17 October 1914: Georgia Tech Band Plays for Georgia Game

On this day in 1914, Georgia Tech provided both a marching band and the location of Grant Field for Georgia football game with North Carolina in Atlanta. The Yellow Jackets, as they were already known, were playing Alabama in Birmingham, and did not need the field.

Kickoff was at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and admission cost $1. At the time, Grant Field seated approximately 800 people with no seats in the endzones. Both teams had won the previous week, and in their meeting in 1913, Georgia had won, 19-6.

However, it was not to be Georgia's day, losing 41-6 to the Tar Heels; Georgia even lost the coin toss. The Atlanta Constitution noted that North Carolina "have a 'real' football team. There is no getting away from that fact. They have a machine that looks far superior to any football team that has performed in Atlanta in the past six or seven years." 

In the Athens newspaper, it was noted that while Georgia fans appreciated the efforts of the Georgia Tech band, and therefore sympathized with them for their 13-0 loss to Alabama, their rendition of "Glory" wasn't so much a fight song as "a dirge." And that from now on, maybe going without a band at all is a better option than using Georgia Tech's.

Georgia would not win another game that year, losing their next four games (including to Tech) before tying Auburn 0-0 in the season closer, to end 3-5-1. Tech ended the season 6-2. North Carolina went 10-1, losing to Virginia by 17 points in their last game.


Learn More:

• Athens Daily Herald, Jun. 1914 - Nov. 1914 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Atlanta Constitution, 1868 - 1923 in the Fold3 History and Genealogy Archives via GALILEO.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia vs. Georgia Tech: A Gridiron Grudge Since 1893 by John Chandler Griffin via PINES.
• Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate by Bill Cromartie via PINES.
• Schedules Archive on the Georgia Tech Official Athletic Department website.
• Georgia Football History page on the University of Georgia Athletic Association website.

Come Peruse the New Books in the Heritage Room

On this day we'd like to let you know a few of the new additions to the Heritage collection, and hope you'll come in to take a look before our collection downsizes during construction.

• In Pursuit of the American Birthright: A Quarter-Century of Unitarian-Universalist Involvement in Athens, 1954-1979 by Horace Montgomery in Local History.
• Military Service Records at the National Archives, compiled by Trevor K. Plante.
• Lugenia Burns Hope: Black Southern Reformer by Jacqueline Anne Rouse in Biography.
• Works Projects Administration Historical Records Survey: Sources for Genealogists by John W. Heisey.
• Oglethorpe County, Georgia, Newspaper Extracts, The Oglethorpe Echo, 1895-1899 by Fred W. McRee, Jr. in the Newspaper Abstracts.
• Georgia Governor and Council Journals, 1768-1771 by Mary Bondurant Warren.
• Ty Cobb by John D. McCallum in Biography.
• The History of Euharlee by the Euharlee History Committee.
• History of St. John's Episcopal Church, Macon County, North Carolina by A. Rufus Morgan.
• Sidney Lanier, Poet and Prosodist by Richard Webb and Edwin R. Coulson in Biography.
• Virginia in Maps: Four Centuries of Settlement, Growth and Development, edited by Richard W. Stephenson and Marianne M. McKee.

We  hope to see you soon!

1 April 1964: Autographing Party for Athens Book

On this day in 1964, The McGregor Company bookstore on East Clayton Street hosted an autographing party for the authors and contributors to the newly published book, Athens: Georgia's Columned City by Kenneth and Blanche Marsh. McGregor Company, located where The Firehouse bar is today, sold each hard-backed, 84-page volume for $3.25.

The Marshes were not Athens natives, but from Greenville, South Carolina. Kenneth Marsh took the photographs of the buildings and his wife Blanche Marsh wrote the commentary for each published image. In their Acknowledgments page, they thank the  many locals who assisted them with the book, including Mary Claire Warren, who was also present at the signing and appeared on the front page photograph of the party in the Athens Banner-Herald the following day.

Several of the homes featured in the book have since been acquired, restored, and put to practical use by the University of Georgia, such as the Cobb-Treanor House on Lumpkin Street, the Joseph Henry Lumpkin House on Prince Avenue, and the Wray-Nicholson House on Hull Street. Interior shots of antique furniture and chandeliers in the Stevens Thomas House on the corner of Hancock and Pulaski Streets provide a glimpse into the building's past as home to the Young Women's Christian Association, before it was converted into the office space it is today.

Other buildings in the book are now gone, including the Thurmond-Cofer House on Dearing Street, which was torn down to build Dearing Garden Apartments in 1965; the Mell House on the corner of Rutherford Street and Milledge Avenue, which was torn down in the 1960s and is now the location of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority house; and the Hull-Morton-Snelling House on Hull Street, which was torn down in 1990 to build an extra parking lot for the Holiday Inn. 

The Marshes published similar books together about Greenville, South Carolina; Charlotte, Bath, and Flat Rock, North Carolina throughout the 1960s. Their Athens book was the only one written about a Georgia location.

Learn More:

• Athens: Georgia's Columned City by Kenneth and Blanche Marsh in the Heritage and general collections.
• Historic Houses of Athens by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens: A Pictorial History, 1801-2001 by James K. Reap in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Guide to Architectural Styles in Athens, Georgia by the John C. Waters in the Heritage collection.
• Athens, Georgia: A Treasury of Historic Architecture by Mari L. Berry and Lisa Vogel in the Heritage and general collections.
• Souvenir of Athens, Ga. by Albin Hajos in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Columns of Athens: Georgia's Classic City by William Columbus Davis in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 1964 - Jun. 16, 1964 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation website.
• Athens Historical Society website.

New Books in the Heritage Room

On this day, we'd like to tell you about more of the new books now available in the Heritage Room.

• Sketch Pedigrees of some of the Early Settlers in Jamaica by Noel B. Livingston (originally published in 1909)
• Genealogical Resources in English Repositories (1996 Supplement Update) by Joy Wade Moulton
• Strangers In Their Midst: The Free Black Population of Amherst County, Virginia (Revised Edition) by Sherrie S. McLeRoy and William R. McLeRoy
• North Carolina Slaves and Free Persons of Color: Stokes and Yadkin Counties by William L. Byrd III and John H. Smith
• North Carolina Slaves and Free Persons of Color: Burke, Lincoln, and Rowan Counties by William L. Byrd III and John H. Smith
• North Carolina Slaves and Free Persons of Color: Hyde and Beaufort Counties by William L. Byrd III and John H. Smith
• Abstract of Account Information of Freedman's Savings and Trust, New Orleans, Louisiana 1866-1869 by Linell L. Hardy
• North Carolina Slaves and Free Persons of Color: Mecklenburg, Gaston, and Union Counties by William L. Byrd III and John H. Smith
• In Full Force and Virtue: North Carolina Emancipation Records, 1713-1860 by William L. Byrd III
• The African American Collection: Kent County, Maryland by Jerry M. Hynson
• Greene County, Georgia, Heritage 1786-2009 by the Greene County Heritage Book Committee
  
• Freedmen and Colored Marriage Records, 1865-1890, Sumter County, Alabama by Gwendolyn Lynette Hester
• People of Color: Black Genealogical Records and Abstracts from Missouri Sources, Volume 2, by Teresa Blattner
• Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Marriage Licenses 1865-1888 by Jerry M. Hynson