Handed Down Memories

Hi Mr. Goodwin!

I received your book a few days ago. I apologize for not letting you know sooner but I have been busy. I was a history major in college and have been very interested in all history.
As for a family connection to the fire, not really, however my aunt, Pat Harper Parker, worked in a coffee shop somewhere around there and was on duty that night. She remembered serving coffee and cold drinks to not only workers fighting the fire and tending to the wounded but also onlookers. She brought my mother and uncle to see the aftermath several days after the fire.
I wish I could remember where she said she worked but as she died several years ago I can't ask her and my mother was only 12 and she doesn't remember where my aunt worked. She does remember going to see the ruins and remembers being affected because several people around her age died there.

Have you any information on the big Atlanta fire that happened around 1917 or so? I saw a reference to it somewhere but I have never seen a lot of info on it.
I really enjoyed your book and thanks!
Nikki

Dear Nikki,

Thanks for the kind words about our book. That's a very interesting story about your aunt Pat. Thanks for sharing it with me.
Hamburger Heaven was very near the Winecoff Hotel. That is where Alice Edmonds (the night maid) bought hamburgers and coffee shortly before the fire and brought them back to the third floor linen closet.

Yes, I am familiar with the 1917 fire. It started on Fort street and burned northward all the way to Ponce de Leon Ave. Homes along Ponce de Leon had to be dynamited to create a fire break. I have a family connection to that one.
My grandmother was an eyewitness to the Great Fire of 1917. She watched it from atop the Ponce de Leon Apartments (now The Ponce Condominiums) where she worked for more than sixty years. You can read the basic facts of that fire here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Atlanta_fire_of_1917

Best wishes and be safe, Allen