I'm into tangible history, the kind that is more about bricks and mortar than textbooks. Living in Atlanta, there is a lot to be seen, but often it can be hard to find or identify. This post will (hopefully) be the first of several about some of the stuff that is just kind of thrown out there without much information about its significance.
Today, the bronze statue of Samuel Spencer that stands near the intersection of Peachtree and West Peachtree in downtown Atlanta. Samuel Spencer was the first president of the Southern Railway. He was killed in a train wreck in 1906 at the tender age of 60; his 30,000 employees were so grief-stricken that they raised the funds necessary to have this statue erected. It was cast in 1910 by Daniel Chester French, who is perhaps better known for the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, among many others. The statue was placed in front of the Terminal Station on May 21, 1910. William W. Finley, his successor, had this to say at the ceremony:
"Mr. Spencer was essentially an organizer and a builder. His highest ambition was the development of the Southern Railway into an efficient transportation system thus making it a still more important factor in the upbuilding and prosperity of the south. Mr. Spencer constantly devoted the best energies of his creative mind to this goal and we, as his successors, will carry forward the great work he had planned, that this railroad be of inestimable value to the south. That this has been achieved will be the crowning work of his life."
The statue stayed at that location until the station was demolished in 1972; it spent some time by the current Amtrak station before being moved to its present location.
It stands without any sort of historical marker or biographical information. Nearby are some very ornate street lamps with turtles on the base (more relics from the Terminal Station?) and a pavilion made from the remains of Atlanta's Carnegie library (there will be a post on that soon!). The thought of a company's president being so popular that the employees would use their own money to build a statue of him is almost inconceivable in today's world.
More images:
Postcard of the Terminal Station showing the statue in its original location, postmarked 1939.
Postcard of the statue, postmarked 1910.
Photo of the statue in its original location, 1970.
The inscription on the back of the statue. For those of you without eagle eyes, it reads: "A Georgian, a confederate soldier, and the first president of the Southern Railway Company - erected by the employees of that company"
Article that appeared in the New York Times on May 22, 1910.
The aforementioned turtle-laden lamps.
The following are aerial photos taken of the same locations in 1949 and sometime in the 2000s. The way things have changed never ceases to amaze me. I'm really into this kind of thing, so expect more soon.
Aerial photo of original location, 1949.
Same location, 2000s.
Satellite image of current location, 2000s.
Same location, 1949.
Sources: rlhs.org, railga.com, nytimes, gsu aerial atlas 1949, google earth, wikipedia
Labels: atlanta, history, trains
This is the Limelight club, where the "disco Kroger" is now. Apparently this place had a glass dance floor with live sharks underneath...nice.
