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Atlanta's Most Historic Church Atlanta was founded in 1837 and was first called "Terminus" because it was the end of the railroad line. A large number of the railroad workers were Irish Catholics and a wooden church was built in 1848, the Church of The Immaculate Conception, with Father Thomas O'Reilly as it's pastor. Father O'Reilly was a Confederate Chaplain and he persuaded General William Tecumseh Sherman to spare his church and that of his neighbors. Legend has it that Father O'Reilly told Sherman, "If you burn the Catholic Church, all Catholic's in the ranks of the Union Army will mutiny". The present Shrine was rebuilt after a fire in 1982 and is open for tours.
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Directions:
48 Martin Luther King, Jr.
Drive, SW
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