A Look at Atlanta's Historic Urban Core

South Downtown

Home to Underground Atlanta, South Downtown is separated from Five Points by a railroad gulch known as "The Gulch". South Downtown is the location of many city, county, state, and federal governmental offices.

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South Downtown was once a bustling shopping district. Whitehall Street, renamed Peachtree Street Southwest, was the principal shopping street of Atlanta from the 1850s until the mid-20th century. A source from 1854 reported that the street was "being built up with stores of brick", while Broad Street was the market district.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a cluster of department stores was located in the area. In the 1870s, the "Big Five" were Rich's, Chamberlain, Boyton, & Co., Ryan's; Keeley's; and Dougherty's; later, the J.M. High Company would join their leagues. By the 1930's, Rich's would come to dominate the South Downtown shopping district. In 1949, Whitehall was filled with five and dime stores, such as McCrory's, S. H. Kress, Woolworth's, and W. T. Grant.

As late as 1968 the northern end of Whitehall was still called a "bustling retail corridor". Today, Peachtree Street Southwest continues as a low-end shopping area with several of the older retail buildings converted into "malls": Metro Mall in the old McCrory's building and the Mall at 82 Peachtree, in the Rich's 1906 building. And landmark Miller's Rexall Drugs continues its trade in hoodoo and homeopathic remedies at Broad and Mitchell streets, as it has since 1965.

Located in South Downtown is Hotel Row, both a National Register and locally listed historic district consisting of one block of early 20th century commercial buildings, 3-4 stories high, located on Mitchell Street west of Forsyth Street. The building were originally hotels built to serve the needs of passengers from Terminal Station, opened in 1905 and demolished in 1971. The buildings are the most intact row of early 20th century commercial structures in the city in Atlanta's original business district. The decline of Hotel Row began in the 1920s due to the increased availability of automobile transportation and the construction of the Spring Street viaduct, which made getting to hotels in the northern part of the city easier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Downtown

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In many ways, Jacksonville's Northbank shares similarities with Atlanta's historic downtown core. The majority of what remains is walkable, dates back to the early 20th century, and has been largely forgotten as their respective cities have grown outward. In addition, both feature struggling former Rouse Festival Marketplaces (The Jacksonville Landing and Atlanta Underground) and public squares (Hemming Plaza and Woodruff Park). Furthermore, both were important late 19th century/early 20th century rail centers.  Despite their late 20th century struggles, both are walkable environments that are unique to their areas and offer great opportunity, partially because they can't be replicated. While Jacksonville continues to ponder the Northbank's ultimate future, Atlanta appears to be implementing ideas to bring its original historic core back to life. With continued growth of Georgia State University, the popularity of nearby Centennial Olympic Park, and the opening of the Atlanta Streetcar, Atlanta's core is a Sunbelt district that Jaxsons may need to pay more attention too as we push to improve the Northbank.

Article and images by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com