Thursday Things: Webs and Bees Edition
2 June 2022. Vol 4 No 22 By Dan McGirt. #147
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“Hi! I have nothing to do with anything in this edition of Thursday Things.” Photo by Madhu Rao on Unsplash
A Graceful Building’s Fall from Grace. I often pass this empty building on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta and wonder what it was and why it is seemingly abandoned. It seems to be a historic building and is certainly on what might be considered a prime piece of urban real estate. What’s the story?
Medical Arts Building, Atlanta, GA. Source: Thursday Things
I did a little online sleuthing and learned via History Atlanta that the Medical Arts Building, as it is called, does indeed have a story:
This handsome example of an early American skyscraper was opened February 16, 1927. It features tan brick, a limestone base and is topped with Beaux-Arts decorative features such as limestone pilasters.
It was a marvel in the medical world. The main attraction was the high-tech equipment offered by this medical facility. But the building also offered several noteworthy amenities. Attached was one of Atlanta’s first covered parking garages, while inside the building itself one could find a cafeteria, telegraph office, drugstore and the Junior League Tearoom (formally opened during a special sneak-peek ceremony on February 15, 1927) located on the mezzanine floor and operated by Junior League volunteers. It even had its own post office.
A promising start!
With 89,000 square feet dedicated to saving lives and curing diseases, the Medical Arts Center offered the best medical equipment available along with special medical events such as children’s clinics. Volunteer organizations, such as the Junior League and Lion’s Club, were quite active. And it remained a renowned medical facility throughout the 20th century.
You might say the Medical Arts Building was on top of the world. So you know what’s coming next. It all fell apart. How? What was this marvelous edifice's downfall?
Two words: Downtown Connector
For those Happy Subscribers familiar with Atlanta, I need say no more. For the rest, click over to History Atlanta’s page about the Medical Arts Building for the whole sad story.
Found on the Web. I recently discovered this online History of the Web timeline that charts the development of the World Wide Web (which is not synonymous with the Internet) from 1989 to present. I think I first got on the Web in 1995, so I remember some of the early developments — including companies, browsers, and webpages that have long since gone defunct. Or how big a deal it was with AOL bought Netscape or this new online bookstore called Amazon appeared. Take a stroll down online memory lane!
Bee Police! Today I learned that the NYPD has a Bee Unit. Are they called the Bee Team? They should be. What do they do? Apparently they work the Big Apple’s bee beat:
No buzz kill: 8,000 swarming honeybees rescued from World Trade Center
Police were called to a humming scene in lower Manhattan on Saturday night when a gang of bees took up residence on the side of a skyscraper.
“There was quite the buzz late last night at 3 World Trade Center as 8,000 honeybees swarmed the side of the building,” the NYPD tweeted on Sunday. “Thankfully, a quick response from @NYPDBees resulted in the safe capture of our flying friends who were relocated without incident to an apple orchard.”
Accompanying photos of the well-pollinated situation show what appears to be a portion of the 80-story structure’s first floor so densely covered in bees that the material beneath isn’t visible.
They even have a special bee vacuum to swoop up the swarming bees without harming them. Which is great, but how often does this happen in New York? Apparently, quite often:
Earlier this month, some 20,000 bees needed to be removed from a low-hanging tree branch in Queens, PIX11 reported. Also this month, a separate, 15,000-bee swarm needed to be dealt with elsewhere in the outer borough.
So, yes, often enough that the Bee Team is needed. They even have an official Twitter account, @NYPDBees, which I am now following because Bee Police!
Why there isn’t already a Law & Order: Bee Squad spinoff I don’t know.
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