. 

 
Main path between lake and Park Tavern meadow.  


Palmetto. 


Selfies on the pier. 

 
Lakeside Trail. 


Dogwood Flower sculpture. 

   
And lots of trees. 

 
Looking across lake to gazebo and bridge. 


Stonework and trees. 


Park Tavern meadow was hopping. 


Can see town Christmas Tree over by Tavern. 

 
Made my way to Charles Allen gate. 



 
Free Nelson Mandella sculpture and iconic meadow hill and midtown. 

 
Love how the late afternoon sun reflects off the trees. 


Walking back to lake, this is where concerts are held. 

 
Sat on a lake swing between enormous trees. 

 
Lakeside trail was sweet. 

 
Fountain and 1895 Stonework on Island in lake.

 
Wedding pictures main dock of Lake. 

 
Visitor center. 

 
1895 Exposition stairs and stonework. 


Noguchi "Playscape"

 
The Renovation Plaque and the trees all up here by the 12th Street Piedmont Road Main Gate. 

  
All the winter trees of Piedmont Park. 

   
These trees were up by the Benjamin Walker Homestead. 

 

Had lunch at the Nook and came back into 12th Avenue Main gate.

 

Sculptures and Monuments all in here.

 

 
The Peace Monument. 





Historical markers for the 1895 Cotton State Exposition and Booker T Washington Speech.



  
Looking back to 12th Street Gate and Midtown. 

Panoramic image of Ball Fields.



Walking down steps to ball fields. 

 

Panoramic from central gazebo in Ball Fields.



The 1895 Cotton States steps and stonework across Ball Fields where Allman Brothers played. 

 


Spot where Allman Brothers payed.

The park is open from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM every day.

Today's GNW Gals were all photographed at Piedmont Park.

  

]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #271 - Piedmont Park 

Piedmont Park is an urban forest and park in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, located about 1 mile northeast of Downtown, between the Midtown and Virginia Highland neighborhoods. It certainly qualifies as a Georgia Natural Wonder for it's Natural Beauty, the Olmsted Legacy, the History, and the site of the first college football game in the "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry".

 

Today's TRD Scrolling Nugget comes from the Allman Brothers Band playing 'Mountain Jam' live at Atlanta Georgia's Piedmont Park, during one of their notorious free concerts.



Atlanta was a rapidly growing city in the years before Piedmont Park. From 1860 to 1890, the population jumped from 9,554 to 65,533 residents. Those years saw the opening of many education institutions such as Morehouse College (1867), Clark College (1869), Spelman College (1881), Morris Brown College (1882), Georgia School of Technology (now known as the Georgia Institute of Technology) (1885), and Agnes Scott College (1890). John B. Gordon, a distinguished Confederate general, was Governor of Georgia.

 

The area soon to be known as Piedmont Park was owned by Benjamin Walker, who purchased the 189 acres in the 1830s from a man who had won the land in the land lottery. Walker farmed the land and used it as his out-of-town gentleman's farm and residence. He sold the land in 1887 to the Gentlemen's Driving Club (later renamed the Piedmont Driving Club), who wanted to establish an exclusive club and racing ground for horse enthusiasts. 

 

Soon after, a main building, grandstands, and club house were built for the track. 



The Driving Club entered an agreement with the Piedmont Exposition Company to use the land for fairs and expositions and later gave the park its name. A prominent Atlanta businessman and former lawyer, Charles A. Collier, was president of the company. 

  Collier and Johnson.

The park was originally designed by Joseph Forsyth Johnson to host the first of two major expositions held in the park in the late 19th century. 

Piedmont Exposition 1887

The Piedmont Exposition opened in October 10, 1887 to great fanfare. 



The main building constructed for the Exposition was 570 feet long, 126 feet wide, and two stories high. The first day opened with 20,000 visitors. Samuel J. Randall opened the Exposition with a speech on the success of the resurrected post-civil war south.  When his speech concluded, General Pierce M. B. Young and his men fired cannons to signal the opening of the events.



Exhibitors showed off a variety of items including works of art, local raw materials like manganese, marble, and wood work. Many prominent figures of the day were in attendance to see the displays. Governor David B. Hill of New York spoke at the event as well as President Grover Cleveland who attended with his wife, Frances Folsom. Over 50,000 people were in attendance for Cleveland's speech. When the exposition was over, civic leaders said that it had successfully expanded Atlanta's reputation as a place to visit and to conduct business. 

 
Cleveland at the Exposition.

The Exposition was also a chance for Atlanta to prove that it was ready to host a world's fair. The Executive Committee of the World Fair was invited to attend the event under the bidding of Charles Reynolds, Secretary of the Piedmont Exposition Company.

The "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry" 1892

Five years later, Piedmont Park was the location of the second football game in Georgia history, and the beginning of the "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry" between Auburn University (then named Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama) and the University of Georgia. The game was arranged by former Johns Hopkins classmates, Dr. Charles Herty of Georgia and Dr. George Petrie of Auburn. Auburn won the game 10–0.

 Actual image from 1892 game. 

"Sir William" 1892 – A goat. Appeared at the Georgia–Mercer game on January 30, 1892 and the first Auburn–Georgia game on February 22, 1892. It was dressed in a black coat with the letters "U.G." in red on each side. Auburn fans chanted, shoot the billy goat now. It was rumored afterward that he was the main course at a barbecue held by Georgia fans after the game. As for Auburn, legend has it an eagle broke loose from a faculty member during the game, circled the field, eventually fell to the ground dead, and thus the "War Eagle" battle cry.

 Sir William. 

Auburn halfback Rufus "Dutch" Dorsey, a Georgia native, scored the game's first touchdown (thus, tallying the Auburn program's first-ever points) on a rush from less than a yard out, and then followed it up with another touchdown, which covered 40 yards.  

 1892 Auburn. 

After the game, a disgruntled Red and Black player proclaimed to the Auburn team: "Well, you Alabama folks can't crow over Georgia, for you owe your victory to a Georgia boy."  Unfortunately for us UGA fans, a Georgia boy playing for Auburn and being an integral part of a victory over our team would become a recurring trend during the long-standing rivalry.

 1892 Georgia.

Finally, leading up to the game, there was some controversy brewing in regards to Auburn's practice sessions: "They say Auburn has had a professional training their men down there," declared a newspaper.  Therefore, whether 120 years ago, two years ago, and several others utilized in between, Auburn just can't help itself from cheating throughout the long history of the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry.


1895 Georgia Auburn game Piedmont Park.

In 1894, the Piedmont Exposition Company offered to sell the land to the city of Atlanta for $165,000.00, but Mayor John B. Goodwin refused. Thus, The park remained in private hands and outside the city limits for another ten years.

Cotton States and International Festival

The Piedmont Exposition event was a success and set the stage for the Cotton States and International Exposition which was held in the park seven years later in 1895. Both exhibitions showcased the prosperity of the region that had occurred during and after the Reconstruction period. 


Lithograph of Piedmont Park plans for the 1895 Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, GA c.1894



The Cotton States and International Exposition which opened for 100 days beginning on September 18, 1895 and ending December 31, 1895, attracted visitors from the U.S. and 13 countries. 



Over $2 million was spent on the transformation of Piedmont Park. 



The government allocated $250,000 for the construction of a government building and many states and countries such as Argentina also had their own buildings. 

 

Also constructed for the fair were the Tropical gardens, now known as the Atlanta Botanical Garden, and Lake Clara Meer which was originally a pond but was expanded to 11.5 acres for the event. 



Today, the stone balustrades scattered around the park are the only part of the enormous main building. 

 

The park remains largely as Joseph Forsyth Johnson designed it for the exposition although some changes were made during the Olmsted planning phase. 

 

However, most of the buildings that were constructed for the exposition were made of local Georgia granite and the buildings were dismantled after the event so that the granite could be sold to absolve the debt that the city incurred to hold the fair. 

 

Booker T. Washington delivered his famous Atlanta Exposition Speech at the Expo, which is "widely regarded as one of the most significant speeches in American history."

 
In his speech, Washington pushed for progress but not integration, a point that angered many other black leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois. 

Attractions included Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, 

 

the Liberty Bell,


Atlanta school children pose with the Liberty Bell at the Expo

 and the first public demonstration of C. Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat's motion picture projection device which they called the Phantoscope. 



John Philip Sousa's "King Cotton" march was created for the expo and was performed at the ceremony, and was conducted by the composer himself.

 

After the Exposition, the park continued to be extremely popular and was a magnet for growth in the area. State fairs and holiday celebrations were held at the park. Street car lines to the park increased. It was a generally prosperous time. 



The year 1904 for was a watershed time for the park. The preceding year, the prominent Atlantan George Washington Collier died. Collier had owned 202 acres of land to the west and north of the park that was sold for $300,000 to developers. The city bought the park for $98,000 in 1904, incorporating Piedmont Park into Atlanta's city limits. Mayor Evan Howell agreed to purchase the park, but only if it included those developed areas adjacent to the park which would add approximately $35,000 to $40,000 in tax revenues annually. 

 
Stonework left over from 1895 Exposition. 

The main developer of Collier's land was Edwin Ansley, who created the Ansley Park subdivision under the guidelines set by the Olmsteds. The result was curvy streets surrounding "mini-parks" comprising a total of 25 acres. In 1912, these parks were deeded to the city. 

The Olmsted plan 

Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. influenced Piedmont Park by consulting on the 1895 exposition large public green spaces, but it was his sons who created the 1912 master plan for Atlanta's park, shaping its scenic, winding paths, open lawns, and naturalistic design that mirrors Central Park. It was picturesque landscapes, woodlands, and open fields.



The plan emphasized natural beauty, meandering paths, varied topography, and areas for recreation, reflecting Olmsted's philosophy of parks as vital democratic spaces for all citizens.

 

Even though budget cuts left much of the full vision unrealized, it is still influencing today's layout with its iconic features like Lake Clara Meer and varied recreational spaces. 

Olmsted's Role & Influence

In 1909, the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. were asked to design the park's master plan while they were at work on Grant Park. The city agreed to pay $1,800 for the plan. 



John Charles Olmsted was the nephew and adopted son of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. After their father retired, Charles and his younger half-brother, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., took over leadership and founded Olmsted Brothers as a landscape design firm. The firm became well known for designing many urban parks, college campuses, and other public places. John Olmsted's body of work from over 40 years as a landscape architect has left its mark on the American urban landscape. During his visit to Grant Park, John Charles sketched and photographed the land.



In 1910, the brothers submitted a plan for the park that was to include a 5-mile scenic path and driveways that would link Piedmont Park to the streets of Ansley Park. Joining the parks was a success and thereafter, the parks were known as Twin Parks. Although never fully implemented, the Olmsted plan had a great effect on the development in the surrounding area.

Key Features Influenced by Olmsted
    
Winding Paths & Drives: Meandering roads and paths create changing views and a sense of discovery.

 
    
Open Lawns: Large, open grassy areas for community gathering and relaxation.

 
    
Lake Clara Meer: A central water feature designed for scenic enjoyment.

 
    
Wooded Areas: Shaded groves with walking trails. 

  

Legacy Today
    
Honoring the Design: The 1995 master plan for Piedmont Park honors the Olmsted Brothers' original vision, incorporating elements like the Bathhouse (now Visitor Center), tennis courts, and active recreation areas.


Stonework left over from 1895 Exposition. This is where the Allman Brothers played it looks like.
    
A "Central Park" for Atlanta: Piedmont Park, with its Olmsted-inspired design, serves as Atlanta's primary urban green space, offering nature, recreation, and large event venues.
 
The beginnings of Atlanta baseball

In March 1898, the baseball fields were finally completed. On April 16, 1898, the first baseball game between Georgia and Georgia Tech, then known as the Georgia School of Technology, was played. 

 

From 1902 through 1906, the Atlanta Crackers, the city's original professional baseball team played ball on the fields of Piedmont Park before moving to a stadium on Ponce de Leon Avenue. The Atlanta Crackers were a Minor League Baseball team based in Atlanta, Georgia, between 1901 and 1965. The Crackers were Atlanta's home team until the Atlanta Braves moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1966. For 60 years (until 1961), the Crackers were part of the Class AA Southern Association, a period during which they won more games than any other Association team, earning the nickname the "Yankees of the Minors".

 

Atlanta played its inaugural Southern Association game, against the Nashville Baseball Club, on Saturday, April 26, 1902 (Memorial Day) in Piedmont Park before a crowd of around 3,500. 

Piedmont Park baseball field as it looked in 1902

They had played earlier seasons at Brisbine Park about six blocks west of the future site of Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium. One of the most infamous events in college football history occurred here. During a game between Georgia and Virginia on October 30, 1897, Georgia player Richard Von Albade Gammon suffered a severe concussion during a scrimmage. He was taken to a hospital and died the next morning. Gammon's death nearly resulted in the state legislature outlawing football. Only a plea from Gammon's own mother persuaded the governor to veto the pending bill. (GNW #54)




20th-century growth and development


Piedmont Park in the winter

The park's first bathhouse was opened in 1911. A wooden structure built to support swimming in Lake Clara Meer, offering changing rooms and showers for park-goers enjoying lake activities like diving and sunbathing. 



The same year the first bathhouse was opened, the Peace Monument, a Confederate monument, was dedicated in the park, near the 14th Street gate. 

 
The monument features the "angel of peace" (modeled by Audrey Munson), holding an olive branch, standing over a Confederate soldier who has a gun in his hands, telling the soldier that peace has been proclaimed.

In 1913, seven clay courts were built where the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition's Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building once was. Eight more courts were added in 1914 to accommodate the overwhelming demand. 



That same year, the Sidney Lanier Monument was dedicated in the park. 

 

Notable additions and buildings include the bandstand, built in 1915; 



The historic Piedmont Park Bathhouse, built in 1927,



A picnic shelter constructed by the WPA in 1936; 



The Steffen Thomas-designed Pioneer Women memorial in 1938; 

 

By Spring 1969 midtown Atlanta's Piedmont Park had become the primary setting for free concerts, usually on Sundays, from the afternoon into the evening. The central location drew local and regional talent, most memorably the Allman Brothers Band, who had recently relocated from Jacksonville FL. to Macon GA. Atlanta had yet to open any substantial rock clubs, therefore the park became a key venue for musicians to showcase material to a large audience. 

 

Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks recalled: We went straight to Piedmont Park and found a perfect spot to set up. It was a rather large flat space at the top of some stairs with some electrical outlets within reach. We didn't ask permission, we just set up and started pouring out all of this music we had only played for ourselves up to that time.



This grew into a weekly event that went from that little place to a big flatbed stage set up on the end of a very large field that someone provided complete with a massive generator. Plus many more bands. Grateful Dead, Chicago Transit Authority, Spirit, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, It's A Beautiful Day, Allman Brothers Band, Hampton Grease Band - July 7 (Monday concert following July 4th weekend's Atlanta International Pop Festival in Hampton GA, arranged by festival promoters)

 
Chicago, Grateful Dead at Piedmont Park. 

Piedmont Park's swimming history began with swimming in Lake Clara Meer, supported by bathhouses built in 1911 (wooden) and 1926 (stone), featuring slides and diving platforms.

 
Quite the spot. First African Americans in lake. 



For decades, the lake was the primary swimming spot, attracting thousands with its diving platforms, sunning areas, and even a double water slide.







Until 1973, when the lake swimming stopped and the current, renovated Aquatic Center was built, offering a modern pool with lap lanes and a splash pad, all next to the historic Greystone event space (the old bathhouse).



On April 23, 2008, a ground-breaking ceremony was held at the Bathhouse for the 53-acre expansion of the Park. The pool and bathhouse are part of a huge Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) renovation that cost around $7.8 million and was completed in early summer 2009.



The renovation features accessibility, a warming kitchen, WiFi, a pool with beach entry, bubblers, current channel, vortex, fountains, separate splash pad, lap lanes, landscaped deck environment, and concessions. 

 
Dog Day at pool.

A new area featuring a Bocce ball court and green space with an arbor opened in May 2010.


Midtown.

The Noguchi Playscapes, completed in 1976 under the aegis of the High Museum and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and designed by world-renowned artist and sculptor Isamu Noguchi, noteworthy as the only public work by Noguchi in the U.S. 

 

It's a set of colorful, architectural, and flexible metal and concrete pieces set in a clearing in Atlanta’s wooded Piedmont Park. 

 

Perhaps more importantly, it’s the expression of decades of thinking and tinkering about the best way to get children moving, thinking, and exploring the natural world.



In 2002, the dog park was opened. 

 



Approximately 50 acres in the northwest portion of the 187-acre park had remained woodlands into the 21st century. In 2007, a park expansion plan called for a new parking deck as well as "open green space, bicycle and walking trails, formal and community gardens, an interactive water feature, children's playgrounds, a skate park, athletic fields, and woodlands". The project was expected to cost $72 million. 

2011 expansion


Looking south, new bridge over Clear Creek in the new section of the park, with the new dog park in the background


"Greensward", looking north at northern plaza with interactive fountain in the background.

  

On April 12, 2011, Mayor Kasim Reed cut the ribbon to open the first phase of a major expansion into the northern third of the park. Areas opened include two oval-shaped plazas ("The Greensward" and "The Promenade", which contains the interactive Legacy Fountain), the Lower Meadow, the Six Springs Wetlands, and a vastly expanded dog park. 


Promenade.

Construction began in early 2013 on areas at the far north of the park, including The Northwoods, Piedmont Commons, and Piedmont Gardens. New park entrances are to be added at the eastern end of Westminster Dr. (off Piedmont Ave.), the northern end of Dutch Valley Pl., and at 1514 Monroe just south of Piedmont Ave., on the site of Agnes & Muriel's restaurant. 

 
Northwoods boardwalk, Six Springs cascade. 



There are already dirt trails that follow Clear Creek and the BeltLine Eastside Trail northwards connecting the 2011 and 2013 expansion areas and providing pedestrian access to the Ansley Mall area north of the park, and to the BeltLine trails going further north to Ansley Park and Peachtree Creek in Buckhead. 

 
TRD image of new Piedmont Park Beltline and Internet image of proposed Beltline travel through I-85 tunnel. 

Activities and facilities Outdoor activities

The park hosts several miles of paved paths suitable for walking, running, biking, and inline skating. Skate Escape across from the park at the 12th Street entrance rents both bikes and skates. On weekend afternoons, skateboarders and inline skaters often share the open, paved area inside the 12th Street entrance. 



Piedmont Park has picnic shelters located just to the East of the north soccer field. There are also various picnic tables and benches throughout the park. Many visitors choose to picnic on the expansive lawns as well. The first grill in Piedmont Park was erected for the 1895 Cotton States Exposition where the administrative offices now sit. There are 22 grills throughout the park. No portable grills are allowed. 



The Noguchi "Playscape" is located near the 12th Street Gate. The geometrically shaped, modernist playground includes a soaring swing set, slide, sand pit, climbing dome and more made of bright and exciting colors. Also in the park is a new playground known as Mayor's Grove. It was designed as a Boundless Playgrounds and features a high level of accessibility and interactive play. 


TRD image Mayor's Grove. 

Sports

Piedmont Park is a popular place for organized sports. The Sharon E. Lester Tennis Center at Piedmont Park is a fully staffed, public facility with 12 lighted hard courts, offering leagues, lessons, and supplies. 


Can see tennis Courts and Active Oval this drone image. 

The Active Oval has two softball fields, two soccer fields, and two beach volleyball courts, all ringed by a dirt running path. Kickball leagues also use the softball fields.

The park's swimming center, once closed for renovations, re-opened in summer of 2009.


Popular sledding hill during winter snow storms. 

Fishing and the lake

The lake is located in the south east part of the park. Fishing is permitted in the lake, which is stocked with large mouth bass, crappie, bream, and catfish. A 2002 renovation of the lake added a new bridge connecting the two bodies of water and three fishing piers located around the lake.

 
 
Clara Meer Dock is located at the west corner of the lake. Just above the Dock sits the historic Visitor Center building. Clara Meer Dock forms an amphitheater-like space nestled into the western end of the lake. Clara Meer Dock is often used for wedding ceremonies. Rental of the dock also includes the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center features a barrel ceiling with a painted mural called "A Day at the Park" by Ralph Gilbert. The center seats 40 persons inside and over 200 more on the adjoining lawn and dock. The Dock seats up to 120 for ceremony, or up to 100 for table dining or possible dance floor area. 

Dogs

With the exception of some festival weekends and special events, dogs are permitted in Piedmont Park, on leashes 6 feet or shorter for safety reasons. Owners must clean up after their dogs, and the park has a half-dozen plastic bag dispensing stations to facilitate this. Several of the park's water fountains also have a ground-level basin for dogs to use.

  

Just north of the Park Road entrance bridge are two fenced-in Dog Parks that equal to three acres where friendly dogs (and their owners) can cavort with each other off-leash. Brand new, vastly expanded parks for small and large dogs were opened in April 2011.

 
TRD image of Dog Park and Dog Day at the Pool.   

The Piedmont Park Conservancy (a nonprofit) was responsible for the restoration of the Piedmont Park Dog Parks, and still manages the dog parks today.

Special events

Piedmont Park is a central focal point of Atlanta's Midtown community. The park is home to various annual celebrations and events, including Atlanta Pride Festival, the Atlanta Jazz Festival, 



the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, Music Midtown, Atlanta Black Pride, and Festival Peachtree Latino. A summer series of classic films, Screen on the Green, is also aired in the park for local residents.  

 
Dogwood Festival and Music Midtown.



The Peachtree Road Race finishes at Piedmont Park.


 
On the weekend and holidays, the park comes alive with music, intramural sports, and fun festivities. In 2004, Georgia Shakespeare Festival added an annual series of free performances entitled "Shake on the Lake" with Lake Clara Meer as a backdrop. A centennial celebration was held for the park in June 2004. In 2007, the Allman Brothers Band and Dave Matthews Band played a concert with proceeds benefiting the planned expansion to the park. Dave Matthews Band's performance was later released as a live DVD as well as their eighth live album, Live at Piedmont Park. Sir Paul McCartney performed in Piedmont Park to benefit the conservancy on August 15, 2009. The Eagles performed at the park on October 16, 2010, also as a benefit for the conservancy. In 2011, Music Midtown returned from its five-year hiatus, hosting headliners Coldplay and The Black Keys in Piedmont Park.

 
Paul McCartney and building the stage. 

 
2006 Dogwood Festival with Midtown Atlanta skyline in background

TRD Visit to Piedmont Park

 
I parked on Park Drive off Monroe by Dog park.

 
Walked across bridge and Beltline and dog park. 

 
Stone columns.


Vintage Lamps Midtown Skyline.

 
Piedmont Park obelisk. One of several. 

  
Right off I was impressed by the wintertime trees. 

 
Loved the Cypress trees and stumps. 

 
South Georgia feel. 
 
 
Park to left Lake to right. Feels like an Olmsted park.

 
Bought some Oatmeal to feed ducks. Websites say this is approved food not bread.

 
Wind kept blowing it back. Ducks just nibbled. Bringing white bread next time. Side Note, Ducks love left over sweet potato fries from the Nook.

  
Benches and swings along the lake. 

 
Main path between lake and Park Tavern meadow.  


Palmetto. 


Selfies on the pier. 

 
Lakeside Trail. 


Dogwood Flower sculpture. 

   
And lots of trees. 

 
Looking across lake to gazebo and bridge. 


Stonework and trees. 


Park Tavern meadow was hopping. 


Can see town Christmas Tree over by Tavern. 

 
Made my way to Charles Allen gate. 



 
Free Nelson Mandella sculpture and iconic meadow hill and midtown. 

 
Love how the late afternoon sun reflects off the trees. 


Walking back to lake, this is where concerts are held. 

 
Sat on a lake swing between enormous trees. 

 
Lakeside trail was sweet. 

 
Fountain and 1895 Stonework on Island in lake.

 
Wedding pictures main dock of Lake. 

 
Visitor center. 

 
1895 Exposition stairs and stonework. 


Noguchi "Playscape"

 
The Renovation Plaque and the trees all up here by the 12th Street Piedmont Road Main Gate. 

  
All the winter trees of Piedmont Park. 

   
These trees were up by the Benjamin Walker Homestead. 

 

Had lunch at the Nook and came back into 12th Avenue Main gate.

 

Sculptures and Monuments all in here.

 

 
The Peace Monument. 





Historical markers for the 1895 Cotton State Exposition and Booker T Washington Speech.



  
Looking back to 12th Street Gate and Midtown. 

Panoramic image of Ball Fields.



Walking down steps to ball fields. 

 

Panoramic from central gazebo in Ball Fields.



The 1895 Cotton States steps and stonework across Ball Fields where Allman Brothers played. 

 


Spot where Allman Brothers payed.

The park is open from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM every day.

Today's GNW Gals were all photographed at Piedmont Park.

  

]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-11074.html Fri, 26 Sep 2025 01:23:04 +0000 Top Row Dawg]]> https://www.hairofthedawg.net/thread-11074.html Georgia Natural Wonder #270 - Zoo Atlanta

Grant Park deserved it's own designation as a Georgia Natural Wonder as demonstrated in my last post. Zoo Atlanta, within Grant Park deserves it's own designation as a separate Georgia Natural Wonder. I went to the Atlanta Zoo on my birthday with my twin daughters and their childhood friend. Well worth the admission and parking. Multiple images procured, nothing more Natural Wonder than exotic animals in a World Class Zoo.

 

The Kinks provide us our TRD Scrolling Nugget.



History

Zoo Atlanta was founded in 1889, when Lumber tradesman George Valentine Gress purchased a bankrupt traveling circus and donated the animals to the city of Atlanta. He was a Member of the Georgia House of Representatives for Wilcox County. City leaders opted to house the collection in Grant Park, which remains the zoo's present location. Original residents of the zoo included a black bear, a raccoon, a jaguar, a hyena, a gazelle, a Mexican hog, lionesses, monkeys, and camels. 

  
Vintage images Atlanta Zoo. 

Community involvement was part of the Zoo’s life from the beginning, with private citizens donating animals and Atlanta newspapers heralding new arrivals and spearheading fund drives. The largest of these resulted in the introduction of Clio, the Zoo’s first elephant, in 1890. 



The park’s grandest collection boost occurred over 40 years later when an unusual stalemate proved fortuitous for the Zoo. By that time, philanthropist Asa G. Candler, Jr. had accumulated an impressively large private menagerie on his estate on Briarcliff Road. (GNW #252) Candler’s neighbors were less tolerant of the animals, whose sounds, smells and occasional forays off the property tried the community’s patience.

 

Already acquainted with Grant Park through previous animal donations, Candler proposed a solution for his problematic hobby. He would donate his wild things to the Zoo, provided the city raised sufficient funds to house and maintain them. Faced with the prospect of accepting a donation that would more than double the size of the Zoo, the city shifted into its first major fundraising campaign for the destination. 



In 1935, the park swelled with the arrival of the entire Briarcliff Road collection, which included elephants, leopards, water buffalo, elk, zebra, birds, a hyena and a sea lion, not to mention Jimmie Walker, Grant Park’s first tiger. 

 
Image of the actual Jimmy Walker not the Jimmy Walker we all know. 

The 1950s and 1960s were decades of renovation and construction at the zoo, but by the early 1970s, many of its exhibits and facilities were outdated and showing signs of disrepair. 



1970's Atlanta Municipal Zoo

This was back when I visited the Zoo as a child and teenager. In the 1970s the Municipal Zoo, was a beloved but struggling institution in Grant Park, famous for its iconic gorilla, Willie B., but facing financial hardship and outdated facilities, leading to calls for major improvements and setting the stage for its later transformation into a modern zoo by the 1980s.


They had a big sea lion pool. The Aquarium holds a collection now.

 
They had Polar Bears baking in the Georgia sun. 

Sun was rough on Brown Georgia Bears too.


Elephant habitat back then.
  

The Zoo's silverback gorilla, Willie B., was a huge celebrity and a major draw for visitors, embodying the zoo experience for many Atlantan's during this decade. Named for Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield. Hartsfield had airport named after him too. 

At the time of his death at Zoo Atlanta in 2000, Willie B. was arguably the most famous gorilla in the world. Locally, he was an icon with more than 8,000 people in attendance at his memorial service conducted by Atlanta’s Mayor, Reverend Andrew Young. 

 
He would just sit there mostly unless you messed with the vertical hold on his TV. Saw a fellow turn those back of the set controls through the bars and he got agitated. I made sure they were fixed before I left my visit.  

Zoo Atlanta’s reform President/CEO, Georgia Tech Professor Terry Maple, was responsible for Willie B.’s transformation into a successful silverback. In a phrase, Professor Maple freed Willie B. to live in an urban Eden, the Ford African Rain Forest exhibit where he sired five off spring.

 

In 1970, a small group of concerned citizens founded the Atlanta Zoological Society in hopes of raising funds and awareness for the institution.

 
Zoo of my youth.

The Spirit bring us to the modern era with our 2nd TRD Scrolling Nugget.

 

Following a period of decline in the mid-1980s, the zoo was privatized in 1985 with the creation of a nonprofit organization, Atlanta Fulton County Zoo Inc., and was renamed Zoo Atlanta that same year. 



A 20-year period of aggressive restoration followed, marked by several high-profile exhibit openings, including The Ford African Rain Forest, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A pair of giant pandas, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, arrived at Zoo Atlanta in 1999 and made their debut at Zoo Atlanta in 1999. 

 

The Zoo Atlanta has been running strong ever since into the 21st century. Sad China took back the Panda's (Politics and Tariffs?), a lot of visitors came for the Panda's as Atlanta was one of the only four Zoo's in America to have them. But 3rd best Zoo in this part of country behind Tampa and Memphis according to Zoo With Us. 16th best in nation, according average of all ranking sources. The best zoos in the U.S. consistently include the San Diego Zoo, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, Bronx Zoo, Saint Louis Zoo, and the Smithsonian's National Zoo. Complaints about Atlanta are that the enclosures are small, not a ton of room for animals.   

Habitats

African Savanna



Zoo Atlanta's African Savanna, opened in 2019 as part of the Zoo's Grand New View transformation, houses wildlife native to the grasslands and desert of Africa, including African elephants, lions, giraffes, plains zebras, ostriches, warthogs, meerkats, white rhinos, kori bustards, and a bontebok.

Scaly Slimy Spectacular: The Amphibian and Reptile Experience



Opened in 2015, Scaly Slimy Spectacular: The Amphibian and Reptile Experience was the world's first LEED Gold-certified amphibian and reptile complex. The complex, which replaced the Zoo's former World of Reptiles, is home to more than 200 animals representing more than 70 species.

Notable reproductive successes include Arakan forest turtles, a critically endangered species harvested nearly to extinction for food and traditional medicine. 

 Arakan forest turtle. 

A rare Guatemalan beaded lizard hatched at Zoo Atlanta in March 2012. 

 Guatemalan beaded lizard named Gene Simmons.

A critically endangered bog turtle hatched at Zoo Atlanta in 2022 for the first time in 30 years.

 Bog Turtles Georgia Quarter.

Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Giant Panda Conservation Center

From 1999 to 2024, Zoo Atlanta was one of the four institutions in the U.S. that housed giant pandas. The zoo's pandas resided in the Zoo's Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Giant Panda Conservation Center.

 

Lun Lun (female) and Yang Yang (male) arrived in Atlanta as juveniles in 1999 and resided at the zoo on loan from China until 2024. The pair's first cub, male Mei Lan, was born on September 6, 2006. A second cub, male Xi Lan, was born August 30, 2008. Female Po was born November 3, 2010. Po's name was announced by actor Jack Black in 2011; Po was named after Black's character in the DreamWorks animated film franchise Kung Fu Panda. A fourth and a fifth cub, both female, born July 15, 2013, were the first twin pandas to be born in the U.S. since 1987. 



Their names were announced on ABC's Good Morning America on October 23, 2013; 100 days after their birth, which is a Chinese tradition. The names are Mei Lun and Mei Huan. A sixth and seventh cub, both female, were born September 3, 2016. Their names were announced on their 100th day of life: Ya Lun and Xi Lun. Like their older siblings, the twins and their parents ultimately traveled to China on October 14, 2024. Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Mei Lan, Xi Lan, Po, Mei Lun, Mei Huan, Ya Lun and Xi Lun currently reside at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China.

The Ford African Rain Forest



Families often pose with one of the Willie B. bronze statues at Zoo Atlanta. My gals found Willie B. 

 

Twenty-four western lowland gorillas have been born at the zoo since the opening of The Ford African Rain Forest in 1988. Kali and Kazi, a rare set of twins, were born at Zoo Atlanta on October 31, 2005.



Zoo Atlanta also remains home to offspring of its best-known gorilla, Willie B. (ca. 1959–2000). The zoo is also home to six of Willie B.'s grandchildren: Merry Leigh (2011) and Mijadala (2016), born to Kudzoo; Anaka (2013), born to Sukari; Andi (2013) and Floyd (2019), born to Lulu. Others reside at other accredited zoos.

  
Assorted Willie B. babies. 

Other famous gorillas who have lived at Zoo Atlanta include Ivan, who resided at the Zoo from 1994 to his passing in 2012. 

 
After spending decades in a shopping mall in Tacoma, Washington; his story inspired the book and movie The One and Only Ivan, and he lived out his final years at Zoo Atlanta, experiencing a gorilla community and exploring natural habitats before passing away at age 50.

And Ozzie, who lived at the Zoo from 1988 until his passing in 2022. He was the only surviving member of the original generation of gorillas who arrived at Zoo Atlanta with the opening of The Ford African Rain Forest in 1988. The oldest gorilla at Zoo Atlanta and the third-oldest gorilla in the world.

 Ozzie.

The Living Treehouse is an extension of The Ford African Rain Forest completed in 2004. The exhibit houses an aviary of African birds, as well as black-and-white ruffed lemurs and ring-tailed lemurs, with adjacent habitats for Angolan colobus monkeys, drills, Schmidt's guenons, and Wolf's guenons. In 2017, Zoo Atlanta introduced two crowned lemurs.



Corridor to Change and Complex Carnivores



Corridor to Change is focused on species impacted by the international wildlife trade. The complex is home to sun bears and Sumatran tigers. An adjacent area, Complex Carnivores, houses clouded leopards and binturongs.

Asian Forest



The Asian Forest houses giant otters, a Komodo dragon and a red panda, as well as Bornean and Sumatran orangutans.


The Orangutan Learning Tree Project, launched at Zoo Atlanta in 2007, utilizes in-habitat touch screen technology to allow orangutans to engage in computer puzzles, games and problem-solving exercises while guests observe their activities on a linked monitor.

Orkin Children's Zoo

 
The old Children's Zoo and the new Children's Zoo. 


A child pets a Gulf Coast Native sheep.

Zoo Atlanta's Outback Station petting zoo is home to Saanen goats, Oberhasli goats, Nubian goats, Southdown babydoll sheep, Gulf Coast sheep, Nigerian dwarf goats, and two kunekune pigs.

  

Savanna Hall

Built in 1921, the historic Savanna Hall was for decades the former home of the Atlanta Cyclorama painting "The Battle of Atlanta." The painting now resides at the Atlanta History Center.



Zoo Atlanta was granted stewardship of the structure by Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed in 2014. Upon restoring the building, Zoo Atlanta engaged in many efforts to retain nods to the structure's history, including but not limited to preserving its original granite facade, original terra cotta walls, and original rail system used to hang the massive painting. These are visible in what is now the Michael and Thalia Carlos Ballroom.



Savanna Hall opened as a special events destination in 2019, weddings and receptions, life celebrations.

 
You can overlook the elephants from Savannah Hall.  

Aviaries



Aviaries throughout Zoo Atlanta are home to more than 50 species. These include but are not limited to Bali mynas, white-headed buffalo weavers, superb starlings, golden pheasants, king vultures, hooded vultures, Indian peafowls, blue-throated macaws, milky eagle owls, southern ground hornbills, tawny frogmouths, blue-throated laughingthrushes, blue cranes, wattled cranes, and white storks.



Zoo Atlanta's flock of Chilean flamingos, visible just inside the zoo entrance in Flamingo Plaza, has consistently bred and nested since 2001.


TRD's daughters and their childhood partner in crime, my first picture at the zoo.

Simon and Garfunkle give us a third TRD Scrolling Nugget for his birthday, enjoy.



TRD's 65th Birthday visit to Zoo

The rest of these images come from my birthday visit to the Zoo November 29th, 2025.


The Swans are the first thing you see.

 
Heading to the Savannah.

  
Where are the real animals.

 
Daughter got her ponytail munched by a giraffe in Florida as a child being held in my arms. Tried to recreate that formative experience.

 
Kinda Artsey, Holiday lights display at night. 

 
My supermodel Gals. 



Finally we get to the elephants.

  
Kept missing face shot.

 
We lingered with the elephants. 

  
This was the week before we beat Alabama in the SEC Championship game. 



Was suppose to see Zebras and Rhinos only found them on Internet.

 
Professional photographers always get the faces.

 
TRD daughter may have taken a lot of these. 

 
Real giraffe too far away to scare her. 

   
Smaller Savannah critters. 

 

We then traveled to the African Rain Forest. 

 
Guests viewing the gorilla habitat from The Ford Willie B. Conservation Center. 

   
Reflected on the recent passing of Jane Goodall. 

 
Glad there was some glass between us and Lions. 

Now here we are in Asian Rain Forest or Complex Carnivorous area they all blend together. 

 
Tigers and tiger bait. 

 
Tha Bears. Lions and Tigers and Bears, what every Zoo needs. Maybe not Polar Bears way down South. 

 
We went through the Aviary and saw a Lemur heating himself on a heat lamp. It was a cold day November 29th. Missed faces again these images. 

 
We turn to the Internet to find better Zoo Atlanta Lemur images.
 
 
The Internet shows a pair of Zoo Atlanta Bush Dogs in the Asian Rain Forest. Keep an eye out for the Tigers, little buddies.

Then, since it was a cold day, we spent a long time in the Scaly Slimy Spectacular building. 

  
There are Otters and a Needle Nose Alligator in some tanks on the lead up. 

 
Inside are Snakes.

 
Snakes.

 
And more Snakes.

 
Abundance of Snakes.

   
And Turtles.

 
And Lizard's with the Lizard King himself. 

  
And Frogs blending with the foliage or scuba diving. 

 
Frogs hanging out. 

 
Busy Frogs.
 
Conservation and Research

Zoo Atlanta's mission statement is "We save wildlife and their habitats through conservation, research, education, and engaging experiences. Our efforts connect people to animals and inspire conservation action."

 
The girls were bubbling over with excitement. 

Species impacted by conservation support from Zoo Atlanta have included but are not limited to giant pandas, African elephants, golden lion tamarins, western lowland gorillas, Panamanian golden frogs, red pandas, clouded leopards, giant otters, Bornean orangutans, African vulture species such as hooded vultures and lappet-faced vultures, and native reptile species such as eastern indigo snakes and diamondback terrapins.

 
Found a nest of Gooney Birds.

In 2018, Zoo Atlanta was named a Top 10 Research Zoo for its contributions to peer-reviewed scientific research.


Real shame no more Panda's. 

A proud accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the gold standard for animal care and welfare, Zoo Atlanta has a mission to save wildlife and their habitats through conservation, research, education, and engaging experiences. The Zoo is home to more than 1,000 animals representing more than 200 species from around the world, many of them endangered or critically endangered. Zoo Atlanta is located in historic Grant Park, just minutes from downtown Atlanta, with easy access to MARTA. The Zoo is open 363 days a year with the exceptions of Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.


Penguin Head TRD with his very own GNW Gals on his birthday at Zoo Atlanta. 

]]> Georgia Natural Wonder #270 - Zoo Atlanta

Grant Park deserved it's own designation as a Georgia Natural Wonder as demonstrated in my last post. Zoo Atlanta, within Grant Park deserves it's own designation as a separate Georgia Natural Wonder. I went to the Atlanta Zoo on my birthday with my twin daughters and their childhood friend. Well worth the admission and parking. Multiple images procured, nothing more Natural Wonder than exotic animals in a World Class Zoo.

 

The Kinks provide us our TRD Scrolling Nugget.



History

Zoo Atlanta was founded in 1889, when Lumber tradesman George Valentine Gress purchased a bankrupt traveling circus and donated the animals to the city of Atlanta. He was a Member of the Georgia House of Representatives for Wilcox County. City leaders opted to house the collection in Grant Park, which remains the zoo's present location. Original residents of the zoo included a black bear, a raccoon, a jaguar, a hyena, a gazelle, a Mexican hog, lionesses, monkeys, and camels. 

  
Vintage images Atlanta Zoo. 

Community involvement was part of the Zoo’s life from the beginning, with private citizens donating animals and Atlanta newspapers heralding new arrivals and spearheading fund drives. The largest of these resulted in the introduction of Clio, the Zoo’s first elephant, in 1890. 



The park’s grandest collection boost occurred over 40 years later when an unusual stalemate proved fortuitous for the Zoo. By that time, philanthropist Asa G. Candler, Jr. had accumulated an impressively large private menagerie on his estate on Briarcliff Road. (GNW #252) Candler’s neighbors were less tolerant of the animals, whose sounds, smells and occasional forays off the property tried the community’s patience.

 

Already acquainted with Grant Park through previous animal donations, Candler proposed a solution for his problematic hobby. He would donate his wild things to the Zoo, provided the city raised sufficient funds to house and maintain them. Faced with the prospect of accepting a donation that would more than double the size of the Zoo, the city shifted into its first major fundraising campaign for the destination. 



In 1935, the park swelled with the arrival of the entire Briarcliff Road collection, which included elephants, leopards, water buffalo, elk, zebra, birds, a hyena and a sea lion, not to mention Jimmie Walker, Grant Park’s first tiger. 

 
Image of the actual Jimmy Walker not the Jimmy Walker we all know. 

The 1950s and 1960s were decades of renovation and construction at the zoo, but by the early 1970s, many of its exhibits and facilities were outdated and showing signs of disrepair. 



1970's Atlanta Municipal Zoo

This was back when I visited the Zoo as a child and teenager. In the 1970s the Municipal Zoo, was a beloved but struggling institution in Grant Park, famous for its iconic gorilla, Willie B., but facing financial hardship and outdated facilities, leading to calls for major improvements and setting the stage for its later transformation into a modern zoo by the 1980s.


They had a big sea lion pool. The Aquarium holds a collection now.

 
They had Polar Bears baking in the Georgia sun. 

Sun was rough on Brown Georgia Bears too.


Elephant habitat back then.
  

The Zoo's silverback gorilla, Willie B., was a huge celebrity and a major draw for visitors, embodying the zoo experience for many Atlantan's during this decade. Named for Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield. Hartsfield had airport named after him too. 

At the time of his death at Zoo Atlanta in 2000, Willie B. was arguably the most famous gorilla in the world. Locally, he was an icon with more than 8,000 people in attendance at his memorial service conducted by Atlanta’s Mayor, Reverend Andrew Young. 

 
He would just sit there mostly unless you messed with the vertical hold on his TV. Saw a fellow turn those back of the set controls through the bars and he got agitated. I made sure they were fixed before I left my visit.  

Zoo Atlanta’s reform President/CEO, Georgia Tech Professor Terry Maple, was responsible for Willie B.’s transformation into a successful silverback. In a phrase, Professor Maple freed Willie B. to live in an urban Eden, the Ford African Rain Forest exhibit where he sired five off spring.

 

In 1970, a small group of concerned citizens founded the Atlanta Zoological Society in hopes of raising funds and awareness for the institution.

 
Zoo of my youth.

The Spirit bring us to the modern era with our 2nd TRD Scrolling Nugget.

 

Following a period of decline in the mid-1980s, the zoo was privatized in 1985 with the creation of a nonprofit organization, Atlanta Fulton County Zoo Inc., and was renamed Zoo Atlanta that same year. 



A 20-year period of aggressive restoration followed, marked by several high-profile exhibit openings, including The Ford African Rain Forest, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A pair of giant pandas, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, arrived at Zoo Atlanta in 1999 and made their debut at Zoo Atlanta in 1999. 

 

The Zoo Atlanta has been running strong ever since into the 21st century. Sad China took back the Panda's (Politics and Tariffs?), a lot of visitors came for the Panda's as Atlanta was one of the only four Zoo's in America to have them. But 3rd best Zoo in this part of country behind Tampa and Memphis according to Zoo With Us. 16th best in nation, according average of all ranking sources. The best zoos in the U.S. consistently include the San Diego Zoo, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, Bronx Zoo, Saint Louis Zoo, and the Smithsonian's National Zoo. Complaints about Atlanta are that the enclosures are small, not a ton of room for animals.   

Habitats

African Savanna



Zoo Atlanta's African Savanna, opened in 2019 as part of the Zoo's Grand New View transformation, houses wildlife native to the grasslands and desert of Africa, including African elephants, lions, giraffes, plains zebras, ostriches, warthogs, meerkats, white rhinos, kori bustards, and a bontebok.

Scaly Slimy Spectacular: The Amphibian and Reptile Experience



Opened in 2015, Scaly Slimy Spectacular: The Amphibian and Reptile Experience was the world's first LEED Gold-certified amphibian and reptile complex. The complex, which replaced the Zoo's former World of Reptiles, is home to more than 200 animals representing more than 70 species.

Notable reproductive successes include Arakan forest turtles, a critically endangered species harvested nearly to extinction for food and traditional medicine. 

 Arakan forest turtle. 

A rare Guatemalan beaded lizard hatched at Zoo Atlanta in March 2012. 

 Guatemalan beaded lizard named Gene Simmons.

A critically endangered bog turtle hatched at Zoo Atlanta in 2022 for the first time in 30 years.

 Bog Turtles Georgia Quarter.

Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Giant Panda Conservation Center

From 1999 to 2024, Zoo Atlanta was one of the four institutions in the U.S. that housed giant pandas. The zoo's pandas resided in the Zoo's Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Giant Panda Conservation Center.

 

Lun Lun (female) and Yang Yang (male) arrived in Atlanta as juveniles in 1999 and resided at the zoo on loan from China until 2024. The pair's first cub, male Mei Lan, was born on September 6, 2006. A second cub, male Xi Lan, was born August 30, 2008. Female Po was born November 3, 2010. Po's name was announced by actor Jack Black in 2011; Po was named after Black's character in the DreamWorks animated film franchise Kung Fu Panda. A fourth and a fifth cub, both female, born July 15, 2013, were the first twin pandas to be born in the U.S. since 1987. 



Their names were announced on ABC's Good Morning America on October 23, 2013; 100 days after their birth, which is a Chinese tradition. The names are Mei Lun and Mei Huan. A sixth and seventh cub, both female, were born September 3, 2016. Their names were announced on their 100th day of life: Ya Lun and Xi Lun. Like their older siblings, the twins and their parents ultimately traveled to China on October 14, 2024. Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Mei Lan, Xi Lan, Po, Mei Lun, Mei Huan, Ya Lun and Xi Lun currently reside at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China.

The Ford African Rain Forest



Families often pose with one of the Willie B. bronze statues at Zoo Atlanta. My gals found Willie B. 

 

Twenty-four western lowland gorillas have been born at the zoo since the opening of The Ford African Rain Forest in 1988. Kali and Kazi, a rare set of twins, were born at Zoo Atlanta on October 31, 2005.



Zoo Atlanta also remains home to offspring of its best-known gorilla, Willie B. (ca. 1959–2000). The zoo is also home to six of Willie B.'s grandchildren: Merry Leigh (2011) and Mijadala (2016), born to Kudzoo; Anaka (2013), born to Sukari; Andi (2013) and Floyd (2019), born to Lulu. Others reside at other accredited zoos.

  
Assorted Willie B. babies. 

Other famous gorillas who have lived at Zoo Atlanta include Ivan, who resided at the Zoo from 1994 to his passing in 2012. 

 
After spending decades in a shopping mall in Tacoma, Washington; his story inspired the book and movie The One and Only Ivan, and he lived out his final years at Zoo Atlanta, experiencing a gorilla community and exploring natural habitats before passing away at age 50.

And Ozzie, who lived at the Zoo from 1988 until his passing in 2022. He was the only surviving member of the original generation of gorillas who arrived at Zoo Atlanta with the opening of The Ford African Rain Forest in 1988. The oldest gorilla at Zoo Atlanta and the third-oldest gorilla in the world.

 Ozzie.

The Living Treehouse is an extension of The Ford African Rain Forest completed in 2004. The exhibit houses an aviary of African birds, as well as black-and-white ruffed lemurs and ring-tailed lemurs, with adjacent habitats for Angolan colobus monkeys, drills, Schmidt's guenons, and Wolf's guenons. In 2017, Zoo Atlanta introduced two crowned lemurs.



Corridor to Change and Complex Carnivores



Corridor to Change is focused on species impacted by the international wildlife trade. The complex is home to sun bears and Sumatran tigers. An adjacent area, Complex Carnivores, houses clouded leopards and binturongs.

Asian Forest



The Asian Forest houses giant otters, a Komodo dragon and a red panda, as well as Bornean and Sumatran orangutans.


The Orangutan Learning Tree Project, launched at Zoo Atlanta in 2007, utilizes in-habitat touch screen technology to allow orangutans to engage in computer puzzles, games and problem-solving exercises while guests observe their activities on a linked monitor.

Orkin Children's Zoo

 
The old Children's Zoo and the new Children's Zoo. 


A child pets a Gulf Coast Native sheep.

Zoo Atlanta's Outback Station petting zoo is home to Saanen goats, Oberhasli goats, Nubian goats, Southdown babydoll sheep, Gulf Coast sheep, Nigerian dwarf goats, and two kunekune pigs.

  

Savanna Hall

Built in 1921, the historic Savanna Hall was for decades the former home of the Atlanta Cyclorama painting "The Battle of Atlanta." The painting now resides at the Atlanta History Center.



Zoo Atlanta was granted stewardship of the structure by Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed in 2014. Upon restoring the building, Zoo Atlanta engaged in many efforts to retain nods to the structure's history, including but not limited to preserving its original granite facade, original terra cotta walls, and original rail system used to hang the massive painting. These are visible in what is now the Michael and Thalia Carlos Ballroom.



Savanna Hall opened as a special events destination in 2019, weddings and receptions, life celebrations.

 
You can overlook the elephants from Savannah Hall.  

Aviaries



Aviaries throughout Zoo Atlanta are home to more than 50 species. These include but are not limited to Bali mynas, white-headed buffalo weavers, superb starlings, golden pheasants, king vultures, hooded vultures, Indian peafowls, blue-throated macaws, milky eagle owls, southern ground hornbills, tawny frogmouths, blue-throated laughingthrushes, blue cranes, wattled cranes, and white storks.



Zoo Atlanta's flock of Chilean flamingos, visible just inside the zoo entrance in Flamingo Plaza, has consistently bred and nested since 2001.


TRD's daughters and their childhood partner in crime, my first picture at the zoo.

Simon and Garfunkle give us a third TRD Scrolling Nugget for his birthday, enjoy.



TRD's 65th Birthday visit to Zoo

The rest of these images come from my birthday visit to the Zoo November 29th, 2025.


The Swans are the first thing you see.

 
Heading to the Savannah.

  
Where are the real animals.

 
Daughter got her ponytail munched by a giraffe in Florida as a child being held in my arms. Tried to recreate that formative experience.

 
Kinda Artsey, Holiday lights display at night. 

 
My supermodel Gals. 



Finally we get to the elephants.

  
Kept missing face shot.

 
We lingered with the elephants. 

  
This was the week before we beat Alabama in the SEC Championship game. 



Was suppose to see Zebras and Rhinos only found them on Internet.

 
Professional photographers always get the faces.

 
TRD daughter may have taken a lot of these. 

 
Real giraffe too far away to scare her. 

   
Smaller Savannah critters. 

 

We then traveled to the African Rain Forest. 

 
Guests viewing the gorilla habitat from The Ford Willie B. Conservation Center. 

   
Reflected on the recent passing of Jane Goodall. 

 
Glad there was some glass between us and Lions. 

Now here we are in Asian Rain Forest or Complex Carnivorous area they all blend together. 

 
Tigers and tiger bait. 

 
Tha Bears. Lions and Tigers and Bears, what every Zoo needs. Maybe not Polar Bears way down South. 

 
We went through the Aviary and saw a Lemur heating himself on a heat lamp. It was a cold day November 29th. Missed faces again these images. 

 
We turn to the Internet to find better Zoo Atlanta Lemur images.
 
 
The Internet shows a pair of Zoo Atlanta Bush Dogs in the Asian Rain Forest. Keep an eye out for the Tigers, little buddies.

Then, since it was a cold day, we spent a long time in the Scaly Slimy Spectacular building. 

  
There are Otters and a Needle Nose Alligator in some tanks on the lead up. 

 
Inside are Snakes.

 
Snakes.

 
And more Snakes.

 
Abundance of Snakes.

   
And Turtles.

 
And Lizard's with the Lizard King himself. 

  
And Frogs blending with the foliage or scuba diving. 

 
Frogs hanging out. 

 
Busy Frogs.
 
Conservation and Research

Zoo Atlanta's mission statement is "We save wildlife and their habitats through conservation, research, education, and engaging experiences. Our efforts connect people to animals and inspire conservation action."

 
The girls were bubbling over with excitement. 

Species impacted by conservation support from Zoo Atlanta have included but are not limited to giant pandas, African elephants, golden lion tamarins, western lowland gorillas, Panamanian golden frogs, red pandas, clouded leopards, giant otters, Bornean orangutans, African vulture species such as hooded vultures and lappet-faced vultures, and native reptile species such as eastern indigo snakes and diamondback terrapins.

 
Found a nest of Gooney Birds.

In 2018, Zoo Atlanta was named a Top 10 Research Zoo for its contributions to peer-reviewed scientific research.


Real shame no more Panda's. 

A proud accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the gold standard for animal care and welfare, Zoo Atlanta has a mission to save wildlife and their habitats through conservation, research, education, and engaging experiences. The Zoo is home to more than 1,000 animals representing more than 200 species from around the world, many of them endangered or critically endangered. Zoo Atlanta is located in historic Grant Park, just minutes from downtown Atlanta, with easy access to MARTA. The Zoo is open 363 days a year with the exceptions of Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.


Penguin Head TRD with his very own GNW Gals on his birthday at Zoo Atlanta. 

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