Max Corput

Max Corput

Atlanta's 1871 Union Station

DeGive Opera House building toward the end of its life, doing business as the Bijou Theater

Max Corput, also documented as Maximilien or Maxwell Van Den Corput (1825, Belgium - January 16, 1911, Atlanta), was the architect of Atlanta, Georgia's second Union Station, built in 1871 in Second Empire style.^[1]

"Van Den" (Dutch: "from the") is very common in Belgian surnames, and references to Corput regarding the Civil War often include it as part of his last name. However later references to him including one in the Atlanta Constitution omit the "Van Den", suggesting that he later went simply by "Corput".^[2]

Corput was Belgian American, one of a group of Belgians who emigrated to the Rome, Georgia area after the incorporation of Belgium into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which caused dissatisfaction among the French-speaking Belgian elite.^[3][4] The Cherokee Indians had recently been dispossessed of Northwest Georgia. Corput was said to hail from Cave Spring, Georgia.

During the Civil War, Corput was attested as a third lieutenant (1861)^[5] then captain (1864) in the Confederate Army. He led the Floyd County four-gun Cherokee Artillery battery at the Battle of Resaca.^[6][7][8]

After the war Corput settled in Atlanta and founded the architectural firm of Van Den Corput and Fay.^[9]

Corput died on January 16, 1911 in Atlanta and was buried in Oakland Cemetery there.^[9][10]. He was survived by his wife Marie, who was 24 years younger and died in 1920.^[11]

Buildings designed

• Georgia Railroad Freight Depot (1869), oldest building in Downtown Atlanta
• DeGive's Opera House (1870-1921)
• Atlanta's second Union Station (1871-1930)
• Second Clayton County courthouse in Jonesboro, Georgia, replacing the one destroyed in the Civil War.^[12]

References

1. ^ Wilber W. Caldwell, The courthouse and the depot: the architecture of hope in an age of despair, p.279
2. ^ "Major Corput", Atlanta Constitution, April 23, 1869
3. ^ George Magruder Battey, A History of Rome and Floyd County, pp.355-6
4. ^ Bernice Couey Bishop, "Belgian Nobility was Transplanted to Rome", Rome News Tribune, June 29, 1997
5. ^ George Magruder Battey, A History of Rome and Floyd County, p.365
6. ^ "May 15", Friends of Battle of Resaca
7. ^ "Battle of Resaca", New Georgia Encyclopedia
8. ^ "Resaca... now is time", Rome News-Tribune, January 12, 2007, p.3
9. ^ ^{a b} "Major Van Den Corput is Buried Monday", Atlanta Georgian and News, Jan. 16, 1911
10. ^ Find A Grave
11. ^ Obituary, Atlanta Constitution, October 23, 1920
12. ^ Wilber W. Caldwell, The courthouse and the depot: the architecture of hope in an age of despair, p.104

• "Major Corput", Atlanta Constitution, April 23, 1869
• Jim Cox, Rails Across Dixie: A History of Passenger Trains in the American South, p.327

Persondata
Name	Corput, Max
Alternative names	Corput, Max Van Den; Corput, Maximilien Van Den; Corput, Maxwell Van Den; Van Den Corput, Max; Van Den Corput, Maximilien; Van Den Corput, Maxwell
Short description	Belgian-American architect and Confederate Army captain
Date of birth	1825
Place of birth	Belgium
Date of death	1911
Place of death	Atlanta, Georgia