Green B. Adair

Green B. Adair

Green Buren Adair (October 1840 Talladega County, Alabama - April 20, 1914, Atlanta)[1] was a prominent Atlanta cotton merchant who conducted business in Atlanta from the Civil War until the turn of the 20th century. Green B. was a cousin of George Washington Adair, another prominent real estate mogul in Atlanta.[2]

Adair served in the Confederate Army including the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse. Adair settled in Atlanta in 1866 and entered the wholesale commission and fertilizer business together with his brother Augustus D. Adair (1835–1922), and in a few years became one of Atlanta’s most successful merchants. 1890 property tax records indicate that he owned $26,500 worth of property.[3] He retired from active business in 1891, when his eldest son, Green B. Adair Jr. (b. 1887 d. 1968), was still a toddler, but remained active in Atlanta charities and business affairs.[4]

In the 1880s and 1890s he served on the Atlanta City Council.[5] He was instrumental in building the Second Baptist Church,[4] which was located at Washington and Mitchell streets,[6] and later joined the Highland Park Baptist Church,[4] which opened in 1908 on Highland Avenue at the northwest corner of Highland and Greenwood avenues.[7]

The Adairs lived on fashionable Washington Street as of 1891,[8] but in 1892 Adair acquired 16 acres (6.5 ha) of land for $17,000 at the southwest corner of Highland and Virginia avenues in what is today Virginia-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta. The land was in the country at the time, but easily accessed by the new Nine-Mile Circle streetcar line. Adair had a summer house built on the site, which was completed in 1895. In 1911 the family moved in permanently.[9] The Adair Mansion remains a landmark and is divided into apartments. (It is now located on Rupley Avenue as bungalows were built on the land between the mansion and the Virginia-Highland intersection.)

He died on April 20, 1914, of a paralytic stroke.[4] His obituary described him as "one of Atlanta’s most beloved citizens," known for his acts of charity and in the business world as a man of sterling character, energetic and progressive."[10] He was buried in Oakland Cemetery.[4]

Green B. Adair was also the name of a comedy act from the 1920s.[11]

References

  1. ↑ 1900 United States Federal Census Record, Georgia, Fulton, Atlanta Ward 2, District 49, p.25
  2. ↑ Linda Merrill, "History of Virginia Highland"
  3. ↑ Georgia 1890 Property Tax Digests Record for Green B. Adair
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "Green B. Adair dies of paralytic stroke", Atlanta Constitution, April 21, 1914, p.5
  5. ↑ Engineering News record, vol. 39, 1886
  6. ↑ "VIS 170.379.001 Second Baptist Church", Atlanta History Center
  7. ↑ Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events, 1880s-1930s, Franklin M. Garrett, p.647
  8. ↑ Reference to residence on Washington Street in "News of Society", Atlanta Constitution, 30-Sep-1891, p.3
  9. ↑ Linda Merrill, History of Virginia Highland, p.4
  10. ↑ "G.B. Adair's funeral takes place today", '"Atlanta Constitution, April 22, 1914, p.5
  11. ↑ "Green B. Adair: Lucy Buys Insurance" at the Internet Archive