Old Fourth Ward
| Old Fourth Ward | |
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| — Neighborhoods of Atlanta — | |
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| Country | United States |
| State | Georgia |
| County | Fulton County |
| City | City of Atlanta |
| Population (2000)[1] | |
| • Total | 7,946 |
| Demographics (2000)[1] | |
| • White/Other | 20% |
| • Black | 75% |
| • Asian | 1% |
| • Hispanic | 5% |
| ZIP Code | 30312 |
| Website | Fourth Ward Alliance (on Facebook) |
The Old Fourth Ward, often abbreviated O4W, is a neighborhood stretching 1 mile (1.6 km) east from Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The Old Fourth Ward is one of the city's rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, but is also one of the city's most eclectic, containing the Martin Luther King, Jr. historic site, factories converted to lofts and hot restaurants and bars, old shotgun houses in various states of renovation, gated 1980s condo communities, and Boulevard, still infamous in Atlanta for its "Section 8" housing and street drug sales.[2]. In 2010, Creative Loafing awarded Old Fourth Ward "Best Bet for Next Hot 'Hood",[3], while in 2011 the neighborhood celebrated the opening of the Historic Fourth Ward Park and saw the kickoff of the Ponce City Market project. The neighborhood has garnered national attention as "a cradle of culinary and artistic innovation and as a symbol of gentrification."[4]
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[edit] Geography
The Old Fourth Ward is defined as the area from Piedmont Ave. and Downtown Atlanta on the west, to the BeltLine and the Poncey-Highland and Inman Park neighborhoods on the east. West of Boulevard, it reaches from Ponce de Leon Avenue on the north to Freedom Parkway on the south, below which is Sweet Auburn. East of Boulevard, it reaches from Ponce de Leon Avenue on the north to the east-west MARTA rail line and Oakland Cemetery (Atlanta), and the Grant Park and Cabbagetown neighborhoods on the south. The neighborhood can be divided into three major areas:
[edit] West of Boulevard (former Bedford Pine)
West of Boulevard and north of Freedom Parkway was called the Bedford Pine neighborhood and prior to the 1960s, Buttermilk Bottom. Slums with unpaved streets gave way in the 1960s to massive urban renewal and the construction of large projects such as the Atlanta Civic Center, the Georgia Power headquarters and public housing projects. The housing project made way in recent years to mixed-income complexes. Bedford Pine was officially absorbed into the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood.
[edit] East of Boulevard
East of Boulevard is found the largest concentration of single family houses; here, especially south of Irwin Street, is perhaps the most eclectic part of the Old Fourth Ward. Auburn Avenue and Old Wheat Streets are streets that continue in the unique character of the Sweet Auburn neighborhood and Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site on the west side of Boulevard, while Boulevard at Edgewood Avenue is (as of 2010) ground zero for a concentration of hip bars and restaurants.[5]
[edit] Industrial district along BeltLine
The area furthest east along the BeltLine is a formerly industrial area where the former factory and warehouse space now contains some of Atlanta's best restaurants and galleries, located in complexes like Studioplex and Southern Dairies. In the very northeast corner of the Old Fourth Ward is the 2.1 million sq. ft. former Sears building, later called City Hall East, and now called Ponce City Market. Developer Jamestown plans to spend $180 million to convert it into a complex of retail, restaurants, boutiques, offices and residential space, featuring a food hall of national importance along the lines of Jamestown's own Chelsea Market in New York.[6]
[edit] History
What is now the Old Fourth Ward is a smaller version of the historic Fourth Ward political area in place until the 1950s when the city changed to a district system. It is one of the oldest sections of the city, with the westernmost blocks developing soon after the Civil War.[7] Different parts of the ward were, at different times, considered white, black, or mixed-race areas. From the 1910s onward, as Atlanta politicians moved to institutionalize racially-segregated residential areas, Old Fourth Ward continued as a rich patchwork of whites living as close neighbors with blacks.
The area between North, Boulevard, Highland, and Piedmont was the Buttermilk Bottom slum area.[8]
The foremost thoroughfare in today's Old Fourth Ward, Boulevard, was in the 1890s called "one of the most desirable residential streets in the city."[9] However, in the 20th century, Boulevard's grand houses gradually made way for apartment buildings.
[edit] Decline
As with most of Intown Atlanta, the Old Fourth Ward declined precipitously during the 1950s and 1960s as wealthier residents moved further out from central neighborhoods. Buttermilk Bottom was razed in the 11960s to make way for urban renewal projects. Streets, houses and businesses that sat upon the land that is now Freedom Parkway were also razed to make way for a freeway that was never built. What was once a consistent and dense grid pattern of streets is now difficult to recognize, with large housing complexes, Freedom Parkway, Central Park, and Renaissance Park occupying what had once been multiple city blocks.
Boulevard in particular witnessed a steady decline. The road is lined with apartment buildings constructed after the Great Atlanta fire of 1917, most of which are now section 8 housing. Boulevard became infamous throughout Atlanta and beyond as a haven of drug activity, prostitution, and other crime, a reputation which as of 2011 still endures despite gentrification to the north, south, east and west of the street.
[edit] Bedford Pine and slow-paced urban renewal
In 1963 the city designated Buttermilk Bottom an urban renewal zone, "Bedford Pine"[10] and the Atlanta Housing Authority began acquiring property there.[11] The name comes from the intersection of Bedford Place (now Central Park Place) and Pine Street at the neighborhood's heart.
Due to "bureaucratic bungling"[12], as the Atlanta Constitution called it, most of the land remained empty, with a few exceptions such as the Convention Center (built 1967), now the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center. Still, in 1982 Bedford Pine was described as "the most ambitious public-private development partnership in the city" which could "have a more enduring positive effect on the inner city than any other effort in its history" (with the exception of MARTA).[11] FInally, in the mid-1980s new, mostly mixed-income projects were built on the land[13]. Some of the land was used for today's Renaissance Park and Central Park.
[edit] Positive transformation 1980s–present
Elsewhere in the Old Fourth Ward, gentrification began in the 1980s, and continued at a more rapid pace during the first decade of the 2000s. New apartment and condo complexes with ground-floor retail sprung up, particularly along the BeltLine, Ponce de Leon Avenue, North Avenue, and Highland Avenue. New residents were attracted to the neighborhood due to its close proximity to Downtown, Midtown, Inman Park, and Virginia-Highland, its urban vibe, its walkability, and its cultural offerings. By the 2010s, Old Fourth Ward had become one of the most dynamic and sought-after areas of the city, winning Creative Loafing's 2010 award for "Best Bet for Next Hot 'Hood".[3]
[edit] Demographics
The area, which was majority black up until 2000, has seen a huge influx of whites in recent decades. The trend began in the 1980s, and from 1980 to 2000, the area west of Boulevard went from 12% to 30% white and the area east of Boulevard went from went from 2% to 20% white.
[edit] Parks
- Freedom Parkway with its trail runs through the neighborhood
- Central Park
- Civic Center Park
- Historic Fourth Ward Park, a new park located on the site of the former Ponce de Leon amusement park
- Renaissance Park
[edit] References
- ^ a b http://www.arch.gatech.edu/~dapa/reports/atlneighchg/page-Images/neigh.html#Neig
- ^ Henry, Scott (2009-05-19). "Down on Boulevard: Positive change might finally come to Atlanta’s lawless street". Creative Loafing Atlanta. http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/down_on_boulevard_positive_change_might_finally_come_to_atlanta_s_lawless_street/Content?oid=827931. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
- ^ a b "Best Bet For Next Hot 'Hood: Old Fourth Ward", Creative Loafing, 2010
- ^ "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Atlanta neighborhood on the upswing", New York Times, December 4, 2011
- ^ Sams, Douglas. "Restaurants blossoming in Old Fourth Ward". Atlanta Business Chronicle (April 19, 2010). http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2010/04/19/focus13.html. Retrieved 2011-01-09.
- ^ "Slideshow: Jamestown reveals Ponce City Market", Atlanta Business Journal, June 29, 2011
- ^ Hanleiter's Directory Map of Atlanta, 1870
- ^ Keating, Larry (2001). Atlanta: Race, Class and Urban Expansion. Temple University. p. 106. ISBN 1-56639-820-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=AI2un7Z177YC&lpg=PA106&ots=7CCxggxt9X&dq=%22bedford%20pine%22%20%22central%20atlanta%20progress%22&pg=PA104#v=onepage&q=%22bedford%20pine%22%20%22central%20atlanta%20progress%22&f=false.
- ^ Severance, Margaret (1895). Official guide to Atlanta: including information of the Cotton States and International Exposition. Atlanta: Foote & Davies Co.. p. 42. http://books.google.com/books?id=gIw-AAAAYAAJ. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
- ^ Atlanta History Center, Bedford-Pine Neighborhood Photograph Collection
- ^ a b Fosler, R. Scott (1982). Public-Private Partnerships in American Cities: Seven Case Studies. Lexington, Mass.: LexingtonBooks, D.C. Heath and Co.. pp. 319. ISBN 0669058343.
- ^ Atlanta Consitution editorial, April 14, 1978
- ^ Keating, Larry (2001). Atlanta: Race, Class and Urban Expansion. Temple University. p. 106. ISBN 1-56639-820-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=AI2un7Z177YC&lpg=PA106&ots=7CCxggxt9X&dq=%22bedford%20pine%22%20%22central%20atlanta%20progress%22&pg=PA104#v=onepage&q=%22bedford%20pine%22%20%22central%20atlanta%20progress%22&f=false.
[edit] External links
[edit] Old Fourth Ward organizations
- Central Atlanta neighbors - covers north of Freedom Parkway, west of Boulevard
- Fourth Ward Alliance (on Facebook) - covers north of Freedom Parkway, east of Boulevard
- Fourth Ward Neighbors - covers south of Freedom Parkway
- Old 4th Ward Security Patrol
[edit] About the Old Fourth Ward
- Robbie Brown, "King's Atlanta neighborhood on the upswing", Surfacing in New York Times, December 4, 2011
- "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Atlanta neighborhood on the upswing" (slideshow), New York Times, December 4, 2011
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Coordinates: 33°45′16″N 84°22′20″W / 33.75431°N 84.372149°W
