Thank you for joining me in my travels around the South. It’s been a great year of wandering backroads and a few main ones. If I learned anything, it is that people love abandoned houses, buildings with unexpected histories, and (in)famous graves.
Tag Archives: Fulton County
Dixie Coca-Cola Bottling Company Plant in Atlanta, Georgia
Located on the southeast corner of Edgewood Avenue and Courtland Street in downtown Atlanta, Coca-Cola’s oldest remaining bottling plant is located. Originally created by John Pemberton in 1886 as a temperance drink from his original drink, Pemberton’s French Wine Cocanerve tonic, Coca-Cola began as a drink that could only be purchased at a soda fountain.
Built in 1892, the eclectic Victorian building began as a series of businesses on the first floor and a proprietor’s residence on the second floor. In the initial years, the building was a photographer’s studio, storage facility, and a brick business. In April 1900, it became the home of the second Coca-Cola bottling location (the first being in Chattanooga) after Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead convinced Asa Griggs Candler that the drink needed to be bottled. The company quickly outgrew the location and left in 1901 for a larger location.
The building is now the location for Georgia State University’s Baptist Student Union. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark.
Arthur Jett House-Atlanta, Georgia
Arthur Jett graduated from Morehouse College and then attended Chicago Technical College to study architecture. He taught in Mississippi and Atlanta. He was employed by Security Construction Company, where he served as a foreman at Henry Grady Homes and Naval hospitals.
He formed the Triangular Drafting Company in 1949. Their first project was building this Streamline Moderne home on Fountain Drive in the Just Us neighborhood, a historic Black neighborhood in Northwest Atlanta.
Since its construction, the home has been continuously inhabited by a member of the Jett family.
Information on this post is brought to you courtesy of Victoria Lemos, aka Archive Atlanta.
The “Crypt” of Thalia and Michael C. Carlos in Sandy Springs, Georgia
Michael C. Carlos was a businessman and philanthropist in Atlanta, Georgia. His wealth was built in the wine and spirit wholesale industry. He was known for donating significant amounts of his wealth, especially to Emory University and Woodward Academy.
The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University was named for him in honor of his $20 million gift to help build a permanent home for the Emory University Museum of Art and Archeology. When asked why he was so generous, he replied,
It’s better than a tombstone.
While he did feel donating his wealth would leave a lasting impact, it’s easy to say that his and his wife’s final resting place in Arlington Cemetery leaves a lasting impression. Michael and his wife, Thalia, rest in separate crypts surrounded by columns and angels. The family estate, the term for large family plots in this cemetery, overlooks a lake. If you find yourself in Sandy Springs, this lawn cemetery is worth a visit.
Unsolved Mystery: The Atlanta Blood House
It’s the beginning of October, and what better way to kick off the best month of the year than with a Georgia mystery? The unexplained event of the “Atlanta Blood House” is still discussed among paranormal and mystery buffs. Located in the historic Just Us neighborhood, this 1945 three-bedroom brick home was the site of an odd event: the walls and floors were covered in human blood.
On Tuesday, September 8, 1987, Minnie Winston (1910-2015) stepped out of her shower and immediately noticed red splotches on the floor. The drops were all over the house-kitchen, living room, bedroom, hallways, and basement. She woke her husband, William (1908-1989), to show him. He had already fallen asleep in their bedroom.
The couple did not immediately think it was blood. When police arrived, they assumed it must be an animal because the splotches were all over the floor and walls. The next theory was that it might be William’s blood since he was on a dialysis machine. After testing the blood, it returned as O, and William’s blood type was A. Minnie’s blood was tested, too. It did not match, either.
Unfortunately, the crime analysis technicians were called twelve hours after the initial call from the Winstons. According to Ted Staples, a state criminologist, fresh blood would have allowed them to identify sex and race. (Remember DNA was not a tool that crime scene techs had at their disposal at the time.)
This story was picked up nationally. I found articles in newspapers as far as Hawaii. The New York Times even picked up the story. The notoriety of the story exhausted the Winstons. Minnie shared that their phone rang constantly, and people stopped by the house. Interestingly, I found an article in the September 24, 1987, Orlando Sentinel where Mr. Winston denied it was ever blood and said the spots were rusty water stains. I assume he was sharing this to limit interest in the story and to prevent lookyloos from stopping by the house. Alas, almost forty years later, the mystery lives on, and there are still people like me interested in the story.
What’s a possible explanation? My friends, Archive Atlanta and Tomb with a View Podcast, and I discuss theories that don’t involve the paranormal. What do you think the explanation could be?
Home Park + Atlantic Steel – Archive Atlanta
This week, we’re heading to Home Park to trace the story of a neighborhood that grew alongside Atlantic Steel – from working-class homes and booming industry to student rentals and, eventually, the transformation of the old mill into Atlantic Station. Along the way, we’ll dig into labor strikes, race and class, Georgia Tech’s expansion, and the legacy of a neighborhood that has changed dramatically over more than a century.
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Atlanta Inquirer Building-An Important Place in Civil Rights History
The Atlanta Inquirer was the second Black newspaper in Atlanta. It was founded by Jesse Hill and Herman J. Russell, and members of the Atlanta Student Movement, such as Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Julian Bond.
Their motto is “To Seek Out the Truth and Report It Without Fear or Favor.” The founders believed that the newspaper was to communicate and educate on issues important to the Black community. Members felt it was important that a newspaper existed that shared the voices of young civil rights leaders, a voice often not heard in the movement.
Before the Inquirer called this building home, it was the home of Lena Horne’s grandparents, and Horne spent a significant time here growing up.
The Atlanta Inquirer still publishes today.