Jacobs Pharmacy Company Barbeque at the Burns Club, 1919

An avid reader of poetry, Joseph Jacobs founded a club in honor of Scottish national poet Robert Burns (1759-96). The Atlanta Burns Club, as it was called, held its first meeting on Burns’ birthday, January 25, in 1896, the centenary of his death. Eventually, Jacobs purchased a tract of land in Atlanta and erected a replica of the cottage in which Burns was born in Alloway, Scotland. Completed in 1911, the cottage continues to function as the meeting place of the Atlanta Burns Club, which still remains active today.