{"nrhp_refnum":"00001329","name":"Western Electric Company Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"820 Ralph McGill Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Atlanta","county":"Fulton County","state":"GA","lat":33.769828578000045,"lon":-84.36092931499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-11-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Commerce"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story Streamline Moderne manufacturing, office and warehouse building at 820 Ralph McGill Boulevard in northwest Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, built 1939-1941 for the Western Electric Company and designed by in-house architect Walter R. Kattelle.","why_significant":"The building is argued to be an excellent example of the Streamline Moderne style in Atlanta, a style the form describes as relatively rare in Georgia. It is also tied to Atlanta's growth as the regional headquarters of the Bell System and Southern Bell, and to the communications industry in the city.","narrative":"Completed in 1941 at 820 Ralph McGill Boulevard in Atlanta, this former Western Electric Company facility combines a four-story manufacturing and office block, a central stair tower and a one-story warehouse and garage wing. Architect Walter R. Kattelle, who worked in-house for the company, used a reinforced-concrete frame with mushroom-shaped columns, blonde brick and glass curtain walls, and bands of metal ribbon windows. The tower holds the stainless steel entrance and glass-block walls. A concrete-block warehouse addition followed in 1950. The building is considered an excellent local example of the Streamline Moderne style, which the form notes is uncommon among Georgia's surveyed properties. It also reflects Atlanta's role as regional headquarters for Southern Bell, for which Western Electric supplied telephone equipment, repair service and light manufacturing. The company left the site in 1975, and the building now contains loft apartments that keep original columns, concrete floors, windows and tiled stair tower finishes.","period_of_significance":"1939-1950","architect_builder":"Architect: Walter R. Kattelle","architectural_style":"MODERN MOVEMENT/Moderne/Streamlined Moderne","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Converted to loft apartments; the main building has 18 lofts per floor in the four-story section and 8 in the one-story section, retaining historic interior features.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:43.158967-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/00001329.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00001329/3a0dea7d7d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00001329/3a0dea7d7d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Keizers","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western_Electric_Company_Building_atlanta.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Keizers</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western_Electric_Company_Building_atlanta.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93208396","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_Factory_Lofts","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7696469"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/fulton-county/western-electric-company-building-00001329/"}