By Ann Taylor Boutwell
Sept. 5, 1917: During World War I, Camp Gordon, a temporary housing and training camp for new soldiers, opened where DeKalb-Peachtree Airport is located today. Its namesake was John Brown Gordon, Confederate general, Georgia governor and senator. At the end of the war in 1918, the total number of soldiers passing through the camp included 6,153 officers and 227,312 enlisted men.
Sept. 6, 1897: Under shade trees near today’s 1015 Edgewood Ave., the Inman Park United Methodist Church congregation, founded in 1866, sat on wooden benches and sang hymns. That Monday afternoon at 5 p.m., they witnessed the laying of the cornerstone for the new church. Pastor Henry J. Ellis named each item placing it in a metal box. After Dr. Warren Akin Candler, tenth president of Emory College, delivered the address, he secured his manuscript in the box. The building’s architect, Willis Franklin Denny II, and contractor, George E. Murphy, lowered and set the stone. The small historical landmark church, made of grey Stone Mountain granite, was dedicate April 17, 1898.
Sept. 7, 1988: The Castle, the historic home at the corner of 15th and Peachtree in Midtown once called a “hunk of junk” by Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, is saved by AT&T. The communications company signed an agreement not to demolish the 12,000-square-foot, five-story home, also known as Fort Peace, built by Ferdinand Dallas McMillan and wife, Lucy Reagan, in 1908. The couple bought the land in 1904 for $2,190 for their retirement home. In December 1989, the Atlanta Urban Design Commission deemed it an Atlanta Landmark and presented Surber, Barber, Choate and Hertlein Architect in 1991 an Award of Excellence for its extensive and careful exterior restoration. The Castle recently received yet another new lease on life by being renovated and transformed into a restaurant and entertainment space.
Sept. 11, 1966: Led by Coach Norb Hecker, the Atlanta Falcons took to the now demolished Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium as the newest member of the National Football League. In 1965, owner Rankin Smith, Sr., invited football fans to select the team’s name. “Falcons” was suggested by Julia Elliott, a high school teacher from Griffin, became the moniker. Gov. Carl E. Sanders and Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. wished the players well. A crowd of 54,418 attended the Falcons opening game to watch them get beaten by The Rams, 19-14.
Sept. 14, 1985: The Atlanta Botanical Gardens in Piedmont Park dedicated the Gardenhouse, its first permanent structure. Atlanta architect Anthony Ames modeled his $2 million, 24,000 square-feet building after the 16th century Villa Giulia in Rome. Mayor Andrew Young, Fulton County Commissioner Michael Lomax, Mrs. (Louise) Ivan Allen Jr., and Mrs. Deen Day Smith launched the celebrated ribbon cutting ritual. Docent guided tours followed as well as an exhibit of Frederick Law Olmstead, Sr. (1822-1903) concept of the urban park, which premiered at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1980.
Sept. 22, 1991: Mayor Maynard Jackson welcomed guests to a tribute honoring city historian Franklin Garrett’s 85th birthday (Sept. 25, 1906) at the Fox Theater. All proceeds for the event benefitted the restoration of the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum effort.
Sept. 24, 1999: Elton John performed at the grand opening of the new Philips Arena in Downtown, which replaced the old Omni Coliseum, which opened October 14, 1972 and was demolished in July 1997.
Sept. 23-25, 1906: During the race riot in Atlanta, James Wesley Edwards Bowen, the first African American president of the Gammon Theological Seminary, and William H. Crogman, the first African American president of Clark University, protected the community’s terror-stricken women and children. The institutions were located at the south end of Capital Street. Both presidents agreed that the guilty should be punished and the innocent protected. Four months earlier, the south Atlanta community suffered a devastating fire, which swept over 40 aces destroying 40 dwelling and leaving 400 residents homeless.
Historian Ann Taylor Boutwell is a docent at the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum. Contact her at annboutwell@bellsouth.net.
