Edward M. Horine

Edward M. Horine, manager of The Grand, served as 1922-1923 President of the BOMA Southern Conference. He also served as BOMA-Atlanta President from 1916 to 1926.

According to the November 26, 1922, issue of The Atlanta Journal, the Southern Conference of Building Owners and Managers was organized in June 1921 during the annual meeting of the National Association of Building Owners and Managers in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania. E. M. Horine was elected to serve as the first president of the Southern Conference.

E. M. is quoted in the November 26, 1922, issue of The Atlanta Journal speaking about hosting the first annual Southern Conference of Building Owners and Managers, which was to be held in Atlanta. “We want every owner and manager of our southern office buildings to be present, and profit by the knowledge that comes from hearing the views and experiences of others in our own line of endeavor. We deem this meeting of vast importance to the development of the south. The south no longer is a purely rural district. We are now living in an urban age. The facilities offered by many of the southern cities cannot be matched by cities in any other portion of the United States.”

E. M. further said, “It is up to the building owners and managers that they utilize the knowledge offered them by the experiences of building owners and managers to protect the interests of southern buildings. There is no room for haphazard determination of rental values. There is a scientific basis for such determination, and the utilization of this basis will stabilize building securities, and thus aid in the stabilization of all business. Many buildings are being inefficiently operated. Costs in some are unwarranted. By a comparison of costs, more efficient operation will result. It is as much to the interest of a tenant as it is to the owner of an office building to guard against unwise and excessive taxing which is prevalent in many cities. The tenant pays his share of the tax increase when he pays his monthly rent. Building owners as a class know too little regarding insurance in our office buildings throughout the country. Only eleven cents of every dollar collected in the form of premiums was paid out by insurance companies for fire losses in Class A office buildings. That is a situation which calls for adjustment, and such adjustment may be secured only through combined effort. These are a few of the reasons why we wish to get together the building owners and managers so that the problems that come to us all may be worked out to our mutual benefit.”

In 1916, he was invited to join the Chamber of Commerce’s President’s Club. The club brought together leaders of various Atlanta civic organizations for meetings to provide Chamber President Mell Wilkinson with advice and consultation in the interest of moving Atlanta forward. Thanks to Horine’s leadership and his inclusion in this group, BOMA Atlanta was able to solidify its position as an economic development partner and successful advocate for the interests of building owners and managers.

According to the October 12, 1917, issue of The Atlanta Constitution, E. M. Horine spoke at the National Association of Building Owners and Managers 1917 Convention in Omaha, Nebraska. He presented a paper titled, “Legislation” and “the paper was said to be the best on the program of the big convention. It appears in the October issue of ‘Building Management,’ published at Chicago.”

According to the June 25, 1918, issue of The Atlanta Constitution, E. M. Horine was elected vice president of the National Association of Building Owners and Managers in 1918, after he had been, “for the past five years, active in the work of the national association and is held in the highest esteem by its entire membership.”

According to the July 24, 1934, issue of The Atlanta Constitution, Edward died at the age of 74 on July 22, 1934, at his home in Miami, Florida, and he was “for many years manager of the Grand Opera House and son-in-law of the late Laurent DeGive.” The article further described Edward as, “a familiar figure in the Atlanta theatrical world before he left Atlanta nine years ago to make his home in Miami, married Miss Louise DeGive, daughter of the builder of the Grand Opera House, now known as Loew’s Grand. A prominent building manager, Mr. Horine was active in the affairs of the Atlanta Building Owners and Managers’ Association, having served as president of that organization in which he was a life member.”

Underscoring Edward’s lifelong ties to BOMA Atlanta, his pallbearers were William J. Davis, C. F. Wilkinson, W. A. Jones, William R. Beck, W. D. Hoffman, and Ivan Allen, Sr.