Morningside/Lenox Park is an intown neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia founded in 1923. It is located north of Virginia-Highland, east of Ansley Park and west of Druid Hills. Approximately 3,500 households comprise the neighborhood that includes the original subdivisions of Morningside, Lenox Park, University Park, Noble Park, Johnson Estates and Hylan Park.
The area that became Atlanta was once home to the Muscogee indigenous people. Following the Indian Removal Act in 1832, the Creek National Council signed the Treaty of Cusseta, ceding their remaining lands east of the Mississippi to the U.S., and accepting relocation to the Indian Territory. Most of Atlanta's first settlers were from Northeast Georgia, though others came from the Carolinas and Virginia. Some settled in Easton, a farming community at the present intersection of Piedmont Avenue and Monroe Drive. Industrious farmers whose land lay along major creeks established water-powered saw and grist mills. Easton farmers ginned their cotton and ground their corn at Walker's Mill, across from today's Ansley Mall.[ citation needed ]
In winter 1868, Joel Mable, a devout Scottish Presbyterian, organized the Union Sunday School in the Rock Spring School House. The school was located near the current intersection of Morningside Drive and East Rock Springs Road. Two years later, 27 members organized Rock Spring Presbyterian Church. Their names - Cheshire, Reeder, Luckie, Plaster and others - are familiar to this century's motorists. The first church, a white frame building without a steeple, was built in 1871 on the church's current site at Piedmont Avenue and Rock Springs Road.[ citation needed ]
In 1876, Easton residents began using the Airline Belle, a steam train that ran between Atlanta and Toccoa for 42 years. Commuters boarded the train at a depot near what is today Ansley Mall. By 1888, Easton was 100 residents strong. By 1900, a number of Eastoners commuted to Atlanta by train.
The new century brought many changes. Easton's post office closed in 1904. By 1911, the neighborhoods of today's Ansley Park and Virginia-Highland were under development. That same year, Plaster Bridge Road in front of Walker's Mill was paved; the road was renamed Piedmont Avenue in 1917.
Kimballville Farm was a large farm in the area known for its modern technology and prime livestock. Visitors were invited to come out from Atlanta and spend a leisurely day on the farm and buy livestock or farm products.
Charles Lewis Fowler, a Baptist minister, founded Lanier University on University Drive the same year. The University Park subdivision was developed around the university in 1921, and University Drive is also a reminder of that time. But financial problems plagued the school; in 1921 the property was sold to the Ku Klux Klan, which owned it for a year. Ironically, the owners sold it to a Jewish group, and the structure is now part of the Congregation Shearith Israel synagogue.
Two years later, real estate agents James R. Smith and M.S. Rankin build eight homes establishing Morningside Lenox Park. Advertisements stressed a 70-foot (21 m) wide paved street in front of homes with Murphy beds and a servants' toilet in the basement. Morningside was touted as a "new type of suburb." Commuters traveled to and from their homes by streetcar and, if they were fortunate enough, by car.
The new development prospered after the city annexed the area in 1925.
"The section known as Morningside, one of the newest subdivisions around Atlanta, was experiencing a boom. Many new homes had already been built and many others were under construction. The streetcar line and pavement were being extended out North Highland Avenue from Virginia Avenue to Lanier Place. Kimballville Farm, the fields east of Highland Avenue and the woods west of Highland, were being swiftly replaced by new homes and these were being occupied by young families of industrious, hopeful and friendly people." -Mini-history of Haygood Memorial United Methodist Church (1976)
Also in 1925, developer Byron C. Kistner built a row of shops on North Highland. Original tenants included Shackleford's Pharmacy, Henry's Dry Cleaning, Rogers Brothers Grocery and an A&P. In 1927, construction began on Morningside Shopping Center, the storefront strip on Piedmont just north of Monroe Drive.
The growing neighborhood acquired a school when Morningside Elementary opened in 1929. Originally, the school had six classrooms on the lower floor of the western side of the current building. Enrollment grew, and a new building was commissioned and completed in 1935, providing work for the unemployed during the Depression.
Development of Noble Park, Johnson Estates, and Hylan Park began in 1930. A year later Lenox Park opened (not to be confused with the Lenox Park area built in the 1980s only 5 miles further north), featuring model homes with names like "The Barclay", "The Sussex" and "The Chateau". Atlanta architects Ivey and Crook designed the homes in Lenox Park.
In 1934, the Morningside Civic League beautified the neighborhood by planting crepe myrtles and dogwoods. Postwar housing shortages, coupled with FHA and VA loans, spurred more development after World War II. Residents of heavily Jewish Washington-Rawson and Summerhill neighborhoods south of the State Capitol relocated to northeast Atlanta including Morningside - eventually those old Jewish neighborhoods were demolished to make way for the Downtown Connector freeway and what is now Turner Field and its massive parking lots.
The neighborhood faced a similar threat in the 1960s. In 1965, the Morningside Lenox Park Association (MLPA) was incorporated to fight plans to build I-485 through the neighborhood. By the late '60s, the state had bought property and demolished several homes for road right-of-way. The MLPA banded together with other east Atlanta neighborhoods to block the highway. Thanks to their pressure, the state dropped its plans for I-485 in 1973. The following year, Atlanta enacted a new city charter setting up 24 Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs) to give residents more say in their communities.[ citation needed ]
In 1985, residents renamed Cumberland-Sherwood Park to honor the late Sidney Marcus, a Morningside resident and state representative who helped block the I-485 project. Mr. Marcus also helped secure the land for the park, which the state had cleared to build the highway.
In the late 1980s, an MLPA committee led by David Robertson undertook a "monumental" project on behalf of their neighborhood. They decided to duplicate the Lenox Park marker at 878 Plymouth Road. Built in the 1920s, it was the only monument that remained intact. The committee raised enough funds to repair six existing markers and build 12 new ones. As the Winter 1989 MLPA Newsletter noted: "The new monuments will help define and unify the Morningside-Lenox Park area and will help focus attention on intown residential living and show our 'pride of place.' A unified look will help keep the freeways out of MLPA and show D.O.T. we are here to stay."
The deterioration of Cheshire Bridge Road into a sort of red-light district concerned residents in the late 20th century, with a 1999 city report stating "the Cheshire Bridge Road corridor continues to fail to reach its potential. While thriving residential neighborhoods, an eclectic business mix and many popular establishments mark the area, the corridor remains a seedy and undesirable locale in the collective Atlanta psyche due, in part, to the proliferation of adult businesses and the unkempt nature of the corridor." [1] In 2005 the city banned new adult businesses on Cheshire Bridge, but existing ones were allowed to stay. [2] [3] In 2013, councilman Alex Wan introduced legislation to remove existing adult businesses from Cheshire Bridge by 2018, but this was not passed, opposed by a mix of gays, strippers and Atlanta's real estate interests – including Scott Selig. [4] Some in the gay community wondered if Cheshire Bridge were "sanitized", "where would people go for sexual expression"? [5] Matthew Cardinale, the editor and publisher of Atlanta Progressive News, and resident of the Road, decried "the ongoing project of gentrification, homogenization, sterilization and capitalization of a historic neighborhood," Atlanta's "red-light district ". [2]
The neighborhood is served by the following Atlanta Public Schools campuses:
The neighborhood is served by the following Atlanta Preschools campuses:
In addition to several local parks, the Eastside Trail, part of the BeltLine ring of parks and trails around the central city, borders the neighborhood on the west.
Midtown Atlanta, or Midtown, is a high-density commercial and residential neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. The exact geographical extent of the area is ill-defined due to differing definitions used by the city, residents, and local business groups. However, the commercial core of the area is anchored by a series of high-rise office buildings, condominiums, hotels, and high-end retail along Peachtree Street between North Avenue and 17th Street. Midtown, situated between Downtown to the south and Buckhead to the north, is the second-largest business district in Metro Atlanta. In 2011, Midtown had a resident population of 41,681 and a business population of 81,418.
Sidney Julius Marcus was a Georgia (U.S.) legislator from Atlanta's 26th district, now the 106th district, who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1968 until his death in 1983. He served on several committees: Health and Ecology, on which he was chairman; Ways and Means; and Rules. For several years, Marcus was chairman of Fulton County delegation. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for Mayor of Atlanta in 1981, defeated by Andrew Young. He was a noted Atlanta politician, and active in the Jewish community. His accomplishments included helping to stop the I-485 freeway which threatened several intown neighborhoods. Sidney Marcus attended Atlanta public schools and graduated from the University of Georgia in 1948, as a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. He was a 1955 graduate of the Emory University School of Law. Marcus married Charlotte Glyck of Waycross, GA, and they had three children, Robyn, Bradley and Beth.
Inman Park is an intown neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, and its first planned suburb. It was named for Samuel M. Inman.
Virginia–Highland is an affluent neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, founded in the early 20th century as a streetcar suburb. It is named after the intersection of Virginia Avenue and North Highland Avenue, the heart of its trendy retail district at the center of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is famous for its bungalows and other historic houses from the 1910s to the 1930s. It has become a destination for people across Atlanta with its eclectic mix of restaurants, bars, and shops as well as for the Summerfest festival, annual Tour of Homes and other events.
Ansley Park is an intown residential district in Atlanta, Georgia, located just east of Midtown and west of Piedmont Park. When developed in 1905-1908, it was the first Atlanta suburban neighborhood designed for automobiles, featuring wide, winding roads rather than the grid pattern typical of older streetcar suburbs. Streets were planned like parkways with extensive landscaping, while Winn Park and McClatchey Park are themselves long and narrow, extending deep into the neighborhood.
Clear Creek is a stream in northeast Atlanta that is a tributary to Peachtree Creek and part of the Chattahoochee River watershed. It has two main branches, one originating east of the high ground along which Boulevard runs and another to the west originating on the northeast side of downtown Atlanta. The easterly branch of Clear Creek begins in several springs and branches in what are now Inman Park and the Old Fourth Ward. Flowing north, the creek was joined by other branches and springs, including Angier Springs near the end of Belgrade Avenue and the so-called Ponce de Leon Springs, which were “discovered” during railroad construction in the 1860s and gave rise to the eponymous park and avenue.
Ponce de Leon Avenue, 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 is not pronounced as in Spanish. Several grand and historic buildings are located on the avenue.
Piedmont Heights is an intown neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, founded in the early 20th century as a streetcar suburb. It is located between the BeltLine on the west; across from the Sherwood Forest neighborhood; I-85 on the north, across from an industrial area ; and Piedmont Avenue/Road and Morningside-Lenox Park on the east.
Lindridge/Martin Manor is an intown neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. It consists mostly of the single-family homes located off Lindbergh Drive in between I-85 and Cheshire Bridge Road. In addition, it includes a small commercial area of three streets west of I-85 bounded by Peachtree Creek, Piedmont Road and the Southern railroad. The neighborhood's boundaries are I-85 on the northwest, Morningside-Lenox Park on the south, and North Druid Hills in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia on the east.
Easton was a farming community located at the crossroads of Plaster Bridge Road and Monroe Drive, a location where today, three intown neighborhoods of Atlanta come together: Morningside-Lenox Park, Piedmont Heights and Ansley Park. Farmers took their cotton and corn to Walker's Mill, across from what is now Ansley Mall.
There have been multiple freeway revolts in Atlanta, Georgia. The longest and most famous examples of Interstate opposition were against I-485 and the Stone Mountain Freeway through Intown Atlanta, lasting over 30 years, from the early 1960s until the final construction of Freedom Parkway on a small portion of the contested routes in 1994.
Kimballville Farm was a large farm located east of North Highland Avenue in what is today the Morningside-Lenox Park neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. It was renowned for its large collection of "the finest live stock" and "the most modern equipment". There is a road in the area, Zimmer Avenue, named after the owner as of 1909, Mr. Zimmer. The farm was a landmark in what was then a rural area. Housing tracts were developed on the site of the farm in the 1920s.
Atlanta Georgia includes over 3,000 acres of parkland managed by Parks and Recreation. The 343 Atlanta parks range in scope from formal gardens at Atlanta Botanical Garden to pocket parks in neighborhoods. Additionally, there are six miles of paved pedestrian and bike trails in the Atlanta Beltline as well as the PATH Foundation network of 150 miles of off road trails.
The History of Virginia–Highland, the Intown Atlanta neighborhood, dates back to 1812, when William Zachary bought and built a farm on 202.5 acres (0.819 km2) of land there. At some point between 1888 and 1890 the Nine-Mile Circle streetcar arrived,, making a loop of what are now Ponce de Leon Avenue, North Highland Avenue, Virginia Avenue, and Monroe Drive. Atlantans at first used the line to visit what was then countryside, including Ponce de Leon Springs, but the line also enabled later development in the area. Residential development began as early as 1893 on St. Charles and Greenwood Avenues, must most development took place from 1909 through 1926 — solidly upper-middle class neighborhoods, kept all-white by covenant.
Summerfest is an annual arts festival in the Virginia–Highland neighborhood of Intown Atlanta, taking place on two days in June each year. It is one of the largest art festivals in the Southeastern United States, typically attended by more than 50,000 visitors and showcasing more than 200 artists from across the region.
Highland Avenue, east of the BeltLine North Highland Avenue, is a major thoroughfare in northeast Atlanta, forming a major business corridor connecting five Intown neighborhoods:
Eastside refers to the city district comprising the easternmost portion of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The Eastside generally encompasses the area bounded on the west by Midtown Atlanta and Downtown Atlanta and on the east by the city limits. The central corridor of the district is the BeltLine Eastside Trail, which connects northern Eastside neighborhoods with those to the south. The Eastside is known for its nightlife establishments, craftsman architecture, local eateries, and quirky public art.
Piedmont Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Atlanta, beginning in Downtown Atlanta and ending at its continuation as Piedmont Road just before crossing under Interstate 85. Along the way, Piedmont Avenue passes through Midtown Atlanta where several historic properties are located on the street.
Cheshire Bridge Road is a mainly north–south thoroughfare of Atlanta, Georgia, USA traversing the Morningside-Lenox Park and Lindridge-Martin Manor neighborhoods from Piedmont Avenue to Buford Highway just north of Interstate 85.
