Venable Brothers

American quarrying business

Samuel Hoyt Venable

The Venable Brothers was a business venture formed by brothers William Hoyt Venable (1852-1905) and Samuel Hoyt Venable (1856-1939) in DeKalb County, Georgia.[1] The brothers owned rock quarries.[2] Sam Venable was involved in the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and in the creation of the Confederate memorial on Stone Mountain, Georgia.[2] He owned Stone Mountain, where a cross burning was held in 1915, and granted the Klan an easement to the mountain in 1923. The Venable brothers granted a 12-year lease to Stone Mountain for the carving of the Confederate memorial carving started by Gutzon Borglum.[1]

The State of Georgia purchased the Stone Mountain property in 1958.[2]

Granite from Stone Mountain was used for the steps to the U.S. Capitol Building, U.S. Treasury vaults, and Panama Canal locks.[3]

Stone Mountain itself, after several transfers of ownership, was quarried for its granite, which is now found also in the capitol building in Havana, among other places.[4]

## History

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The Venables bought Stone Mountain in 1887 for $48,000.[5] The brothers donated granite from Stone Mountain for a church on Peachtree and North Avenue in Atlanta.[6]

Sam Venable's home on the northeast corner of Ponce de Leon Avenue and Oakdale Road was bought in 1959 for $60,000 by St. John's Lutheran Church.[3]

## References

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1. ^ a b Carved in Stone: The History of Stone Mountain By David B. Freeman
2. ^ a b c Historic Dekalb County: An Illustrated History By Vivian Price page 49-51
3. ^ a b Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Avenue: A History By Sharon Foster Jones[permanent dead link]
4. ^ Larner, Jesse (2002). Mount Rushmore: An Icon Reconsidered. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books. p. 237\. ISBN 9781560254638.
5. ^ Walking Atlanta[permanent dead link] By Sara Hines Martin
6. ^ Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events, 1880s-1930s By Franklin M. Garrett