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The Automobile Ordinance

Jun 23, 1904

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA – Thursday, June 23, 1904

The general council of Atlanta is to be congratulated on adopting an ordinance regulating the operation of automobiles on the streets of the city. The rapidly increasing local use of these machines, the number of more or less serious accidents of the last few months, and the fact that no municipal laws existed governing their operation, combine to make the passage of the ordinance very timely and advisable.

That portion of the ordinance which restricts speed of the “devil wagons” in and outside the fire limits is so framed as to be just, both to the automobilists and the public, generally. The speed of 8 miles an hour inside of the fire limits and 15 outside ought to satisfy the owners and chauffeurs, inasmuch as it should meet all of their demands, both of a business and pleasurable nature. It also places the maximum of speed at such a limit as will enable a swift stopping of the machine in the presence of danger or of an unforeseen emergency. The ordinance committee likewise displayed wisdom in decreeing that all operators of self-propelled machines shall be licensed. An automobile, however simple its construction, is very similar to a locomotive, and it is very certain that no railway would trust a novice with the operation of one of these complicated pieces of mechanism.

Similarly, the idea that an inexperienced person should be allowed to send one of these powerful machines flying through the streets, imperiling the lives of pedestrians and hampering other modes of traffic, is not to be entertained for a moment. The provisions of the ordinance in this respect are so lenient and sensible as to appeal to the most fanatical automobilist. They are easily complied with and they give the footgoing public a satisfactory guarantee of safety.

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Atlanta’s Gulch

Apr 23, 1913

THE CONSTITUTION, ATLANTA, GA, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1913.

Page Four.

There is a distinct connection between grand opera week and the revival of the projects for sinking the tracks of the Georgia and state railroads and building viaducts over Pryor street and Central avenue. The town is thronged with representative visitors from every portion of the south. Most of these people are well-traveled. They have a basis of comparison gained by visiting other large cities. And to them the sight of the hideous gulch running through the heart of Atlanta, the necessity of waiting for the passage of trains at Pryor street crossing, must seem an anomalous experience in a city otherwise metropolitan in appearance and appurtenances.

The plans so laboriously drawn up in Chief of Construction Clayton’s office and so glibly and inexplicably turned down by council offer at least a step in the direction of abolishing the canon that splits the heart of the city. They are not so complete nor so ornate or far-seeing as the civic center designs drawn some years ago by Harralson Bleckley and submitted to the legislature. Our judgment is that sooner or later Atlanta will come to an improvement of this magnitude. It is unthinkable that a city of our rate of growth and prestige should tolerate the inconvenience, the danger and the unsightliness that now attends the railroad approach to the union passenger depot.

It will require the expenditure of some millions of dollars and co-operation between city and state and property-owners to solve this intricate problem in the right way. But the need of its solution is so obvious, and the eventual profit from the improvement so tremendous, that early consideration urges itself upon the Atlantan who does not confine his mental processes to the needs of the moment.

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Atlanta’s Produce Row

Oct 27, 1912

THE CONSTITUTION, ATLANTA, GA.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1912.

photo of South Broad street

Sometimes a man is heard lamenting that the days of romance are over. He will wish that he had lived in the days of chivalry. That man is blind. He has only to look around and he will see more romance today than was ever seen at one time in the history of the world before.

As an example, let him take a walk down South Broad street, Atlanta’s Produce Row. He will see barrels of apples from all parts of the Union. They are redolent of the sweet-smelling orchards. As the passerby catches the sweet aroma his mind drifts back to the days when he played around the orchard at home and eat apples to his heart’s content with no fear of indigestion.

Starting at the north end of Produce Row, one of the first things noticed this week was the magnificent display of celery at the Williams-Thompson company’s warehouse. There were crates upon crates of the vegetables, and Mr. M. D. Thompson, of the firm, stated that they had only just received a carload from Buffalo, N. Y., which was almost perfect in quality and which they had been anxiously awaiting for some days, as their customers were now calling for celery. A little further down the street the J. L. Barnes-Fain company was found with a splendid supply of apples. They stated that they had handled four carloads this week and that they had never seen better fruit in quality. This concern also handles large quantities of celery, and, in fact, most every produce found in Atlanta.

A little further down the street again is the Sewell Commission company. This house handles produce direct from producer to consumer. They specialize in poultry and the crates of plump fowl call attention by the cackles.

Another house which handles produce in large quantities is Fain & Stamps. This week they have specialties in apples, oranges and grapefruit.

All in all, Produce Row is among the most romantic spots in Atlanta. In one week produce may be seen there from every state in the Union, as well as from Europe, Central America, South America and Cuba. To the thoughtful passerby the different fruits and vegetables and the cackle of the fowl reminds him of the links which bind Atlanta to the rest of the world, and also of the fact that much of the produce sold here which is brought from great distances might just as well be grown in Georgia and thus keep at home much of the money we are now sending away.

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“JAY WALKING” IS A DISEASE IN ATLANTA DECLARE THE WORRIED TRAFFIC OFFICERS

Aug 27, 1912

THE CONSTITUTION: ATLANTA, GA. TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1912.

What! Don’t know a “Jay Walker?”

Never have seen one?

Then you have never been at Five Points, nor Whitehall and Alabama streets, or perhaps you are one yourself.

Quizz the first cop you meet, inquire of your family physician, or one of the bonesetters at any hospital, or ask the guy who holds the inquest.

This Will Be Verdict.

Some of these days coroner’s juries will return verdicts which will read: “Came to his death from ‘Jay Walking.’ ” It used to be a habit—persons who claim to be authorities on the subject say—but now it is a disease. And it’s catching, just like chickenpox, a thirst for something cold to drink—the morning after.

A traffic policeman at Five Points designated at least fifty persons who were “Jay Walkers,” or who have dangerous symptoms. And the strange part of it none of them realize it. Few have even thought of such a thing, and if you should happen to accuse them they would probably knock on your ding dong for the information.

“You can stand on this corner any busy afternoon and count nearly twice that number,” the cop declared.

“See that guy over there, well he’s a ‘Jay Walker.’ Some day there will be nothing but a grease spot here, and his family will point to the spot where daddy was last seen. He is what they call a busy business man in the story books, but he is what us cops call a nuisance, a ‘Jay Walker,’ a man who is always in his own way.

“Looker there! I told you—”

Mr. Jay Walker in Danger.

And the cop pointed to the Decatur street crossing. The “Jay Walker” had started across the street, nose pointed heavenward, and all unconscious of the fact that a lumber truck, puffing and snorting, and shrieking under the sudden pressure of the brakes, was bearing down on him. Instead of beating it for the nearest sidewalk, Mr. “Jay Walker” stops in his tracks and continues to gaze complacently at the negro washing a second story window in the opposite building.

“Can you beat that?” demanded the cop, and he hastens over to inform Mr. “Jay Walker” that the driver of the truck is entitled to about ten feet of the street.

“See that dame flirting across the street?” exclaimed the cop, pointing to a vision that looked like a rainbow shooting across Peachtree. “Well, she is a ‘Jay Walker.’ ”

“I don’t get yer, Steve—explain?”

“Well, Bo, ‘Jay Walkers’ are persons who cut across corners—dash across the streets cat-a-cornered—who have not the time to walk along the sidewalk to the proper crossing. ‘Jay Walkers’ are people who are always flirting with death—who will run right in front of a street car, an automobile, or a fire engine, and if they happen to get splattered with mud will curse the driver to a fare-the-well. And if—”

“Hold on you bonehead!” shouted the cop at a chauffeur who was about to run his motor over a group of women who stood in the center of the street to exchange greetings, “ain’t you got no respect for ladies what hold reception on the street—”

Then to the ladies—

“Misses, won’t you please move to the sidewalk and let that fathead with the ice truck go by? Thank you ever so much

“Gee, but it’s getting fierce.”

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No More Tinkering with Streets’ Names.

Dec 21, 1909

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA

Tuesday, December 21, 1909

The announcement made in council yesterday afternoon that the street committee would meet in special session on Friday of next week for the purpose of reconsidering its recommendation to change the names of Marietta and Decatur streets, indicates very clearly that not only the committee, but council, is about to escape the mess in which both committee and council were in a fair way to become entangled.

It is worthy of note that only a few years ago a street committee of council recommended the change of names of these two streets, and when the report was submitted to council, so emphatic was the protest that even the members of the street committee adversed their own report and voted against the very change they had recommended.

It  is to be hoped that the present street committee will do itself the credit of adversing its report in this instance, for there can be no doubt that the city is overwhelmingly opposed to this proposed change of name of two historic Atlanta thoroughfares.

The word “Atlanta” itself is no more indissolubly identified with the city than are the names by which a few of the principal residential and business streets are designated in history, in legal matters, and in everyday usage.

Pryor and Peachtree, Whitehall and Capitol avenue, Peters and Courtland, Washington and Ivy, Walker and Spring, West Peachtree and Gordon, and so on indefinitely – each one of these names recalls to the Atlanta of both generations clear-cut and tangible associations.

Marietta and Decatur streets are no less permanently connected in the public mind with evolution, growth, business and tradition.

Because here and there undesirable or unpleasant elements have projected themselves, there is no more excuse for abandoning appellations that are of honored derivation and of honored present significance, than there would be in changing a man’s name to reform him.

Both streets are now being rehabilitated, and can be further rehabilitated by means more lasting and effectual than an appeal to unthinking flippancy.

It is a reflection on the dignity and the high functions of the city council of the south’s metropolis, that it should be called upon to invest time in even rejecting such superfluous and frivolous proposals.

And yet, periodically, some member is inspired to agitate innovations of this nature, and always with the same inevitable result.

Every previous suggestion to alter the name of some central or well-established thoroughfare has invariably created a storm of popular protest.

In no important instance has council acceded to the scattered and finicky hysteria to tamper with the titles of prominent thoroughfares, but continued and emphatic rebukes of this character seem to glide harmlessly off the backs of one on to the next council that feels called upon to grapple with the same old question.

But we believe this lesson of the pending episode will settle the question for at least a few years.

It is high time for this “up the hill and down again” horseplay to come to an end.

Formidable problems face the council of Greater Atlanta.

Its members have not the time, certainly they should not have the inclination to fritter away energy in bubble-blowing of this kind.

They have more serious business on hand!

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New Name for Smith Street.

Oct 25, 1903

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA

Sunday, October 25, 1903

The understanding among the members of council is that the fight for change in the name of Smith street from Whitehall street to Glenn street is not yet over. Representatives of the second ward declare that the residents of Smith street are determined to have a new name for their street, and will have another petition before council during the next session of that body.

It will be remembered that it was the intention to change the name to Whitehall place, but it was discovered that one Whitehall place already exists, and this caused Mayor Howell to veto the measure. Residents of Smith street want the name changed for the reason that Smith street for a portion of its way is settled by negroes and runs through Pittsburg.

The real estate men, headed by Forrest Adair, and the attorneys of Atlanta have been anxious to have council discontinue the habit of changing the names of streets. They have made a fight on Smith street.

Councilman James E. Warren has in mind an ordinance which he may present during the next session of council. It provides that the name of Atlanta streets be changed only by a two-thirds vote of council. This, he believes, will have the effect of making a proposed change in the name of a street so difficult and important a matter that few will attempt it.

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Smith Street Must Keep Name.

Oct 22, 1903

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA

Thursday, October 22, 1903

Mayor Howell announced yesterday morning that he would place his veto upon the resolution which changes to Whitehall place the name of Smith street from Whitehall to Glenn street. This he will do for the reason that there is already one Whitehall place in Atlanta. The city code shows that it runs from Brotherton to Fair street.

The proposed change in the name of Smith street has attracted considerable attention, mainly because of the opposition of the real estate men and the members of the bar to the measure. Forrest Adair made speeches before both the street committee, of which Alderman Terry is chairman, and before council, but the members of both bodies disagreed with his views and voted to change the name of the thoroughfare.

When the resolution went to Mayor Howell for his consideration Mr. Adair again appeared and presented arguments against the proposed change in the name of the street. Mayor Howell announced that he would hear from the other side before reaching a decision, but before those who favor the change of name could be heard Secretary Goodwin discovered in the city code that there already exists a Whitehall place and he so informed the mayor yesterday morning which resulted in an immediate veto.

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MAYOR HEARD ARGUMENTS.

Oct 21, 1903

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA

Wednesday, October 21, 1903

Proposed Change in the Name of Smith Street Was Discussed Before Him Yesterday.

Arguments against changing the names of streets were heard yesterday morning by Mayor Howell. Forrest Adair, who appeared for the real estate men and attorneys of Atlanta, spoke against the custom. Representatives of the other side will be heard by the mayor whenever they desire.

The speeches were based upon the measure which changes the name of Smith street, between Whitehall street and Glenn street, to Whitehall place. Mayor Howell has until next Thursday evening to decide whether he will approve or veto the measure.

The resolution changing the name of the street was vigorously opposed by Mr. Adair both before the street committee and during the session of council, but notwithstanding his objections and despite the petitions from real estate men and members of the local bar, council voted to change the name of the street.

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Changing Street Names.

Oct 20, 1903

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA

Tuesday, October 20, 1903

The protest made by Mr. Forrest Adair to the city council yesterday against the frequent and often capricious changing of the names of streets in the city is deserving of that body.

The value of certainty in the metes and bounds used in describing real estate grows in importance with the growth of the city. The activity of the real estate market is dependent in large measure upon the accuracy and permanency of such descriptions, the more so as the city fills up with new citizens. They are unacquainted with our old maps and the metamorphoses of local names. They look only to the chain of titles and, as Mr. Adair says, they frequently refuse a property because of the vagarious changes of the names of streets that occur in consecutive deeds.

A yet greater reason why council should be slow to change the names of our thoroughfares is the fact that already the names of landmark streets have been changed, the honors paid to pioneer citizens obliterated and names that should have remained linked with localities and thoroughfares crossed off our map for fanciful and unsuggestive substitutes, in some cases these changes have almost amounted to a profanation of the fathers of the city. The names of former mayors, even of that one who heroically bore the interests of the city in the awful days of Sherman’s siege and occupancy, the noble James M. Calhoun, have been sacrificed for meaningless titles.

Change Whitehall street to “Commerce avenue,” Marietta street to “Bucephalus boulevard,” and Peachtree street to “Elite avenue,” and by those three simple substitutions that can be adopted in three minutes in council, the Atlanta of history and of common knowledge and pride throughout Georgia and the union will be obliterated.

Patriotic and commercial reasons, especially the important one of making readable and acceptable titles to real estate, are plenty enough to cause council to deliberate long before it takes down the names of well-known streets to replace them with the tony and pride-tickling titles that have been invented without rhyme or reason. We trust the city is at the end of that sort of uncalled for vandalism.

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SMITH STREET HAS NEW NAME

Oct 20, 1903

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA

TUESday, October 20, 1903

Was Changed to Whitehall Place by Council Yesterday.

The name of Smith street, from Whitehall street to Glenn street, was Monday afternoon changed by council to Whitehall place and if Mayor Howell gives his approval to the measure it will become a law.

Forrest Adair, for the real estate men, spoke against the change of name, but the members of the body believed that the wishes of the residents of the street should be regarded.

The report of the street committee, which was favorable in changing the name of Smith street to Whitehall place, having been read, the privilege of the floor was extended to Forrest Adair, who spoke against the custom of changing the names of the streets. A number of real estate men and attorneys were present.

Mr. Adair said:

“Before final action is taken on the report of the street committee to change the name of Smith street to Whitehall place I desire to present certain facts taken from the record in reference to the custom or habit into which the council has fallen of making such changes.

“In doing this I wish to distinctly disclaim any desire to personally oppose any of the residents of that street. I am interested in the ownership of property on the street, and will aid them in any movement that may lead to its improvement.

“I have prepared from the records a list which I herewith present to you, showing that four hundred and forty-seven changes have been made in the names of streets, several of them having borne as many as eight different names.

“This causes serious trouble and inconvenience to the real estate agents, attorneys and to the property owners themselves in trading titles when real estate is sold, it being well nigh impossible to convince one from the record of the correct identity of the lot so variously described.

“My firm has just sold a piece of property on the corner of Walton street and Tabernacle place, and the deed of the present owner describes it as being on the corner of Walton and Harris streets, while the next deed in the chain of title describes it as being on the corner of Foundry street. I have actually known of titles being rejected on account of the doubt as to identity.

“How many of you gentlemen of the city council can now direct a stranger to the six Peachtree streets? We have the one peerless Peachtree, and in addition, West Peachtree, Peachtree place, West Peachtree place, Peachtree road and East Peachtree terrace, which, however, has recently been changed back to its original name, because no one can find it.

“Smith, the street now under consideraytion, has been variously known as Stephen, South, Simpson, Newman and Gate City.

Named for a Pioneer.

“This street was named for an honored pioneer citizen, Mr. Windsor Smith, who, in the ante-vellum days, together with the Colliers, Jones, Loyd, Calhoun, Joseph Thompson, Richard Peters and others, were by their brain, industry and enterprise helping Marthasville to discard her swaddling clothes, thereby making this great city of Atlanta a possibility.

“In 1861, just as the darkness and gloom of a civil war appeared on the horizon, Mr. Smith died, and ten years later his friends and neighbors, who knew of his value and worth to the community, paid to his memory a tribute by giving one of the cities arteries of trade his name.

“The others were in like manner honored by those who thought it fitting to in some way carry down to after generations the names of the fathers of our beloved city.

“One by one, and for no good reason, in order to gratify the whim of the residents, whose minds are as vacillating as the winds, you have ruthlessly taken away this honor and shattered the only monuments to many of them.

“Calhoun was changed to Piedmont and absolutely no benefit has been derived therefrom.

“Loyd to Central avenue, and lots on that street bring no more per front foot.

“Collins to Courtland, and yet Maison de Joie still flourish furnishing superior facilities for our sons to prostitute their persons, debauch their souls and cut each other down in midnight drunken brawls.

“You robbed Joseph Thompson, the father of Mrs. Richard Peters, Mrs. Thomas M. Clarke, Joseph and Edgar Thompson, of the tribute paid to him because, by your permissions, the street had become disreputable.

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” and Madison avenue today with its cess pools and slimy sewers of men’s passions, its supurating sores, its reeking ulcers on the social body, emits its stinking odors as high toward the heavens as Thompson street ever did.

Clean the Streets.

“If our only monuments of marble and bronze, erected to Hill and Grady, were to become damaged or discolored, would you change their names or cleanse them? In all respect to you gentlemen, I say that your duty was to remove the stain from the streets rather than efface the tribute to the memory of the grand men who had been thus honored.

“In West End, near my home, are two streets named for the two heroes, Lee and Gordon, and on the north side, Forrest avenue, named for the recklessly valiant genius, whose name I am proud to bear.

“A councilman who would even suggest a change of these names would bring down upon himself the condemnation of his constituents, and the resolution if read in this chamber would be drowned with hisses.

“The names of these heroes are reverenced by us because they led in the fight for principles and for a cause we love and yet I say to you that in the battle of building up our city and its enterprises, Thompson, Calhoun, Colliers, Smith, Peters and others fought just as valiantly, ever ready to lay upon the altar their labor, their fortunes or their lives.

“I submit that aside from the legal authority with which you may be clothed, viewing this matter in its broader sense of right and justice, you really have no right to make such changes, and I apeal to you in behalf of the families of these pioneers who did more for our city than any man who lives today and in behalf of the business men and citizens at large, to put a stop to this absolutely unnecessary and confusing custom of changing the names of streets.”

Councilman Winn, who presented the resolution changing the name of Smith street, stated that he had done so because the residents of the thoroughfare had requested him to have the name changed.

The report of the street committee was adopted and the name of Smith street from Whitehall to Glenn streets, will therefore be known in the future as Whitehall place if the mayor approves.

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