BY PHILLIP BELLURY In my first job out of college, writing feature stories for Real Estate Atlanta magazine, I learned about the highest and best use for a given property. In the early seventies, Atlanta’s suburban sprawl was in high gear, reaching outlying counties where raw acreage was used primarily for agricultural purposes. As real … Continue reading
Latest Entries
Camp Gordon’s North Atlanta History
BY DEE THOMPSON Did you know that DeKalb Peachtree Airport was formerly a naval air station, and before that, an Army training camp for young soldiers preparing to fight overseas during World War I? Camp Gordon was established in 1916 on 2,000 acres of farmland, which was owned by several individuals including Asa Candler [of … Continue reading
Successful Startups: Timing is Key
BY DEE THOMPSON Great ideas often become thriving businesses, but statistically speaking, more than 90% of startups fail within a few years. The reasons are many, but it is interesting to note that sometimes it is simply not the right time to introduce a new idea. Such was the case for J. Walter Becker, a Chicago-area Ford … Continue reading
From Shirtsleeves to Success
BY DEE THOMPSON The expression “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” is often used to describe the life of a family business. What that means is that family businesses often fail within three generations. It happens because successive generations are not interested in continuing the business, and/or taking too much money from the business, or sometimes they … Continue reading
Why Prunes Are Not Just For Grandpa Anymore
BY DEE THOMPSON My grandparents never came to our house without bringing prunes. The prunes were in a box, dried, like raisins, and could be eaten that way; but in the 1960’s when I was a kid, Papaw always fixed “stewed prunes.” They would cook after dinner while the dishes were being washed. Papaw always … Continue reading
We’re telling stories…
Since the early days when Neanderthals gathered around the campfire, humans have passed on stories. Bedtime stories lulled us to sleep. Adventure stories inspired us to be adventurous. Moral stories helped us to behave better. Stories enrich our lives and help us connect with each other in a way nothing else can. True stories of … Continue reading
Books / Publishing / Writing
New Year’s Resolution: Publish More Books
New Year’s Day, 2015. We may still be in holiday mode, but progress on our book projects continues. A client submits a new chapter… a spread in another client’s book is designed… a new blog is posted… and another couple of pages are written for another book. That’s the nature of what we do. Give … Continue reading
Books… are we still reading them?
With the stream of information from our computers uploading slower than the operating system inside our heads, how many of us still take time to read for pleasure or to learn more about a topic than you can find from a Wikipedia article? Is curling up with a novel or non-fiction book becoming passé, going … Continue reading
Why publish a history?
Commemorative coffee-table history books: Why talk about the past when you’re looking to the future? In 1930, as Americans were feeling the grip of economic depression, a candy manufacturer named W.E. (Bill) Brock had this to say: “There are plenty of people to do the possible; you can hire them for a small sum of … Continue reading
