Smokey and the Bandit II blew up Atlanta’s most famous roller coaster 18/19
Jump to… 19 things you didn’t know about Atlanta’s past Swimmers and boaters once flocked to a six-acre lake in Grant Park Atlanta was founded on sprawl—and hospitality W.E.B. Du Bois wrote The Souls of Black Folk at Atlanta University Zoo Atlanta was founded with animals from a defunct circus There’s a hidden cave in Chastain Park Little Richard and James Brown cut their teeth at the Royal Peacock Atlanta’s first celeb chef was the mother of modern Southern cooking Rich’s downtown hosted annual fashion shows that drew the likes of Pucci and Hubert de Givenchy Atlanta’s first talk radio station launched national voices The country’s deadliest hotel fire prompted new national safety codes Atlanta once had its own “Berlin Wall” Atlanta had its own version of Haight-Ashbury In the 1970s Atlantans hit the ski slopes in Vinings The Sex Pistols made its American debut in a Piedmont Road shopping center Pleasant Peasant brought casual fine dining to Atlanta Eastside Atlanta neighborhoods were almost split by an interstate The Kinks, Willie Nelson, and ZZ Top left their handprints on Peachtree Road Smokey and the Bandit II blew up Atlanta’s most famous roller coaster CNN Center was once the site of the world’s largest indoor amusement park
1969: During the heyday at the Southeastern Fair at Lakewood Park. Photograph courtesy of the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center
Before Atlanta had major league sports teams or aquariums, families flocked to Lakewood Park for the Southeastern Fair, established in 1915 and styled after the successful Cotton States Exposition of 1895. The iconic Spanish Colonial pavilions hosted baking contests and prize-winning cows, while the adjoining Lakewood Speedway featured high-speed pursuits from horse racing to the nation’s first NASCAR series in 1951. A highlight from 1916 to 1974 was a wooden roller coaster called the Greyhound, but after attendance dwindled, the condemned coaster was spectacularly exploded in the final scene of the 1980 sequel to Smokey and the Bandit .
18/19
Jump to… 19 things you didn’t know about Atlanta’s past Swimmers and boaters once flocked to a six-acre lake in Grant Park Atlanta was founded on sprawl—and hospitality W.E.B. Du Bois wrote The Souls of Black Folk at Atlanta University Zoo Atlanta was founded with animals from a defunct circus There’s a hidden cave in Chastain Park Little Richard and James Brown cut their teeth at the Royal Peacock Atlanta’s first celeb chef was the mother of modern Southern cooking Rich’s downtown hosted annual fashion shows that drew the likes of Pucci and Hubert de Givenchy Atlanta’s first talk radio station launched national voices The country’s deadliest hotel fire prompted new national safety codes Atlanta once had its own “Berlin Wall” Atlanta had its own version of Haight-Ashbury In the 1970s Atlantans hit the ski slopes in Vinings The Sex Pistols made its American debut in a Piedmont Road shopping center Pleasant Peasant brought casual fine dining to Atlanta Eastside Atlanta neighborhoods were almost split by an interstate The Kinks, Willie Nelson, and ZZ Top left their handprints on Peachtree Road Smokey and the Bandit II blew up Atlanta’s most famous roller coaster CNN Center was once the site of the world’s largest indoor amusement park
