Fulton County

Known as “The Spirit of Achievement” or, more simply, “Achievement,” the Jesse Parker and Cora Best Taylor Williams memorial in Westview Cemetery illustrates the success of Williamses, who relocated to Atlanta in 1900.

J. P. Williams built and ran the Georgia, Florida, and Alabama railway. Upon his death, Cora took over the management of the railroad. She ran the company until she passed. In her will, she asked that a hospital for women and children be built where their house once stood, at approximately 542 Peachtree Street. The hospital turned over management to Crawford Long Hospital, now Emory Midtown, in 1992. While the building no longer exists, the Jesse Parker Williams Foundation still exists and gives out health-related grants.

The memorial was created by sculptor Daniel Chester French and architect Henry Bacon. It’s listed as part of the Smithsonian’s Save Our Sculpture database.