Advocacy and education to promote the preservation of Atlanta’s architecturally, historically and culturally significant buildings, neighborhoods and landscapes.

The Atlanta Preservation Center, in partnership with Piedmont Park Conservancy and Oglethorpe University completed the restoration of the Sidney Lanier Monument in February 2012.

The classical monument to Sidney Lanier has been a part of Atlanta's Piedmont Park since 1914. It is meant to serve as a reminder of Georgia's celebrated native son and the American Renaissance, a time of increased national confidence. Years of vandalism and the removal of Lanier’s bust from the monument clouded this message. The 2012 restoration of this monument by the partnership of the Atlanta Preservation Center (APC), the Piedmont Park Conservancy and Oglethorpe University cleared the way for this important reminder and serve as an example of the importance of Atlanta’s public monuments. 

Lanier was born in Macon, Georgia in 1842. He graduated from Oglethorpe University in 1860. He served in the Civil War, where he contracted tuberculosis which eventually caused his death at age 39. Today, Lanier is remembered primarily as a poet for his beautiful poems such as “Song of the Chattahoochee” and “The Marshes of Glen.” He is credited by his alma mater for bridging Southern romantic literature and 20th-century realism.

Lanier was an accomplished musician and composer. He took to the flute at a young age and, after the War, played for sevens seasons as First with the Peabody Symphony in Baltimore, Maryland. He is also a noteworthy composer who created virtuoso works that frequently mimicked the sounds of nature. In addition to his contributions as poet, critic and musician, he taught and practiced law.

The Sidney Lanier Monument was erected by the Piedmont Park Association in 1914 with funds bequeathed to the Association by Mrs. Livingston Mims. Livingston Mims was the 37th Mayor of Atlanta. The monument was designed by Carrère & Hastings and the bust for its niche created by Edward C. Potter. This same cast list was in place for the creation of the New York Public Library and its “Library Lions.”

Mid-century, pinching of the bust from the monument became a prank of Atlanta’s college students. In 1985, after several adventures and increased vandalism of the monument, the bust was removed from the monument and taken to Oglethorpe University for safe keeping and to celebrate the University’s sesquicentennial.