Atlanta's Parks and Monuments

Since the city's beginnings after the War of 1812, Atlanta has had a tradition of building with a regard for becoming a world-class metropolis. Before being burned by Union general William T. Sherman in 1864, the city's appearance was described by noted European architect and urban planner Leon Krier as "looking like London in the 18th century." Atlanta was surrounded by estates and plantations, and many of the plantation builders were influenced by Greek and Roman architecture. The argument of slavery to the contrary, builders saw Greek temples as symbols of democracy and, as a result, embraced Greek and Roman revival architecture as the dominant national style. Great monuments followed in this tradition to the letter in the capital of the South.

Atlanta fifth-generation son Rodney Mims Cook Jr. has grown up with Atlanta history, as his family has stewarded the city since arriving in the 1820s. At 14, he helped initiate the “Save the Fox Theatre” movement. He is president of the National Monuments Foundation, whose images are showcased within these pages, a founding trustee of the Prince of Wales’s Foundation for Architecture, and the builder of the Prince of Wales’s Monument to the Centennial Olympic Games and the Millennium Gate Arch.