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| Peachtree Road, Peachtree Boulevard, Peachtree Industrial Boulevard | |
 Peachtree Street indowntown Atlanta | |
| Namesake | Standing Peachtree, named in turn for apeach tree orpine ("pitch") tree |
|---|---|
| Length | 18.02 mi (29.00 km) |
| Component highways | |
| South end | Memorial Drive SW / Cooper Street SW / Whitehall Street SW / Forsyth Street SW inSouth Downtown, Atlanta |
| Major junctions | |
| North end |  SR 141 inDoraville |
Peachtree Street is one of several major streets running through the city ofAtlanta, Georgia, United States. Beginning atFive Points indowntown Atlanta, it runs North throughMidtown; a few blocks after entering intoBuckhead, the name changes toPeachtree Road at Palisades Road. Much of thecity'shistoric and noteworthy architecture is located along the street, and it is often used for annualparades, (such as the Atlanta St. Patrick's Day Parade and AtlantaChristmas Parade), as well as one-time parades celebrating events such as the 100thanniversary ofCoca-Cola in 1986 and theAtlanta Braves'1995 and2021 World Series victories.
Atlanta grew on a site occupied by theCreek people, which included a major village called Standing Peachtree. There is some dispute over whether the Creek settlement was called Standing Peachtree or StandingPitch Tree, corrupted later topeach.[1]
A trail known as the Peachtree Trail stretched fromnortheast Georgia to Standing Pitch Tree along theChattahoochee River.[2] The original Peachtree Road began in 1812 atFort Daniel located at Hog Mountain in present-dayGwinnett County and ran along the course of the trail to the Chattahoochee. Some portions of the present road trace this route.
After theAmerican Civil War a shantytown namedTight Squeeze developed at Peachtree at what is now 10th Street inMidtown Atlanta. It was infamous for vagrancy, desperation, and robberies of merchants transiting the settlement.[3][4]
In 1867, the name ofWhitehall Street, the original road to White Hall Tavern in today'sWest End neighborhood, was changed to Peachtree Street from Marietta Street south to the railroad crossing (now "gulch") just north of Alabama Street.[5] Later in the 1980s,[6] the portion ofWhitehall Street from Five Points south to Forsyth Street and Memorial Drive, a major shopping district from the Civil War through mid-20th century, was renamed Peachtree Street SE.
In 2007,Atlanta mayorShirley Franklin unveiled a $1 billion, 20-year plan to transform Peachtree Street with streetscape upgrades, public parks, buried utilities, and the addition of astreetcar, based on a sixteen-month study by thePeachtree Corridor Partnershiptask force.[7][8]
The Peachtree name is common throughout the Atlanta area. In fact, it is often joked by natives that half of the streets in Atlanta are named Peachtree, and the other half have five names to make up for it.[citation needed] While “Peachtree” alone almost always refers to this street or its continuations, there are 71 streets in Atlanta with a variant of “Peachtree” in their name.[9] Some include:
Peachtree is also seen in place names:
West Peachtree Street is not a western branch of Peachtree Street, but a major parallel (and unlike Peachtree, almost perfectly straight) due north–south street running one block west of Peachtree Street through downtown, and mostly two or three blocks west (due to the curves in Peachtree Street) through Midtown. West Peachtree divides the northeast and northwestquadrants of the city and county forstreet addressing purposes.
Where the current Peachtree Street turns to Peachtree Road and briefly heads northwest, it actually crosses West Peachtree, leaving it on the "east" side. It is at this point that theBuford-Spring Connector (Georgia 13) begins, taking the route of oldI-85. The studios ofWSB-TV are located on this section of “West” Peachtree Street[citation needed], which terminates at I-85. TheMARTARed/Gold lines run directly under West Peachtree Street. TheCivic Center MARTA Station is located under West Peachtree street where the road crosses theDowntown Connector (I-75/85) The station is notable as it is among a very small number of subway stations in the world that are simultaneously above a highway and below street level.
The intersection of the two Peachtree streets in downtown formHardy Ivy Park, while in midtown, the intersection formsPershing Point Park.
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From the Buford–Spring Connector north to Roswell Road, Peachtree Street and Peachtree Road carryU.S. Route 19 (US 19) andState Route 9 (SR 9). At a five-wayintersection with East/West Paces Ferry Road at the center of the originalBuckhead Village, US 19 and SR 9 split off onto Roswell Road, whileSR 141 begins on Peachtree instead. South of the connector, US 19 and SR 9 continue on twoone-way streets: West Peachtree Street northbound and Spring Street southbound.
Peachtree meets Piedmont Road (SR 237) between Buckhead Village and Lenox Square. Besides the southwestern terminus ofSR 13 (mentioned above) the only other major intersection in Atlanta is atNorth Avenue, which carriesUS 29,US 78,US 278, andSR 8.
There are no directhighway interchanges from Peachtree to theDowntown Connector (I-75/I-85), I-85 itself, orSR 400freeways, all of which it crosses.
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Many of Atlanta's most prominent buildings andlandmarks are located along Peachtree Street. In downtown,191 Peachtree Tower,Georgia-Pacific Tower,Westin Peachtree Plaza andSunTrust Plaza all line Peachtree. In Midtown,Bank of America Plaza, Atlanta's tallest building, is a block south of the"Fabulous" Fox Theatre, a grandmovie palace completed in 1929.
AuthorMargaret Mitchell was killed by aspeeding car in 1949 while crossing Peachtree Street as apedestrian at the intersection with 13th Street. Mitchell wrote her classicGone With the Wind in thebasement apartment of aboarding house at the corner of 10th Street and Peachtree Street. That house is now amuseum and is located across 10th Street from theFederal Reserve Bank of Atlanta which serves thesoutheastern United States. The film debuted at theLoew's Grand Theatre, at the corner of Peachtree and Forsyth Street, where theGeorgia-Pacific Building now stands.
Office buildings1100 Peachtree (formerly owned and occupied byBellSouth) and1180 Peachtree, home to major law firms, are prominent business addresses. The heart of Atlanta's arts scene is found just north on Peachtree where theWoodruff Arts Center, including theHigh Museum of Art,Atlanta Symphony,Alliance Theatre Company, and the Atlantacampus of theSavannah College of Art & Design are located.
Although most have beendemolished, there are still several historic buildings left along Peachtree in Buckhead. Several of these are stores, in single-story brick buildings constructed well before theannexation of Buckhead in 1952.
Northeast of thecity limit, the road goes throughBrookhaven and passesOglethorpe University. Upon enteringChamblee, the road splits into Peachtree Industrial Boulevard and Peachtree Road. Peachtree Road becomes a two-lane road that travels farther east towardsDoraville, while Peachtree Industrial Boulevard continues more on a more northerly trajectory (as Georgia 141) towardsDunwoody andPeachtree Corners.
The Buckhead shopping district features many high-end retailers, concentrated in thePhipps Plaza andLenox Square malls.Buckhead Atlanta (formerly "Streets of Buckhead") is a mixed-use development that opened in 2014. The "Midtown Mile" was a concept to make part of Peachtree in Midtown like theMagnificent Mile inChicago.[citation needed]
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Atlantans are often convinced that theridge followed by Peachtree Street is part of theEastern Continental Divide. While Peachtree Street is atop aridge,railroadtracks were built on the actual Eastern Continental Divide, which follows DeKalb Avenue fromDecatur toFive Points, then turns southwest toward theAtlanta airport, with the northwest side draining into theChattahoochee orFlint Rivers and therefore into theGulf of Mexico, and the southeast side eventually into theAtlantic Ocean. In 1959, Whitehall Street SW, which meets Peachtree Street NE at Five Points, was renamed "Peachtree Street SW", and the Eastern Continental Divide follows this street, so a small portion of the story may be technically correct. Atlanta's primary water source is the Chattahoochee and much of the water ispumped over the watershed. To balance the river flows, treatedsewage is pumped back to the Chattahoochee.
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