44-528: The Pappenheimer Mansion , later the Ponce de Leon Infirmary , then Midtown Hospital , was located at 144 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE in Midtown Atlanta , on the north side between Piedmont and Juniper streets. Furniture magnate Oscar Pappenheimer (1861-1917) built his first house on the site around 1900, which burned down in 1914. Pappenheimer rebuilt almost immediately, including a famous music room which contained
88-537: A "black area" according to the City. The "black area" in 1957 also added North Ave. and Kennesaw Ave. along its northern edge. By 1963, four additional blocks along the western edge between Piedmont and Courtland had become a black residential area. At this point, all but a few blocks of today's Old Fourth Ward were black residential areas. Then in the 1960s, Buttermilk Bottom , was razed to make way for urban redevelopment projects and rechristened "Bedford Pine". However, most of
132-400: A "white area" according to the City. There was also a black "island" within the northeastern quarter on the site of today's Historic Fourth Ward Park Retention Pond. By 1957, the black residential area had expanded eastwards four blocks, into the area bounded by Parkway on the west, North Ave. on the north, Glen Iris Dr. on the east, and East Ave. on the south. Thus, all of Boulevard was now
176-673: A former rail bridge which is part of the BeltLine trail, after which it forms the border between the Poncey-Highland neighborhood to the south and Virginia-Highland to the north. After the now-redeveloped Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant bordering the BeltLine, it passes the Clermont Hotel and Clermont Lounge and then the north end of Freedom Parkway , where it also picks up the route designation Georgia 10 east. It then passes 725 Ponce ,
220-462: A mixed-use development on the former site of a supermarket nicknamed " Murder Kroger ". A few blocks further east is the intersection with North Highland Avenue (from which the name of Poncey-Highland is derived), and at this intersection are found the historic Plaza Theatre and Briarcliff Hotel , designed by the same architect as Atlanta City Hall and once home to Coca-Cola heir Asa G. Candler Jr. Druid Hills Presbyterian Church , despite
264-644: A patchwork of whites living as close neighbors with blacks. The Ward was home to the spectrum of races but also socioeconomic classes: 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, even as the Buttermilk Bottom slum festered less than half a mile west. However, after the Great Atlanta fire of 1917 , Boulevard's grand houses were destroyed and replaced by brick apartment buildings. As with most of Intown Atlanta ,
308-558: A pipe organ as well as two grand pianos. Interest in classical music waned in the 1890s through 1910s and Pappenheimer was credited as being one of the sole forces encouraging the performance of chamber music in Atlanta. For more than three decades, informal concerts were given in his music room. The Pappenheimer family lived in the house until the 1930s, after which the house was used as a fraternity house for Georgia Tech students. By 1941 it had become an ear, nose and throat hospital called
352-457: A separate recognized neighborhood called Sweet Auburn . The neighborhood can be divided into three areas, with Freedom Parkway and Boulevard serving as dividing lines. The area north of Freedom Parkway and east of Boulevard is home to the 2.1 million sq. ft. Ponce City Market , a mixed-use development , and Historic Fourth Ward Park , a product of the BeltLine project. In the 2010s, many new multi-family developments have been built bordering
396-409: 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 that endured into the 2010s, despite gentrification to the north, south, east and west of the street. Gentrification of
440-559: Is also an exit at mile 40 off Interstate 285 ("the Perimeter") north. The only way to access I-285 south is to exit onto Church Street, since this is a split diamond interchange , and the two roads run parallel to each other separated by a railroad line. Ponce de Leon Avenue in the City of Atlanta is included in the Ponce/Moreland Corridors Plan as part of the city's comprehensive development plan. As of April 2011 ,
484-464: Is an intown neighborhood on the eastside of Atlanta , Georgia, United States. The neighborhood is best known as the location of the Martin Luther King Jr. historic site . The Old Fourth Ward's borders: The exception is the area west of Boulevard and south of Freedom Parkway which, although historically part of Atlanta's Fourth Ward (see Atlanta annexations and wards ), is considered
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#1732855831974528-532: Is not pronounced as in Spanish . Several grand and historic buildings are located on the avenue. The original street extended eastward from Peachtree Street and was called Ponce de Leon Circle. In August 1872, a horsecar line that went from downtown Atlanta up Peachtree to Pine, was extended to Ponce de Leon Circle. At some point later , it was extended to Ponce de Leon Springs , where the Ponce de Leon amusement park would be built; today, Ponce City Market (formerly
572-623: 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. 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
616-466: Is today the Old Fourth Ward had been a black residential area since the late 19th or early 20th century. The black residential area between downtown Atlanta and Bedford Place (now Central Park Place) was called Buttermilk Bottom , and to its south was the black business and residential district of Sweet Auburn . To the east of Sweet Auburn, Boulevard south of what is today the AMC remained a white street through
660-609: The Edward C. Peters House , Ponce forms the border of NRHP -listed Historic Midtown to the north and Old Fourth Ward to the south. Here are found the historic Mary Mac's Tea Room , the Kodak Building , the Atlanta Eagle , Atlanta's original Krispy Kreme store, and Grace United Methodist Church . After drifting toward the east-northeast, it passes Boulevard (which continues north as Monroe Drive), and after Glen Iris Drive it passes
704-743: The Georgia Department of Transportation has decided to begin the design of safety improvements for pedestrians on the two-mile stretch of Ponce between Piedmont and N. Highland/Moreland. Changes proposed include the conversion of an eastbound traffic lane into a two-way left-turn lane and bike lanes in both directions. The land would include intermittent traffic islands and "HAWK" pedestrian crossing signals at selected crosswalks where no traffic signals currently exist. 33°46′29.6″N 84°20′35″W / 33.774889°N 84.34306°W / 33.774889; -84.34306 Old Fourth Ward The Old Fourth Ward , often abbreviated O4W ,
748-502: The Georgia Power headquarters, and public housing projects. Bedford Pine was officially absorbed into the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, whose boundaries officially extend west to Piedmont Avenue. Boulevard itself, in the 1890s described as "one of the most desirable residence streets in the city," has for decades been notorious citywide as a center of crime and drug activity, as well as the highest concentration of Section 8 housing in
792-462: The Ponce de Leon Infirmary , founded by Dr. Murdock Equen. In 1977 it became Midtown Hospital , which specialized in second trimester abortions, performing the largest number of abortions of any institution in the state, more than 7000 in 1996. By the 1980s conditions in the hospital had deteriorated, conditions had become overcrowded and unsanitary and in 1988 the State of Georgia closed it. The mansion
836-459: The 1910s. However the side streets became increasingly black, due to black Atlantans moving eastwards, seeking to consolidate their businesses and residences into safe, primarily black areas after the Atlanta race riot of 1906. On Boulevard itself, Morris Brown College has been founded in 1885 at the intersection of Boulevard and Houston St. (now John Wesley Dobbs Ave.) and in 1922 expanded, acquiring
880-568: The 1950s and 1960s, and large parking lot areas and new buildings built away from the street made Ponce lose much of the walkability that it had - and its focus gave way fully to automobile traffic. Though a renaissance was beginning in the 1970s, Ponce still was renowned for prostitution, drug sales, but also for its eclectic character up to the turn of the 21st century, celebrated in books such as George Mitchell's Ponce Deleon : An Intimate Portrait of Atlanta's Most Famous Avenue and Sharon Foster's Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Avenue: A History . Today,
924-420: The Old Fourth Ward 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. The area, which remains majority black, has seen a huge influx of whites in recent decades. The trend began in the 1980s, and from 1980 to 2000,
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#1732855831974968-485: The Old Fourth Ward (from the MLK Memorial eastwards) to an overwhelmingly black residential area. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the City of Atlanta was still highly segregated, and as part of city planning, the City still concerned itself with designating certain neighborhoods for white or black residential use. A City map from that era shows, that in 1951, the black residential area in today's Old Fourth Ward consisted of
1012-488: The Old Fourth Ward declined precipitously during the 1950s and 1960s as wealthier residents moved further out from central neighborhoods. 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 Freedom Parkway occupying what had once been multiple city blocks. Boulevard in particular witnessed
1056-545: The Old Fourth Ward. Several examples of street art in the Old Fourth Ward are found on the Atlanta Street Art Map . The MARTA Green Line runs east-west at the south end of the neighborhood, although there is no station in O4W itself. King Memorial station is to the west and Inman Park / Reynoldstown station is to the east. The Atlanta Streetcar line starts just west of the neighborhood. Several MARTA bus lines serve
1100-474: The Sears building, then City Hall East) stands on the site. Finally in 1889, the line was electrified and extended with the "loop" around what is now Virginia-Highland . West of Peachtree Street were Kimball Street and 2nd Street, portions of which were renamed Ponce de Leon Avenue. (See maps at Atlanta annexations .) In the 1890s-1910s, Ponce de Leon between Midtown and Moreland Avenue (the border of Druid Hills )
1144-579: The Southeastern United States. However, in January 2012, City Councilman Kwanza Hall revealed a seven-point "Year of Boulevard" strategy to revitalize the corridor. The largest concentration of single family homes are found south of Freedom Parkway, especially south of Irwin Street, and the area is perhaps the most eclectic part of O4W. Auburn Avenue and Old Wheat Streets are in character extensions of
1188-539: The area west of Boulevard went from 12% to 30% white and the area east of Boulevard went from 2% to 20% white. Total 2010 population of the Old Fourth Ward is 10,505. For census tracts 17 and 29, which cover the area south of North Ave., west of the BeltLine, north of Edgewood Ave., and east of Jackson/Parkway (thus including Boulevard), the racial mix has changed as shown: Source: 2000 and 2010 Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File accessed on US Census Bureau "U.S. Census website" site Most of what
1232-455: The area west of Parkway and everything south of (but not including) North Ave., as well as the area east of Parkway south of East Ave. The western border of the "black area" jogged from Piedmont to Courtland, roughly the same as the western border of today's Old Fourth Ward. Thus, the black residential area corresponded to all but the northeastern quarter of today's Old Fourth Ward, but did not include Boulevard north of today's AMC , which remained
1276-529: The areas that Ponce passes on its way from Midtown to Druid Hills are largely affluent: Midtown, the Old Fourth Ward where gentrification is well underway, and fully gentrified Poncey-Highland and Virginia-Highland. Sam Venable 's home on the northeast corner of Ponce de Leon Avenue and Oakdale Road was bought in 1959 for $ 60,000 by the St. John's Lutheran Church . Ponce de Leon Avenue begins at Spring Street at
1320-566: The city of Decatur as West Ponce de Leon Avenue. Crossing the centerpoint of downtown at Clairemont Avenue (north) and McDonough Street (south), near city hall and the Decatur MARTA station , it becomes East Ponce de Leon Avenue. It then continues on through Scottdale and downtown Clarkston to become Main Street southward through downtown Stone Mountain, then becoming Stone Mountain Lithonia Road on its way south to Lithonia . It
1364-498: The early 20th century mansions of Atlanta's wealthy including the St. John's Chrysostom Melkite Church along in Druid Hills , Atlanta, 2012, formerly the mansion of Asa Griggs Candler (Senior), and Rainbow Terrace, home of Lucy Beall Candler Owens Heinz Leide at number 1610. The Druid Hills Historic District incorporates the earlier Druid Hills Parks and Parkways Historic District that
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1408-536: The historic African-American business and residential district, Sweet Auburn , and of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site . The Ward’s primary nightlife district is centered on the intersection of Boulevard and Edgewood Avenue, where there is a concentration of bars and restaurants. The eastern border is the BeltLine Eastside Trail , lined with repurposed industrial buildings such as Studioplex, now used for residential and retail use. What
1452-476: The land at the southeast corner of Boulevard and Irwin St. (The college later moved to its present location at the Atlanta University Center ). From then on through the 1940s many of the fine homes on the south end of Boulevard began to be purchased by prominent African-American "doctors, bishops, ministers [and]...attorneys", thus completing the consolidation of what is now the southeastern quarter of
1496-429: The land remained empty until the mid-1980s when new residential communities were built on the land, with a mix of incomes and races. Thus the western end of today's Old Fourth Ward became racially diverse. Two of the city's iconic walking and biking trails intersect in the neighborhood: Historic Fourth Ward Park and Skate Park opened in phases starting in 2011 and includes an attractive retention pond. The area around
1540-409: The name, is also located in this area, across the street from Briarcliff Plaza . After crossing the intersection of Georgia 42 ( Moreland Avenue south and Briarcliff Road north), it gets a sixth route number : U.S. 23 north. Although still within Atlanta city limits , it also crosses the county line from Fulton into DeKalb at this street and enters the Druid Hills neighborhood. Here are
1584-614: The north side of the hulking former Sears building, later used as City Hall East, and now as Ponce City Market , a food hall and mixed-use complex . Before Sears, the Ponce de Leon Amusement Park was located here. On the north side of Ponce is the Midtown Place strip mall , on the site of the Ponce de Leon ballpark , which was home to the Atlanta Crackers and Atlanta Black Crackers baseball teams. Ponce de Leon Avenue then passes under
1628-536: The park has since mushroomed with large apartment buildings. Other parks include: The Old Fourth Ward is one of Atlanta's best neighborhoods for viewing street art. Some of the best locations to view street art in the Old Fourth Ward include Decatur St., Edgewood Ave. and on and around the Eastside Trail of the Atlanta Beltline . The Outerspace Project is responsible for bringing many works of street art to
1672-482: The park, including BOHO4W, AMLI Ponce Park, and 755 North. The BeltLine Eastside Trail is the eastern border of this area. The area west of Boulevard and north of Freedom Parkway was once called Bedford Pine , and, prior to the 1960s, it was a slum called Buttermilk Bottom . In the 1960s, slum housing gave way to massive urban renewal and the construction of large projects, such as the Atlanta Civic Center ,
1716-525: The south edge of Midtown Atlanta , though prior to the construction of the Downtown Connector , it started a block further west at Williams Street (across from Georgia Tech , one block east of Bobby Dodd Stadium ) It passes West Peachtree Street and then Peachtree Street , the city block which has the BellSouth Building (now Tower Square) and the historic Fox Theatre on the north side of
1760-478: The south side of the Fernbank Museum of Natural History . A third segment called North Ponce de Leon Avenue surrounds a heavily forested county park called Deepdene Park , and on its south side, mainline Ponce de Leon Avenue loses U.S. 278 and Georgia 10 at a split with East Lake Road. After a northward curve, it loses its other four route numbers at a split with Scott Boulevard, and continues eastward into
1804-415: The street. At the next two intersections, it takes multiple numbered routes from North Avenue , which runs one block to the south and forms the boundary between Midtown and downtown Atlanta . Via one-way Juniper Street southbound and Piedmont Avenue (formerly part of Georgia 237 ) northbound, it gets U.S. 29 north, U.S. 78 east, U.S. 278 east, and Georgia 8 east. Passing Piedmont Avenue and
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1848-525: Was demolished in 1999 and the Marq on Ponce apartment complex now occupies the site. Ponce de Leon Avenue [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Ponce de Leon Avenue ( / ˌ p ɒ n s d ə ˈ l iː ə n / PONSS də LEE -ən ), often simply called Ponce , provides a link between Atlanta , Decatur , Clarkston , and Stone Mountain, Georgia . It was named for Ponce de Leon Springs , in turn from explorer Juan Ponce de León , but
1892-481: Was listed on the National Register in 1975, specifically recognizing the parks and parkways along Ponce de Leon Avenue. The road begins to gradually curve back and forth, and is followed on its south side by South Ponce de Leon Avenue, the land between them being Oak Grove Park . A second segment of linear park is called Dellwood Park , and around Clifton Road it finally leaves the city, just before passing
1936-402: Was one of the city's premier residential streets lined with large houses of the city's elite. With the arrival of the automobile, the richest families started to move further out, to what is today Buckhead , to Ansley Park and to Druid Hills. Upscale apartment buildings started to appear on the boulevard. Ponce, as did much of the city, lost many of its middle- to upper-middle-class residents in
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