Club Times - June 2021

Atlanta Athletic Club

drew the most attention. Invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone was introduced to the AAC before many private homes in Atlanta had them. On December 4, 1902, Southern Bell installed a “special line metallic circuit” telephone station for a charge of five dollars per month. A year later, a second line was added; that same year, Western Union installed a telegraph line. By 1919, the membership had once again exceeded the club’s facilities, and the executive committee purchased from the Atlanta Theater Company property bounded by Carnegie Way, Cone Street, and Williams Street (then James Street). In 1924, the AAC purchased the Lyric Theater building for $275,000, remodeled it, and added a façade to the front. The ten-story building measured 140,000 square feet and included athletic facilities, exercise rooms, and forty-five guest rooms. The members loved the downtown club for its convenience and its modern facilities. It had the largest dining room of any country club in America, boasting a $20,000 kitchen. The main dining room featured chandeliers that were imported from Czechoslovakia by the Capitol Electric Company. In 1927, the AAC hosted twelve hundred diners, the largest seated indoor dinner given in Atlanta at that time, for a convention of Coca-Cola bottlers.

• Organized: August 15, 1898 • Incorporated: September 5, 1898 • Town Club: 56 Edgewood Avenue Opened April 15, 1899 • Town Club: 37-39 Auburn Avenue Opened November 27, 1902 • East Lake Country Club • Course opened July 4, 1908 • Clubhouse opened May 8, 1915 • Town Club 166 Carnegie Way Opened June 15, 1926 • Yacht Club Lake Lanier Opened July 4, 1958 • Atlanta Athletic Club 1930 Bobby Jones Drive Opened May 27, 1967

Crystal Dining Room