Archive Atlanta

In the late 1800s - early 1900s, homes for fallen women existed in cities across America where they could gather women and young girls, usually pregnant out of wedlock, and hide them from “respectable” society and attempt to “reform” them. While these places came from good intentions, they were places of hard labor, crude reform and ideas and methods that we consider outdated by today’s standard. ...

Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington forged one of the earliest collaborations between Jews and African Americans to create schools throughout the nation for Black children who had no access to publicly funded education. It was an honor to interview author and photographer Andrew Feiler about this history and how he showcases it in his second book, “A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Ro...

This week, I got to speak with Alicia Guzman, who worked on the research and nomination of Fuller-Freedom House, which the City of Atlanta began the historic designation of in February. Who was Fuller? What did he do? What is a Freedom House? We’re covering all those questions and more!  https://www.atlcitydesign.com/blog/2021/3/15/fuller-freedom-house-designated-as-historic-landmark Want to suppo...

Zoo Atlanta is part of the lived experience of so many Atlantans, but I’m not sure that everyone knows how it started. From a small collection of local animals when the park was formed, to the defunct circus in 1889, to a Candler boost in 1935. We’re going to talk about the famous animals, the controversies, the decline and then later re-emergence of the zoo. Want to support this podcast? Visit he...

*CORRECTION: Judge Orinda Evans is white woman. I mistakenly identified her as Black in this episode.* This week, we’re talking about the history Georgia’s state flag, from the beginning of the colony through the present. Our state did not have an official state flag until 1879, and the design was taken from the first flag of the Confederate States of America (the “Stars and Bars”). The Battle Fla...

Did you know that throughout the 1950s, Atlanta had a Christmas Card Lady? Laura Watson recycled hundreds of thousands of used holiday cards, turning them into new ones to send to hospitals, missionaries and 'shut-ins'. This week's mini episode is about Watson and her labor of love. Want to support this podcast? Visit here Email:  thevictorialemos@gmail.com Facebook |  Instagram |  Twitter      

This week, we’re talking about the period just before Atlanta’s “white flight”. Three decades of incessant terror, violence and destruction against the Black families that purchased or rented homes in what were considered “white neighborhoods''. Want to support this podcast? Visit here Email:  thevictorialemos@gmail.com Facebook |  Instagram |  Twitter

This week, we’re talking about the history of Atlanta’s City Hall...not just the Art Deco masterpiece you can see today, but also the places that no longer exist. Where they were, how we got them and what their fate was. Our current City Hall (the 4th one in history), was built in 1930 and brought forth something called the Atlanta Graft Ring - an epic corruption scandal that brought down a mayor...

This week, we’re talking about Kirkwood - its earliest settlement history, community landmarks and historic events and people. This Muskogee/Creek land was ceded in 1821 and divided into 5 initial land lots. Early white settlers include James Kirkpatrick and Jesse Clay. Post-Civil War, Kirkwood became home to politicians like John B. Gordon. It tried to incorporate as it's own city in 1899 (not wi...

This week we're talking about Henrietta Dozier, the first female architect in Atlanta, and Leila Ross Wilburn, the second. Who doesn't love a story of women acting against the grain that was prescribed to them by their time period, social norms or gender. Both Henrietta and Leila are examples of that, and they both leave legacies that we can physically see today, although not all in Atlanta. https...

It’s safe to say that home ownership is one of, if not THE tenet of the American Dream, but did you know that idea didn’t really come around until the 1920s? And to sell Americans on this idea, a Federal program was created, which then supported marketing campaigns in thousands of US cities? This week we’re talking about the Better Homes Movement - what it was, who started it and then we’re going...

This week, we’re talking about Atlanta’s love of Scotland. While there wasn't exactly a Scottish settlement or specific neighborhood, Scots did immigrate to the Atlanta area and I’ll explain why and where. Aside from those immigrants, there was also an infatuation with Scotland and especially poet Robert Burns. So this week, we’re going to cover all of these Scottish history rabbit holes - The Cal...

Norfolk Southern has just announced they are backing out the plans to build a transfer terminal on the former Chattahoochee Brick site. While there is still a lot left to do, I wanted to replay this episode from April of 2019.  The end of the Civil War marked the end of slavery in the US...right? In all Southern cities, convict leasing booms in the post-war period and the largest user of the syste...

The Montgomery bus boycott officially ended a month after the court deemed racial segregation on buses was illegal. U.S. cities with similar segregation ordinances understood that no challenge to their laws would stand, but they weren't going to willingly desegregate. Instead, it would take a group of 6 Atlanta ministers, led By Rev. William Holmes Borders, and this movement - the Love, Law and Li...

Atlanta’s Office of Housing & Community Development recently created a revised zoning plan and I got to interview director Josh Humphries to find out some history, the new plan's details and next governmental steps.  By 2050 Atlanta expects our population to (more than) double and right now, we're the 316th densest city in the US...so there is room to grow and it’s up to Atlanta residents to decid...

This week, we’re talking about the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition. Opened for over 100 days, from September through December of that year, it would attract around 800K visitors from across the US and 13 different countries. In 1895, Atlanta had 75,000 people, of which 40% were African American, there were 125 miles of electric trolley lines and you could feel the energy about the...

At the turn of the century, Georgia was one of three states that did not allow women to practice law. That changed in 1911, when Minnie Anderson Hale graduated from the Atlanta Law School and was denied admission to the bar because of her sex. A new bill was introduced but not signed until 1916, making her the first official woman lawyer in Georgia/Atlanta.  It was not until 1943 that Rachel Prude...

This week, I’m talking about volunteer militia formed by Black men in Atlanta from the 1870s thru 1903. These men, just years out of the slavery system and most of them Radical Republicans, pushed for the militia for two reasons - military service was the epitome of masculine, model citizen Victorian manhood and also for protection. The end of Reconstruction left African Americans in the South unp...

Regardless of age, I bet you have a personal memory that involves a pair of roller skates - and almost every decade, from 1870 onward, had them too. Through this research I learned that the skating trend ebbs and flows, rinks come and go, but the activity has stood the test of time.  Want to support this podcast? Visit here Email:  thevictorialemos@gmail.com Facebook |  Instagram |  Twitter  

Mark and his wife Melinda were inside Broad Street Antiques in Chamblee, when a certain watercolor caught their eye. It had faces, swirls, rhythms, colors, musical notes, keyboards, bits of instruments and books with poems. After trying to find information on the artist, Jewel Simon, they found almost nothing published. Mark dove head first into the archives and as her life unfolded, so did the st...

While women only made up 3% of prisoners, Black women made up 98% of that group. From grading the railroad ‘cuts’ in 1866, all way into running the Haven Home in 1959, women as young as 16 served their time in places like Chattahoochee Brick, Bolton Broom, the almshouse property and Camp Mattox. These are stories about childbirth, death, escape and what is left in Atlanta that connects us to these...

As an outsider to the preservation world, I had a lot of questions: What is historic and who decides? Does that little National Register plaque do anything? Why do historic buildings still get demolished? Is historic preservation bad for low-income communities? This week, I interviewed Charles Lawrence, Board Chair of Historic Atlanta and got the answers to all the above, and more. You do NOT want...

So this week, we’re covering the Indigenous and Native American history of the Atlanta area. This is by no means the full story, but hopefully something that will implore to learn more, or at the very least think deeper about the land that you are on today. Podcasts to listen to: https://www.allmyrelationspodcast.com/podcast https://www.npr.org/2020/10/06/920935570/a-treaty-right-for-cherokee-repr...

I couldn’t be more excited to share with week's episode - not only do you get to learn about Atlanta’s LGBTQ history (FINALLY) but we get to do it through the lens of the Atlanta Eagle, which in itself tells us the story of Ponce de Leon’s transition from grand residential street to commercial corridor. It was an honor to record this interview with Charlie inside the Eagle, inside the spaces that...

President McKinley signed the Three Prisons Act in 1891, which authorized the building of the U.S. first three federal penitentiaries. Atlanta was chosen as the Southern site and the prison here opened it's gates in 1902. This week we're covering the early history, its reform programs, infamous inmates and successful escapes. Leave your Atlanta story: ‪(678) 465-7161‬ Want to support this podcast?...