atlantalarry

Glenwood Park photos for March 2008

Y'all may have noticed that I haven't posted a lot of photos of Atlanta neighborhoods lately.  My old digital camera bit the dust about ten months ago, and I've been shopping in my penny pinching and lethargic manner since then.  I finally settled on a camera and purchased it.

Since Glenwood Park is the neighborhood I cover which is of most general interest (as manifested by page clicks on my photo albums) near my house, I've tested the camera by doing a walkthrough of Glenwood Park. 

I haven't yet done editing or captioning of the photos, but there has been a great deal of new construction since my last album.  Also bear in mind that I took these photos at about three pm midweek, on a cool and drizzly day, so not many people were on the streets.

Click here to enter the photo album.

Utoy Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery

I received an email today inquiring  about the Utoy  Primitive  Baptist Church Cemetery.  I'd had checking out that old and overgrown cemetery,which is the final resting place of at least two revolutionary war soldiers, on my todo list for quite some time.  Below are some facts about the church I pulled from Atlanta and Environs, Volume I, by the late Franklin Garrett (who's buried about two miles from me in Oakland Cemetery).

Utoy Primitive Baptist Church was founded in 1824, making it the third church built on the land which until 1821 had been Creek Indian land.  It was originally about a half mile west of the site of the cemetery, and was moved in 1828.  The first elders were John Landers and James Hale.

Like many nineteenth century churches, the discipline was often harsh by today's standards, and members were expelled for a variety of offenses.  According to Franklin Garrett one member was excluded for "moving into the Indian country" (which wasn't difficult since the church was near the Chattahoochee, and the  west side of that river was still Cherokee territory).

One of the more notable residents of the cemetery is Dr. Joshua Gilbert, the first physician in the future city of Atlanta.

The plaque at the site reads as follows:

HISTORIC UTOY CHURCHUtoy Primitive Baptist Church,         the oldest Baptist Church in present Fulton County, was constituted         August 15, 1824, in a log house just west of here. The church         was moved to its present location in the summer of 1828.In 1864 the church was used as         a Confederate hospital. July 22, Col. James S. Boynton, 30th         Georgia, was wounded and brought to Utoy Church for medical care.         Boynton later became President of the Georgia Senate and on March         5, 1883, the day after the death of Governor Alexander H. Stephens,         he became of Governor of Georgia, to serve until a special election         could be held.In the cemetery at Utoy Church         lies buried Dr. Joshua Gilbert, Atlanta's first doctor. Born         in 1815 in South Carolina, Dr. Gilbert was graduated from old         Augusta Medical College in 1845 and came to Atlanta. At that         time Atlanta was called Marthasville and was located in DeKalb         County. Here he practiced medicine until his death in 1889.060-192 GEORGIA HISTORICAL         COMMISSION 1961

                               

Click here to go to the photos I've posted.  Clicking on the images enlarges them.

Ebon Dooley 1942-2006

Ebon Dooley passed away on October 12th.  I've edited this sentence a half dozen times to attempt
to write something different from the usual words saddened/shocked/stunned.  But those really are the most accurate words to describe my reaction to his passing. 

I've indexed this article under "Atlanta History".   Ebon is clearly a very important person in the history of the Arts in Atlanta in the period from the 1970s to the present.

I worked with Ebon as a volunteer in two venues:  the Arts Exchange in Grant Park, and WRFG Radio.

I've been through a lot of different phases in my political life here, and have probably met thousands of people, and have gotten to be familiar with hundreds to varying degrees.

Of those hundreds of people whom I've known long enough to develop clear impressions Ebon is one of the perhaps twenty true standouts.  He was able to be  proud of and partisan towards his own African American background and culture, but he was also able to relate to, communicate with,  and understand people of different national and cultural backgrounds.  And I assure you this is a rare trait.

I haven't had a conversation with Ebon in over fifteen years, and at the moment I'm very sorry I haven't kept up with him.  Here are a few links with information on Ebon.

The announcement of his death from Atlanta Progressive News.

An article from a site on lawyer poets

The listing on Ebon from Pacifica News

An account of Ebon and the Neighborhood Arts Center by Alice Lovelace

An article reflecting Ebon's labor activism

Tour of Sylvester Cemetery

I'll be conducting a tour of Sylvester Cemetery next Saturday, October 14th at 10 am.  The cost of the tour is $10.00, and the money will go to the ongoing work of cleaning and maintaining the cemetery.

The theme of the tour this month will be "Women of Sylvester Cemetery".  I'll be focusing on a number women who are buried at the cemetery.

I've written quite a bit about the cemetery, but for those of you not familiar with it, it's on the eastern edge of the East Atlanta neighborhood, near the corner of Clifton Road and Braeburn Circle .  Among the notable people buried there are early country musician "Fiddlin John" Carson, Jake Hall, who was the colorful former Dekalb County sheriff (who never learned to drive, and whose jail was in the basement of his house - if he needed to be driven he'd have one of the prisoners chauffeur him), and "Spanish Jim" Brown, the founder of East Atlanta.

More information about the cemetery, including directions to the cemetery and instructions on how to donate money and time to this enormous project can be found at the web page of the Sylvester Cemetery Foundation (click here to visit the web site)

More photos of White City Amusement Park

Rhonda Contreras sent me an email with images of postcards of White City amusement park she'd collected from Ebay.  Here's an exerpt from her email

 

My grandmother (Jessie Mae Jarrell, who lived on Alloway Place) used to go to White City Amusement Park when she was a girl. Have you noticed that the gate to the yard of the house at Confederate & Waldo has a "C" on it? It was named for the Chicago World’s Fair of 1898, I think. Here is what she told me about it: The man's name was Charley Chosewood, and he is said to have married a beautiful girl. On a trip to Florida (their honeymoon?) she drowned. He allegedly returned to Atlanta and drained the lake and closed the amusement park, because he couldn't stand the thought of anyone drowning in the lake.

I've assembled the  images  she sent into a  photo  album.  Click here to see the postcards.

 

White City Amusement Park

I want to thank Anna for posting the link to this postcard of White City Amusement Park.  Here's what I know about the park (which is precious little considering that I spent a large part of my childhood playing in it's remains).

It was on the site now occupied by Parkside Elementary School, bordered by Confederate Avenue, Mercer Street and Eloise Court.  My elderly parents still live a half block from the old lot.

The city councilman named Chosewood (I can't recall his first name) was the manager of the park.  My mother still refers to the house on Waldo at the corner of Confederate Avenue which abuts the school grounds as the "Chosewood House".

In 1914-1915 White City Amusement Park was the site of union meetings leading to a strike at Fulton Bag cotton mill in Cabbagetown (this is documented in Cliff Kuhn's book about the strike).

If any other readers have further information I'd love to post followups.

The link to the postcard is p11319.jpg (JPEG Image, 348x225 pixels).

The Sylvester Cemetery Website

A number of us in East Atlanta and southwest Dekalb County have been working on cleaning, restoring, and maintaining the historic Sylvester Cemetery.  The Sylvester Cemetery Foundation has a website maintained by Jerry Semprevino at www.sylvestercemetery.org.  The cemetery has a fascinating history, and is worth a visit (not to mention a contribution to the Sylvester Cemetery Foundation).

My absence

A number of you have asked where I've been.  Needless to say, the changes in my life have generated a lot of tasks which seem to come in waves.  Right now I've been getting my house in order, generating somewhat of a normal social life, and working on both the Sylvester Cemetery Foundation and the East Atlanta Community Association's Transportation Committee.  I've also been taking a lot of neighborhood photos which I intend to post to this blog.

I fully intend to shift my priority to blog updates very soon.  Be patient.  I shall return.

Hardeman Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery

I've assembled a photo album of the second location of the Hardeman (also spelled Hardman) Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery.  The Hardeman Primitive Baptist Church was founded in November of 1825 and was originally on land owned by Naman Hardman west of the intersection of Clairmont and North Decatur Roads.  The original gravesite is reported to still exist, but I have not visited it yet.

In 1905 the church moved to Glenwood Avenue east of Candler Road, just west of Columbia Drive.  The cemetery and church grounds are well kept, and indications are that the church still meets.  The dates on the markers indicate that the cemetery, though small, has been in continous use.

Click here to see the photos.

The New Georgia Encyclopedia

Often I find that very good resources are sitting right under my nose, and I just haven't noticed them yet.  I work at Georgia State University as a Software Systems Engineer.  We basically run servers for various projects across the University.  One of these projects is The New Georgia Encyclopedia.  I'd never really looked at the content of the web site, even though we host it.   

Early this morning I did a web search on Joel Hurt, the developer of Inman Park and Druid Hills in Atlanta.  One of the listings in the search was to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.  Not only did the NGE have a very informative page on Hurt,  but it included pages on an amazing variety of topics of interest to me, including the Savannah city plan ,  Lemuel P. Grant  and the Grant Park neighborhood , and many other topics of interest to me.  If you are looking for information on any topic related to Georgia or a city in Georgia, it's a good starting point.