Here’s what Peachtree Street looked like around the time of the above rendering.

Looking north at Peachtree from Auburn Ave, 1908, from the Atlanta History Center

Previously: We got scooped

He first flaunted his hoarder coverage chops with updates on the Sandy Springs hoarder – we all know that didn’t end well, but just recently we had a follow-up story about the business that cleans hoarders’ homes. Mr. Boone gives a whole new meaning to the title “muckraker” – am I right or am I right?

Let Mr. Boone’s stories be a lesson to you, all you who played hooky from your jobs to buy three dozen soiled desk chairs at City Hall East this week. I didn’t have time for such a wasteful pursuit of junky possessions; also, the sign for Lee Haney‘s World Class Fitness Center wasn’t for sale anyway.

photo from I Saw It On Ponce

I have been obsessed with these first three houses for a long while now. This one below, right behind St. Mark UMC, is a duplex that was fairly recently fixed up. It still looks so strange – the facade has nothing to do with the rest; the windows on the side and back are all 1920s-ish.

This one I call Grey Gardens because…

About a year and a half ago or so a sign went up here saying that this was going to become luxury condos. Now there’s an unfinished foundation in the back and the real estate signage is gone. The only reasonable conclusion I can draw is that someone was murdered in that turret a long time ago, and the restless ghost wouldn’t let construction progress.

Here’s the back alley that connects other Juniper-facing houses.

These fabulous condos across the street have so many little details, like rooftop decks and awnings and lion’s faces and tiled roofs and tiered built-in planters filled with lively palm-like vegetation. I bet the residents have the grandest parties and parlors with jade pianos and only chaise lounges for seating.

The little alley beside the building.

The next two I just think are cute.

I hope I don’t get knifed by the Architecture Tourist for stepping on his turf.

Riddle me this:

1. What is going on with Buddy’s extreme wine/convenience store makeover? What is the intended outcome in removing their iconic, decayed lettering?

2. What is “The Phoenix, the newspaper of Underground Atlanta”? This was in the back flap of a recipe book called Georgia Receipts that was at Antique Factory ages ago. (Here is the cover.)

3. What is the proper protocol for a “code red in zone 4″? This video about rules and regulations at the Fulton County jail cuts off entirely too soon! All the rules outlined in this first segment are common sense – I try to do these things every day in my own home! But what are acceptable manners during a prison break?

4. What is “Infoplan” and who is Jo Parks? There are all these photos in the Lane Brothers collection at GSU labeled with both those names but I can’t figure out what Infoplan could be besides a television show run by Atlanta’s boosters and hosted by an older lady named Jo Parks. In many of the photos, Ms. Parks is demonstrating colorful patterned textiles.

1967

5. Where can I see more of Mrs. Lillian Brown Head’s beautiful hats? I can’t wait until the National Museum of African-American History and Culture opens in 2012 to see her Polaris hat – and her obituary references a 1987 AJC article about her that I can’t find anywhere! Mrs. Head’s fashion talents seem boundless. I want to see more of her creations.

Hyatt Regency Polaris hat

6. How soon can I retire, move back to the suburbs, and take conductorcising classes?

The good news, sort of, for Atlanta ladies was that in 1919 they were allowed to vote in municipal primary elections. And what a glorious day it was for upstanding suffragists on that May day in 1919 when they took to the courthouse to register for the very first time.

The Atlanta Constitution, May 27, 1919

Yes, the subtitle here is “Basket of Roses and Daises Brought to the Tax Collector’s Office by One Woman to Give ‘That Feminine Touch’.”

Little did they know that only a little over eight whole decades later City Hall would be permanently touched by feminine roses and eight years of a pleasant tearoom atmosphere.

There were also some cultural changes that would need adjusting to – primarily, that a real lady doesn’t divulge her age, even if the registration form asks for it.

But don’t think the day was all bouquets, suffrage hats, and ageless women gabbing in the municipal halls. There was still some REAL DRAMA.

There’s LOTS more about woman suffrage in the Georgia Encyclopedia, of course.

According to the entry, in 1913 the Atlanta Constitution started a woman suffrage department! Just to show you how attitudes can change, in 1899 the very same paper ran a hilarious, modern little article by Wallace Putnam Reed called “Progressive Women Marching Onward” that included lines like, “How we laughed when we first heard of a woman lawyer,” and, “We might as well throw the doors wide open and like France allow women to wear trousers in consideration of a small annual tax.”

Previously: So much pulchritude in this Gate City

June 17, 1926

When the paper wasn’t hyping Atlanta ladies’ aptitude for beauty via its editorial department, the advertisers were happy to point out some of the services and products available for female improvement.

January 24, 1906

May 20, 1913

June 7, 1902

December 20, 1936

Don’t worry, the men had a lot to live up to too:

December 24, 1914

The following one is scandalous. Is it directed at men or women?

June 12, 1902

While digging through these ads, I discovered a fantastic column called “Beauty Chats” by Edna K. Forbes that started in 1919 and ran through the early ’20s in the Constitution. Aware of their female readership, the paper picked up several regular features for the “fair sex” (the term “weaker sex” was so passe).

October 27, 1919

“Beauty Chats” is obviously the best as it is immediately useful, covering topics like, “Symmetrical Eyebrows,” “Dainty Underthings,” “Excessive Perspiration,” and “How About Our Arms?”

A column called “Little Beauty Chats” penned by Blanche Beacon ran several years earlier but was nowhere near as informative because it didn’t have these photo illustrations that raised important points and pressing questions. More on “Beauty Chats” later, though!

Previously: Selling out

Druid Hills

Midtown (an old favorite)

Poncey-Highland

NOW (2010): Elephant paints on a canvas; politely greets onlookers.
Video at PBA’s This is Atlanta.

Maybe mankind is rapidly losing our sense of morals and decency with each passing generation, but the animal kingdom seems to be growing quite mannerly and cultivated.

Previously: Animals are Atlantans too

Just make sure you visit this guy first:

via a blog

Stick around south Fulton for the whole weekend because the following day features an indoor picnic at the Old Campbell County Historical Society. Just be sure you RSVP with Gloria or Nancy first.

Fairburn, 1954 - via the Atlanta History Center

Here are some other things that are adorable about Fairburn, from the OCCHS:

- Emma Lulu Duggan Camp was the first woman sheriff of Campbell County and Georgia. She served for one month between the death of her husband, Sheriff Thomas Wiley Camp, and the election of a new sheriff.

- In 1896, you could purchase any size watermelon you wanted for a nickle.

Previously: Speaking of drag queens…

via Wikipedia and Atlanta Business Chronicle

Best hair in HD: Thomas Wheatley

via brookehatfield

Best Marietta lady hair accessory on primary election night: Marie Barnes

via AJC