Lost part of Midtown (Atlanta, Oxford: hotels, live, beach)

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

i don't really understand what you're talking about; can you be more specific?

Other posters have clarified what I was writing about a little but I'll try a little more... there was a section of Midtown, or what I called Midtown, back in the late 1970s and early 1980s (I was there personally in early 1981, I had friends living there and I lived a few blocks north on Piedmont Road in a boarding house near The Prado), a few streets that ran east-west just south of where Piedmont Road turns "one way" and the traffic veers off to the right (west) and into a mass of major skyscrapers... modern "Midtown". Headed straight, the driver will pass Juniper Street and a couple of other streets before crossing Peachtree Street and so on.

Back in 1980, 1981 and so on (I'm not sure how long after that) continuing south on Piedmont Road (as if it remained a two way street) would take you into this area of Midtown, basically between Piedmont and Juniper Streets, running east-west where there "old, run down" houses were,

The answer is that all this was obviously demolished and something else built there... some time soon when I take another trip to Atlanta, I hope to put aside a couple of extra hours to take a walking tour of this area, maybe I can get a grasp of what's become of this part of old Atlanta that's already apparently a faded, almost lost, memory.

I know... still not so clear, but that's the best I can get, this morning.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Gulch

The area between Juniper and Piedmont maybe?

That has to be pretty much exactly it, Gulch, and probably a direct relation to the section of Peachtree Street almost exactly to the west (also long gone, I would guess, the landmark for me was the Krystal that was there, on the corner of, what, 10th Street?) known in the hippie era as "The Strip", at Peachtree and 10th Street in Midtown Atlanta.







Could be these houses directly to the east of "The Strip" were at the time affordable dwellings for counter-culture types, which was exactly the type folks I gravitated to back in those days?

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Clayton white guy

I really think he is referring to the southern tier of Ansley Park around 16th Streetish.

This seems to be the area... directly south of and west of Piedmont Park. Noticeably more run down (it seemed to me in 1981) than the houses and buildings just a little way over on, say, Juniper. And I'm pretty sure that these streets did connect at the time to Juniper, but I don't have a specific memory of that.

I'm reading that the entire Midtown area at that time was considered run down, even rumors that the are was intentionally run down to set the stage for the changes that have happened there for the last 30 years.

Peace and love came to the Strip in the 1960

"Rumors persist to this day regarding the decline of the Strip during the early 1970’s. At the time, it was common knowledge that the Colony Square project and the planned MARTA station at 10th Street would change the face of the area. Many people in the community believed — and still do — that the Strip was intentionally allowed to deteriorate, thereby lowering land values, permitting real estate speculators to purchase plots at deflated prices before reselling them to developers at huge profits [...] Unquestionably, land speculators in the area did make money. Some lots were sold in the early 1970’s, when land values were deflated, and a few years later they were resold at a profit to developers. However, no decisive relationship between the decline of the Strip and profits derived from it can be proved."

Quite a bit of Midtown seems to have been burned down in the decade before the one I've been curious about:

"...The Strip was literally burning down. A shop named Atlantis Rising had been firebombed, and The Great Speckled Bird house on 14th Street was destroyed in a fire. As early as July 1969 the Atlanta Fire Bureau reported 26 'significant' fires in the area causing $800,000 damage. At the time. Chief J. I. Gibson said it 'looks like the work of an arsonist.'

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Nast

I was thinking the same thing. The Piedmont intersection with 15th has been reconfigured so that you can no longer access 15th street. Additionally, there are some very old, run down houses along that stretch that have been torn down and replaced with town homes. However, the New York Book Shop shows up as being on Juniper, in the still standing house next to Einsteins. I suppose it's possible there were some side streets coming off of Juniper that have since been bulldozed.

As an aside, I was trying to find a site that has old street maps from the 80s. I can find plenty for downtown, but none for Midtown. Anyone know of an online resource that might have it? I didn't see anything on the Atlanta Time Machine.

This map of Midtown looks pretty old, I think?

Looking at this map, I'm thinking 7th or 8th Streets might have been what I was thinking of, or something very close.

If this works, here's the area as it appears today...

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.7779...5274,17z?hl=en

Looks like there was a lot of room for this little area to have been tucked into spot of this area in any number of spots.

Truly, there's no doubt plenty of history that's simply lost in the shuffle for Atlanta.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Clayton white guy

I really think he is referring to the southern tier of Ansley Park around 16th Streetish.

That's a little far north of this certain street I'm remembering, which was more like south of the park down Piedmont which back then was still a two way street that far down.

I'm not sure how old this map of Midtown is,



But it does show that area on down Piedmont, a lot of which, maybe all, doesn't exits today.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by J2rescue

But he mentions that Piedmont becomes one way and having to turn right towards Peachtree which is 14th Street. I don't think any of the towers in that area existed during the time frame the OP is referring to and its likely those towers replaced single family homes. It sounds like he's describing 12th, 13th, or 14th.

I still haven't had free time to get down that way... thanks for all the feedback, I notice I haven't read all the comments here, yet... will be doing that now, thanks.

[atler8]

Originally Posted by Will Dockery

That has to be pretty much exactly it, Gulch, and probably a direct relation to the section of Peachtree Street almost exactly to the west (also long gone, I would guess, the landmark for me was the Krystal that was there, on the corner of, what, 10th Street?) known in the hippie era as "The Strip", at Peachtree and 10th Street in Midtown Atlanta.







Could be these houses directly to the east of "The Strip" were at the time affordable dwellings for counter-culture types, which was exactly the type folks I gravitated to back in those days?

Thanks for sharing the 3 cool, vintage photos with us!
As a matter of location clarification for those who are not "long-timers" here, in the 3rd photo the building occupied by Beneficial Finance later was the location of the well-known & beloved Brother Juniper's Restaurant for quite a few years.

[AtlJan]

I remember the Pershing Point Apartments and Stratford Hall hotel/apartments as being central to this area in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The Midtown Atlanta Archive | "Bohemia central: Pershing Point Hotel gave gays,...

[Will Dockery]

Yes, I remember the Rhodes Theater there, saw quite a few good films there, and Pershing Point was always visible nearby... seems like when riding with my father in-law driving, he was pretty much a tour guide for the older Atlanta that was already vanishig, he would point out the spot where Margaret Mitchell died, run over by a car while crossing the street not far from there... my memory has faded on an exact location...

[Clayton white guy]

I have always heard that Margaret Mitchell was hit right at Perishing Point (where West Peachtree Street crosses Peachtree Street near the northern tip of Ansley Park. By the way, as a child I thought the intersection was called that because "West Peachtree "perished" into Peachtree Street. Now I know that the intersection was named after a World War I hero, General John Perishing that commanded the United States forces on the Western Front during the final year of the war that led to the eventual Allied victory. By the middle of the 20th century, that intersection marked where Peachtree Street went from being primarily commercial to the south of it and mostly residential to the north. Of course, today the commercial character of Peachtree Street has WAY overshot this "landmark" by a LONG shot. The mansions of the city's elite, which once graced Peachtree first just north of Five Points, then through Midtown, then, further uptown through the Brookwood Hills and Buckhead areas are for the most part gone as very few remain with notable exceptions: The Wimbiush House (former Atlanta Women's Club), The Rose Mansion (derelict looking across from Crawford Long/ Emory Midtown), and of course Rhodes Hall.