George W. Adair
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George Washington Adair (March 1, 1823 – September 29, 1899) was a real-estate developer in post
Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
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.


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George Washington Adair was born 1 March 1823. He married Mary Jane Perry on 7 Jun 1854, in Newton County, Georgia. James Calhoun, William H. Dabney, Charles Murphy and Ephraim M. Poole supported him with the means to study at the Decatur Academy. After two years, he took up the study of law in
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, and two years later he was admitted to the bar. To satisfy his debts, Adair took a position as a conductor on the
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, a job he held for four years. After leaving the railroad, he spent some time at Covington, and Charleston. Adair moved to Atlanta in 1854 at the age of 31 and there established what would be his permanent home.


Career


Atlanta

Under the firm name of Adair and Ezzard, Adair embarked in the mercantile business, but after not entirely successful two years, he launched into the general trading, auctioning and real estate business, which would engage him throughout the remainder of his career. During the
Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
, Adair was a newspaperman and a cotton speculator. He already owned the ''Gate City Guardian'' newspaper when in 1861 he bought the ''
Atlanta Southern Confederacy The ''Atlanta Southern Confederacy'' was a strongly Democratic Southern newspaper during the American Civil War. The first issue was February 15, 1859, by Dr. James P. Hambleton. Historian Franklin Garrett explains its quick impact in that Hambl ...
'' and merged the two keeping the name of the latter, assisted by J. Henly Smith. After the paper went under. Adair became an aide on the staff of Gen. N.B. Forrest, serving the confederacy until the end of hostilities in 1865.


Post war

Adair returned to Atlanta and resumed his real estate business. He began a political career which included positions on the
Atlanta City Council The Atlanta City Council (formerly the Atlanta Board of Aldermen until 1974) is the main municipal legislative body for the city of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It consists of 16 members: the council president, twelve members elected from di ...
and various committees. After co-founding the Atlanta Street Railway Company with Richard Peters in 1871 he began to develop areas at the same time they ran new streetcar lines to serve them: including West End and
Adair Park Adair Park is a historic residential neighborhood located southwest of downtown Atlanta. It has the form of a left Bracket#Curly brackets, curly bracket, bordered by the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, MARTA north–south rail lin ...
. When the
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came on he was compelled to make an assignment of all his property. In 1878, he sold his portion of the streetcar business to Peters. He started up again, becoming "connected" with the Atlanta Cotton Factory (on the site of the current
CNN Center The Center, formerly and still commonly called the CNN Center, is the former international headquarters of U.S. cable network CNN in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The main newsrooms and studios for several of CNN's news channels were located ...
) and the Atlanta Cotton Exposition. He was director of the Kimball House Company, president of the Georgia Western Railroad, and director of the Piedmont Exposition. In the 1880s, real estate boomed again and with his sons, he established Adair and Company to develop suburban properties. With John W. Grant, in 1881 he developed what would become
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. He also helped raise funds for the rebuilding of the Kimball House after it burned down. Later projects with Kimball failed: the subdivision of Peters Park in 1887 and the establishment of
Kimball, Tennessee Kimball is a town in Marion County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,545 at the 2020 census and 1,395 in 2010. It is part of the Chattanooga, TN– GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Kimball was founded in 1890 as a m ...
in 1890 both of which he auctioneered.


Personal life

Adair married Mary Jane Perry on June7, 1854 in Newton County, Georgia. Adair died at the age of 76, leaving his wife and six children: Jack,
Forrest Forrest may refer to: Places Australia *Forrest, Australian Capital Territory *Forrest, Victoria, a small rural township *Division of Forrest, a federal division of the Australian House of Representatives, in Western Australia *Electoral distric ...
,
George George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Gior ...
, Sallie, Annie, and Mary. Adair was first cousin to Green B. Adair, another Atlanta real estate developer.


References


Sources

* ''New Men, New Cities, New South: Atlanta, Nashville, Charleston, Mobile, 1860-1910'' (1990), Don Doyle, University of North Carolina Press, p. 99 {{DEFAULTSORT:Adair, George History of Atlanta 1823 births 1899 deaths People from Morgan County, Georgia People from Covington, Georgia Businesspeople from Atlanta 19th-century American businesspeople American businesspeople in real estate