Q: A portion of Georgia 400 is named Turner McDonald Highway. Who is this? I can’t find an explanation on any website.
—James Kelley, Sandy Springs
A: Georgia 400 might not exist if not for McDonald. That's a good thing or bad thing, depending on how much traffic you sit in every day. McDonald was the director of the Fulton County Public Works Department during a critical time of Atlanta's development. New roads and highways were being planned all over the city faster than non-rush-hour traffic, and McDonald was in the middle of it from 1947 until his retirement in 1980. He was integral to the planning and early stages of construction of 400 – it also was called the Appalachian Developmental Highway or North Fulton Expressway — in the 1950s. McDonald was honored for his work when the Georgia General Assembly named a portion of the road – from I-285 to the Fulton County line — for him in January 1974. McDonald, according to published reports, attended a dedication of a 9.8-mile segment of Georgia 400 from Union Hill Road in Alpharetta to S.R. 20, just south of Cumming on Dec. 23, 1974.
Q: How old is Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta?
A: Booker T. Washington High School holds a monumental place in Atlanta history. The school, which was named for the famous black educator who died nine years before it opened in 1924, was the first black public secondary school in the city, and the only one until 1947. Atlanta architect Eugene C. Wachendorff designed the huge, four-story building, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and renovated in 1988. The building, which the city says "incorporates an eclectic mixture of medieval and Byzantine elements," has been enlarged several times through the years, and stands "almost like a medieval cathedral in its setting," just west of downtown, near the Atlanta University Center. Appropriately, Martin Luther King Jr. Drive goes past the campus, a road named for the school's most famous former student.
If you’re new in town or have questions about this special place we call home, ask us! E-mail Andy Johnston at q&a@ajc.com or call 404-222-2002.
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