AGL Resources history

Duncan issued bonds and completed massive repairs that culminated on September 15, 1866, when the gas plant went back into service.

In 1877 brick manufacturer and construction executive Thomas G. Healey became gas company president.

In 1884 the Gate City Company erected the Gate City Gas Works and began advertising for customers, claiming its "water gas" was better than Atlanta Gas Light's "coal gas." Healey in turn slashed rates and appealed to Atlantans' loyalty.

In 1887 Atlanta, which had profited greatly from its one-third ownership of the company, sold its shares to raise funds for the Georgia Institute of Technology.

On April 13, 1889, the United Gas Improvement Company (UGI), which months previously had bought the Gate City Gas Works, announced it had gained control of Atlanta Gas Light.

Not until the anthracite coal strike of 1902, when coal could not be bought at any price, did large numbers of customers switch to gas cookstoves, which eventually became a bigger business than gas lighting had ever been.

In mid-1903, after the great switch-over, the company had 122 miles of mains, 11,000 customers, and an average daily send-out of 1.6 million cubic feet.

GR&E president Preston Arkwright became the de facto head of Atlanta Gas Light and in 1904, W. L. Cosgrove was named company president.

In 1912, he and his associates reorganized their Georgia holdings to better exploit their capital-raising potential.

In 1927, Georgia Power separated from the merger and took AGL with it.

Southern's plan might have bankrupted Atlanta Gas Light; however, Pierce went to Atlanta and successfully gained the natural gas franchise on March 29, 1929.

In January 1935, W. W. Winter, a Central Public Service vice-president, became president of Atlanta Gas Light.

Finally, on November 1, 1947, after 58 years of holding company control, Atlanta Gas Light once again became an independent, investor-owned utility.

Demand continued to increase, and in 1957 Tabor built a new peak-shaving facility in rural Riverdale.

In February 1960 Tabor was succeeded by Duncan A. Crawford, a longtime Atlanta Gas Light vice-president and former employee of Stone & Webster, a consulting firm which the company often relied on for management expertise.

Despite these measures, the supply situation was far from remedied in February 1976, when Joe T. LaBoon succeeded Lee as president.

Following the complete deregulation of natural gas prices at the wellhead in 1985, the company's customers enjoyed a lengthy decline in gas prices.

Despite the regulatory agreement, which helped to even out receipts in unseasonably warm winters such as that of 1988-89, profits at Atlanta Gas Light lagged.