Atlanta, Georgia was an exciting place
to be during the planning stages of the 1996 Olympics.
So much construction went on around town,
it was hard to keep up with it all.
While removing masonry remnants
of an early 19th Century building,
crews uncovered thousands
of pre-civil war era marbles
from an old cistern
located in what remained
of the building's basement.
After researching the location,
they found that the building had been a
marble factory from 1820-1837.
They are solid marble
with a porcelain coat.
Handmade from marble chunks,
they were dropped down a brick column resembling a shot tower.
The action of rolling and bouncing
against the sides of the tower
shaped them into rough symmetrical spheres.
They were covered in kaolin clay,
painted,and then some
were glazed, then fired.
No two are alike.
Some have a glazed sheen
and many have a flat finish.
The green and cobalt blue
marbles are the rarest!
The green and cobalt blue
marbles are the rarest!
In fact, variation is part of their charm.
Remaining marble stock
was stored in the basement
of the building after the business closed.
The building was burned
just before Christmas, 1864
by Sherman's troops
immediately following the battle of Atlanta,
during the Civil War.
A series of other buildings were
later erected over the basement and foundation
where the marbles were stored.
And stayed there ~
until they were discovered in 1995,
by a Mr. J. Kirkland of Harriman, Tennessee,
during Olympic construction
and sold to Georgians and tourists during
the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.