Centennial Olympic Park Fountain and Torches and other Atlanta, GA Things to Do Tips

Centennial Olympic Park was the location of much activity during the Olympics, and it still shows. The expanse of lawns, fountains in which children can play, and paved plaza are studded with Olympic torch like lamps and a bronze monument to the modern French founder of the Olympics. At one end of the park, near the CNN building, is a wonderful fountain that children can love. The spray is controlled by some kind of computer program to vary the pattern, volume, and type of spray coming from a flat concrete area. Thus, there is no fountain bowl where a child can drown. The fountain is surrounded by a broad array of concrete benches and is well supervised by police. Best of all this is free...a great place to take the kids on a hot Atlanta day.

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Phone: (404) 222-7275
Address: 265 Park Avenue West, Atlanta
Directions: Downtown Atlanta Under the CNN highrise building.
Website: http://www.centennialpark.com/

The brick and concrete paved areas are bordered by expanse of lawn areas where families can toss frizbee and appreciate the skyline of the city in the background. In the geographical center of centennial park is a bronze and stone monument to the modern founder of the Olympics.

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Phone: (404) 222-7275
Address: 265 Park Avenue West, Atlanta
Directions: Downtown Atlanta, See website for directions
Website: http://www.centennialpark.com/

World and Coca-Cola and the Atlanta Aquarium are at one end of the Centennial Olympic Park. At this end also is a children's play equipment area, and nearby is another monument. I arrived in the late afternoon and both the aquarium and World of Coca Cola were closed. Both appear to be definetly worthwhile to visit though. One Atlanta resident claimed the aquarium is the world's largest, but I've heard this claim before in other cities.

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Phone: (404) 222-7275
Address: 265 Park Avenue West, Atlanta
Directions: See website for directions
Website: http://www.centennialpark.com/

At this corner is are several modern highrises and a monument contributed by the Carnegie foundation. An Hindu Indian asked me to shoot his picture with this disposable roll film camera, and I asked him to shoot a picture of me.

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At 303 Peachtree is the Sun Trust Building and surrounding plazas that have considerable number of bronze statues and other metal sculpture. There is also some interesting landscaping and a fountain.

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Address: 303 Peachtree
Directions: A couple of blocks from Centennial Park in Downtown Atlanta

Here are some additional images of the art found around the Sun Trust building, but there are actually several more statues or outdoor art that I was unable to capture due to low light conditions.

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The 2nd oldest Catholic church in Atlanta is just down the street from the Sun Trust building on Peachtree Street. The red brick French Romanesque building was constructed beginning in 1897, but the parish boasts being more than 127 years old. See the tip on the Immaculate Conception Church for the 1st Atlanta Catholic church.

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Website: http://www.sacredheartatlanta.org/

Near the Sun Trust Plaza and across from Sacred Heart Catholic Church is the venerable United Methodist Church. This congregation has a stunning history behind it. The congregation dates back to 1845 at an interdenominational log cabin building at Peachtree, Pryor and Houston Streets. 1850, a wooden church was built on Peachtree Street, and a bell cast for it. However, the bell was too heavy for the building, so a separate tower was built for it. This wooden church is mentioned in Gone With The Wind. During the Civil War, all the other church bells in town were melted and recast into cannons, so this remains today the only pre-Civil War Church Bell. In 1870, a striking Gothic stone church with stained glass windows was built, and for many years this was a grand feature in the area. But, in 1902 the church was demolished, and the property on which it stood was sold to the Coca Cola company for construction of the Chandler Building, it's corporate headquarters at the time. This building was the first in Atlanta to have elevators. In 1903, foundations stones for the current Methodist Church at 360 Peachtree were layed, and eventually the cast bronze bell from the early wooden church reinstalled in this building and rings today.

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Address: 360 Peachtree Street
Directions: Near the Sun Trust Building, across from the Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Website: http://www.atlantafumc.net/

Continuing along Peachtree Street walk one finds the outstanding St. Luke's Episcopal Church, a church of stunning architecture and history. There's a historical marker sign that explains some of the post-civil war history of the congregation. The current building dates back to around 1905. The English Gothic structure has a number of stained glass windows from the earlier church building, as well as many more that have been added as late as the 1940's. The deep set back and landscaped lot are particularly impressive.

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Address: 435 Peachtree Street
Website: http://www.stlukesatlanta.org/

Not far from the Fox Theater, on the corner of Peachtree Street and North Avenue, is the North Avenue Presbyterian Church. It is built of the same Stone Mountain granite used in other great churches in town. In 1898, when the church congregation was started, this part of Peachtreet Street was considered part of the suburbs, an area of fine old homes, and thus represented a congretational split from the older Central Presbyterian, which stands across from the Georgia state capitol building. See the tip on Central Presbyterian, where Sherman once stayed.

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Directions: Corner of North Avenue and Peachtree Street
Website: http://www.napc.org/