Sweet Auburn Historic District | |
 Auburn Avenue, toward the Old Fourth Ward | |
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| Location | Atlanta,Georgia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 33°45′17″N84°22′53″W / 33.75483°N 84.38131°W /33.75483; -84.38131 |
| Area | 19 acres (7.7 ha) |
| Built | 1865 |
| Architectural style | Late 19th- & 20th-Century Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 76000631 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | December 8, 1976[1] |
| Designated NHLD | December 8, 1976[2] |
TheSweet Auburn Historic District is a historicAfrican-American neighborhood along and surrounding Auburn Avenue, east ofdowntown Atlanta,Georgia, United States. The name Sweet Auburn was coined byJohn Wesley Dobbs, referring to the "richest Negro street in the world," one of the largest concentrations ofAfrican-American businesses in the United States.
ANational Historic Landmark District was designated in 1976, covering 19 acres (7.7 ha) of the neighborhood, significant for its history and development as a segregated area under the state'sJim Crow laws. Sweet Auburn was also added to theNational Register of Historic Places the same year.
Sweet Auburn is one of 242 officially recognizedneighborhoods of Atlanta. It is bounded by:
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The first settlement here was on land formerly occupied by Union troops and was calledShermantown for many years. It developed quickly being near theGeorgia Railroad and in 1879 was at the endpoint of a newly graded road called simplyBoulevard, which led from the railroad toNorth Avenue nearPonce de Leon Avenue and Angier Springs.
The rise of Auburn Avenue as "the" black business district in Atlanta was to a great extent an outcome of the 1906Atlanta Race Riot. Prior to this time black businesses operated largely in downtown Atlanta — a business district integrated as far as business ownership was concerned. But competition between working-class whites and blacks for jobs and housing gave rise to fears and tensions. In 1906, print media fueled these tensions with hearsay about alleged sexual assaults on white women by black men, triggering the riot, which left at least 27 people dead[3] (25 of them black) and over 70 injured.[4]
Black businesses started to move from previously integrated business district downtown to the relative safety of the area around theAtlanta University Center west of downtown, and to Auburn Avenue in theFourth Ward east of downtown. "Sweet" Auburn Avenue became home toAlonzo Herndon'sAtlanta Mutual, the city's first black-owned life insurance company, and to a celebrated concentration of black businesses, newspapers, churches, and nightclubs. In 1956,Fortune magazine called Sweet Auburn "the richest Negro street in the world", a phrase originally coined by civil rights leaderJohn Wesley Dobbs from the poemThe Deserted Village byOliver Goldsmith.[5][6] Sweet Auburn and Atlanta'sblack colleges formed the nexus of a prosperousblack middle class andupper class which arose despite enormous social and legal obstacles.
Sweet Auburn was designated aNational Historic Landmark in 1976.[2][7] However, like so many otherinner-city neighborhoods, Sweet Auburn fell victim to lack ofinvestment, heavy, widespreadcrime,homelessness, andabandonment, compounded by construction of theDowntown Connectorfreeway that split it in two. In 1992 theNational Trust for Historic Preservation recognized that it was one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places and, in 2005, theGeorgia Trust for Historic Preservation included the area in its 2006 list ofPlaces in Peril. The Historic District Development Corporation (HDDC) was formed to turn the trend around, starting with houses surrounding the birth home of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr., and working outward. In 2014, the city of Atlanta completed the installation of theAtlanta Streetcar, a line that creates a loop connecting theMartin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park to downtown and the tourist attractions ofCentennial Olympic Park. The streetcar travels east alongEdgewood Avenue and west along Auburn Avenue.
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Severalchurches located along the avenue, such asBig Bethel AME and First Congregational, helped build and maintain the heritage of the street.Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, located just off the avenue, was also a significant force as the firstBlack Catholic parish in the city.
The Royal Peacock Club provided an elegant setting where many African Americans could perform and bring the changing styles of black popular music to Atlanta. Originally called the Top Hat Club when it opened in 1938, the club hosted local talent and national acts such asB.B. King,the Four Tops,the Tams and Atlanta's ownGladys Knight.
One of the many significant commercial buildings within the district is theAtlanta Life Insurance Company. The second-largest black insurance company in the United States, Atlanta Life Insurance was founded in 1905 byAlonzo Herndon, a formerslave fromWalton County, Georgia. The central building of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company complex is aBeaux Arts building facing Auburn Avenue. The district also includes the Rucker Building, Atlanta's first black-ownedoffice building, constructed in 1904 byHenry A. Rucker, a former slave turned businessman and politician.
Also located on Auburn Avenue was TheAtlanta Daily World, the first black-owned dailynewspaper, which was founded here in 1928. (TheAtlanta Daily World is still the nation's longest running African American newspaper.) In 1948, theAtlanta Police Department was integrated, hiring eight blackpolice officers, all of whom were assigned to Auburn Avenue.[8]
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Sweet Auburn celebrates the annualAuburn SpringFest, and in the Fall, the Sweet Auburn Heritage Festival. TheSweet Auburn Heritage Festival is an annual festival held the first weekend in October on Auburn Avenue. Civil rights leaderHosea Williams founded the first festival in 1984.Charles Johnson founded the festival in 1994 as a way to celebrate the African American achievements as established on Auburn Avenue. The festival offers food, art, and entertainment throughout the day while celebrating Auburn Avenue's past and growth, and is operated by the Sweet Auburn Committee.
The festival's entertainment varies from comedians to up and coming artists from diverse genres of music.[10] The Sweet Auburn Heritage Festival searches for entertainment from cities such as Atlanta, Macon, Savannah, Augusta, Huntsville and Chattanooga in hopes to help non- established artist's path to stardom. Artist such asUsher Raymond,Outkast,India.Arie, andRaven-Symoné have started out performing on stage at the festival. Ultimately, the Sweet Auburn Heritage Festival entertainment has grown much farther than originally anticipated from its beginning stages in 1984.
Edgewood Avenue which runs through the heart of Sweet Auburn has become a hotspot for viewing forstreet art in Atlanta. Works by international artists such asSten Lex and local artists such as Dr. Dax and Chris Veal can be found on Edgewood Avenue and the surrounding streets. Several of the Sweet Auburn murals can be found on theAtlanta Street Art Map.[11]
The neighborhood is home to theAuburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History.
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This article incorporates text from theNational Park Service website, a work of the U.S. government, and therefore in thepublic domain.
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help) andAccompanying seven photos, from 1976 (32 KB)
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