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Nearly 60 years after Georgia Tech students and their spouses moved in to the brand new Burge Apartments, the last tenants moved out.
The apartments, built to house married veterans attending or teaching at Georgia Tech, were shuttered June 15. The Department of Homeland Security is using the North Avenue structure neighboring the Alumni House for training exercises.
Tech Topics is looking for the stories of Burge's early days. Did you and your wife move in during the late '40s or early '50s? Did you play cards with other couples or host dinner parties? Let us know by e-mailing kimberly.linkwills@alumni.gatech.edu or by writing to Tech Topics, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313.
In April 1946 the Board of Regents solicited bids for construction of two dormitories and two apartment buildings, including the eight-story brick structure designed by Burge & Stevens Associates of Atlanta.
"Rents ranging from $40 to $80 will be charged for completely furnished one-room efficiency and two- and three-bedroom apartments," the Georgia Tech Alumnus said.
Later that year the Alumnus reported that the apartment building, slated to open in September 1947, had been named.
"The memory of the architect and designer of the first federal public housing project in the United States, the Techwood project in Atlanta, Flippen David Burge was perpetuated at his alma mater early in September when the approval of the Board of Regents gave his name to the new apartment building at North Avenue opposite the old campus. The F.D. Burge Apartments are part of the $4 million apartment and dormitory projects for veterans."
Burge's first name was his mother's maiden name. He graduated from Tech with an architecture degree in 1916 and served in the Navy during World War I before returning to Atlanta to launch "one of the three largest organizations of architects and engineers in the Southeast." Burge died April 22, 1946.
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