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<\/a>\nNo one is more of a Buckhead encyclopedia than Sam Massell. At 86 years old, the Buckhead Coalition president and former Atlanta mayor has seen our community through good and bad. Today, he remains at her side at the cusp of her coming-out ceremony\u2014the anticipated opening of the Buckhead Atlanta project. Here, the man often referred to as the \u201chonorary mayor of Buckhead\u201d talks about his favorite landmarks and the future of his beloved neighborhood.
\nWhen did you move to Buckhead?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve only been in Buckhead 61 years, but I\u2019ve been in Atlanta all my life. I moved here when I got married in 1952.
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\nWhere in Buckhead do you live?<\/strong>
\nI live on Peachtree and my office is on Peachtree and if I could find a burial plot I\u2019d stay here forever, on Peachtree. \u00a0It\u2019s the address of choice.
\nWhat\u2019s your favorite place to take out-of-towners in Buckhead?<\/strong>
\nIt depends on the profile of the visitor. If they like the outdoors and parks, we have the largest park in the city in Chastain and we have the second largest in Memorial Park. The Atlanta History Center is probably the jewel as far as a brick and mortar establishment and taking people there you can spend a full day very easily. If the person is from the academic world, I wouldn\u2019t think twice before wanting to show them the Atlanta International School because it\u2019s so unusual. I picked a few places just to show the diversification, but if it\u2019s the younger set they are going to want to see LEGOLAND because that is a big operation with a full day of entertainment for children.
\nWhat is something about Buckhead\u00a0that most people don\u2019t know?<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>The Buckhead Coalition publishes an annual\u00a0guidebook in which we list a number of parts\u00a0of Buckhead\u2019s history that they wouldn\u2019t\u00a0necessarily know. For instance, the historical\u00a0cemeteries we have that date back to slave\u00a0days and are hidden away in various pockets,\u00a0from two graves in one [cemetery] to almost\u00a01,000 graves in another. There are a number\u00a0of interesting places. There is a building on\u00a0Roswell Road called the Cotton Exchange, a\u00a0little office building of three or four stories.\u00a0In its beginning it was the home where the\u00a0Ku Klux Klan made hoods for their members\u00a0to hide behind, so it\u2019s taken quite a change\u00a0now, being right in the heart of Buckhead.
\nWhat are some of the biggest changes\u00a0you\u2019ve witnessed in Buckhead?<\/strong>
\nI think you have to mention the skyline of Buckhead, for which I give developer Charlie Ackerman the most credit because he built Tower Place 100, the 29-story glass building that has the green neon on it at night. It happened that I was mayor at the time he broke ground on it and he asked me then, did I think anybody would be able to top this. The anecdote is that I now have my office in this building. I look out my window and of course everyone has topped it in all directions. The Sovereign building, which is right in front of us, is 50 stories tall, so it gives you an idea of how Buckhead has grown.
\nTalking about growth, the big project on the horizon is Buckhead Atlanta. What impact do you think it will have on the community?<\/strong>
\nWe are very proud to see that come out of the ground and replace the problem area that had evolved from too many nightclubs operating in an uncontrolled manner that had brought fear and filth to our community, which fortunately is behind us. Equally important, of course, is what it has brought in its place, which is a major destination of mixed-use, commercial and residential occupancy \u2026 It\u2019ll be a destination where people will come for the day. It won\u2019t be impulse buying. It will be where you come to eat and shop and have lunch and be entertained and stay for the evening, in fact. That adds to what we already have with Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square owned by Simon Properties, which in the case of Lenox has undertaken a major facelift \u2026 So we really have three retail destinations and it\u2019s very clear that Buckhead today is the shopping mecca of the Southeast. We\u2019ll never go back to the days of yore, when shopping was done in the central downtown. Downtown has government, downtown has the sports facilities, but Buckhead has the retailing. My wife doesn\u2019t have to go to New York anymore to find the labels she likes; they are right here in Buckhead.
\nWith Buckhead Atlanta beginning to open\u00a0in July, how will it feel for you to see that\u00a0project finally come to fruition?<\/strong>
\nThat is going to be a very happy day. The interesting part is the way the community has wrapped their arms around it in ownership. They took great interest in Ben Carter\u2019s original plan, in the demolition of the deteriorated clubs that had occupied the site and the unique innovation that he was proposing of a fancy retail center. Then it became a hole in\u00a0the ground that stayed there for longer than\u00a0we want to count. The public got really upset.\u00a0They would say, \u201cWhy aren\u2019t we doing something\u00a0with this?\u201d They would fuss at me, \u201cWhy\u00a0is it sitting there?\u201d Of course the developer,\u00a0OliverMcMillan, bought it and wanted to build.\u00a0But they had to get money and they can\u2019t get\u00a0money until they get the tenants, and they\u00a0can\u2019t get the tenants until they overcome the\u00a0history of the place that had failed, so it was a\u00a0long effort on their part. They did it diligently\u00a0and professionally and now they have it going\u00a0full speed ahead, with as many as 800 employees\u00a0there on a given day building and planning\u00a0and pushing forward this new destination. It\u00a0will be a happy day indeed when it opens.
\nWhat do you enjoy most about being\u00a0the honorary mayor of Buckhead?<\/strong>
\nI enjoy Kasim Reed letting me carry that label. When I spoke at his inauguration just a couple of months ago and named him the deputy mayor of Buckhead, he joked and thanked me for giving him that title. It\u2019s give-and-take, I guess.
\nWith this being our Buckhead Landmarks issue,\u00a0tell us, what is your favorite local landmark?<\/strong>
\nI favor the Triangle Park at Peachtree, Roswell, Sardis Way and Paces Ferry for several reasons. It\u2019s a five points of Buckhead. Atlanta has a five points downtown, where the city started, and it has another five points in the neighborhood east of downtown, and there is one in Buckhead that is very prominent. I have another reason that it\u2019s the focal point of
\ninterest to me. When I was mayor of Atlanta, Mr. Woodruff of Coca-Cola fame anonymously gave me $3 million with which to acquire that triangle and demolish the buildings that were there for this postage-stamp park. Another reason for my interest is that it\u2019s the mythical center of Buckhead\u2019s foundation, where a hunter killed a deer and hung its head as a trophy at about that location in front of what was called Irby\u2019s Tavern. The Irby family owned all the land around the area and it was in fact called Irbyville on the map. People started saying, \u201cI\u2019ll meet you at the buck\u2019s head,\u201d and that is how our community became known as Buckhead. It\u2019s the most popular place, in my opinion, in this community.
\nWhere is that iconic buck\u2019s head that was\u00a0hung on Irby\u2019s Tavern? I heard a rumor that\u00a0it\u2019s buried under your house. Is that true?<\/strong>
\n[Chuckle] I don\u2019t know if I can admit or deny that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sam Massell |Buckhead Coalition President & Former Atlanta Mayor By H.M. Cauley | Photo by Sara Hanna No one is more of a Buckhead encyclopedia than Sam Massell. At 86 years old, the Buckhead Coalition president and former Atlanta mayor has seen our community through good and bad. Today, he remains at her side at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"yoast_head":"\n