Some landmarks that were once part of the city no longer exist. You can read about them here. Some that are still around were deemed “overrated” by Travel & Leisure magazine.
But one in the metro Atlanta area is an overwhelming favorite with AJC readers this year.
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A landmark is an object or feature of a landscape or town that is easily seen and recognized from a distance, especially one that enables someone to establish their location.
This week’s Best of Atlanta poll asks: What is Atlanta’s best landmark?
In fifth place was Historic Oakland Cemetery. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Oakland Cemetery is the final resting place of 70,000 people and some of Atlanta's and Georgia's most famous names, including Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr.; golfer Bobby Jones; Atlanta's first African American mayor, Maynard Jackson; and "Gone With the Wind" author Margaret Mitchell.
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Fourth place went to the Big Chicken in Cobb County. The famed Big Chicken of Marietta is a landmark located at one of the area’s biggest intersections: Cobb Parkway (U.S. 41) and Roswell Road (Georgia 120). The 56-foot steel structure was designed by Hubert Puckett, a Georgia Tech architectural student, and erected in 1963 by Stanley R. “Tubby” Davis.
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The King Center finished in third place. The King Center is the official living memorial and non-profit organization committed to educating the world on the life, legacy, and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The center serves to inspire new generations to carry forward King's unfinished work, strengthen causes and empower change-makers.
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The second place finisher was built in 1928. The Varsity restaurant was opened by Frank Gordy "when North Avenue was a cobblestone street and Cobb County was covered in cotton farms."
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The overwhelming favorite for 2020, with a third of the votes, was Stone Mountain.
Stone Mountain’s website describes the landmark as “the largest high relief sculpture in the world, the Confederate Memorial Carving, depicts three Confederate figures of the Civil War, President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. ‘Stonewall’ Jackson. The entire carved surface measures three-acres, larger than a football field and Mount Rushmore.
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