Sloppy Floyd

Out for a little exercise earlier this week, we took a stroll downtown, by the Georgia State Capitol Building. On the way, we spied the Capitol Building's shadow on the Sloppy Floyd.

James H. "Sloppy" Floyd State Building

Searching my usual architecture sources, I couldn't find the official name of this building, one of a pair of towers. One source called them the "Twin Towers" and another said that they're commonly known as the "Sloppy Floyd" by Atlantans.

I'm guessing that the official name is something more along the lines of the James H. "Sloppy" Floyd State Building or the James "Sloppy" Floyd Veteran Memorial Building—names from another two sources.

Well, with a name like "Sloppy" Floyd, of course I was curious who the guy was—a guy who has a 561 acre State Park named for him! The Park is in Northwest Georgia and is now on my list of places to visit.

James "Sloppy" Floyd Veteran Memorial Building

Sloppy is not an easy man to find. I did discover that he was a Democrat who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1953 to 1974, and that he's from Georgia.

A 2011 article in Atlanta Magazine says of Sloppy, "When Sloppy died, the New York Times described him as 'one of the most powerful and colorful members of the Georgia Legislature.' Reading extensive news accounts of that era, I've learned that 'colorful' is newspaper shorthand for eccentric..." 

Colorful or not, the building that bears his name wears a Capitol shadow quite gorgeously.