By Ann Boutwell
June 1, 1882: George Washington Adair posted a real estate notice in Atlanta’s local newspapers inviting potential buyers to view lots in Grant Park. His target market were families interested in building permanent homes in a healthy community. Adair also enticed interested parties with free lemonade and free conveyance – the transfer ownership documentation of land from one party to another. Since 1882, many homes have been built in the Grant Park neighborhood as revealed in Historic Grant Park, a new title added to Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series. For more about the book visit this link.
June 12, 1939: Smith College awarded Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell an honorary master of arts degree. Mitchell’s Smith College citation can be found on the fifth floor of the Downtown Atlanta-Fulton County Library at Margaret Mitchell Square.
June 18, 1983: Varsity Drive-In founder Frank Gordy died at his home on Piedmont Road at the age of 79. In 1928, the Georgia Tech dropout combined two great American institutions – fast food and automobiles. The restaurant originally opened as the Yellow Jacket on Luckie Street and Hemphill Avenue before moving to the corner of Spring Street and North Avenue, where it became the Varsity two years later. The enterprise has since expanded to Athens, Kennesaw, Gwinnett County and Alpharetta. The Varsity, Jr., located in northeast Atlanta, on Lindberg Drive was the only other location of the chain to offer curbside service. The Varsity, Jr. closed last August after more than 40 years on Lindberg Drive.
June 19, 1942: The Atlanta Zoo (now Zoo Atlanta) acquired its first lowland gorilla – a 30-pound male named Willie B. after the city’s Mayor William Berry Hartsfield.
June 20, 1904: Atlanta Mayor Evan Park Howell (1839-1905) signed the City Council’s resolution officially making Piedmont Park a city park. The city paid $99,000 to buy the land to the dismay of many disgruntled citizens.
June 22, 1943: Former Atlanta University professor W.E.B. DuBois became the first African American member of the National Institute of Letters.
June 23, 1910: New York’s Joseph Frances Gatins, Sr. was ready to begin construction of Atlanta’s newest hotel, The Georgian Terrace. The site, located on the northeast corner of Peachtree Street and Ponce de Leon Avenue, was graded to street level and ready for the basement excavation. By June 23, New York’s George C. Fuller Construction Company received a contract to build the $500,000 Gatins tourist hotel between July 21, 1910 and September 8, 1911. A new book on the Gatin family, We Were Dancing on a Volcano, has just been published. For more about the book, visit this link.
June 27, 2003: The Carter-King Peace Walk opened, linking The Carter Center with the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Site. The 1.5-mile stretch along Freedom Trail is a permanent outdoor exhibit honoring the two Georgians and Nobel Peace Prize winners.
June 30, 1877: Atlanta University student Henry Ossian Flipper (1856-1940) becomes the first black graduate at West Point Military Academy. Henry graduated 50th out of a class of 76 and was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to frontier duty with the 10th Calvary, a famous all black unit known as the Buffalo Soldiers. He was born in Thomasville, Ga. to former slaves, grew up in Atlanta and studied at the university for three years before his appointment to the United States Military Academy.
