P i e d m o n t P a r k -- Timeline 1821 -- On January 8, the Creek Indians cede land that will later become the city of Atlanta; Fayette, Henry, Monroe, Houston, and Dooley counties will be created from this land. 1834 -- For $450, Samuel Walker purchases farmland, which later becomes Piedmont Park, from Elijah Pattey. 1835 -- Samuel and Sarah Oliver Walker erect a log cabin on what is now Piedmont Park’s Oval and establish a farm on Pattey’s land. Benjamin F. Walker, their son, is born on the new farm. Samuel builds a gristmill on Clear Creek near where the railroad bridge now crosses the creek. 1849 -- P. T. Barnum’s circus, including "Tipo Sultan" the largest elephant then in captivity, and sideshow freaks, entertain visitors at a fair on the present-day site of the park. 1887 -- The Gentlemen’s Driving Club (renamed the Piedmont Driving Club in 1895) organizes itself and purchases the Benjamin Walker home and 189.43 acres of farmland for $38,000. The land is to be used by wealthy Atlantans as an exclusive club and racing ground for harness racing enthusiasts. 1887-- The Piedmont Exposition Company enters into an agreement to hold expositions on the Driving Club’s new land. Designers are hired to design exhibition halls, a grandstand and racetrack, and an elaborate entrance and drives through the park. 1887 -- The name "Piedmont Park" is used for the first time in association with the Piedmont Exposition. 1887 -- The 1887 Piedmont Exposition, part state fair and part industrial exposition, attracts large crowds. The exposition features livestock shows, an art gallery, competitive games, examples of domestic arts, horse and bicycle races, balloon ascensions, and a visit by President Grover Cleveland. 1889 -- On February 20, the Piedmont Exposition Company uses proceeds from the Piedmont Exposition to purchase land from the Driving Club. 1892 -- On February 20, the University of Georgia Wildcats (with their billy-goat mascot) play Auburn University (then called Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama) on the infield of the racetrack. Auburn wins 10-0. 1894 -- On March 16 and 17, Frederick Law Olmsted, the country’s preeminent landscape architect, visits Atlanta and makes general recommendations on developing Piedmont Park for the Cotton States and International Exposition, but contract negotiations with him fall through and he withdraws from the project in May of that year. 1895 -- The Cotton States and International Exposition runs from September to December featuring six thousand exhibits and attracting eight hundred thousand visitors. Booker T. Washington made the principal address at the grand opening with his "Five Fingers" speech. Other attractions include electrically-powered boats, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, the Phoenix Wheel (a Ferris Wheel), and a midway. Projected motion pictures make their U.S. debut in an exhibit called Living Pictures. The process, called Phantoscope, projects film onto a screen, unlike Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope which limited viewing to one person at a time. After the exposition closes, Edison buys the rights to Phantoscope, renames the process Vitascope, and claims its invention. 1896 -- Atlanta’s first golf course (with seven holes) is built on the grounds of the park. 1902 to 1904 -- Atlanta Crackers plays the first professional baseball games in Atlanta on the park grounds. 1904 -- On May 23, the City of Atlanta agrees to purchase 185 acres from the Piedmont Exposition Company for a public park. When all the transactions were completed in 1907, the final outlay by the city was $93,000 1905 -- President Theodore Roosevelt speaks to a large gathering at the racetrack. 1909 to 1910 -- Mayor Robert F. Maddox turns land from a city fairground to a park. 1909 -- Olmsted Brothers are paid money due them from their work on Grant Park and contract with the city to create a preliminary redevelopment plan for Piedmont Park. 1909 to 1910 -- Olmsted Brothers successfully fight against plans to put an art museum and commercial attractions in the park. Against the Olmsteds’ advice, the city decides to keep the golf course in the plan and to hold a local design competition for a Bath House, rejecting the Olmsteds’ "design." 1911 -- A wooden bathhouse is built on the northwest edge of the lake to support a swimming area. 1911 -- On October 10, the Peace Monument, designed by Allen G. Newman, is dedicated. It is the oldest sculptural monument in the park and was donated by the Gate City Guard as a symbol of reconciliation between opposing forces in the Civil War. 1912 -- The Olmsted Brothers landscape plan is presented, but the city does not have the money to implement it. The plan did result in defining the present shape of Clara Meer, and in influencing the future development of the park, especially its walks, roads, and plantings. 1917 -- Portions of Atlanta city parks are dedicated to growing food for the war effort. Corn is planted in Piedmont Park to help meet an urgent need for food at burgeoning Ft. McPherson, an important World War I training base for commissioned officers. 1920 -- The Authors Grove is planted by the Atlanta Writers Club to honor forty-nine writers. Different organizations sponsors individual trees, including one planted by a kindergarten to honor Mother Goose. 1922 -- The McKinley Oak Tree is dedicated to commemorate President William F. McKinley’s 1898 visit to Atlanta to attend the Peace Jubilee, a celebration of the accomplishment of peace in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. 1925 --The Atlanta Woman’s Club plants the Mayor’s Memory Grove to honor the city’s mayors. Originally a tree was planted to honor ever mayor from 1848 to the present. Trees are no longer planted due to overcrowding, but modern mayors are listed on a monument after their election. 1925 -- Georgia Power Company creates a blueprint for lighting Piedmont Park. 1926 -- On December 15, a lumbermen’s fraternity dedicated a monument and grove to the Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo. The monument, south of the Park Street Bridge, originally was decorated with a black cat, a symbol of their order. 1935 -- On November 29, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stops to greet thousands of school children at the park on his way from Warm Springs, Georgia, to unveil a marker at Techwood Homes, the first federally subsidized housing project in the United States. 1936 -- The Women’s Chamber of Commerce presents its first Dogwood Festival, the longest-running continuous public celebration in the city in Piedmont Park. 1948 -- The Howell Street Elementary School dedicates a memorial honoring twenty-five former students who died in World War II. ca. 1950 -- Clara Meer ceases to function as the city ice rink. 1955 -- The Arts Festival of Atlanta moves to Piedmont Park, which had originated the previous year in the backyard of a house in Buckhead. 1962 -- All Atlanta parks, including Piedmont Park, are racially integrated. 1969 -- On May 11, the Allman Brothers Band performs the first of at least ten concerts they will play in Piedmont Park. 1976 -- Isamu Noguchi designs a playscape for the Park under the aegis of the High Museum and the National Endowment for the Arts. 1976 -- The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra begins offering concerts in the park. 1976 -- On May 13, Piedmont Park is officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places. 1976 -- The Atlanta Botanical Gardens incorporates and leases sixty-three acres of park land from the city, opening to the public in 1977. The lease includes fifteen acres of forest, the Storza Woods. 1978 -- The Piedmont Road Race, which began in 1969 with one hundred runners, starts the tradition of finishing the country’s largest 10K race in Piedmont Park. 1985 -- The Necklace of Trees, a fifty-foot circle of sixteen Bradford pear trees, is planted with the support of the Arts Festival of Atlanta. 1987 -- The Free Nelson Mandela Monument, a sculpture by David Hannons protesting the imprisonment of South African leader Nelson Mandela, is installed. When Mandela was later freed, the lock on the gate was removed and the gate opened to symbolize his release. 1988 -- The first Biennial National Black Arts Festival is held throughout Atlanta with Piedmont Park as a major outdoor venue. 1989 --The Piedmont Park Conservancy is formed to contribute to the renewal and preservation of the park as a vital, healthy greenspace and as a cultural and recreational resource to enhance the quality of life for all Atlantans. 1991 -- The first Annual Atlanta AIDS Walk, to raise public awareness and funding for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, begins and ends at the park. 1996 -- The 1910 Rest House on the west end of Clara Meer is restored as the Visitor Center and enhanced with a ceiling mural entitled "A Day in the Park" by local artist Ralph Gilbert. 1997 -- New steel gates, designed by Smith-Dalia Architects, are installed at the Fourteenth Street entrance. 1998 -- The Piedmont Park Conservancy restores the park’s deteriorated maintenance buildings and stables into multi-purpose classrooms, administrative offices, and a performance venue, conference site, and community gathering spot. 2002 -- The Piedmont Park Conservancy Community Center opens at the Twelfth Street entrance as home for educational and community programs. 2004 -- Piedmont Park celebrates it hundredth anniversary as a city park.