This "panorama" is similar to the one seen on the home page, but consists of five photographs depicting the vantage of a viewer who is standing closer to the bottom of Whitehall, nearer the Railroad Gulch, so that the buildings on the west side of Whitehall are unseen to his left, leaving him an unobstructed view of Five Points.

I have filled in some of the sky and ground with artificial colors to enhance the illusion that this is a panoramic view. However, the total effect is spoiled somewhat by the flat focal perspective of the individual photos. Although the rooflines match and fit together, objects closer to the viewer are quite distorted. For example, there was only one small shed in the middle of the Railroad Gulch and that was basically located in front of the white bank building at the corner of north Whitehall (Peachtree Street did not then begin until past Marietta Street).

The locator map at right shows the view, while the smaller version of the panorama shows the constituent photos used to make up this panorama. Below are highly annotated versions of each of these photographs in which I discuss what each show in detail. This will be the pattern I will follow in each of the six views of downtown.

The first picture that makes up this "panorama" shows some of the most prominent buildings, but focuses on the Atlanta Intelligencer printing office. Beside it and to the left, is what I believe to be the James Banking House, which extended further up Whitehall Street to the northeast corner of Alabama Street.The bank as well as the building were named for John H. James, a broker and dealer in gold. If this is Mr James' building, then it - like all the other commercial buildings in Atlanta - housed a number of other businesses, some of which were in direct competition with one another.

Inset A shows a partial sign of one such business. I have made a guess as to what the rest of the sign says and recreated it, as shown. The Intelligencer offices were themselves located over M. Wittgenstein(?)'s wine and liquor store, only a few doors away from the beer establishment in the suspected James building. The reporters and editors of the Intelligencer must have been well-fortified for their work.

On the left corner of the Intelligencer Building is a set of posters that I discuss at length in the Mystery Section of this presentation. The posters are similar to others seen throyghout Barnard's photos and relate to an interesting series of events that took place just before most of these buildings were destroyed.

Inset B shows a building with the sign "Empire House" on its pediment, as I discovered through Photoshop enhancement that made out the letters spelling out the name arcing over the door.. The Empire House Hotel, however, was on Whitehall Street. This is a mystery, and it is discussed in the Mystery Section.

Between the :"Empire House" and the railroad was the Atlanta City Park, one of the few areas of greenery to be found downtown. In this picture the park is entirely filled by small huts built by the Federal troops who had, by the the time the photo was taken, been occupying the city for more than two months.

When he took this photo, Barnard was still in the middle of Whitehall, but now he has shifted his camera somewhat to the left to focus more on the Atlanta Hotel. Inset A shows that the building was originally entirely brick, with the name of the hotel painted across the front. Sometime later the entire front of the building was covered over with plaster or mortar. The original front of the building was revealed when part of that covering fell away, possibly due to air-burst artillery fire or lack of maintenance.

Inset B shows a ladder reaching from the portico of the Hotel to the roof and I am curious as to why it is there. Many buildings in the city were occupied by officers either as offices or homes. Perhaps some officer has requested the roof be repaired? Speculation is welcomed.

Inset C clearly shows at least three pieces of fire equipment loaded onto a flat car connected to two box cars, loaded with soldiers. These are pieces of Atlanta Fire Department property, and I will discuss them in greater detail in the "Mysteries" section.

Picture V1-2 also shows the Atlanta Insurance and Banking Co., the upper floor of which had been vacated by Col. M.H. Wright, in charge of ordinance, troops and defenses for the Confederate States Army Commissary Department.

Also seen in this picture is the 100-room, three-story Trout House, which was the city's largest hotel before it was turned into a hospital. Beside it, also on Decatur Street, is the Masonic Hall building. The Masons shared their space with several other concerns, among them Brown and Fleming & Co., commission merchants, which had its own entrance in the building.

One often hears stories about this or that building being spared

by Sherman's soldiers because it was owned by a Mason or had some Masonic connection. If such stories are true - and they are so common one has to believe they are not - it certainly was not the case for this prominent building. It and other buildings in the central part of the city went up in flames.
This photo technically belongs to another "faux panorama," that seen in View 2; but one element of it - the front of the Georgia Rail Road Bank Building (center) - was needed to complete this first panorama. Because the details in View 2 are so complicated, however, some of those shown in this photo can be discussed now.

The view is taken from the top of the upward sloping Whitehall Street, looking down into Five Points. The intersection of Alabama is immediately behind this camera positon.

Inset A shows two mystery buildings. They are not shown in Wilbur Kurtz' famous painting of downtown Atlanta in 1864, although Kurtz clearly used Barnard's photos as reference. The brick building on the left has a sign for a "J.A. Bale," but no reference to him or his business has been found. To the right is a masonry building with a cupola. I have been unable to find the name of this building, but I believe it may have been known as the Woodruff Building. One advertisement in the Intelligencer states that the Anderson and Johnson wholesale grocers and commission merchants (which before 1864 was called Anderson, Adair & Co.) was in the Woodruff building and was located at the rear of the Ga. RR Bank; another ad for the Anderston store said it was opposite the Ga. RR Bank.

Inset B shows a plank board fence separating the Ga. RR Bank building and the suspect Woodruff Building. Mounted on the fence are a set of at least two posters, as shown in Inset C. The poster on the left is similar in design to the poster seen in Photo V1-2 The poster is also similar to the two posted on the side and front of the Ga. RR Bank Building, seen in Inset D. These posters are discussed in the "Mysteries" section of this presentation. The other poster seen in Inset C appears to be a different type. While the others seem to be handwritten, this poster is apparently typeset, with text running in two columns. Could this be sets of orders or announcements printed by the Army for the benefit of soldiers or the remaining civilians inside Atalnta? Again, speculation is welcome.

The board fence seen in Inset C is also a curious thing. It appears to fence off an area behind the Ga. RR. Bank Building and there is a wood shelter built along the side of the suspect Woodruff Building. Could this be either a stable lot, or, unfortunately, a slave yard? Several slave auctioners were located on Whitehall.

Inset E is a sign posted on a structural column of Tomlinson and Barnes' tinsmithing shop and oriented so that it faces a pedestrian walking down the west side of Whitehall. It advertises ice and a bar to anyone who would "turn" in the direction of a pointed hand -apparently down an alley to the left. There is an ice-making business behind Tomlinson and Barnes (as seen in photo X-XX). And there are at least two candidate saloons for this location: an establishment known as the Alhambra, or another called Muhlenbrink's, the latter being the name of the owner of the block of buildings running up the west side of Whitehall.
This is the view one would see standing in the center of Whitehall Street, with The Atlanta Intelligencer building on their right and Tomlinson and Barnes on their left, looking north into Five Points. There are many details to be discussed here and the rest are annotated in Picture V1-5.

Hunnicutt Drug Store stood at the intersection of Whitehall and Decatur street. This was also the point where Whitehall became Peachtree. Inset A shows the first building on east Peachtree, which housed (among other businesses) Dimick, Joyce & Co, a seller of boots and shoes, as demonstrated by the giant boot in front. Hunnicutt Drug store used to advertise that it was located at "the sign of the Golden Eagle," for a large gilded eagle which was mounted on a pole on the sidewalk. However, it appears that by this time in Atlanta's occupation the eagle has taken flight.

Inset B shows the signage that ran along the front of a row of buildings on the opposite side of what was then Line Street, now Edgewood. The only readable sign is for "L.B. Davis," who was a dealer in cloth, such as linen sheets. However, I believe ths row of businesses was known as "Winship's Iron Front Building" based on descriptions of its location. If anyone knows the real facts, please let me know.

Inset C shows the signage for the Smith and Ezzard Drug Store, located in the bottom floor of the National Hotel or the Dougherty Building, but more usually called the "Concert Hall" for the sign painted near the top of its rounded front corner. This signage - along with that of the other store fronts seen - is better shown in photo V1-5.

This is essentially the same view as Photo VI-4, except that the angle has been changed somewhat more toward the "Concert Hall." It was also shot on a different day (the wagon train is gone.) revealing more details about the western side of the street. Some of these details are even more evident in Picture VX-X.

Inset A is upside down. It is a photo of a window looking out of Nedom L. Angier's insurance agency in the "Concert Hall" building. For some reason, the sign in the window has been turned upside down; I have turned it right side up so it can be read. Mr. Angier was a known Union sympathizer who allowed a group of other pro-Unionists to meet in this very office before the occupation. Could the upside-down sign be a signal to Union troops not to disturb his property? If so, it didn't work - the Concert Hall was burned by Sherman's forces.

Inset B shows a sign labeling the building attached to the "Concert Hall" as a "printing establishment" about which we shall have more to say. Inset C shows two buildings which stood in the angle of Five Points between Peachtree and Marietta streets: Judson's marble yard, where sample tombstones are visible; and Hunnicutt & Buice grocers.

Inset D shows scorch marks on the surviving part of a store front which stood to the right of the "Printing Establishment." This presumably would be for Norcross' store, which should be at this corner - but is not. In fact, other pictures show ruins where the Norcross store should stand ( Pictures V4-1a------------ ). Although many of the buildings seen in this photo were damaged by artillery shells and subsequent fire, I have seen no reference to Norcross' building being actually destroyed.

Inset E shows the pump for the artesian well which once stood in the center of Five Points.The well proved inadequate in terms of water quality and quantity, but was still probably useful for firefighting.

Inset F shows the real estate offices of V.A. Gaskill and (Marcus?) Bell, located in the ground floor of the "Concert Hall."

Inset G shows two signs for a newspaper office. The title of the newspaper is on the sign but not legible. Could this be the vacated offices of the Memphis Appeal, which had refugeed to Atlanta and taken

offices near the Intelligencer building? A copy of the newspaper, printed in Atlanta, stated that it was on Whitehall, between Decatur Street and the RR.

Inset H shows the sign for the Mechanics Savings Bank, which, like other banks, issued its own currency possibly printed within the "Printing Establishment." The sign next to it is tantalizingly legible but I cannot make it out.

Finally, this picture shows two of the posters we have been talking about, one on the A.C. Wyly wholesale grocers building (known also as the Cherokee Block and the office of the Confederate Military Storekeeper) and a partial one on the front of the Georgia RR Bank Building. These posters are discussed at length in the Mysteries Section.