Green Buren Adair (1840 - April 20, 1914) was a prominent cotton merchant in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, conducting business there from the Civil War era until the turn of the 20th century. He was a cousin of George Washington Adair, another prominent real estate mogul in Atlanta. Adair was born in

Talladega County, Alabama Talladega County is one of the sixty-seven counties located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama."ACES Winston County Office" (links/history), Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES), 2007, webpageACES-Talladega As of t ...

. He served in the Confederate Army including the

Battle of Appomattox Courthouse The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought in Appomattox County, Virginia, on the morning of April 9, 1865, was one of the last, and ultimately one of the most consequential, battles of the American Civil War (1861–1865). It was the final e ...

. Adair settled in Atlanta in 1866 and entered the wholesale commission and fertilizer business together with his brother Augustus D. Adair (1835–1922), and in a few years became one of Atlanta's most successful merchants. 1890 property tax records indicate that he owned $26,500 worth of property. He retired from active business in 1891, when his eldest son, Green B. Adair Jr. (b. 1887 d. 1968), was still a toddler, but remained active in Atlanta charities and business affairs."Green B. Adair dies of paralytic stroke", ''Atlanta Constitution'', April 21, 1914, p. 5 In the 1880s and 1890s he served 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 ...

. He was instrumental in building the Second Baptist Church, which was located at Washington and Mitchell streets, and later joined the Highland Park Baptist Church, which opened in 1908 on Highland Avenue at the northwest corner of Highland and Greenwood avenues. The Adairs lived on fashionable Washington Street as of 1891, but in 1892 Adair acquired of land for $17,000 at the southwest corner of Highland and Virginia avenues in what is today Virginia-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta. The land was in the country at the time, but easily accessed by the new

Nine-Mile Circle The Nine-Mile Circle (today often called the "Nine Mile Trolley") was a streetcar line of the Atlanta Street Railway, later the Atlanta Consolidated Street Railway which went from downtown Atlanta to today's Virginia-Highland neighborhood as fo ...

streetcar line. Adair had a summer house built on the site, which was completed in 1895. In 1911 the family moved in permanently. The

Adair Mansion The Adair Mansion, originally named Wood Cliff (1895) is located in the Virginia Highland neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia at 964 Rupley Drive, and is as of 2011 divided into upscale apartments. Green Buren Adair (c. 1837-1914, Atlanta), a whol ...

remains a landmark and is divided into apartments. (It is now located on Rupley Avenue as bungalows were built on the land between the mansion and the Virginia-Highland intersection.) He died in Atlanta on April 20, 1914, of a paralytic stroke. His obituary described him as "one of Atlanta’s most beloved citizens," known for his acts of charity and in the business world as a man of sterling character, energetic and progressive.""G.B. Adair's funeral takes place today", ''Atlanta Constitution'', April 22, 1914, p.5 He was buried in Oakland Cemetery.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adair, Green B. 1840 births 1914 deaths People from Talladega County, Alabama People of Alabama in the American Civil War Atlanta City Council members 19th-century Georgia (U.S. state) politicians Burials at Oakland Cemetery (Atlanta)