A century after it went up at the corner of Marietta Street and Ted Turner Drive, the Glenn Building is marking its 100th birthday in downtown Atlanta. Completed in 1923, the Neoclassical Revival tower has spent the last stretch of its life as the Glenn Hotel, a 110-room property that opened in 2006 and is credited as downtown Atlanta's first boutique hotel.
The land under the building carries a longer story than the building itself. Before any tower stood there, the lot held the home of Major Hamilton Goode, and that house was among the handful of structures left standing after General Sherman's forces burned Atlanta during the March to the Sea. In 1888 the property changed hands to John Thomas Glenn, whose father, Luther Glenn, had served as mayor from 1858 to 1860.
John T. Glenn built a public career of his own. He practiced law, ran Atlanta Steel for years and held a seat on the Coca-Cola board. One year after buying the Marietta Street lot, he was elected mayor himself. It took more than three decades after that for the building bearing his name to rise on the site, with architect Waddy B. Wood drawing up the design.
Surviving to 100 was not a given. In 1986, historical preservationists stepped in and kept the Glenn Building from being torn down. Two decades later, in 2006, it returned to use as a hotel, with the interior rebuilt for guests while the original exterior was kept intact. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
Ownership shifted again in 2018, when Wm. Millard Choate, founder of Choate Construction and Packard Capital, bought the building and the hotel. A top-to-bottom renovation of the property wrapped up in 2022, and Legacy Ventures now handles day-to-day hotel operations along with the food and beverage side of the business.
Choate framed the anniversary as both a look back and a look ahead. In a press release, he tied the building to the pride and determination of the city that produced it and said Atlanta should celebrate its first true boutique hotel while looking toward what he called a renaissance over the next 100 years.
For anyone who has not been inside, the hotel holds two spots worth knowing about. Glenn's Kitchen is the hotel's well-reviewed restaurant, built around American comfort food with Southern touches, and SkyLounge is the rooftop venue up top.
The address, 110 Marietta St NW, puts the Glenn within easy reach of downtown's major event venues. State Farm Arena, Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Centennial Olympic Park are all nearby, a short trip from a building that has stood on that corner since the 1920s.
Original reporting by Libby Allnatt for What Now Atlanta.
