Morning Metro: Streetcar Construction Begins, Pencil Lofts Scores American Roadhouse, and Neil Young’s Problem with Music Today
Decatur Metro | February 1, 2012 | 9:19 am
- Atlanta streetcar construction begins today [Patch]
- American Roadhouse to open second location at Pencil Factory lofts [TNT]
- Siren test postponed until tomorrow [Decatur Minute]
- Decatur Citizen Survey could be coming your way [Decatur Minute]
- March Beltline tours registrations opens Feb 15th [AJC]
- Neil Young: The biggest problem with music today is sound quality [AllThingsD]
Photo courtesy of TheG-Forcers via Flickr
Why the shot of the high school library? Please tell me it’s due for a facelift…Please!
Ha! With what money?
OK.OK. Good point…maybe just a good pressure washing then.
+1 for pressure washing
A facelift? That exterior is one of my favorite architectural accents in all of Decatur.
+1
+1, too!
A cool 60’s relic!
This is totally off topic, but I wanted to wish DM luck with the filing today for its initial public stock offering. With the money being raised from this IPO, the library could be facelifted and rebranded. Welcome to the DecaturMetro High School Library. Go social media!
Am I the only one who thinks naming a development in Atlanta “The Pencil Factory” is at best downright bizarre, and at worst in horrible taste?
Of course, the “Pencil Factory” is where Mary Phagan was murdered in 1913, which led to the trial and subsequent questionable conviction of Leo Frank who was charged with her murder. Frank was later lynched in Cobb County by a group of vigilantes. I understand that the location of the Pencil Factory Lofts is in fact
Given the paucity of native Atlantans among us these days, and even fewer who seem to care about Atlanta history, I suppose it’s possible that whoever developed the Pencil Factory Lofts had no idea that the phrase is tied to one of Atlanta’s most shameful events, but you’d think SOMEONE in a meeting at some point might have said, “Uh – Boss? Do you really think this is a good idea?”
Mind you, the Pencil Factory Lofts on Edgewood are not on the actual site of the National Pencil Comany factory, which was on Forsythe Street, but still…
Just my .02
Nope, you’re not the only one.
That place looks like it’s built out of pencils. You could probably do significant damage to the building with a soft lob of a tennis ball.
You are right, especially considering the larger societal and cultural impact of the Leo Frank case. I spent an entire year in graduate school immersed in that case. It’s a shame certain people don’t understand.
So I’m confused. Was that great, brick industrial building that proceeded the current Pencil Lofts, the scene of the crime?
No. The scence of the crime was on Forsythe St, in the vicinity of the present day Sam Nunn Fedreal Center. The Pencil Factory Lofts on Edgewood are on the location of an old paper company.
and again, wish I knew where this “edit” button is so I could spell “Federal” correctly!
And also “scene”. You should use Chrome – it has a built-in spell checker.
So the lofts are in new buildings, not on the same street as the National Pencil Company, and have nothing at all to do with the Leo Frank case. Why are we having this discussion again?
Because it seems to me the mere name “Pencil Factory” is evocative of perhaps the most scandalous incident in Atlanta’s history, and I find it bizarre that someone thought it was a good idea to use it as the name for a condo development.
There’s respect for the past and there’s reaching for something to be upset about.
It’s not a reach. Acting like “the pencil factory” — the name or the site — is just another piece of Atlanta’s industrial memorabilia requires ignoring the history that’s associated with it. That history is a dark, dark chapter in the life of this community, during which one bad act after another was committed and innocent people died at the hands of their neighbors. And what’s worse, it was officially ignored for nearly 100 years. It’s part of who we are and how we got to the here and now, and we have an obligation to remember it and try to understand it, along with all of the rest of our history, both good and bad. I don’t understand why you think it’s appropriate to do otherwise.
Ohhhhh. The transplantification of Atlanta seems to have an upper-hand over the Atlantification of the transplants.
do what??
Atlanta needs to do a better job of assimilating its transplants.
Any ideas on how to accomplish this? So much of the history has been torn down, burned down, paved over. If it weren’t for MLK, you would never hear about Atlanta’s past at all. And yet, there is so much more than just the civil rights era as important as that time is.
I moved here in 1994, which I understand is about 5 years after’s Atlanta’s founding, so maybe I can get a job as part of the welcoming committee…
LOL! I understood exactly what you meant here, and it’s unfortunately (in some respects) true. *sigh*
I heard somewhere, sometime, that the National Pencil Company actually had more than one facility. I think the main factory was the one on Forsyth St. where Mary Phagan was murdered. Possibly another was at or near the location of the current redevelopment? Don’t know, don’t have time to go researching. Maybe Nellie can enlighten us.
In any case, I think it’s a shame the developer(s) didn’t bother to find out enough about local history to realize that the “pencil factory” name would conjure extremely negative associations for a lot of people. As far as I know there wasn’t another pencil factory in Atlanta, so even if the location is completely unrelated to Mary Phagan’s murder and the mayhem that ensued, IMO it’s disingenuous to claim the lofts “have nothing at all to do with the Leo Frank case.”
Why not quit speculating and call Aaron Goldman at Perennial Properties and ask him why they named it what they did?
What is wrong with you people? I will chain myself to one of those concrete piers if they ever threaten to give a “facelift” to this totally awesome mid-century modern structure. We’re not all bungalow lovers here…
hells to the yeah.
Oops, once again, wish we could edit posts. The incomplete sentence in the second paragraph was suspended while I looked up where the actual pencil factory was, which became the last paragraph. ::slaps forehead::
Just added a plugin that should allow comment editing for 30 minutes after posting.
Someone test it out and see if its working. I can’t tell since I have always seen the edit function.
Don’t see it but don’t know what I’m looking for.
Hogwash and phifferstuff.
Sorry. Don’t see an edit feature????
nor do I
The DHS facade is indeed dated but maybe it will soon be Jetson Retro. My wish is that you could actually use the turnaround/dropoff loop that is permanently blocked off. I’m sure there’s good reasons for it to be closed–e.g. safety, traffic congestion, noise etc. But if it’s going to be permanently blocked off with posts, so that not even emergency vehicles can use it, why not make it into an attractive or at least functional space–a courtyard (since students are always standing around in it before and after school), a garden, an exercise course, something other than a paved driveway and curb that are never used.
apparently the space is used — by students hanging out before and after school. it is especially useful when it’s raining or the sun is really hot. you start mucking around with that space and you’re gonna wind up compromising the architectural integrity of the whole thing. nowhere is it written that we must constantly be “improving” things.
Well, I didn’t see it as improving something functional but removing something dysfunctional and unattractive–the unused pavement for vehicles. I completely agree that students hang out there and that the Jetson roof is a nice shelter against rain and sun. Odd but functional. I’m just proposing that the never used driveway be made into a courtyard or greenspace–still to be used by students and safer than a curb with no purpose. If nothing else, it would stop confusing parents and visitors who think they can use it to drop off passengers or to turn around and then find out at the last minute that’s it’s permanently blocked off. I wouldn’t spend a million dollars on it or prioritize it over lab space or reinstituting a freshman basketball team. Just one of those things to consider when they are sprucing up the grounds anyway.
To be clearer, I wouldn’t remove the Jetson structure, just the unused driveway beneath it.
I would pay to see the gazebo planted on top of this lovely artifact.
Whoa, I was concentrating on doing something nice but limited to the dead driveway space under the Jetson structure. I never thought of doing something on top. What possibilities! A gazebo is way too modest an idea. What about a heliport? Or an amphitheater? Or an amusement park? I’ll bet the high school students could come up with even better ideas. And some of them might even be legal.
A Gold Dome.
The driveway functioned nicely for 34 years. If my memory serves me, it was closed in April, 1999 because of Columbine. I could be wrong on the date.
Postscript: I recall some bomb threats at the time.
I think I remember the bomb threat era. It was when Westchester was being renovated and those kids were temporally house in the high school? I think I remember parents of little ones being none-too-happy about the bomb threats. But I don’t understand how blocking off the driveway was a solution. Unless it was the Oklahoma bombing or even the first World Trade Bombing, not Columbine, that was the motivation. I can see where someone could be worried about a vehicle filled with explosives being parked under the Jetson protrusion. What a shame that a perfectly good drop-off and turnaround had to be closed because of terrorism threats. All the more fitting then to put a “Peace Patio” or a garden there instead. (At low cost, of course, maybe when the driveway gets worn, instead of repaving unused blacktop.)
I, too, adore the high school’s Jetson Memorial Library. Nice on the inside, as well.