Carnegie Education Pavilion Hydrant

Hi, I am the Carnegie Arch Hydrant, everyone just calls me Archie. Gosh, my history was pretty dull until some bright spark decided to demolish the Carnegie Central Library in 1977. The library was Margaret Mitchell's favorite haunt, she wouldn't have been happy. She spent a great deal of time roaming amongst the shelves finding material for that novel of hers (Frank Hydrant can tell you more about Peggy Mitchell). The Carnagie was built in 1902 and was one of the first public libraries in the United States, but it must have passed its used by date, because they tore it down. But I am not complaining, no way, thanks to them I have a better view now. The bright spark who came up with the idea of building a pavillion from the ruble was Henru Jova, in 1996. He must have been suffering from Triumphal Arch envy. But whatever, he turned the bits and pieces of the libary facade into this beauty. They say it is in honor of higher education, which must be why they have names of well known philosophers and authors carved into the structure. Rumor has it all of Atlanta's college and university seals are embedded in the floor of the pavillion, but I can see nothing from here, I just take people's word for it.

The Arch is in the Hardy Ivy park which was named after the first European dude to settle here, before it became known as Atlanta. He built a log cabin, where the Marriott Marquis hotel now stands (on the corner of Courtland and Ellis Street), before he fell off his horse and died in 1842. Man, little did he know some 100 years later he would have a park named after himself. I bet the Todd family feel ripped, they settled some ten years earlier than the Ivy's but they were just outside the original Atlanta city limits. Unlucky, no park for them, but they did get a road named after them for a while. It was the oldest known road in Atlanta, called Todd Road, but only a small section remains today, which is now called Old Todd Road (still ain't no park!).

The Hardy Ivy park use to be a scary place where the homeless use to hang, but today all I see are tourists. There is a statue of Samuel Spencer behind the arch, he was some rich railway dude who owned the Southern Railway. He had a pretty ironic demise. Got himself killed by a train. Bet he wishes he didn't park his car on a siding to get a bit of shut eye.

If I could do just one thing in the world it would be to look over my shoulder, because right behind me are a pair of naked dancing lady statues. Man, you know how many hydrants would kill to be in front of them! Sometimes life sucks, but to make matters worse, I keep winning the "Unluckiest Hydrant in Atlanta" award because of it. The statues were placed there, in front of the SunTrust building, in 1992. The naked prima's are based on the 3ft originals by famous American sculptor Paul Manship. Lucky Lloyd hydrant has the honor of staring at them all day, can't wipe the smile off his plug!