Venable Brothers

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]

Samuel Hoyt Venable

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

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]