Atlanta History Center

Home of the Western & Atlantic Railroad "Texas"

Atlanta, Ga / Sep 2019 / RWH

Atlanta, Ga / Sep 2019 / RWH

ahc_inset The Atlanta History Center was founded on the big ideas and relentless fascination of 14 Atlantans who were emphatic about our city’s historical relevance in society. In a sense, our organization was created by Atlanta’s biggest fans, and we love that detail. In 1926, these founding members introduced the Atlanta Historical Society into the world with one mission: to help preserve Atlanta’s history. In 1990, after decades of collecting, researching, publishing and celebrating the early stories of our great Southern community, the Atlanta Historical Society and all of its holdings officially became the Atlanta History Center.

Atlanta History Center

ahc_state egyptian he current Atlanta History Center was developed in 1990 as a repository for the holdings of the Atlanta Historical Society, formed in 1926. The 33-acre site in the Buckhead community of Atlanta, Georgia, features exhibits on the antebellum South, historic gardens and houses open to the public, and six permanent historical exhibitions on subjects related to the city and the region. In 2014, the the City of Atlanta introduced plans to relocate the Atlanta Cyclorama painting and its associated artifacts to the History Center. Included in the move was the Western & Atlantic "Texas" locomotive, the chase engine in the Civil War incident in northwest Georgia known as the "Great Locomotive Chase." A new building for the 360-degree Cyclorama painting debuted in early 2019, including a new display hall for the 1856 Texas locomotive.

Click to see the Atlanta History Center plotted on a Google Maps page

Locomotion: Railroads and the Making of Atlanta

twelve_inset On November 17, our newest exhibition, Locomotion: Railroads and the Making of Atlanta, opens to the public at Atlanta History Center. The cornerstone of the exhibition is the restored locomotive Texas. The engine was built in 1856 for the Western & Atlantic Railroad, which had established its terminus in 1837 at the site that became Atlanta. For that reason, the locomotive is an important link to the city’s origins.

Another important link to the city’s origins is the Zero Mile Post - one of the city’s most significant artifacts. Recently relocated to the Atlanta History Center, the Zero Mile Post is the 1850s Western & Atlantic Railroad marker around which Atlanta grew. Positioning the Zero Mile Post beside the recently restored Texas locomotive, one of the two remaining Western & Atlantic locomotives [the other being the General] that would have passed by that very mile post scores of times during its service. Railroads built and created Atlanta, and these two objects tell Atlanta’s origin story like no others.

The Georgia Building Authority has agreed to a five-year renewable license agreement with the Atlanta History Center to preserve and interpret the Zero Mile Post, which was installed in the 1850s to mark the Southern terminus of the Western & Atlantic Railroad. The site, near the Georgia Freight Depot, was used to determine the city center of Atlanta in 1842.

Atlanta History Center

1910 Official Guide ad / collection

See also our complete Great Locomotive Chase featured scrapbook in Steam

"Texas" display

Western & Atlantic #12 "Texas"

Atlanta, Ga / Sep 2019 / RWH

Western & Atlantic #12 "Texas"

builder:Danforth, Cooke & Company

arrangement:4-4-0 "American" type

built:Oct 1856 in Paterson NJ

fuel:wood, later coal

notes:

15x22" cylinders, 57" drivers

blt Western & Atlantic #12
to East Tennessee & Virginia
to United States Military Railroad
to Western & Atlantic #49
renamed "Cincinnati"
to Nashville Chatta. & St Louis #212
to the City of Atlanta