Tennessee Pryors

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA)

15 August 1910

LAND WORTH MILLIONS NOW SOLD FOR $41, MAY 3, 1832

A lot fronting 49 1/2 feet on Whitehall street, with 181 6-10 feet on Brotherton Street, has just changed hands, the consideration being $23,500

The lot is a small fraction of land lot 77 in the Fourteenth district of Henry county, now Fulton county, the same parcel of ground in which are located the old union depot, the Kimball House, the Atlanta National Bank Building, the Fourth National Bank, the Peters building, the Temple Court building, the Kiser building, the Fulton county courthouse, the state capitol, the St. Philip’s Cathedral, the Fulton county jail, police headquarters, the Gould building, the Inman building and the Constitution building.

LAND LOT SHOWN MANY CHANGES.

Land lot 77, either as a whole or parts of it has shown many changes since its metes and bounds were first traced by a civil engineer.  It was back in the early years of 1800 a surveyor made for record the first lines indicating the old land lot which has since figured in the land history of Henry, then De Kalb, and then Fulton county.

The original land lot had for its northern boundary line a straight shoot from a point in Edgewood avenue,  in an alley in rear of the Equitable building.  The line on the north ran directly west through the Western and Atlantic yards to Elliot street, where it turned at right angles to the south and ran straight south to Fair street, where it right-angled east to Capitol avenue, whence it ran north to point of beginning in the alley behind the Equitable building.

In the early part of 1800 the state of Georgia acquired from the Creek nation of Indians many thousands acres of land in what is now recorded as the counties of Dooly, Houston, Monroe, Fayette and Henry counties.  Subsequently an act of the state legislature authorized the governor of the state to convey in fee simple any parts of the land in the section of the country indicated to residents for homes and improvement.  In 1821, May 15, George M. Troup, then governor of the state, did “give and grand unto Benjamin Beckman, of Putnam county, his heirs and assigns forever in fee simple” the land lot indicated, then located in Henry county, and recorded as land lot 77 of the Fourteenth district of Henry county, containing 203 1/2 acres.  In the deed the land lot is fully described and its description conforms fully with the plat here shown.

SOLD FOR $41.

On May 7, 1832, Benjamin Beckman sold the full land lot to Samuel Mitchell, of Henry county, $41 being the consideration.  In the meantime DeKalb county was laid  out and after Samuel Mitchell bought it the county courthouse in Decatur was destroyed by fire and among the records burned were Samuel Mitchell’s deeds.  Mitchell was then a resident of Pike county, and through the inferior court of that county he had his title in the full land lot set up.

In 1845 Samuel Mitchell had the full land lot divided into blocks and city lots, the surveying being done by Allen W. Pryor, a civil engineer. As the surveyor was dividing the land lot into blocks Samuel Mitchell gave the railroads entering the city a right-of-way through it and deeded to the state of Georgia the city lots on which the present union station is located for depot purposes.   That portion of the old land lot given for depot purposes consisted of four city lots, each to be 210 feet square.  Before dying Mitchell sold many of the city lots.

Shortly after the death of Mitchell, Allen E. Johnson set up a claim to the property, asserting that Mitchell had never had any title to the land lot recorded as land lot 77 in Henry county, Johnson then secured letters of administration on the estate of Benjamin Beckman, to whom the state gave the original land, and from whom Samuel Mitchell claimed title.  The letters of administration were granted in Putnam county, and from the inferior court of the county, Johnson, as administrator of the Beckman estate, was given the right to sell land lot 77 as a part of the estate of Benjamin Beckman.  The Mitchell heirs fought the order of sale in DeKalb courts and the legal controversy was adjusted when Johnson, administrator of the Beckman estate, passed, by deed the title to Jane Mitchell, administratrix of Samuel Mitchell, the consideration being $500.

SOLD TO DOONIN.

In 1849 the Mitchell estate, by Jane L. Mitchell, administratix, deeded city lots 1, 2 and 4, in block 29, in land lot 77 to Terrance Doonin, from whom it came to Jane Sullivan for $3,660.  In 1862 the title to the city lot, fronting Whitehall street 150 feet and a fraction was in Willis P. Chisholm and his wife, M. B. Chisholm by whom it was transferred to the late W. H. Brotherton.  In 1856 the lot was sold at public sale by John H. Jones, administrator of Mrs. Emilie C. Caldwell, to Aaron Haas, the frontage then being 49 feet and a fraction for $3,475.  In 1891 it went from Aaron Haas to Solomon Haas and Isaac G. Haas for $14,000.  In 1908 Isaac G. Haas sold the lot to J. J. and J. W. Mangham of Griffin, for $16,000.  Last week Charles S. Robinson, of Atlanta, well-known furniture dealer, bought the lot from J.J. and J. W. Mangham for $23,000.

Mr. Robinson is at present holding the property and may later improve it.  On the lot there is a brick store and a residence.