By Ann Taylor Boutwell
January 1971: “Ali on Peachtree,” an essay by the late playwright and critic Jack Richardson, appeared in Harper’s Magazine. Richardson’s cynical wit captured the night of Oct. 26, 1970, when Muhammad Ali’s legend was reborn in Atlanta. In three-rounds, he defeated boxer Jerry Quarry to mark his return to the ring after a ban of three and a half years for refusing conscription into the US Army.
Jan. 11, 1955: Georgia’s former governor John Marshall Slaton died today. He served two non-consecutive terms, 1911-12 and 1913-15. He was also a lawyer, state representative and state senator. Slaton’s still remembered for commuting Leo Frank’s death sentence in 1915 to life imprisonment. Frank had been convicted in the murder of Mary Phagan during a sensational trial on questionable evidence, and Gov. Slaton’s courageous act ended his political career and threatened his life.
Jan. 14, 1867: Laura Askew Haygood, founder and principal of the McDonough Street Female Academy in southeast Atlanta, placed a notice in the Atlanta Intelligencer. Terms were $5 a month in advance. Music and piano were 80 cents a lesson. In January 1872, when Girl’s High, Atlanta’s first public female high school opened, she closed her school and began teaching there. In the summer of 1877, she was named principal. In 2000, Haygood was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement.
Jan. 19, 1951: The two-story Gulf Oil Refining building at 131 Ponce de Leon formally opened. The minimalist building in Midtown was designed by architect I.M. Pei, perhaps best known for designing the Louvre’s courtyard pyramid in Paris. From 1961 to 1978, Crawford & Company, an Atlanta risk-management service firm occupied the site, followed by various other tenants. The building was dismantled in early 2013 and removed from the site to make way for the 131 Ponce apartment complex. Portions of the building were reassembled on the site to create office space.
Jan. 19, 1973: The Wheat Street Towers located at 375 Auburn Ave.was dedicated. The $3.7 million, 14-story, 210 unit high-rise, was built by the Wheat Street Charitable Foundation to provide a home for low-income elderly and persons with physical challenges. During the 1960s, Rev. William Holmes Border, Sr. of Wheat Street Baptist Church was known for initiating effective urban development in the Old Fourth Ward. He established the nation’s first federally subsidized, church-operated housing project.
Jan. 28, 1928: Blanchard Brothers undertaking establishment at 1088 Peachtree Street burned that Saturday afternoon. The building was a vintage two-story foursquare house. Live sparks from the chimney caused the fire, detected by the manager of the gas station across the street. Estimated damage was $20,000. Today 1010 Midtown stands on the site.
Photos for this month’s feature are courtesy of the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. To order prints, visit the Terminus catalog at AtlantaHistoryCenter.org.
