History Loves Company
The area of Intown Atlanta has many historic neighborhoods and districts. If you are someone who appreciates old & charming, brimming with character, learn more about these vintage communities below. There are designated historic neighborhoods and districts found within the City of Atlanta, Decatur, and College Park.
Most of Atlanta's older homes date back to the turn of the century, with a few predating the Civil war. In addition to being burned in the Civil War, The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 burned much of the city (and is why most county tax records state 1920 because they burned in the fire).
Sadly our city has a history of replacing the old with the new, but today historic preservationists are passionate about preserving our history.
If you'd like to dive deeper into Atlanta's history and historical places, check out two of my favorites - The Atlanta Preservation Center & The Atlanta History Center.
Ansley Park
Developed in 1904, the Ansley Park historic district features many significant architectural homes. You'll see examples from notable architects Neil Reed, Walter Thomas Downing, Leila Ross Wilburn, and Phillip Trammel Shutze.
Significant structures & places: Habersham Memorial Hall, The Villa Condominiums, Piedmont Driving Club
Learn more about Ansley Park here.
City of Avondale Estates
Avondale Estates was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in December 1986 due to the character of the City’s architecture and landscape and because it’s the only documented example in the southeastern United States of an early 20th century planned town.
Significant structures & places:
Learn more about Avondale Estates
Brookhaven
Developed in 1910, Historic Brookhaven surrounds the Capital City Club, the oldest private, members-only club in Atlanta. The Capital City Club and its surrounding estate homes were added to the National Register of Historic Places and became officially known as Historic Brookhaven.
Significant structures & places: Oglethorpe College, Capital City Club
Learn more about Brookhaven here.
Buckhead
Buckhead is home to several historic districts and homes including the Brookwood Hills Historic District, Garden Hills Historic District, Tuxedo Park Historic District, and The Peachtree Highlands-Peachtree Park Historic District.
Significant structures & places: The Swan House, The Henry B. Tompkins House, Peachtree Southern Railway, Tullie Smith House
Learn more about Buckhead here.
Cabbagetown
The Cabbagetown District originally consisted of the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill and the housing built for the factory workers. The mill is a complex of buildings constructed primarily between 1881 and 1922 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Significant structures & places: The Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts and Oakland Cemetery.
Learn more about Cabbagetown here.
Candler Park
Candler Park is adjacent to the Inman Park--Moreland Historic District includes the Little Five Points shopping area, which was officially designated in the early 1920s as a commercial area by the City of Atlanta. The Candler Park Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Significant structures & places: Euclid Avenue & Little Five Points adjacent to the west side of the neighborhood.
Learn more about Candler Park here.
City of Decatur
The City of Decatur has 5 designated historic districts: MAK Districts: Clairemont District, Ponce de Leon Court, Old Decatur District, Parkwood District. Winnona Park While is listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places, but not one of the city's locally designated historic districts.
Significant structures & places: Old Dekalb County Courthouse, Scottish Rite Hospital, Agnes Scott College, Mary Gay House, Blair-Rutland Building, Decatur Waterworks
Learn more about the city of Decatur here.
Downtown
Downtown is home to several historic districts. The Castleberry Hill Historic District is a densely developed commercial district adjacent to one of Atlanta's main rail lines. It consists of one- to three-story brick buildings historically used for retail, wholesale, and light industry. Growing alongside the Central of Georgia / Southern Railroad tracks from the 1890s to the 1930s, the district covers approximately 40 acres and includes more than 100 buildings. It is the only remaining collection of railroad service and distribution buildings that document the roots of Atlanta's beginnings as a railroad town.
The Fairlie-Poplar Historic District is Atlanta's historic central business district. It includes the most extensive concentrated collection of commercial and office buildings in Atlanta from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Hotel Row Historic District is a single block of historic commercial buildings along Mitchell Street that, when built, was part of Atlanta's original business district, in the shadow of the city's main railroad station.
The Underground Atlanta Historic District - after the devastation of Atlanta during the Civil War, the city began to rebuild itself around the railroad tracks. A series of viaducts were built in the 1920s by the railroad tracks to relieve congestion in the downtown area.
Significant structures & places: Atlanta City Hall, the Candler Building, Central Presbyterian Church, Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Coca-Cola Building Annex, Dixie Coca-Cola Bottling Company Plant, the English-American Building (Flatiron Building), U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, the Hurt Building, the Imperial Hotel, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Western & Atlantic Railroad Zero Milepost
Learn more about Downtown Atlanta here.
Druid Hills
The residences built in the Druid Hills Historic District during the early 20th century are among the finest examples of period architecture in the Atlanta metropolitan area and Georgia. These period houses range from mansions to bungalows. The district includes various eclectic and revivalist architectural styles, with the Georgian, Tudor, Jacobean, and Italian Renaissance represented the most. Druid Hills is also one of the significant works by the eminent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and his successors, the Olmsted Brothers, and their only such large-scale work in Atlanta.
Significant structures & places: Callanwolde, Emory University District
Learn more about Druid Hills here.
East Atlanta
While not a designated historic district, East Atlanta is filled with older craftsman bungalow homes.
Significant structures & places: Burns Cottage, East Atlanta Village (EAV) District
Learn more about East Atlanta here.
East Lake
In the early 1900s, East Lake was a popular vacation haven for Atlanta's well-to-do families. It subsequently continued to attract golfing enthusiasts who wanted to play at East Lake Golf Club, where golfing legend Bobby Jones played his first and last rounds of golf.
Significant structures & places: Robert A Alston House, East Lake Golf Club
Learn more about East Lake here
Grant Park
The Grant Park Historic District encompasses one of Atlanta's oldest neighborhoods and is filled with wonderful historic architecture.
Significant structures & places: Atlanta Stockade, Oakland Cemetery, and Grant Park
Learn more about Grant Park here.
Inman Park
Inman Park was the first planned residential suburb developed in Atlanta. Its promoter, Joel Hurt, one of the city's most important early builders. Found in this historic district are examples of Queen Anne architecture, Colonial Revival, and Shingle Style homes and bungalows. The Inman Park--Moreland Historic District includes the Little Five Points shopping area, which was officially designated in the early 1920s as a commercial area by the City of Atlanta.
Significant structures & places: The Trolley Barn
Learn more about Inman Park here
Kirkwood
The Kirkwood Historic District includes Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Classical Revival architecture, and includes residential and commercial and government buildings. Some fabulous historic homes can be found along Howard Avenue.
Significant structures & places: The Kirkwood School
Learn more about Kirkwood here
Midtown
Midtown has some wonderful, historic homes and buildings.
Significant structures & places: The Fox Theatre, Piedmont Park, The Academy of Medicine, Atlanta Biltmore Hotel & Biltmore Apartments, Crescent Apartments (Margaret Mitchell House), Edward C. Peters House, Georgian Terrace Hotel, Ponce de Leon Apartments, Rhodes Memorial Hall, St. Mark Methodist Church, Dr. Marion Luther Brittain Sr. House, The Temple, William P Nicolson House
Learn more about Midtown here
Old Fourth Ward
The historic Old Fourth Ward is home to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. This several block area includes his birth home, the Ebenezer Baptist Church where he was a pastor, and his gravesite. The Sweet Auburn Historic District is concentrated along a short mile and a half of Auburn Avenue and reflects Atlanta's African Americans' history, heritage, and achievements.
Significant structures & places: Ponce City Market, Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant, National Nugrape Company,
Learn more about Old Fourth Ward here
Poncey-Highland
Poncey-Highland recently voted to become a designated Historic District
Significant structures & places: The Hotel Clermont
Learn more about Poncey-Highland here
Southern Tri-Cities
College Park: Historic College Park is one of the metro area's largest historic districts and contains several original Leila Ross Wilburn homes. Historic places include Camellia Hall (College Park Woman’s Club) St. John’s Episcopal Church
East Point: The East Point Industrial District is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Hapeville: Hapeville is on the National Register of Historic Places and contains the historic Hapeville Depot.
Learn more about College Park, East Point & Hapeville here
Virginia-Highland
Virginia-Highland is comprised of several subdivisions platted over a 23-year time span by various real estate companies. In the 1890s, the first suburban development in the area was prompted by the Fulton County Street Railroad Company's Nine-Mile Circle trolley line. It contains the Atkins Park Historic District and Virginia-Highland Historic District. Virginia-Highland is a great collection of commercial buildings that represent businesses that catered to the neighborhood's residents.
Significant structures & places: The district is an excellent and extremely intact example of Atlanta's early 20th-century suburban neighborhoods built for middle- to upper-middle-class white residents, which began as a Streetcar Suburb.
Learn more about Virginia-Highland here.
Westside & West Midtown
West Midtown is home to several historic districts. The Georgia Institute of Technology (founded 1885) Historic District is the school's original nine-acre campus. The Howell Station Historic District is located near Marietta Street in an area dominated by light industry. Whittier Mill Village is a neighborhood of restored homes and cottages on a former cotton mill site nestled along the Chattahoochee River. The Means Street Historic District in the Marietta Street Artery consists of mostly 19th and early 20th-century warehouse and industrial buildings,
Significant structures & places: Atlanta Spring & Bed Company - Block Candy Company, Georgia State Capitol, Grady Hospital, The Goat Farm (E. Van Winkle Gin and Machine Works), King Plow, Howell Interlocking Historic District, Southern Railway North Avenue Yards Historic District
Learn more about the Westside and West Midtown here.
