The Atlanta History Files...A group for history and great memories Lisa Land Cooper - Author and Historian · · Atlanta once had some impressive homes along West Peachtree Street, and this one belonged to a man whose business helped make the city an industrial center. This was the home of Edward Van Winkle, photographed around 1890. Van Winkle was born in New Jersey in 1841 and came to Atlanta in 1870, bringing with him experience in the manufacture of cotton machinery. He soon established his own business, producing cotton gins, presses and other machinery used by the South’s rapidly developing cotton industry. By 1889, Van Winkle had opened an extensive new factory complex along what is now Foster Street in northwest Atlanta. Served by three railroad lines and eventually containing more than fifteen buildings, the E. Van Winkle Gin and Machine Works became one of the largest cotton-related industrial complexes in the South. His machinery won awards at expositions and fairs, and a later account of his career credited his company with helping stimulate cotton manufacturing in the region. Meanwhile, Van Winkle lived in this imposing red-brick Victorian home on West Peachtree. The old photograph gives us a glimpse of just how residential this part of Midtown once was—trees, fences and large houses where office towers stand today. Van Winkle continued living here until his death in 1923. The house eventually disappeared. A Trust Company bank building, constructed in 1949, later occupied the northwest corner of West Peachtree and Third. That building was demolished in 2019, and the site is now occupied by the modern office tower at 712 West Peachtree. But there is a wonderful twist to the story: although Van Winkle’s house is gone, much of his old factory complex survives. Today we know it as the historic complex associated with the Goat Farm—meaning one of Atlanta’s most recognizable old industrial properties began with the man who lived in this West Peachtree mansion