Inman Park is an
intown neighborhood
A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...
on the
east side of
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
, and its first
planned suburb
Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. Some researchers regard the evolution of forethought - the cap ...
. It was named for
Samuel M. Inman.
History
Today's neighborhood of Inman Park includes areas that were originally designated:
* Inman Park proper (today the Inman Park Historic District)
* Moreland Park (today the Inman Park-Moreland Historic District)
* part of
Copenhill Park (properties on Atlantis, the south side of Highland, and the north sides of Sinclair and a block of Austin)
* former industrial areas on the western side, now
mixed-use development
Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...
s including
Inman Park Village and North Highland Steel
The area was part of the battlefield in the
Battle of Atlanta
The Battle of Atlanta took place during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War on July 22, 1864, just southeast of Atlanta, Georgia. Continuing their summer campaign to seize the important rail and supply hub of Atlanta, Union forces ...
in 1864.
Atlanta's first streetcar suburb
Inman Park (proper) was planned in the late 1880s by
Joel Hurt, a civil engineer and real-estate developer who intended to create a rural oasis connected to the city by the first of
Atlanta's electric streetcar lines, along
Edgewood Avenue. The East Atlanta Land Company acquired and developed more than 130 acres east of the city and Hurt named the new suburb for his friend and business associate,
Samuel M. Inman.
Joseph Forsyth Johnson was hired as landscape designer for Inman Park who included curvilinear street designs and liberal usage of open spaces in his planning.
The ''
Atlanta Constitution
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' (''AJC'') is an American daily newspaper based in Atlanta metropolitan area, metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Jo ...
'' in 1896 grandly described Inman Park:
High up above the city, where the purest breezes and the brightest sunshine drove away the germs of disease, and where nature had lavished her best gifts, the gentlemen who conceived the thought of Inman Park found the locality above all others which they desired. It was to be a place of homes, of pretty homes, green lawns, and desirable inhabitants. And all save those who would make desirable residents have been excluded. ... It's the prettiest, highest, healthiest and most desirable locality I ever saw. Everybody is friendly and neighborly. ... And as far as accessibility it ranks second to no residence portion of the city. We have three car lines and frequent schedules.
Like new developments throughout the United States at the time, but in stark contrast to the attitudes prevalent in the neighborhood today, Inman Park was conceived of and promoted as a segregated community.
Moreland Park was by contrast developed as a more traditional, incremental building of sub-divisions as opposed to the grand plan for Inman Park proper.
Decline
The arrival of the automobile allowed upper class Atlantans to live in suburbs farther north from downtown workplaces, such as
Morningside and what is now considered
Buckhead
Buckhead is the wikt:uptown, uptown commercial and residential district of the city of Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, comprising approximately the northernmost fifth of the city. Buckhead is the third largest business district within ...
. Inman Park became less fashionable and the exuberant Victorian architecture came to seem dated. The mansions came to be subdivided into apartments.
Similar to other intown neighborhoods such as
Virginia Highland, Inman Park fell to blight during the white middle and upper class exodus to the northern suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s, and was:
an economically depressed neighborhood of mostly blue-collar white folks, elderly couples who could not afford to move out and families on disability and welfare. They lived in rented bungalows or big houses chopped up into tiny roach-infested apartments.
Atlanta's first intown neighborhood to gentrify
Driving through the neighborhood on his way to appraise stained glass windows in the doomed home of Judge Durwood T. Pye on Poplar Circle, Robert Griggs was smitten by the extraordinary architecture of the
Beath-Dickey House, then a dilapidated multi-unit rental property. He and his partner, Robert Aiken, bought the house and restored it to a single-family dwelling. They were followed by others who restored homes; founded Inman Park Restoration, the neighborhood association; and created a neighborhood newsletter, a garden club to rehabilitate public spaces, and a pre-school. To publicize the progress they were making, they began a Tour of Homes with a small festival, which has grown into the hugely popular Inman Park Festival, held each spring.
Freeway revolt against I-485
During this same period, there was an intense fight against the
I-485 freeway which was to be built through the neighborhood, although many properties in Inman Park, as well as the entire neighboring neighborhood of
Copenhill, were torn down in preparation for freeway construction.
Inman Park today
After decades of restoration and renewal, Inman Park is now regarded as a highly desirable intown neighborhood with a mixture of rental and owner-occupied houses and condominiums. Built up as it was over decades, the neighborhood housing now ranges from tiny mill town shotguns to the Victorian mansions of the original development, intermixed with bungalows of all sizes built during the first three decades of the 20th century. Like its housing, the makeup of Inman Park has changed since its inception, with a population that is 25% non-white and of varying economic levels—although increasing housing prices are beginning to force more economic homogeneity.
Since the beginning of its renewal, inclusivity and a strong sense of community have distinguished Inman Park. The neighborhood association has always welcomed renters and homeowners alike, with nominal annual dues, while the Inman Park Festival, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors every spring, brings residents together to produce the largest all-volunteer festival in Georgia. The Festival's centerpiece is the Tour of Homes, which showcases the wide variety of sizes and types of residences in the neighborhood.
Former industrial areas on the west side of the neighborhood have been redeveloped into
mixed-use complexes. The former
General Pipe and Foundry site is now North Highland Steel and th
Mead paper plantsite is now
Inman Park Village. In the early 1990s the former Atlanta Stove Works was transformed by swapping out two letters of its name and became the Atlanta Stage Works, a film and media production center that eventually housed the early
Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry Jr., September 13, 1969) is an American actor, filmmaker, and playwright. He is the creator and performer of Madea, Mabel "Madea" Simmons, a tough elderly woman, and also portrays her brother Joe Simmons and her ...
film studios and the National AIDS Quilt. In 2015 it was converted into a mixed-use office and restaurant space, to be added to the space across Krog Street to form the
Krog Street Market.
Geography
Inman Park is bordered by:
[Google Maps]
*the
BeltLine Eastside Trail on the west, across which lies the
Old Fourth Ward
The Old Fourth Ward, often abbreviated O4W, is an Intown Atlanta, intown neighborhood on the Eastside (Atlanta), eastside of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The neighborhood is best known as the location of the Martin Luther King Jr. National H ...
*
Freedom Parkway on the north, across which lies
Poncey-Highland
*
Moreland Avenue on the east, across which lies
Candler Park
Candler Park is a 55-acre (223,000 m2) city park located at 585 Candler Park Drive NE, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is named after Coca-Cola magnate Asa Griggs Candler, who donated this land to the city in 1922. The park features a ...
*DeKalb Avenue on the south, across which lie
Cabbagetown and
Reynoldstown
Reynoldstown is a Historic districts in the United States, historic district and Intown Atlanta, intown neighborhood on the near Eastside, Atlanta, east side of Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, located two miles from downtown.
Histor ...
Little Five Points district is located where Inman Park and Candler Park meet at Moreland Avenue and Euclid/McClendon.
[
]
Architecture
Image:House_Inman_Park.jpg, Woodruff House
Image:House_Inman_Park 2.jpg, Victorian House with late 20th Century adornments added before historic zoning
Image:House_Inman_Park 3.jpg, Four-Square with Greek Revival columns added in 1970s (before historic zoning)
Image:House_Inman_Park 4.jpg, "The Castle" Romanesque Revival house
Image:Beath-Dickey House 2011.jpg, Beath-Dickey House
Image:Candler Mansion Inman Park.jpg, Callan Castle (Candler mansion)
Image:Atlanta etc. 019.jpg, Late 20th Century Arts & Crafts Revival houses
Image:Trolley Barn Inman Park.jpg, Trolley Barn
Image:Park in Inman Park.jpg, Springvale Park
File:Kriegshaber House Atlanta.JPG, Kriegshaber House (Wrecking Bar Brewpub)
Inman Park contains Atlanta's best collection of residential architecture from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Styles include Queen Anne, high-style Italianate and Romanesque mansion as well as smaller bungalows, shotguns, and foursquares. Inman Park was Atlanta's first example of a garden suburb, with great attention paid to street layout, parks and other public space, and would inspire other Atlanta garden suburbs such as the Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...
-designed Druid Hills.
There are two historic districts within the Inman Park neighborhoods: the Inman Park historic district, and the Inman Park-Moreland Historic District, originally the separate suburb of Moreland Park.
Notable houses include:
* Beath-Dickey House
* Callan Castle (Candler mansion)
* Kriegshaber House (Wrecking Ball Brewpub)
Other points of interest
*The Krog Street Tunnel
The Krog Street Tunnel is a tunnel in Atlanta known for its street art. Built in 1913, the tunnel links the Cabbagetown (Atlanta), Cabbagetown, Reynoldstown, and Inman Park neighborhoods. It is part of the Eastside Trail of the BeltLine for bicyc ...
under the CSX Railroad connects Inman Park with Cabbagetown and is famous for street art
Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art.
Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant gr ...
.
* Krog Street Market is a gourmet food hall
A food hall is a large standalone location or department store section where food and drinks are sold.
Overview
Unlike food courts made up of fast food chains, food halls typically mix local artisan restaurants, butcher shops and other food- ...
* Edgewood Avenue in both Inman Park and Old Fourth Ward is a restaurant street that has been gaining acclaim especially since 2013.
* Highland Avenue connects Inman Park to the Poncey Highland and Virginia Highland neighborhoods. The Highland Avenue corridor offers dozens of local restaurants and shops.
* St. Hilda's was built in 1939 as a Baptist church, and since 1978 has been a parish of the Anglican Catholic Church.
Parks
Parks in Inman Park include Springvale Park, a pet project of Joel Hurt and designed by the Olmsted Brothers
The Olmsted Brothers company was a Landscape architecture, landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape ar ...
. Part of Freedom Park
In the Philippines, a freedom park is a centrally located public space where political gatherings, rallies and demonstrations may be held without the need of prior permission from government authorities. Similar to free speech zones in the United ...
lies in the neighborhood, which the BeltLine trail also borders. There are also smaller parks: Delta Park, Inman Park, the park in Inman Park Village, and the Bass Recreation Center.
Government
Inman Park is in NPU N. Neighbors participate in the Inman Park Neighborhood Association (IPNA).Inman Park Neighbors Association site
Education
Inman Park residents are served by
Atlanta Public Schools.
Zoned schools include:
Mary Lin Elementary School(located in nearby
Candler Park
Candler Park is a 55-acre (223,000 m2) city park located at 585 Candler Park Drive NE, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is named after Coca-Cola magnate Asa Griggs Candler, who donated this land to the city in 1922. The park features a ...
)
*
Inman Middle School
*
Midtown High School
Transportation
MARTA runs bus service and rail service. The
Inman Park / Reynoldstown MARTA station is located at the south end of the neighborhood.
References
External links
Inman Park Neighborhood AssociationAtlanta City Council resolution (2002) to expand the historic district contains detailed information about Inman Park history and architecture
New Georgia Encyclopedia
Sketches of prominent Inman Park homes, 1895Atlanta, Georgia, a National Park Service ''Discover Our Shared Heritage'' Travel Itinerary
{{Historic Districts in Metro Atlanta
Neighborhoods in Atlanta
Historic districts in Metro Atlanta
Streetcar suburbs
Queen Anne architecture in Georgia (U.S. state)
Shingle Style architecture in Georgia (U.S. state)
Colonial Revival architecture in Georgia (U.S. state)
Historic mansion districts
Bungalow architecture in Georgia (U.S. state)
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state)
National Register of Historic Places in Atlanta