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In the 1950s, young people, including students from Atlanta College of Art, moved in following cheap rent, and the culture of Midtown shifted from elite to bohemian. Peachtree Street had been zoned as commercial, residential options became boarding houses, and the shops around 10th Street transitioned to appeal to the renters nearby. “In regard to wealth, charm, and elegance, the residents of Peachtree between 18 reigned with unquestioned supremacy,” writes historian William Bailey Williford.īy the early 1940s, Atlanta’s elites had moved to other, wealthier neighborhoods in Atlanta. Tight Squeeze was rebranded as North Atlanta. Crime still notorious defined Tight Squeeze until the 1880s, “when County Commissioners used convict labor to fill in the ravine and straighten out Peachtree Road in preparation for the 1887 Piedmont Exposition,” Keys writes.įollowing the 1887 Piedmont Exposition, Peters sectioned off his property and sold off parcels of his land between Eighth and 14th Street to Atlanta’s elite to build ornate stately homes. In 1849, Richard Peters paid $2,000 for 400 acres of the wild pine forest around Tight Squeeze for wood for his flour mill. The buildings of Midtown peek over the trees of Piedmont Park. Their land was used for expositions and fairs, and eventually the city worked with the Olmsted brothers to transform the fairgrounds into a park where people would gather for expositions, horse races, ball games, carnivals and leisurely recreation.īy 1960s and ’70s, it was a hotbed for musical performances, organized events and for protests and demonstrations.Īs far back as I knew, the gay community was headquartered in Piedmont Park,” Philip Rafshoon, owner of Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouseįollowing the Stonewall Riots of 1969, queer activists became more outspoken nationwide, and in Atlanta, the LGBTQ community built a safe haven in Midtown.īy the 1970s, many bars and restaurants catered to the gay community, and in 1971, the Georgia Gay Liberation Front held Atlanta’s first Gay Pride March, marching from Peachtree Street to Piedmont Park.Ītlanta’s Pride festival is one of the oldest and strongest in the nation, now attracting more than 300,000 people to the city to celebrate. Piedmont Park was originally a pine forest, but pioneers Samuel and Sarah Walker cleared the trees to turn it into farmland in the 1830s. The friends came from all over Atlanta to enjoy an evening in the park. Marquis Smith, Rico Hixson, Rekesha Parker, Trey Hatch, Jayla Anderson, Trinity Bliss, Charles Tull, Jr., and Bill play Heads Up in Piedmont Park. “You could play chess and stay up all night, interacting with real and quasi intellectuals.” They didn’t serve alcohol, but they had coffee,” he said. He explained, “As young architects, we were up all night so we might as well go where the action was.”Īt the time Peachtree was known as “Hip Strip.” He remembers Merry-Go-Round, the clothing emporium, and The Loving Spoonful, a coffeehouse on top of Alex BBQ Heaven. Whether it was ideology or timing, his proximity to Midtown didn’t hurt. Then the hippies came, and I was a part of that culture.” “It was a very low-profile city that had the makings. “In the early 1960s, that’s when things started to come together,” Stanley said.
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Stanley moved to Midtown in 1966 when he was a freshman at Georgia Tech, where he was the first black student to enroll at the College of Architecture and later would be the first to graduate. It wasn’t about the times, it was about the art,” Stanley said.īy the time Stanley was in college, he was the first black usher for the Metropolitan Opera.
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We didn’t want to see it on a small screen. “My dad didn’t want to see it in a small theater. They made their way up to the crow’s nest, the segregated section up in the back. (Evey Wilson/For WABE)ĭespite his mother’s objections, when he was a child, Stanley’s father took him to see “Carmen Jones” at The Fox Theatre on Thanksgiving. Today, he is a renowned architect in Atlanta. Stanley was the first black graduate of the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech. Stanley III in his architecture office in Midtown.