A lot has been made of Decatur’s almost-mythical, one-time refusal to become the railroad hub of the South.   As told by the Georgia Encyclopedia…

It is said that residents rejected a proposal by the Western and Atlantic Railroad to make Decatur a major stop on its new line because citizens did not want the noise, smoke, dirt, and confusion.

But few legends have ever been told about the city’s later plans to “macadamize” Ponce, College and Clairemont roads connecting to Druid Hills and Atlanta.

Why?  I have no idea!  But I found this great article from the April 24, 1911 edition of The Atlanta Georgian newspaper reporting on just that event! (Read it for yourself after the jump)

BTW: according to Merriam-Webster “macadamize” means :to construct or finish (a road) by compacting into a solid mass a layer of small broken stone on a convex well-drained roadbed and using a binder (as cement or asphalt) for the mass

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Where would Atlanta be without Coca-Cola?  And where would Coca-Cola be without prohibition?

From the January 11, 1908 issue of The Atlanta Georgian.