28. GRANT PARK, 

covering a tract of 144 acres bounded by Cherokee Ave., Atlanta Ave., S. Boulevard, Park Ave., and Sidney St., is the oldest park in the Atlanta park system. Many miles of shady walks and broad paved driveways wind through this gently rolling land, which still bears traces of the breastworks that were built for the defense of Atlanta in 1864. In winter the park is quiet, its broad spaces peopled only by strollers in the sun; but in summer the scene is animated with sun-blistered boys and girls in white drill, sauntering and gayly swinging tennis rackets or wet bathing suits. Recreational facilities include tennis courts, baseball diamonds, a pony ring, a swimming pool, a lake with row boats, a picnic ground equipped with a pavilion, and a natural amphitheater for band concerts and plays. Gardens and greenhouses supply all the shrubs and plants for the other parks in the city.

The park is named for Colonel Lemuel P. Grant, who planned the fortifications for Atlanta in the spring of 1863. Grant donated the original hundred acres to the city in 1882, a time when Atlanta had recovered sufficiently from the turmoil of reconstruction to give more attention to civic enterprises. With the aid of a topographical map, development of the natural advantages of the wooded area was begun almost immediately, an expenditure of $3,611.70 being reported for the year 1883 by the first park committee appointed by city council. A natural ravine formed by Willow Brook, which flowed through the center of the area, was used for construction of a small lake in 1886, and the following year the larger Lake Abana was completed and boats placed on it. Since Lake Abana could not utilize all the water of Willow Brook, Lake Loomis was built adjoining it in 1888 and later was merged with it. Constitution Spring, which rose clear and cold from the ground near the lake, was surrounded by a picnic pavilion and became a popular gathering place. The lake was enlarged again in 1901, but soon afterwards the contamination of the water resulted in the abandonment of Constitution Spring and Willow Brook, and since 1906 the lake has been filled with water from the city reservoir.

An extension of the park area was made on April 4, 1890, when the city purchased 44 additional acres of land. The large concrete swimming pool, 500 feet long and 200 feet wide, was constructed in 1917, with a low, curving wall through the center to divide the shallow section from the deep. Extensive improvements have been made in recent years throughout the park by workers of the Work Projects Administration.

The Grant Park Zoo (open daily 7-6) was begun in March 1889) when G.V. Gress, a wealthy merchant of Atlanta, presented to the city the menagerie of a bankrupt circus which he had bought in order to secure the heavy horse-drawn wagons for use in his lumber business. Gress also erected the first shelter to house the animals and their keeper. To this early collection, which was at first known as the Gress Zoo, additions were made from time to time, the most popular being the elephants Clio and Maude, who as long as they lived remained favorites with Atlanta children.

The addition that made Grant Park Zoo the most outstanding in the Southeast, however, came in 1935 when Asa G. Candler, Jr., gave his valuable private collection to the city. For three years Candler had been assembling fine species of wild animals and birds for a zoological garden on his estate on Briarcliff Road. But suits and injunctions by neighbors, who objected to having a menagerie so close to their homes, and the heavy taxes demanded by the county made this hobby both excessively expensive and embarrassing. Rejecting a bid by the City of New York as too low, Candler offered his vigorous and well-kept specimens to, Atlanta as a gift provided suitable quarters were erected to house them. Volunteer contributions of dimes by school children and other public donations provided the necessary funds for the new quarters, and the following year 84 animals and almost 100 birds were transported to their new home.

The most spectacular of the animals in the zoo is Jimmie Walker, a Royal Bengal tiger reputed to be the largest in captivity, whose ferocious claws tore to death a valuable black leopardess in a fight through the bars of their adjacent cages. Large crowds are always attracted to the bears in the cages along the side of the lake, especially the two friendly Himalayans that constantly go through comical exhibitionist antics. The recent arrival of two trained Canadian brown bears lends further appeal to this colony. Another newcomer owes her domicile here to the defense program, for Alice, an 18-year-old elephant that had been trained to pull the big disc harrow on a South Carolina plantation, was brought to Grant Park when her master was called for military service.

Fort Walker, on Dabney's Hill near the Boulevard and Atlanta Ave. entrance to Grant Park, is a restoration of the Confederate battery that formed the southeast salient angle of the defenses encircling the city in the summer of 1864. The guns and ammunition wagons have been replaced in their original commanding position at the crest of the hill. The fortification was named in memory of General W.H.T. Walker, who was killed in the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864.

The Cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta (open daily 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; adults 50¢, children 25¢; lectures according to attendance; no cameras allowed), is housed in an impressive building near the center of Grant Park. The front section of the building, which is situated on a broad paved terrace, is constructed of white, stone-flecked terra cotta in neoclassic design, its recessed entrance dominated by two-story Ionic columns. The facade is decorated by two long bas-relief panels symbolizing peace and reconstruction. The rear section is of white stucco, especially constructed in a circular design to fit the dimensions of the great canvas.

The approach to the painting is by means of a tunnel, which leads to a platform in the center of the circular section of the building. The position of the platform is above the tracks of the contested Georgia Railroad and consequently between the main bodies of the opposing forces.

The painting, which is 50 feet high, 400 feet in circumference, and weighs more than 18,000 pounds, was produced in the studios of the American Cyclorama Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, under the direction of William Wehner of Austria. The staff that executed the painting included a corps of German artists and many Americans, among them Theodore R. Davis, who had accompanied General Sherman to Atlanta in 1864 to make drawings for Harper's Weekly Magazine. So thorough was the research and so accurate the reproduction that veterans of the battle not only recognized the scenes but were able to identify many of the combatants.

In 1887 the cyclorama, completed at a cost of $40,000, was first shown in Detroit, Michigan. From there it was sent to various cities in the country for display until 1891, when Paul Atkinson bought it from the Indianapolis Art Exhibit Company for $2,500 and brought it to Atlanta for exhibition. Later Atkinson sold the painting to H.H, Harrison of Florida, who planned to exhibit it at the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893. When this project failed, the great canvas was sold for $1,100 at an auction on August 1, 1893, to the East Atlanta Land Company, owner of the Edgewood Avenue building where the painting had been displayed. Ten days later the newspapers carried a notice that the picture had been sold again for the auction price to George V. Gress, who displayed it at Grant Park to raise funds for the aid of the poor children of the city. In 1898 Gress presented the painting to the City of Atlanta, and it has since remained on permanent exhibit at Grant Park.

Until 1921, when the present fireproof building was erected, the painting was housed in a flimsy wooden structure, where it became badly streaked because of leaks in the roof. This damage was repaired in 1937, when the Works Progress Administration completed a project for the renovation of the painting. Under the direction of Victor Llorens, artists and workmen not only cleaned and retouched thecanvas but extended the action of the picture onto the groundwork to give a realistic three-dimensional illusion.

More than 1,500 tons of Georgia clay in various shades of red were hauled in to recreate the irregularity of the battlefield within the circular area between the platform and the painting. Tree trunks were dynamited and treated to produce a shell-torn effect; grass was made with excelsior tinted green; bushes and small trees, some with eight to ten thousand handmade leaves, were built of wire and plaster and embedded in the clay. An irregular concrete siding built close to the canvas was used as a foundation for the plaster modeling that joins the action of the picture to the scene in the foreground. To the legs of a dying man, drawn up in agony at the edge of the picture, the upturned face and shoulders have been added in plaster; an ambulance is partly painted and partly modeled in plaster; and the railroad tracks that appear in the picture have been extended with graded rails across the groundwork to the opposite side. The illusion of reality is heightened further by a special lighting system that gives the appearance of daylight.

The painting of the Battle of Atlanta is now valued at more than $1,000,000. According to an artist on the staff of the American Cyclorama Company, two paintings of this battle were made at the studio, but it is thought that the second one disintegrated in Baltimore in 1897. Two companion pictures, portraying the Battle of Gettysburg and the Battle of Missionary Ridge, were both destroyed, the former by fire and the latter by cyclone.

The Railroad Engine Texas (admission free) is kept in the basement of the Cyclorama Building in memory of Andrews' Raid, one of the boldest and most thrilling exploits of the War between the States. At Marietta, on April 11, 1862, James J. Andrews, a Union spy, and 21 volunteers mingled among unsuspecting passengers and boarded a train drawn by the engine General and headed for Chattanooga, Tennessee. When Conductor William A. Fuller stopped the train at Big Shanty, now Kennesaw, so that the passengers and crew could get off for breakfast, Andrews' men quickly uncoupled the engine and three cars and made off with them, intending to destroy every railroad bridge they passed over and thus cut a vital supply line between the Confederate armies in Virginia and Mississippi. But Conductor Fuller and his crew started off on foot in hot pursuit of the marauders. At Moon's Station, about a mile up the road, they found a handcar and appropriated it for the chase. Fortune favored the Confederates, for when they reached the bridge over the Etowah River, there on a side track with a full head of steam was the Yonah, a switch engine of the Cooper Iron Works. Seizing this, they were able to press the pursuit with more speed until they found themselves blocked at the junction at Kingston by some freight cars, which had delayed Andrews also. Without wasting time in moving the cars, Fuller abandoned the Yonah and took the William R. Smith, a faster engine; but he was stopped again a short distance north of Kingston by a break in the tracks made by the fleeing raiders. Again the pursuers had to proceed on foot until, near Adairsville, they met the Texas, the fastest engine in the Western & Atlantic service, and commandeered it for their purpose. Running in reverse, the Texas gained rapidly on the raiders, who had been too hard pressed all the way to destroy bridges and tracks as they had planned. In desperation, Andrews and his men attempted to block the path of the Texas by tossing wood onto the tracks, but this only exhausted their fuel without appreciably delaying their pursuers. Finally, within five miles of Chattanooga, the raiders abandoned the stalled General and scattered through the woods in an effort to escape.

Within a week Andrews and all of his men were captured and brought to trial before the Confederate authorities in Chattanooga. After their conviction they were sent to Atlanta, where Andrews and seven members of the group were executed by hanging and the others were imprisoned. In October 1862, eight made their escape, and the remaining six were sent to Richmond, Virginia, where they were exchanged on March 18, 1863.

The Texas, built by Danforth and Cook, was placed in freight service on the Western & Atlantic Railroad in 1856. After the war it was converted to a coal burner and continued in active service until 1907, when it was sent to the Atlanta railroad yards to be scrapped. The pressure of public opinion, however, caused it to be preserved as a historic relic, and in 1911 the City of Atlanta put it on display in Grant Park. In 1937 it was cleaned and repainted by employes of the Works Progress Administration. 

A Museum (admission free), left of the foyer in the Cyclorama Building, houses such unrelated objects as Confederate money and weapons, Indian arrowheads, beadwork from Constantinople, paddles from South America, stuffed birds and animals, a swordfish, a vampire bat from Sumatra, a Patagonian shrunken skull, and a Spanish halberd found near Atlanta.

A large room to the right of the foyer contains eight enlarged photographs taken by Sherman's official photographer. Seven are pictures of Federal trenches, breastworks, and artillery, and one is a view of downtown Atlanta after the fall of the city.

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