Robert Fulton Hotel - Cone Street

The Robert Fulton Hotel, was designed by Atlanta architect Emil Charles Seiz, who was also responsible for the Rufus M. Rose house at 537 Peachtree Street. The Robert Fulton Hotel, with fifteen stories and 300 rooms, opened in 1924. The Robert Fulton Hotel stood at the corner of Luckie and Cone streets in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Google map

According to Wayne W. Daniel, author of the 1990 volume Pickin' On Peachtree: A History Of Country Music In Atlanta, Georgia, the legendary Jimmy Rodgers (America's Blue Yodeler) stayed in this hotel in 1928 and 1929, when he was in town to make some recordings for the Victor label. During his November 1929 stay, the Carter Family (Sarah, A. P. and Maybelle) was also in town to make some recordings for the Victor label and they too stayed here.

Among the songs Rodgers recorded here in Atlanta is Waiting For A Train, perhaps his best known tune. A few decades later, Rodgers would be an influence on artists like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and especially Merle Haggard.

In 1940, Blind Willie McTell, the famed blues artist from Thomson, Georgia (and the man for whom the blues club Blind Willie's is named) recorded several songs in the Robert Fulton Hotel when he visited the room of Library Of Congress archivist Alan Lomax and his wife Ruby. More details on that story can be found in a 2009 Creative Loafing article.

Here is a postcard showing the former Robert Fulton Hotel in the early 1960s, after it had changed its name to the Georgia Hotel. The building was demolished in 1971 and a parking deck now occupies this spot.

In the foreground (right) is the parking deck that now occupies the spot where the Robert Fulton Hotel stood. Photo: 01/18/10