Georgia Railroad Depot
State Historical Marker
Located inside the entrance to the restored
railroad depot behind the World of Coke, MLK Jr. Ave.
(Text)
GEORGIA RAILROAD
DEPOT
This is one of the oldest
buildings in downtown Atlanta. It was completed on April 22,
1869, and served as the main freight depot for the Georgia Railroad.
Corput and Bass, architects, Thomas Alexander, contractors, B.H.
Broomhead, carpenter, and Hayden and Healy, masons, were responsible
for the construction at a cost of $35, 000.00.
The end of the building once
held offices and was three stories high with a balcony on the
second floor and a cupola on the hipped roof. Much of the building
burned in January, 1935 and it was subsequently rebuilt in its
present form. The Georgia Building Authority bought the building
in 1981 and renovated it for public use.
The Georgia Railroad, chartered
in 1833, was completed in September, 1845 at a cost of $3,369.856.42
from Augusta to a small village first named "Terminus"
then "Marthasville". The Georgia Railroad connected
with the Western and Atlantic Railroad that linked Marthasville
and Chattanooga. The little village became an important rail
center and J. Edgar Thompson, Chief engineer of the Georgia Railroad,
shortly thereafter suggested renaming Marthasville "Atlanta."
060-171 GEORGIA
HISTORIC MARKER 1985
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