Although built as an Opera House, Hannibal Kimball's palace served the people of Atlanta in many other ways for most of its life. The first building to hold the state capitol, the Kimball Opera House would also serve as the first local office for the National Weather Service, an early Bell "Telephonic" exchange, and as an inn. It was located across the street from the old Union Station in downtown in an area now called Underground Atlanta. Its destruction in 1959 is considered to be one of the greatest historical losses by the Atlanta Preservation Center