fun with an old photo

My recent visit to Lakewood led me to find this picture. It's over the Atlanta Airport in 1953. Anybody notice anything interesting?

Good Lord. I just realized I messed up the title... it should be "an" not "and". I'll look even more illiterate than I am! Maybe I can get Don to fix it...

Look's like it's going to turn in to Silverstone to me

Originally posted by MPea3

Anybody notice anything interesting?

Erm, no, actually. :

Any clues?!

Twinny

Originally posted by Twin Window
Erm, no, actually. :

Any clues?!

Twinny

I'll just say that swintex is on the right path, but going the wrong direction. Keep looking... it's there.

Originally posted by Twin Window
Erm, no, actually. :

Any clues?!

Twinny

That's a relief! I thought it was just me!

Like swintex says, it bears a passing resemblance to the early Silverstone layout, but a lot of those WW2 airfields were built to the same pattern (more or less).

This is a race circuit in the process of becoming an airport? The Atlanta Motordrome was a two mile clay oval built by Asa G. Candler, the inventor of Coca-Cola, in 1909. The aim was to rival Indianapolis, and the first event was an immense success. However, by 1910 the gate receipts were too poor to support the track, and the final race was held on the 6th October of that year.
The track was unused for 19 years, with the infield being used as an airstrip. In 1927 the land was purchased by Atlanta for its municipal airport, which was known as Candler Field, later becoming Hartsfield International Airport. The final piece of banking was bulldozed in 1970.

Originally posted by Darren Galpin
This is a race circuit in the process of becoming an airport? The Atlanta Motordrome was a two mile clay oval built by Asa G. Candler, the inventor of Coca-Cola, in 1909. The aim was to rival Indianapolis, and the first event was an immense success. However, by 1910 the gate receipts were too poor to support the track, and the final race was held on the 6th October of that year.
The track was unused for 19 years, with the infield being used as an airstrip. In 1927 the land was purchased by Atlanta for its municipal airport, which was known as Candler Field, later becoming Hartsfield International Airport. The final piece of banking was bulldozed in 1970.

Bingo, that's it, it's the remains of the Atlanta Motordrome. The photograph was taken looking roughly northwest, and in the upper right area you can see a curved tree line and part of the banking. That part was lost during the construction of the terminal that opened about '60 or '61. On the left side of the photo you can see the remains of part of the banking for the opposite corner. This was the part which remained until construction of the present midfield terminal and new runways began in the 70's.

That's as may be. But there are no visible signs in the photo.

Edward.

It's there, but at the time of that photo having been in disuse for 40 years, it's not easy to see. I've taken a small crop from the photo on each corner to show where the earth banks are.



the north corner



the south corner

from the original photo at http://www.library.g...LBGPF6-036a.jpg

(Did I do this correctly from the copyright point of view?)

Darn! I very nearly mentioned the relics of the south corner, which do vaguely resemble a banked oval.

Edward.

Not long before this picture was taken, about 1952 -- right after my Dad came back from Korea and Japan, we lived for a short while in the area off to the upper right of this picture. Several years ago, before his death, Dad and I talked about when we lived in the Atlanta area and he mentioned that when we lived near the airport, you could still make out part of the old track that the airport was built over. I only have some hazy memories of when we lived in that house -- it was for only a short time -- but recall that we lived near a "race track" that wasn't Lakewood, which we did live near at one point. Somewhere, I have seen other photos which shows the old motordrome in a bit better detail with the airport on top of it.

Originally posted by Don Capps
Not long before this picture was taken, about 1952 -- right after my Dad came back from Korea and Japan, we lived for a short while in the area off to the upper right of this picture. Several years ago, before his death, Dad and I talked about when we lived in the Atlanta area and he mentioned that when we lived near the airport, you could still make out part of the old track that the airport was built over. I only have some hazy memories of when we lived in that house -- it was for only a short time -- but recall that we lived near a "race track" that wasn't Lakewood, which we did live near at one point. Somewhere, I have seen other photos which shows the old motordrome in a bit better detail with the airport on top of it.

You must have been in College Park or Hapeville, just north of the 1961 terminal. Do you remember Funtown, the amusement park on Stewart Avenue on the way to Lakewood? The sign was very noticable, especially to any kid, and stayed up and overlooking I-75 for many years until a combination of rust and kudzu did it in.

ok, that was random, but I can't help it sometimes.

The sign was very noticable...

Maybe it was replaced by the SO SO DEF records sign. That looks like a wild ride!

http://www.halfass.c...f_billboard.php

The pic shows a nice scale of how big the track was. And they are STILL building/extending the runways! My sharp eyes noticed the lack of smog, overbuilding, clear cutting and Delta. haha

At first I thought the runway number (in LL) was 25 - meaning the view was SW. It must say 05 (or 0-something).

Funny how a man of vision like Candler couldn't see NASCAR coming to big ovals (40 years later).;)

Originally posted by jondoe955
The sign was very noticable...

Maybe it was replaced by the SO SO DEF records sign. That looks like a wild ride!

http://www.halfass.c...f_billboard.php

The pic shows a nice scale of how big the track was. And they are STILL building/extending the runways! My sharp eyes noticed the lack of smog, overbuilding, clear cutting and Delta. haha

At first I thought the runway number (in LL) was 25 - meaning the view was SW. It must say 05 (or 0-something).

Funny how a man of vision like Candler couldn't see NASCAR coming to big ovals (40 years later).;)

SO SO DEF!!! That IS a great billboard!

Perhaps the legacy of Funtown is that it was whites only, just like many other places in Atlanta in the 50's and early 60's. I can barely remember going to the State Farmer's Market and asking why they had a cafeteria #1 and a cafeteria #2. Anyway, I once heard or read somewhere in an inverview with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that his initial exposure to segregation was crying all the way home after finding out from his father that they weren't allowed in Funtown.

It was College Park -- and I remember that most of the neighbors worked for Delta.

From ca. 1936, during the initial construction of Chandler Field.

http://www.libs.uga....wpa/wpaga70.jpg

Also notice in this photo from overhead with the new terminal (after 1961), the basically same layout with the 3 runways, and of course the urban sprawl. It's kind of shocking how close some of the houses are to the end of the east-west runway, kind of how I was shocked to see an overhead of Brands Hatch and see how close housing has gotten to that track. I'll never understand why people would buy a house right next to a race track OR airport, and then complain about it.

http://oldterminals....com/atl uc2.jpg