George Adair

George Washington Adair (March 1, 1823 – September 29, 1899) was a real-estate developer in post Civil War Atlanta.

This article is about the real estate developer born in 1823. For the real estate developer born in 1874, see George W. Adair, Jr.
George W. Adair

Early life

Col George Washington Adair was born 1 Mar 1823, of Scots-Irish parentage in rural Morgan County, Georgia. His parents were John Fisher Adair (1785–1856) and Mary Radcliff "Polly" Slaven (1790–1835). His mother died in 1835;[1] his father sent him to Decatur to enter the employ of Green B. Butler as a store clerk. He married Mary Jane Perry (1832–1910) on 7 Jun 1854, in Newton County, Georgia.[2][3] Col George Washington Adair passed away 29 Sep 1899, in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, aged 76, and is buried in the Westview Cemetery there.[4]

There he met James Calhoun, William H. Dabney, Charles Murphy and Ephraim M. Poole, who supported him with the means to study at the Decatur Academy. After two years, he took up the study of law in Covington, Georgia, and two years later he was admitted to the bar.

To satisfy his debts, Adair took a position as a conductor on the Georgia Railroad, 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, 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 and merged the two keeping the name of the latter, assisted by J. Henly Smith.[5] 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 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. When the panic of 1873 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) 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 Stockbridge, Georgia. 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 in 1890 both of which he auctioneered.[6]

Personal life

Adair married Mary Jane Perry 7 Jun 1854, in Newton County, Georgia.[7][8][9] Adair died at the age of 76,[10] leaving his wife, and six children: Jack, Forrest, George, Sallie, Annie and Mary.

Adair was first cousin to Green B. Adair, another Atlanta real estate developer.

References
  1. "Mary Radcliff "Polly" Slaven Adair (1790-1835) -". Find a Grave.
  2. "Georgia, County Marriages, 1785-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KXVM-XB4 : 7 February 2020), George W. Adair and Mary Jane Perry, 7 Jun 1854; citing Marriage, Newton, Georgia, United States, Georgia Department of Archives and History, Morrow, FHL microfilm 325,729.
  3. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-8BZN-Y6N?cc=1927197&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AKXVM-XB4
  4. "Col George Washington Adair (1823-1899) - Find A". Find a Grave.
  5. "The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, January 31, 1890, Image 6". 31 January 1890. p. 6.
  6. "The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, March 14, 1898, Image 10". 14 March 1898. p. 10.
  7. County Marriage Records, 1828–1978. The Georgia Archives, Morrow, Georgia.
  8. Ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/5572:4766. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/4766/images/40951_294203-00276?usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&pId=5572
  10. "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVKZ-T4X4 : 6 August 2020), George Washington Adair, ; Burial, Atlanta, Fulton, Georgia, United States of America, Westview Cemetery; citing record ID 44291841, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
  • New Men, New Cities, New South: Atlanta, Nashville, Charleston, Mobile, 1860-1910 (1990), Don Doyle, University of North Carolina Press, p. 99
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