Downtown Flashback Feature

Atlanta Terra Cotta Company

Positioned along the railroad and surrounded by a thriving community, East Point became quite attractive to a variety of manufacturers and industries during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One such business was the Atlanta Terra Cotta Company, which built a plant in 1903 along the Atlanta & West Point Railroad where Tri-Cities Plaza sits today. According to an article in The At-lanta Constitution dated June 14, 1903, “…they have outgrown their present plant, in which sixty men are employed, and have found it necessary with the increased demands on their business to erect the present plant, in which 150 men, mostly skilled mechanics, will find steady employment.” Their terra cotta architectural elements were incorporated into numerous buildings in the early 20th century in the Atlanta area as well as nationally.

The company’s founder, Victor H. Kriegshaber, was born in 1859 in Louisville, Kentucky, to Prussian immigrants and came to Atlanta in 1889. According to the Atlanta Urban Design Commission website, Kriegshaber “…left his civil engineer’s position with the Central of Georgia Railway to become a contractor, [and] he was soon president of his own building material supply company…” as well as the Atlanta Terra Cotta Company. He was active in the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and was instrumental in the development of Lakewood for the Southeastern Fair in 1916. His house, built in 1900, still stands at 292 Moreland Avenue in Little Five Points and is on the National Register.

The Atlanta Terra Cotta Company shut its doors in 1943; yet examples of their work can still be seen today around the city of Atlanta. Most notable is the Eiseman building façade preserved in the Five Points MARTA Transit Station. This façade was created (and much of it hand-sculpted) by the Atlanta Terra Cotta Company in 1901 for the six-story Eiseman building located at 47 Whitehall Street in downtown Atlanta. According to a 1977 Atlanta Constitution article by Sharon Bailey, the building, which originally housed a haberdashery and clothing store, was demolished in order to make way for the MARTA station. — Marguerite Murray

Top Right: Eiseman façade in Five Points MARTA Transit Station. Middle: Home of Victor Krieg-shaber (292 Moreland Avenue) founder of the Atlanta Terra Cotta Company. Bottom Right: Employees of the Atlanta Terra Cotta Company located in East Point during first half of 20th century.

Sources: Pictorial History of East Point, Georgia, published by East Point Historical Society, Inc., 1982, reprinted 2004.; http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/sanborn/Year/EastPoint1911/, ― Sanborn® Fire Insurance Maps for Georgia Towns and Cities, 1884-1922‖ website.;―The Atlanta Terra Cotta Company’s Plant Now Being Built Near East Point, GA.‖, The Atlanta Constitution, Jun 14, 1903, p. 11.;Victor H. Kriegshaber House, http://www.atlantaga.gov/government/urbandesign_kriegshaberhouse.aspx, Atlanta Urban Design Commission website.;―MARTA Saves Sculpture For Transit Station Wall‖, Sharon Bailey, The Atlanta Constitution, Apr 8, 1977, http://jolomo.net/atlanta/eiseman.html; http://www.atlantatimemachine.com/downtown/eiseman.htm
http://www.scripophily.net/attercotcom.html

Be sure to visit the East Point Historical Society at 1685 Norman Berry Drive to learn more about our city’s history. Museum & Archives - Free Admission
- Thursdays 1 - 4 p.m., Saturdays 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
- Phone: 404-767-4656