{"nrhp_refnum":"78000985","name":"Southern Bell Telephone Company Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"51 Ivy St., NE","address_restricted":false,"city":"Atlanta","county":"Fulton County","state":"GA","lat":33.755745137000076,"lon":-84.38543093399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-12-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Communications"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A fourteen-story limestone-clad telephone company office and equipment building at 51 Ivy Street, N.E., in Atlanta, Georgia, built in 1929 to designs by the firm Marye, Alger and Vinour.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is the only good surviving Atlanta example of the modernistic style, with finely incised ornament and a pyramidal massing approach unique in the city. It was described in 1930 as one of Atlanta's first truly modernistic structures. Later additions and a rooftop equipment tower are acknowledged as intrusions, but the building is still called a downtown landmark.","narrative":"Rising fourteen stories at 51 Ivy Street, N.E., in Atlanta, this limestone-covered telephone company building was completed in 1929 to designs by Marye, Alger and Vinour. Its massive, block-like form has little surface articulation beyond window openings and shallow, often geometric ornament, most visible around a two-story arched entrance on Ivy Street with bronze double doors. The original building had six stories; additions in 1947, 1948 and 1963 brought it to its present height, still about half of the twenty-five-story pyramidal tower the architects first sketched. The nomination presents it as the only fully typical surviving Atlanta example of the modernistic style and the only surviving example of pyramidal building form in the city. A 1930 magazine writer called it a pioneer of the strictly modern manner, in contrast to the firm's ornate Shrine Mosque and Fox Theatre. Today it houses mainly electronic equipment, and a rooftop tower is noted as an intrusion.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Marye, Alger and Vinour","architectural_style":"Modernistic","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied, privately owned and altered; the upper floors and roof are now used mainly for telephone and electronic communications equipment.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:41.052104-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/78000985.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000985/cbf2751a2b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000985/cbf2751a2b-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Warren LeMay from Cincinnati, OH, United States","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Southern_Bell_Building,_Atlanta,_GA_(47474199781).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Warren LeMay from Cincinnati, OH, United States</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Southern_Bell_Building,_Atlanta,_GA_(47474199781).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93208340","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Bell_Telephone_Company_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7569670"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/fulton-county/southern-bell-telephone-company-building-78000985/"}