Green B. Adair

Who was Green B. Adair?

Green Buren Adair was a prominent Atlanta cotton merchant who conducted business in Atlanta from the Civil War until the turn of the 20th century. Green B. was a cousin of George Washington Adair, another prominent real estate mogul in Atlanta.

Adair served in the Confederate Army including the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse. Adair settled in Atlanta in 1866 and entered the wholesale commission and fertilizer business together with his brother Augustus D. Adair, and in a few years became one of Atlanta’s most successful merchants. 1890 property tax records indicate that he owned $26,500 worth of property. He retired from active business in 1891, when his eldest son, Green B. Adair Jr., was still a toddler, but remained active in Atlanta charities and business affairs.

In the 1880s and 1890s he served on the Atlanta City Council. He was instrumental in building the Second Baptist Church, which was located at Washington and Mitchell streets, and later joined the Highland Park Baptist Church, which opened in 1908 on Highland Avenue at the northwest corner of Highland and Greenwood avenues.