Rhodes Memorial Hall, commonly known as Rhodes Hall or the Castle on Peachtree, is a historic house located in Atlanta, Georgia. It was built as the home of Amos Giles Rhodes, founder of Atlanta-based Rhodes Furniture. The Romanesque Revival house occupies a prominent location on Peachtree Street, the main street of Atlanta, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is open to the public and has been the home of The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation since 1983.
The monument stands 55 feet above Pershing Point in Midtown. The five columnns honor the five continents that sent athletes to the 1996 Summer Olympics and the statue is dedicated to the all of the athletes who participated in the games. The statue was a gift from the Prince of Wales with help from local citizens who agreed to raise one-third of the cost of the statue. When Princess Diana was killed in 1997, an estimated 20,000 mourners gathered at the statue. Since that time, the statue has become the symbol of the Midtown neighborhood and the center of celebrations as well as vigils and remembrances.
The High Museum was established in 1905 and is the leading art museum in the Southeast. It houses over 15,000 works of art that are on permanent display and has featured a variety of artwork on loan from world-class museums such as the Louvre. In 2010, the museum became one of the 100 most-visited art museums in the world after 509,000 individuals passed through its doors that year. Its collection is comprised of American and decorative art, African art, European paintings, African American art, modern and contemporary art, photography, folk art, and self-taught art. Special attention is also paid to works created by Southern artists. Artists represented at the High include Chuck Close, Dorothy Lange, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Tommaso del Mazza, John Copley, and Walker Evans. The collection also includes a large sculpture called "The Shade" created by Auguste Rodin, which stands outside on the museum grounds. The High's photography collection is large, featuring 6,000 prints. At the core is one of the best Civil Rights era photography holdings in the country.
Located in the historic Wimbish House, the Atlanta Women's Club has been a vital, driving force in the city's social, cultural and economic development. It was founded in 1895 after a meeting of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, which was held at the Cotton States Exposition in Piedmont Park. The club's members have participated in numerous philanthropic and community-related activities in educational, arts, and civic areas. During its first two decades, the club played an important role in establishing the airport (now the busiest in the world), a mobile library, the first art gallery (in the Wimbish House), the city's kindergartens (by advocating they be incorporated into the public school system), Tallulah Falls High School, and many others. The club continues to be a vibrant and vocal force in the city.
The Atlanta Monetary Museum, housed in the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, features exhibits that highlight the role of money in world history and document the history of banking in the United States.
The Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, located along Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is operated by the Atlanta History Center. While living at the home, Mitchell wrote the bulk of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Gone with the Wind. Since the home opened to the public on May 17, 1997, it has become a staple of the local community as an important literary center and event venue.
Constructed in 1923, this apartment building known by some as the Peachtree Manor Hotel was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in May of 2013. The five-story structure is significant in architecture as an excellent example of an early 1920s Georgian Revival style apartment building. It retains its Georgian decorative details and its original function as individual apartments. It was designed by one of the most important Atlanta architectural firms in that era, Hentz, Reid and Adler. The building also is important in understanding changing residential patterns in Atlanta in the early twentieth century, as occupants of the city's grand Victorian homes moved to new streetcar and automobile suburbs, leaving room for apartment dwellers on redeveloped tracts.
The historic Fox Theater, located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, opened in 1929. This historic movie theater was originally intended to be part of a Shriners Temple before it became part of the Fox theater chain. The facility seats 4,678 individuals and is used to host a variety of events including the Atlanta Ballet and a number of Broadway shows.
The Rufus M. Rose House is the last Victorian-era home remaining on Peachtree Street. It was built by Rufus M. Rose, a prominent figure in Atlanta's history in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Rose was a trained physician and founder of the distillery, R.M. Rose Co. He created and patented the Four Roses whiskey, which remains a popular brand today. The house has suffered from neglect and vandalism in recent years but as of 2017 it is currently being renovated by Atlanta native Liliana Bakhtiari, the daughter of the owner, Gholam Bakhtiari. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Physician and priest Charles Quintard assembled a congregation within Atlanta in 1863--in the midst of the Civil War and just prior to the destructive Battle of Atlanta. This group officially organized St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Easter Sunday in 1864 and worked to both build and rebuild their congregation and city in the following years. This late English Gothic church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was completed in 1906. The church is best known for its stained glass, which was created by several different studios and installed over the first six decades of the new building's tenure as both the home of this historic congregation and one-time one-time Cathedral of the Diocese.
The Medical Arts Building is a 12-story structure designed by the well-known architect G. Lloyd Preacher and built in 1927. Unlike the Carnegie Building in the heart of downtown (another 12-story office building designed by Preacher a few years earlier) the Medical Arts Building is vacant. The building was utilized prior to the construction of the multi-lane Downtown Connector just feet away, an urban renewal project that catered to commuters at the cost of many historic buildings and displaced communities. Road patterns got disrupted and the Medical Arts Building was abandoned in the 1990's. The building has gone through multiple changes in ownership since then and almost got rehabbed into a hotel. Plans are in the works once again to convert the building to a hotel; the exterior is protected by an easement on the NRHP-listed building.
Designed in the French Romanesque style by architect W.T. Downing, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been an important center for Catholic religious, educational and cultural life since its inception in 1898. It is a striking red-brick building, featuring arched windows and doorways, stained glass windows, and two towers that reach a height of 137 feet. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Though dwarfed by adjacent modern high-rise buildings, the Capital City Club building still holds its own, thanks to its beautiful Georgian Revival architecture. It was built in 1911 to be the permanent for home for the club, whose members were the city's professional and business elite. It was and continues to be a place where members could gather to social and hold various events. The club also operates two other branches, one of which is a country club complete with a golf course. The downtown building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It is available to rent for weddings and other events.
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Atlanta's Carnegie Building is a twelve-story structure that was constructed from 1924 to 1925. The wedge-shaped building was originally known as the Wynne-Claughton Building and is composed of reinforced concrete with a brick veneer and limestone detailing. The Carnegie Library once stood across the street from this building. In 2012, the Carnegie Building was added to the National Register. The building is one of only a handful of early twentieth-century buildings in this section of Atlanta, such as the Winecoff Hotel which was completed in 1913. The building now serves as the home of the Courtyard Atlanta Downtown hotel.
At fifteen stories high, the Winecoff Hotel was considered one of the first skyscrapers in Atlanta in 1913. It also claimed to be a fire proof building. However, on December 7, 1946 a large fire claimed the lives of 119 guests and staff. The tragedy remains the deadliest hotel fire in United States history. The hotel reopened in 1951 as the Peachtree Hotel along with numerous modifications and added safety features. The hotel is now the Ellis Hotel.
The Candler Building is a seventeen-story structure commissioned by Coca-Cola founder and executive, Asa Griggs Candler, and was completed in 1906. The building remained the tallest structure in the city until 1954. "Candler Investment Co. 1904 Geo. E. Murphy Architect" is inscribed on the building's cornerstone and the structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building continues to serve as office space.
This twenty-one-story skyscraper was completed in 1929 and stood as Atlanta's tallest building until 1954. The building was designed by real estate investors J.J. Haverty and A.G. Rhodes who made their fortunes in the furniture business and had previously formed a retail partnership. The building was financed by the Rhodes-Haverty Investment Company and was completed in the same month as the stock market crash of 1929. The Depression stalled but did not reverse the city's growth and the building has been home to numerous tenants over the past century and now serves as the home of Marriott's Residence Inn.
Completed in 1897, Atlanta's Flatiron Building was designed by New York architect Bradford Gilbert. Gilbert was a former student of renowned architect Daniel Burnham, who designed New York's Flat Iron Building, which shared the unique wedge-shaped design and was constructed five years later. Atlanta's Flatiron Building was the second skyscraper built in Atlanta and stands as the oldest standing steel-framed skyscraper in the city. Rufus Brown Bullock was one of the principal figures involved in the English-American Trust & Loan Company and had previously served as Georgia governor during the Reconstruction Era and sought better economic and political rights for African Americans. The KKK and other groups helped push him out of the state because he supported Reconstruction, but he returned years later and became a successful Atlanta businessman.
Built by famous Atlanta architects Ivey and Crook in the midst of the Great Depression, this pie-shaped building is best known for its iconic Coca-Cola sign. The building was donated to the city of Atlanta to help support their effort in bringing the Olympics to Atlanta in 1996. It went under restoration after many years listed as an endangered historic landmark and reopened in 2016. The building now stands where Atlanta’s first post office and general store once stood.
Jacobs' Pharmacy was the first establishment to serve the now famous beverage, Coca-Cola, on May 8, 1886. Jacobs' acquired the building in 1884 and sold his interest in Coca-Cola to Asa Candler, who later took control of the company from the drink's inventor, John Pemberton. The building has long since been demolished, but this historical marker, installed in 2016, represents the history of the pharmacy and its now-famous beverage.
This Tour is a Driving or Biking Tour.
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Starting at the "Castle on Peachtree" this driving tour heads south along Peachtree Street into Downtown Atlanta. The tour stops at 20 Atlanta landmarks including museums, monuments, and historic buildings.
