0711 Page – Leo Frank Georgia Supreme Court Appeals Records, 1913, 1914
The National Pencil Company operated in the Venable Building at 37–41 South Forsyth Street in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1908 to 1916. This long, brick and wood-frame masonry through-lot was situated in downtown Atlanta between what is now known as MLK Jr. Drive. The street façade of the building was characterized by the heavy Romanesque Revival style, featuring rusticated granite stone, deep round arches at the ground level, and stacked window bays above. The building's footprint was a narrow rectangle that extended far back from the sidewalk to a dead-end service alley in the rear, creating a deep plan that included an earthen basement and four working floors. A freight elevator near the front connected the basement, first, and second stories, while a central stair rose along the east side near the front. The interior spaces were timber-framed with wood floors, and machine rooms and finishing benches were arranged in long rows. Roof vents protruded through a flat, tar-and-gravel roof.
The property evolved alongside Atlanta's transition from carriages to automobiles. In the 1890s, Sanborn fire-insurance maps labeled the block as Venable's Stables, which included harness and carriage shops, and a livery sale and feed hall. This explains the wide ground-floor arches and long wagon aisles. Around the turn of the century, a short-lived Venable Hotel name appeared in newspaper captions, reflecting a period of mixed commercial uses. By 1908, the premises were adapted for pencil manufacturing, with receiving and shipping at street level, a machine and finishing floor above, and storage and power services in the basement. Contemporary newspaper cutaways and the 1913 floor plans illustrate the elevator shaft, the sawdust chute to the basement, and the locations of the office suites, including the superintendent's office on the second floor overlooking South Forsyth.
Period photographs and a colorized oblique view capture a painted wall sign reading "National Pencil Co. Manufacturers," along with a huge S.S.S. tonic billboard (an iron drink treatment for anemia from the era) mounted on the southeast elevation, which dominated the block's skyline. After the National Pencil Company left in 1916, the building continued to serve industrial and commercial purposes. As part of mid-century urban renewal, the older Venable block was cleared during the 1950s, and the original structure was demolished, leaving only maps, plans, and photographs to document its form.
Today, the block is occupied by the Sam Nunn building, a colossal brutalist design that looks like something out of the dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell.