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Hello, can anyone post some historical photos about what was it like in Gwinnett in 1970's to today. I know how some areas of gwinnett (meadowcreek, berkmar, jimmy carter, singleton, beaver ruin, indian trail, parts of lawrenceville, dacula, duluth, norcross) used to be good but went downhill due to gangs and drugs because I have been living in Atlanta since June 1996(first in Dekalb off Lawrenceville and North Druid hills and then in 1998 lived on east park place and now since (2009) live on tom smith and five forks). The time I moved into Gwinnett I only remember places close to my area but never saw or heard until I was older to remember those areas today. In searching the internet there is no photos Gwinnett then or now and I was looking at this forum that maybe somebody might have some photos of those areas in Gwinnett's heyday but never posted it yet. It would be interesting if someone have those so we can remember when Gwinnett was like living in a Upper Middle Class neighborhood. Highways and roads should be included as well and local businesses too and maybe those older homes in construction at that time too if you have them.
Gwinnett didn't go down hill. Much of the wealth and upper middle class you speak of is still there, but it wasn't always just upper middle class. It was the full gamut of the middle class range. It did shift areas a bit, however. One big differences has to do with the large population growth. Gwinnett was half is size just a few decades ago. Wealth isn't leaving, but on average each new person we add isn't quite as wealthy as those of us already here. Still Gwinnett has 900,000 people with a median household income of $63k. That is alot of people with a decent amount of money in the upper half.
There are alot of pricey older properties throughout the county, especially in northern Peacthree Corners, Western Duluth, Suwannee, and parts of Lawrenceville.
The area you ended up in off of Tom Smith Rd is in the corridor of mostly only single family homes that make up Parkview, Brookwood, and Grayson. That area trends more stable.
I actually grew up in Hannary Estates between Killian Hill Rd and Tom Smith Rd. The area you live in now actually looks very similar to how it did in the 80s and 90s, with the exception of the newer houses you see were obviously undeveloped fields and woods. The Yellow River Reclamation plant was there, but the entrance wasn't as nice and they use to have trouble getting employees in whenever it flooded. There was a Bruno's grocery store across from Public that is now that church. The little new mini-strip mall that has three blind mice in it use to have a Ryan's either at that location or right next door where that new neighborhood is.
The big thing I will tell you is Gwinnett Place Mall resembled the newness, attention, and wealth that is very similar to what the Mall of Georgia has now. GP had better road connections, though, Pleasant Hill backed up just like GA20 with shoppers all the time.
Now that mall did go downhill, however when it was built it was at Jimmy Carter that was the nice shopping area. Before 124 because as big of a shopping destination as it is, Park Place was a place to be. That large strip mall and nearby properties is where all the bigger name, typical big box stores for the time were, Like Best Buy and Media Play. It seems like the restaurants in the area were better.
If you go up to 124 to shop from where you live now, that area has seen some growth, but it remains relatively unchanged in terms of the kind of people shopping there in terms of wealth.
To some degree take all the people in the area between Suwanee, Buford, Dacula, and Northern Lawrenceville and put them into 1970s and 1980s type of neighborhoods and it would be representative of what it was like when Gwinnett was older.
Sadly, I don't have much in the way of Photos, but I have seen these interesting aerial shots of Gwinnett Place.
Gwinnett was VERY VERY rural in the 1970s -- we're talking fewer than 100,000 people in the ENTIRE COUNTY! At this time there were basically 5 high schools -- Norcross, South, Central, North and Parkview.
I'm old enough to remember when Pleasant Hill Road was a 2-lane country road. To the right of the I-85 N exit was a huge truck stop. Where Gwinnett Place Mall now sits was a trailer park. And that was it.
Crazy how much growth occurred there in the 90s. I was born just a year after that '91 photo so my memories of that area were all in 96/97 at the earliest. I've only known that area as a congested mess along Satellite, Pleasant Hill and even Old Norcross at times. That forest in the picture was all gone by the late 90s.
My family moved out to Indian Trail area in 1989, and yeah that was a much "nicer" area, back then. Well, I mean it looked basically mostly the same, just the types of people have definitely changed. (Not sure how to put that in a non-racist way.) The neighborhood we lived in used to be nice, but now it's all cheap and run-down and, well.
Then we moved further out in Gwinnett, to the Collins Hill area, in 1995. Our house would have been in Peachtree Ridge now, but that wasn't built yet. That whole area was very different, back then. Lawrenceville-Suwanee Rd was like a country road.
The neighborhood/area we lived in out there is definitely not bad, yet, but it's not quite as nice and new and fresh as it felt 20 years ago. Collins Hill is still a good school, but back then it was a big deal.
So yes, Gwinnett was a lot of rural back in the day, now it's all generic cookie cutter suburbs everywhere. That trend started at first in Norcross/Lilburn, then the growth just kept going outwards, as the good schools kept going outwards. Classic white flight model. I guess that's somewhat racist, but it's definitely how it went down.
The suburbia in the inner part of the county was once new and fresh and desirable, and now it's all old and beat up looking. I remember when Gwinnett Place Mall was on par with Perimeter Mall, or maybe even nicer. (And was the only mall in Gwinnett.) I remember when all up and down Jimmy Carter Blvd was this nice, bustling, thriving commercial and shopping and dining center, that was Gwinnett's main showcase. Now, a lot of it is borderline the 'hood.
I remember when Sugarloaf Pkwy was still being built, in the mid-90's. There was a lot of nothing out there. Now that corridor is basically the center of Gwinnett.
Gwinnett was VERY VERY rural in the 1970s -- we're talking fewer than 100,000 people in the ENTIRE COUNTY! At this time there were basically 5 high schools -- Norcross, South, Central, North and Parkview.
Don't forget dear old Berkmar.
But you are quite right that Gwinnett was pretty rural back then. Plenty of elbow room.
Crazy how much growth occurred there in the 90s. I was born just a year after that '91 photo so my memories of that area were all in 96/97 at the earliest. I've only known that area as a congested mess along Satellite, Pleasant Hill and even Old Norcross at times. That forest in the picture was all gone by the late 90s.
I'm about 10 years older than you, so that era is when I remember the area quite well.
It was always exciting to see what would be built next in that area. It was interesting how many specialty stores were built around the area. There were stores dedicated just to buying the best outdoor Grill and grilling accessories.
Pleasant Hill was really bad. On the weekends it was really bad. Over time the county did a good job building more local connecting roads into the area, so a surprising amount of people can drive into the area and not depend on Pleasant Hill (this is a critical problem with MoG currently).
We would drive down beaver Ruin to Steve Reynolds Blvd and skip over Pleasant Hill.
This road infrastructure is why I wish we could funnel more office growth into the area to replace some of the aging retail areas. Gwinnett has too much retail square footage for it all to survive. If we could cut out 1/3 of the retail, much of it has held up and kept tenants. I'm hoping the Gwinnett Prado redevelopment will take off. That is a really large piece of property.
What I find interesting is how much the freeway and the property edges along the freeway have changed. It reminds me that stretch of freeway wasn't too congested yet. It would get a bit bad around JCB and up to Indian Trail, but the real congestion was inside the perimeter.
The irony today, is I-85 between GA400 and I-285 has relatively little congestion and it gets really bad going into Gwinnett. This is because as time goes on more and more people are splitting directions once they get to I-285. In the early '90s a greater percentage would drive straight into town.
My family moved out to Indian Trail area in 1989, and yeah that was a much "nicer" area, back then. Well, I mean it looked basically mostly the same, just the types of people have definitely changed. (Not sure how to put that in a non-racist way.) The neighborhood we lived in used to be nice, but now it's all cheap and run-down and, well.
Then we moved further out in Gwinnett, to the Collins Hill area, in 1995. Our house would have been in Peachtree Ridge now, but that wasn't built yet. That whole area was very different, back then. Lawrenceville-Suwanee Rd was like a country road.
The neighborhood/area we lived in out there is definitely not bad, yet, but it's not quite as nice and new and fresh as it felt 20 years ago. Collins Hill is still a good school, but back then it was a big deal.
So yes, Gwinnett was a lot of rural back in the day, now it's all generic cookie cutter suburbs everywhere. That trend started at first in Norcross/Lilburn, then the growth just kept going outwards, as the good schools kept going outwards. Classic white flight model. I guess that's somewhat racist, but it's definitely how it went down.
The suburbia in the inner part of the county was once new and fresh and desirable, and now it's all old and beat up looking. I remember when Gwinnett Place Mall was on par with Perimeter Mall, or maybe even nicer. (And was the only mall in Gwinnett.) I remember when all up and down Jimmy Carter Blvd was this nice, bustling, thriving commercial and shopping and dining center, that was Gwinnett's main showcase. Now, a lot of it is borderline the 'hood.
I remember when Sugarloaf Pkwy was still being built, in the mid-90's. There was a lot of nothing out there. Now that corridor is basically the center of Gwinnett.
I think most of this is probably fair, but a few things worth pointing out:
1) Older areas further from the freeways faired alot better and some areas have grown in stature and costs. New homes today south of Lilburn sell for far more than they ever would have inflation adjusted in the '90s
2) Not all growth in the core areas is bad, although I suspect most families that were hear earlier wouldn't consider it ideal. Take Cruse Rd. for example. It's a real thriving family oriented community. It is a big more working class and diverse, but it isn't that bad of an area and still sees growth today.
3) One of the reasons why some people see an area as rundown is it has largely been replaced with ethnic businesses and churches. To a degree it is a matter of perception. To some people it is a booming area for them. I have been highly intrigued over the years at what all has moved in. It is really interesting the things you can find.
But yes... it does make me want to live further from the I-85 corridor in the western part of the county.
One flaw to Gwinnett and one area where there is some pint-up demand, we don't have anything like Vinings in Cobb. I'm less concerned about the high wealth homes in Vinings, we have that elsewhere, but I'm concerned about attractive areas with multi-family housing for millenials, singles, and young couples. With over 300k jobs, including many that are white collar, and 900,000 people we need more varied housing types. With both of these numbers rapidly increasing. We need a small area like this in the county for those that work here. I think some of this was edged out by the large number of diverse groups looking to make their mark in their part of the county.
I wish some areas between Gwinnett Place and Sugarloaf could become that area, but it has a long ways to go to get that kind of traction.
I think most of this is probably fair, but a few things worth pointing out:
1) Older areas further from the freeways faired alot better and some areas have grown in stature and costs. New homes today south of Lilburn sell for far more than they ever would have inflation adjusted in the '90s
Yeah. Mountain Park is still decent. And Lilburn inside the city limits is probably mostly doing fine.
We lived off Dickens Rd, just north of the Lilburn city limits, but still in the Lilburn zip code. Area was much nicer, and surely a lot safer back then. I was a kid, and I used to walk to the gas station and stuff. Last time I was around there, parts were still hanging on to decent, but most of it totally gone down. Norcross (and everything that came along with that) apparently inched its way down that corridor. Norcross proximate to I-85 was rough even in the 90's. Singleton Rd in particular has always been pretty rough, as far back as I can remember.
People used to meticulously take care of their houses/lawns in those neighborhoods where I lived, though. Now any effort at that would look out of place, next to your neighbor with 10 cars parked in the front yard.
Green Corners shopping center, at the corner of Jimmy Carter and Rockbridge, I remember was a big deal for us. It had a nice theater (where I first saw Jurassic Park when it came out in '93.) And as a little computer nerd kid back then, I remember Egghead Software which was somewhere around there on Jimmy Carter. Was pretty much my favorite place ever, haha. And I remember Varsity Jr around there, I don't think that's still there.
That's cool that it's a Latino and international community these days in that whole area, I don't have a problem with that, for the most part (better restaurants now, I'm sure). It's just... nostalgia factor for me. It's definitely not how I remember it, anywhere around there.
I remember when my mom worked part time at the Chili's on Oakbrook Pkwy, which is not there anymore. (The sign was visible from I-85.) And I remember the 'Gwinnett is Great' water towers.
I remember when Gwinnett had zero transit. I remember when Gwinnett voted 'no' to MARTA in 1990, and I remember being upset about that then, even at 7 years old! I was the only one in that county at the time with any foresight! And I used to absolutely love the MARTA train, which we used to ride from Doraville (and pay fare with those cool tokens). And I remember reading about the Northlake MARTA line in the newspaper, when it was being talked about and they were trying to make it happen, before it was shot down as always by NIMBY's.
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One flaw to Gwinnett and one area where there is some pint-up demand, we don't have anything like Vinings in Cobb. I'm less concerned about the high wealth homes in Vinings, we have that elsewhere, but I'm concerned about attractive areas with multi-family housing for millenials, singles, and young couples. With over 300k jobs, including many that are white collar, and 900,000 people we need more varied housing types. With both of these numbers rapidly increasing. We need a small area like this in the county for those that work here. I think some of this was edged out by the large number of diverse groups looking to make their mark in their part of the county.
I wish some areas between Gwinnett Place and Sugarloaf could become that area, but it has a long ways to go to get that kind of traction.
Yeah, I mean Gwinnett's always had some geographic type disadvantages vs. Cobb (which it's often paired with, and compared with). Cobb has an ITP section. Cobb has a rather large section of 285 running through it, including the corner of 75 and 285, which was the beginnings of the Cumberland edge city.
Whereas the corner of 85 and 285 is in DeKalb, and even if it was in Gwinnett, that massive concrete freeway interchange was never somewhere desirable looking, where you'd want to be at. Cumberland by total contrast, had the river, had the Galleria and Waverly hotel, etc. Cobb built some high rises, I believe even starting in the 70's. Gwinnett doesn't have anything tall except I think the Sonesta (formerly Marriott) hotel off Pleasant Hill/Shackleford, is a decent height. And Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville is I guess a high rise.
Gwinnett has a whole other, large suburban county between it and Atlanta. Vinings directly borders the city limits, and is like 10 minutes (without traffic) from Midtown/Downtown. So that's very contrasting there.
IMO, Gwinnett needs to pour everything into dense, walkable, urban style, mixed-use TOD type transformations of its existing commercial areas (like Gwinnett Place), with high rises galore, I'm talking maybe even 40-story towers. And connect those dense nodes up with the city via MARTA stations of some kind. It's always had proximity to MARTA (and a station at its front door) as one advantage over Cobb, but they never did anything with that. The late 80's/early 90's plan as I recall, was to bring the line out to Gwinnett Place. The county would be in a much better economic place right now, had that happened. IMO.
Even with all those criticisms, though, I like Gwinnett. I like how quiet it is, in much of the county. I have some favorite roads and spots out there.
Then you demo the strip mall crap that's currently all around there, build some cross-direction roads to break up all the super blocks, and form an urban, human-scale area, and zone for high rises. And don't allow anything that's not at least a mid-rise.
That entire CID area could/should be the gem of the county, and an economic powerhouse. I know they're trying to make Sugarloaf the focus (and Mall of GA), but those areas are a little too far from 285 (especially the latter). Takes forever to get to/from anything else in the other counties of the Atlanta area. Millennials aren't usually a fan of that aspect.
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