Everyone knows that Sherman burned Atlanta.  Fewer know that the Confederacy burned some of Atlanta first as they retreated out of the city on September 2, 1864 (which I recently learned at a Decatur Book Festival talk).

But perhaps even fewer know where to locate the oldest building in downtown Atlanta today.

Well, if you’ve never been out of your car downtown, you’ve probably never seen it.  But if you’ve ever rambled around Underground Atlanta, you might be accidently come across it.

The Georgia Railroad Freight Depot – built in 1869 – sits just outside Underground, below an oddly placed mural of whales on the side of a Central Avenue parking deck, and serves today as banquet hall for the Georgia Legislature.  Many Atlanta history buffs have pointed to the strange juxtaposition of the Depot and whales of downtown Atlanta as a great visual example of Atlanta’s strange and forgetful relationship with its own history.

Well now, according to the AJC, the 17 year-old whaling wall must be removed in order to repair the deteriorating parking deck.  Soon the wall will promote Georgia State instead of celebrate Atlanta’s great whaling history.

So I guess a dramatic mural of a steam engine rolling into the station is out of the question, but perhaps GSU could reserve a small spot on the wall to indicate the key piece of Atlanta history located just below the surface of our modern infrastructure.

Photo courtesy of City Data