The Majestic Diner opened in 1929 on Ponce de Leon Avenue. It was once a 24-hour staple. In response to the pandemic, the diner had to shorten its hours and is now open daily for breakfast and lunch; however, it is still operating, thankfully.
The Blair Building is an Art Moderne office building located in Decatur, Georgia. Built in 1939 by the Farnell Blair Company, the company used the second floor for its offices.
In 1946, Guy Rutland Sr. purchased the building to use as the headquarters for his trucking company, real estate business, and farm operations. Rutland served in the state legislature from 1953 to 1964. The building stayed in the Rutland family until 1994.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings in 2002.
If you’ve driven Cobb Parkway through Marietta, Georgia, you’ve likely spotted it a 56-foot-tall steel rooster with rolling eyes and a moving beak, high atop a KFC. The much loved icon was built in 1963, originally part of a restaurant called Johnny Reb’s Chick, Chuck and Shake. Hubert Puckett, a 1957 graduate of the Georgia Tech School of Architecture, designed the chicken after a company salesman sold the idea of a giant chicken to owner S.R. “Tubby” Davis. Puckett was working for Dixie Steel, a subsidiary of Atlantic Steel, who then constructured the giant metal bird.
Turn left at the Big Chicken!
In 1966, Davis sold the restaurant to his brother, who later turned it into a KFC franchise. Despite initial resistance from Colonel Sanders himself, the Big Chicken stayed because it of its iconic status. It supposedly was also the busiest KFC in the world.
In 1993, a severe storm damaged the Big Chicken. KFC considered tearing it down, but public outcry led to its full restoration. Pilots voiced their support to save it because they used it as a navigational marker when flying into Atlanta. The rebuilt version kept the moving beak and eyes but eliminated the original’s intense vibrations, which shattered windows.
The structure was fully restored in 2017.
On April 8, 1866, Zion Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia, was established by 88 formerly enslaved individuals who left First Baptist Church to form their own congregation. Rev. Ephraem B. Rucker, Zion’s first pastor, laid the foundation with deacons and Sunday School. Growth continued, and it was determined that the church would build its first physical home in 1888 at the corner of Haynes & Lemon Streets.
Eventually, the church built a much larger building across the street to house its much larger congregation. The church is still active today.
The original building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
Meansville Baptist Church is located in Pike County, Georgia. Built in the 1880s, the church is a classic gabled-roof church in rural Georgia. The congregation built a new church, and this building was converted to a residence at some point. The building was abandoned many years ago.
Greenwood Cemetery is one of my favorite cemeteries in Atlanta. Its diversity in markers and burial sections illustrates the different people who call Atlanta home. Greenwood has an extensive Jewish section. There are many people buried here who escaped Nazi Germany. After World War II, many Jews immigrated to Atlanta.
In 1964, Jewish Holocaust survivors created the Eternal Life-Hemshech. Their focus was to create a memorial where people could mourn and recite Kaddish.
The organization turned to Benjamin Hirsch, a Holocaust survivor who lost family during the Holocaust and an alumnus of the Georgia Tech Architecture program. He chose locally quarried Stone Mountain granite to symbolize trauma and resilience. The memorial contains four entrances, representing the earth’s four corners, and all were welcome through the “doors.”
Six torches extend into the sky from the center of the memorial. Each torch represents one million people who lost their lives during the Holocaust. During the annual Yom HaShoah services, they are lit. At its center rise six towering torches, each representing one million Jewish lives extinguished by the Nazis. During the annual Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) services, these torches are lit. Under the torches in a vault, there are ashes interred of some of the people who lost their lives at Dachau.
The memorial opened on April 25, 1965. There are annual services held at the memorial.
In 2008, the memorial was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2024, the memorial was restored.
