Archive Atlanta

From railroad stop to global corridor, Chamblee has lived a lot of lives in just over a century. This week, we trace its evolution from land once inhabited by the Muscogee people, to a tiny rail junction, to a booming military town during World War I with the rise of Camp Gordon.

Along the way, we uncover the surprising origin of Chamblee’s name, and follow its shifts through dairy farms, aviation history at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport, and postwar suburban growth. By the late 20th century, Buford Highway transforms into an international lifeline—making modern Chamblee one of the most diverse and dynamic communities in the Southeast.

Huntley Hills Brochure

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Still recovering from my appendectomy last week and so I am re-releasing my episode about the Dick Lane Velodrome in East Point. We're talking about what a velodrome is, Atlanta’s first velodrome, Dick Lane and the decade long efforts to open this velodrome in East Point.

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This week, we’re stepping into the pages of the Negro Motorist Green Book. I am sharing my conversation with my good friend, Cynthia Jennings, who has been uncovering the stories behind the places that offered safety, dignity, and community during the era of segregation - but we’re focusing on the women who made those spaces possible.

Behind these listings were women entrepreneurs, caretakers, and revolutionaries, who opened their homes, ran businesses, and created networks of survival during a time when they weren’t assured visibility and protection.

Cynthia's website

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This week, we explore the long and winding history behind the creation of a Botanical Garden in Atlanta - a dream that took more than 50 years to become reality. The story begins with Eugene Schofield Heath, who first pushed for a garden in the city in 1918. From ambitious Works Progress Administration projects along the Chattahoochee River to stalled plans caused by World War II, Atlanta repeatedly tried, and failed, to establish a permanent botanical garden. It wasn’t until the 1970s, when civic leaders and garden advocates rallied around a new site in Piedmont Park, that the idea finally took root.

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This week, we trace tennis from its 12th-century French origins to its rise in Atlanta, where elite clubs, segregated courts, and growing public facilities shaped the sport’s local identity. From the founding of ALTA by Bitsy Grant to the 1961 desegregation battle at the Bitsy Grant Tennis Center, Atlanta’s tennis story reflects the city’s broader fights over access and equity. We also look at the Olympic spotlight at Stone Mountain Park in 1996 and how Atlanta grew into one of the country’s largest recreational tennis hubs.

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When people think of sit-ins, they think Greensboro. But the movement didn’t start, or stop, there.

This episode looks at how the 1960 Greensboro sit-ins inspired Atlanta’s Black college students to challenge segregation in a city that called itself “too busy to hate.” From An Appeal for Human Rights to coordinated sit-ins across downtown, arrests under newly written laws, and the protests that landed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in jail. Atlanta’s Student Movement reshaped the civil rights fight and even influenced a presidential election.

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Atlanta gets nearly an extra hour of evening sunlight compared to cities east of us—and it turns out that’s no accident. In this episode, we unravel how railroads invented time zones, why Georgia was once split between Central and Eastern Time, and how Atlanta spent decades fighting over what time it should be. From business interests and newspaper deadlines to full-page ads promising more sleep for children, the battle over the clock was surprisingly intense. This is a story about power, commerce, civic identity, and a deceptively simple question that once divided a city: what time is it, really?

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In this episode, we follow the land from rural farmland to an independent city with its own mayor, streetcars, schools, and sharp racial divides. You’ll hear how Bush Mountain became a vital Black community, how segregation shaped education and housing, and why progress so often bypassed certain streets. From Madea’s House to Negro League baseball fields, Klan activity, and environmental justice, this is a story of growth, conflict, and resilience layered into one small corner of the city.

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Before airplanes and AI, Atlanta once stopped in its tracks to watch a hot air balloon rise into the sky. In this episode, I cover the story of the city’s first balloon flight in 1869. Balloon pioneer Samuel Archer King and the “Dare Devil Dentist” Dr. Albert Hape ascended nearly a mile above Atlanta as thousands watched from below.

From spotting Stone Mountain to scaring onlookers and surviving a rough landing, their journey was equal parts spectacle and wonder. Through Hape’s own words, we glimpse how life-changing it was to see Atlanta from above for the very first time. 

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From ancient superstitions to nuclear submarines, the name Atlanta carries a remarkable legacy across the seas. In this episode, we trace the centuries-old traditions of ship naming, before diving into the history of the vessels called USS Atlanta. You’ll hear how one ship served both the Confederacy and the Union, how others helped usher in America’s “New Navy,” and how the most famous USS Atlanta fought—and was lost—during the brutal battles of World War II at Guadalcanal. We follow the name through Cold War submarines, deep-sea wreck discoveries, and all the way to a newly ordered, multi-billion-dollar nuclear sub still under construction today.

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