West End, Atlanta

The West End neighborhood of Atlanta is on the National Register of Historic Places and can be found southwest of Castleberry Hill and just north of Oakland City. It would be difficult to find a neighborhood more closely linked to the city's, state's, region's, and nation's historical development than the West End district of Atlanta.

History

Early History

The backbone or framework for almost all urban development has been transportation and West End is no exception. Before there was a West End or an Atlanta, the area was a crossroads. Newnan Road connected the town of that name to Decatur and Lawrenceville. Crossing this road was the Sandtown Road going west to an Indian town of that name. Near this junction around 1830, Charner Humphries established an inn/tavern which came to be known as Whitehall due to the then unusual fact that it had a coat of white paint when most other buildings were of washed or natural wood. From a frontier outpost in the 1830s, the district evolved into an independent political entity closely linked by rail and roads to its neighbor Atlanta. In 1894, it was annexed by Atlanta as a distinct ward following two decades of planned suburbanization. In this century, West End has endured many changes in its metamorphosis to an "intown" neighborhood while retaining its own distinctive character and vitality. This has been accomplished both by adaptation and participation in change and by its citizens' recognition of the district's special history. By the 1880s many wealthy Atlantans built large estates here and when they came, the main street of Gordon Street became a bustling commercial district. From 1894 to 1930, West End grew rapidly in population and prosperity. An examination of building permits for Peeples, Gordon, Lee and Lawton Streets shows a large number of single family residences being built and increasing commercial buildings and churches going up along Gordon and at the long established business district at Gordon and Lee.National and local prosperity and the mobility created by the automobile in the 1920s helped West End to grow. Approximately fifty businesses were now clustered at Gordon and Lee with branches of Sears, Firestone, Piggly-Wiggly, and Goodyear. Churches and schools increased to serve the growing population. Schools began to dot West End, the largest being the 1923 Joseph E. Brown High School at Peeples and Beecher. West End became a desirable suburban community in the 1880s, and grew rapidly in population and prosperity, so that by 1930 there were more than 22,000 residents. Notable residents included Atlanta mayor Dennis Hammond, Evan Howell,governor James Smith (1872-77), John Conley (son of Governor Benjamin Conley), Thomas Stokes (founding partner of Davison's Department Store), L. Z. Rosser (president of the Atlanta Board of Education), J. P. Allen (clothing store owner), T. D. Longino (medical doctor and alderman), J. N. McEachern (insurance executive), as well as several authors such as Frank L. Stanton, Madge Bigham and [[Joel Chandler Harris]], known for his Uncle Remus Tales. Both during his life and up to the present, Harris has perhaps been West End's most famous resident. He attracted such figures as President Theodore Roosevelt and Andrew Carnegie to Atlanta, the former returning after Harris' death to lecture for the Uncle Remus Memorial Association.

Decline

After 1930, West End was an aging but still vital Atlanta community. This vitality is most clearly evident in the West End Businessmen's Association (originally formed in 1927). In 1937, the Association pushed for extension of the National Housing Act title providing for home modernization loans, and in subsequent decades (1950s and 1960s) for economic accessibility and population stabilization, including segregation. With the group's support, Gordon Street was widened, Interstate 20 was built across West End's northern fringe, and the old business district (along with large amounts of residential housing) was demolished in favor of a mall development. Completed in 1973, the mall's accessibility was later augmented by part of the city's latest transportation system, a MARTA station, across the street. The West End Businessmen's Association obviously was successful in many areas, but it failed in stopping "white flight" and the movement of blacks into the community. By 1976, West End was eighty-six percent black.

Renewal

By the 2000s, much of it still looked blighted but a few bright spots were popping up due to a wave of investment in intown Atlanta beginning to rejuvenate the area. As West End was once described as one of Atlanta's most socially diverse and culturally rich communities, it is again returning to the tradition of its past, as it relates to the regenerating of community value and revitalization. Of particular note was the Candler-Smith Historic Warehouse District, which houses commercial, artist, and residential lofts . The Candler-Smith Historic Warehouses are now known as "The Metropolitan".

Landmarks

The biggest tourist spot here is Joel Chandler Harris Home (Wren's Nest) and . The West End Mall houses small but neighborhood-centric items. It is served by the West End MARTA station and is home to the Atlanta University Center or (AUC) which consists of Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Clark Atlanta University among others.

References

NRHP site

External links

• West End Neighborhood Development
• Wren's Nest
• Hammonds House
• The Metropolitan
• Spelman College
• Morehouse College