23 October 2011

400 Whitehall in Pictures

     My Great-Grandmother, Auline Witt Albea, and her second husband, James Wilson, lived in and owned The Frederick Hotel in Atlanta. The family referred to it by it's address, 400 Whitehall. I used records such as city directories to find information about when, and which, family lived there. I emailed the Atlanta History Center's Kenan Library and they also provided me with some background on the hotel. The last available information was from 1967 - was it closed or torn down then?

     I continued to be curious about the hotel, but Sanborn Fire Insurance maps didn't cover the period. When I checked google maps, I was taken to an empty lot. Was this the location?

     I visited my Great-Aunt Ree and discovered that she had photos of the hotel.  One of the photos showed the business across the street, which is still there. Thanks to this, I was able to accurately pinpoint the location of the hotel (which is the empty lot shown on Google maps).

     The other day my sister and I went down to 400 Whitehall with copies of the original photos and did our best to created the "Looking into the Past" effect.  It was difficult due to windy conditions and a fence now in place around the bank next door. The photos aren't perfect, but they give you the idea.

 The Frederick Hotel - 400 Whitehall Street, Atlanta

The Frederick Hotel - 400 Whitehall Street, Atlanta

The Frederick Hotel - 400 Whitehall Street, Atlanta

1 comment:

Ruby Craft said...

I remember so many times my Dad, Mom or Aunts saying that was at 400 Whitehall when talking about the past. It was where my Dad and his Mom lived when they first moved to Atlanta and where my Grandmother met James who she would later marry. Daddy told me one time she used to invite him to dinner and he loved her cooking. Mama and Daddy lived there for a while during the early years of their marriage as did a few of my Aunts. I think we were living in College Park by the time I was born and while they have a picture of me sitting on a settee with my baby bottle that was taken at 400 Whitehall I don't have any memories of it except in stories my parents and aunts use to tell. So it has become an elusive part of my past. I'm glad you were able to pinpoint the location and that Aunt Ree had the pictures that helped.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails