Atlanta Spring Bed-Block Candy Company

The four-story red brick building at 512 Means St. was originally the location of the Atlanta Spring Bed Company factory. Completed in 1900, the building housed the Atlanta Metal Bed Company factory after 1910. The structure was later used as a warehouse before becoming the home of Block Candy Company from 1928 to 1936, a company dating back to 1866. From 1944 to 1985, 512 Means housed a textile salvage firm, The Mouchet Corporation. The building was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1995 for its significance in early twentieth-century Atlanta industrial history and as an example of a utilitarian industrial building of the era. The rehabilitated office building now houses the Center for Inclusive Design & Innovation of the Georgia Tech School of Design and the Rocket Science Group LLC.

John L. Coleman headed the Atlanta Spring Bed Company, the original occupants of 512 Means St. The firm was located here from 1900 to about 1910, in the industrial and warehouse corridor that sprang up along the tracks of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. The building's foundation and first floor walls are of granite. The upper floors are brick; the building is post and beam construction. A brick elevator tower, now on the exterior of the building, used to be an interior feature.

512 Means was one of a complex of industrial brick buildings along the south side of Means St., north of the railroad tracks, built for William R. Ware, an Atlanta furniture manufacturer. between 1900 and 1908. Ware partnered with W. L. Fenley in 1881 to form Atlanta's second furniture company, the Fenley Furniture Company. The complex south of Means was built in 1900 as new facilities for the Ware-Hatcher Company. In 1911, the westernmost buildings contained the Southern Furniture Company factory (now partly demolished); this company took the place of Ware-Hatcher. Immediately to its east was Atlanta Metal Bed Company (a successor to Atlanta Spring Bed Company) in two connected buildings; the western building is no longer standing (it is now a parking lot) and the eastern building is 512 Means. A foundry was within the western building along with packing and shipping, bonding and lacquering, adding wire springs, and enameling of bed frames. Much of the eastern building was vacant except for a warehouse and "Japaning" (lacquering) oven on the first floor. To guard against fire, Atlanta Metal Bed Company provided a night watchman; casks of water and pails were placed throughout the structure. The building was heated by steam and the lights and machinery were powered by electricity.

To the east of 512 Means, across a narrow gap, was the Jackson-Orr Company mattress factory (500 Means, still standing) by 1911. Just west of the Jackson-Orr factory was part of the Standard Oil Company complex, which extended to the north side of Means. Standard Oil occupied the block by about 1896. The furniture, bed frame, and mattress industries catered to a local building boom in Atlanta in the first several decades of the twentieth century, when multiple high-rise office buildings, apartment buildings, and hotels were being erected.

Block Candy was Atlanta's first confectionary company. It was founded in 1866 by Missouri native Frank E. Block. It was one of nine candy manufacturers in Atlanta by 1926. Block Candy's Atlanta factory on Alabama St. was destroyed by fire in 1882. In 1902, the rebuilt factory with its 250 employees was capable of producing 20,000 pounds of crackers and 40,000 pounds of candy in one day. The company's factory building in 1902 was four stories tall and 250 by 160 feet. Two of the company's taglines in 1917 were "Aristocrats of the candy kingdom" and "Prepared for those for whom the best is only good enough." Although Block died in 1920, his company lived on. The firm also imported products for wholesale. The candy factory moved into 512 Means in 1928 and stayed until 1936. The Mouchet Corporation, a textile salvage operation, occupied 512 Means from 1944 to 1985.

In 1994, 512 Means was rehabilitated into office space; the building was listed in the National Register the following year. The two connected brick buildings to the west of 512 Means, across the parking lot, once contained the Atlanta Buggy Company and Ware-Hatcher Furniture Company; the L-shaped buildings were listed in the National Register circa 1992.

Block, Frank E. Block's Chocolates. Advertisement clipped from newspaper, ebay. January 1st, 1917. Accessed March 1st, 2023. https://www.ebay.com/itm/113489956092.

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Hamilton, F. M. Atlanta Spring Bed Company - Block Candy Company, Artery.org. Accessed March 1st, 2023. https://westside.atlbuildings.com/BlockCandy.htm.

Martin, Thomas H. Atlanta and Its Builders. Volume Two. Atlanta, GA. Century Memorial Publishing Company, 1902.

Sanborn Map Company. Insurance Map of Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. Volume 1. New York, NY. Sanborn Map Company, 1911.

Sharp, Leslie N. NRHP nomination for Atlanta Spring Bed Co.-Block Candy Co., 512 Means St., Atlanta, Georgia. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1995.

Stanley, H. M. Christie, Walter E. Fourteenth and Fifteenth Reports of the Commissioner of Commerce and Labor for the State of Georgia . Volume 1925-1926. Atlanta, GA. State of Georgia, 1927.