Lemuel Grant - Early Career

Early Career

Born in Frankfort, Maine, he came south in the 1840s to work on the Georgia Railroad where he started as a laborer. By 1844 he was buying large tracts of Atlanta real estate, mainly in the Third Ward.

He and John T. Grant worked for Augusta, Georgia-based Fannin, Grant & Co, which contracted to build all or parts of the Georgia, the Central, the Macon & Western, the Western & Atlantic and the Atlanta & West Point Railroads. Soon after he worked under engineer J. Edgar Thomson as a rod man assisting in surveying where he worked closely then with a man who would become a lifelong friend and business associate, Richard Peters. As rod men, their two Massachusetts-born apprentices also had big futures: Sidney Root and Joseph Winship. After completion of the Georgia in 1845, Grant became its Chief Engineer and in March 1849, he began location surveys for the northern terminus of the Atlanta & West Point. This ended up in what is now Atlanta's East Point neighborhood and served as the junction between the A&WP and the Macon & Western Railroads. Two of LP's grandsons Laurel and Bryan, Sr. were successful real estate brokers and developers.

In 1843 Grant invested in land in what is now southeast Atlanta, paying from $.75 to $2 an acre, and built his home in the center of his 600+ acres. He donated 108 acres (44 ha) east and southeast of his mansion to the city for a park that would be open and available free of charge to residents of any race, creed or color. His family then developed the surrounding neighborhoods, as evidenced by street signs named after family and friends of the family (Bryan Street, Grant Street, Loomis Street, Broyles Street, etc.). Lake Abama, where the zoo food court now exists below the panda exhibit, would have been witness to a crowd of bathers of any race, racial segregation not descending upon Atlanta until a decade or two later. During this idyllic period of relative stability of racial tension, Grant opened a trolley line between downtown and the park.

Technically, ZooAtlanta has been in violation of the condition of the gift for many years, given that they charge admission to services offered within the park. Why they have not adopted a revenue collection model similar to the St. Louis Zoo remains a question. The surviving family, having been interviewed about this legal wrinkle, expressed no active intention of pursuing the matter but did express a strong disappointment in this state of affairs.