Stone, shaped into stories
Zimbabwe: A Tradition in Stone brings Zimbabwean sculpture into the corridor between T and A. Slow down and look at the shapes from more than one angle.
Read while you wait
Before the runways, a racetrack
Before travelers hurried toward departure gates, spectators came to this ground to watch cars race. Atlanta’s airport grew from the site of the Atlanta Speedway, a two-mile track built in 1909 with Coca-Cola businessman Asa Candler’s backing.
The surprising part is the overlap: planes were landing in the track’s infield before Atlanta leased the property for an airfield in 1925. Flight did not arrive here all at once.
Keep reading: from racing crowds to airmail
A place built for spectacle
The opening race on November 9, 1909, offered the Coca-Cola Trophy. Asa Candler Jr., interested in both cars and aviation, led the association operating the speedway. Racing drew attention, but the venture fell short of his father’s expectations. Flying exhibitions offered another attraction; some visitors even paid for airplane rides.
The photograph makes those years tangible. Look at the exposed cockpit, the driver’s boots, and the spectators beyond the car. This is a surviving image from the speedway—not a reconstruction of what the airport might once have looked like.
A different purpose for the same ground
Mayor Walter A. Sims signed the five-year lease on April 16, 1925. The 287-acre site became Candler Field. Atlanta was committing to an airfield where aircraft had already found a landing place.
Alderman William B. Hartsfield helped secure money for the field’s role in airmail. That gives the early airport a different emphasis from today’s passenger journeys: carrying letters was part of making aviation useful to the city.
On September 15, 1926, Florida Airways brought mail into Candler Field on its Tampa–Jacksonville–Atlanta route. ATL’s official history calls this its first commercial flight; that does not mean it was the first airplane ever to land here.
While waiting for your own flight, picture that change of purpose: a place people visited to watch speed became a place that connected them to somewhere else.
Atlanta History Center: the people behind the airport · ATL’s official timeline
Five moments in the change
- 1909The Atlanta Speedway opens for racing.
- April 16, 1925Atlanta leases the former track for an airfield.
- September 15, 1926Florida Airways brings in the first commercial flight, carrying mail.
- May 1, 1928Pitcairn Aviation begins scheduled service.
- June 1930Delta begins service from Birmingham: a trial on June 12, made permanent June 18.
Timeline: Atlanta History Center (1909) and ATL’s official history (1925–1930). The 1909 track was separate from the later Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, which opened in 1960. Read that track’s history.