Walter McElreath was an Atlanta-based attorney, banking executive, legislator, and the founding president of the Atlanta Historical Society (today the Atlanta History Center). McElreath played a significant role in the city’s cultural and business life throughout the first half of the twentieth century.
Early Life & Politics
Walter McElreath was born to William A. McElreath and Matilda Jane McEachern on July 17, 1867, in Cobb County. He worked on his father’s farm throughout his youth, attending school seasonally and participating in local debate societies. McElreath taught for several years at schools in Cherokee County and Cobb County before enrolling at Washington & Lee University, where he would study until 1892. He then returned to Cobb County and resumed teaching. During this period, he also studied law with R.N. Holland, gaining admission to the Georgia bar in late 1894.
In 1895 McElreath moved to Atlanta and began practicing law; he married his first wife, Bessie Anderson, the following year and after her death wed Mildred Dickey in 1938. He became a director of the Southern Industrial Aid Society—which would later become the Life Insurance Company of Georgia—in 1897 and served as its chief counsel until his death. McElreath built a strong reputation across the state as a civil practitioner before winning an election in 1908 to become one of Fulton County’s representatives to the Georgia General Assembly. He served two terms as a Democrat in the Georgia House of Representatives, becoming chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee before losing his reelection bid in 1912. That same year he published A Treatise on the Constitution of Georgia, which traced the evolution of Georgia’s state constitution from the colony’s Charter of 1732 to the post-Reconstruction Constitution of 1877.
Business Career
In addition to practicing law, McElreath worked to establish local savings and capital institutions in Georgia. In 1928 McElreath and nine friends formed the Atlanta Building and Loan Association, a small membership-based “building society” that allowed members to obtain capital for real estate improvements without relying on northern-based firms.
McElreath became president of the small group in 1931 and guided it through the Great Depression, even as other similar banking organizations folded. It emerged from the 1930s as the Atlanta Federal Savings and Loan Association with strong reserves that enabled it to profit handsomely from war bonds during World War II (1941-1945). He left the presidency in 1950 to become the bank’s executive chairman but died soon after taking his new post. His obituary in the Atlanta Constitution, which ran on December 7, 1951, identified him as “one of the leaders responsible for the business growth of Atlanta” and credited him for “keeping local capital 'at home’ in Georgia.”
Philanthropy & Legacy
McElreath was a dedicated member of Atlanta’s civic society and a prominent advocate for the arts and humanities. He served as the chair of the board of stewards at Grace Methodist Episcopal Church for more than a decade and was a trustee of the Atlanta Art Association (today the High Museum of Art). His most ardent passion though, as evidenced by the massive bequest made in his will, was for local history and the Atlanta Historical Society.
Along with thirteen of Atlanta’s other prominent citizens, McElreath founded the Atlanta Historical Society (now the Atlanta History Center) in 1926. As the society’s first president, he oversaw its early development, helping the organization purchase a home in 1946 to house its growing offices and collections. When he died in 1951, McElreath left nearly his entire estate—including approximately $5,000,000 in Life Insurance Company of Georgia stock—to the society.
Today the Atlanta History Center stands as McElreath’s most durable legacy. After his death, the organization used the funds from his estate to purchase the Edward Inman property where today stands a large museum building; a research center, known as McElreath Hall; Inman’s mansion, the Swan House; as well as other historic structures and gardens.
