digATL | The Digital Atlanta Portal

GSU professor Taylor Shelton’s blog exploring all of Atlanta’s oddities and inequalities with maps. Issues covered are fundamentally about geography, about how places are the way they are and how they change over time and how all of that matters to the people that occupy those places. Atlanta is one of the most interesting and unique cities in the US, if not the world, but it’s also one that’s been chronically understudied relative to other large cities. Even if more were written about Atlanta on a consistent basis, the city’s rapid changes necessitate ever more investigation of what’s happening, where and why. Atlanta consistently has some of the highest levels of income inequality of any city or metro across the entire United States. And while the city had a reputation for being one of the most affordable large metros, the last several years have seen some of the most rapid housing price increases of anywhere across the country, with unchecked gentrification running rampant in some historically Black neighborhoods.

This digital collection contains digitized versions of items that are owned by the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library. Currently, the collection contains historical maps, dating from the 1850s to the 1980s, of Atlanta and the surrounding area. The maps were created by a variety of entities and for various purposes. More content is expected to be added to this collection in the future.

Prepared by the Spring 2006 Preservation Planning students. This project, developed in a collaborative effort by the Atlanta Urban Design commission and GSU students, was designed to highlight the history of the proposed redevelopment nodes along the Beltline, which is an outer band railroad line encircling the city. The purpose was to identify the significance of the resources therein and their links to Atlanta’s history, providing assistance in the overall development process of the Beltline project.

Formed in 1971, Research Atlanta was a non-profit organization established to study public policy issues affecting the Atlanta metropolitan area. Research Atlanta served as Atlanta’s think tank for urban problems and published policy studies from 1971 to 2006 on major urban issues confronted by metropolitan Atlanta and placed Atlanta’s urban problems within a national context. During its 35 years of operation Research Atlanta produced numerous public policy studies on issues ranging from public school desegregation to creating a downtown cultural district. In 1992, Georgia State University agreed to assume responsibility for operating Research Atlanta. In 2006, Research Atlanta merged with the Regional Leadership Forum and the Metro Group to form what is now the Civic League for Regional Atlanta. 

National Register of Historic Places Inventory nomination form submitted in 1980. Originally, the two-and-a-half-block area of the Underground district was a part of the larger gateway to the city. The history of this gateway to Atlanta mirrors the dynamic growth of the city as it expanded from a railroad and pedestrian town of the mid-nineteenth century into a regional automobile and air metropolis of the late-twentieth century. The Underground Atlanta Historic District consists of several components: an approximately two-block area of buildings bounded by Alabama Street, Central Avenue, Peachtree Street, and the rear lot lines of properties along the north side of Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive; viaducts on Central, Pryor, Alabama and Wall streets; store fronts along the north side of Alabama Street below the viaduct; the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot at the east end of Alabama Street; and the Zero Mile Post under the Central Avenue viaduct.

Focused on suburban residential developments in DeKalb County, Georgia between the end of World War II and 1970 in order to better understand the transformation of the area after the Second World War. The resource includes data on national residential trends, architectural and landscape designs, as well as information on metropolitan Atlanta. The resource was created to support the effort to preserve local neighborhoods, buildings, and landmarks by providing the historic context in which they were created.

Date created

Spring 2010

The Digital Archive of the Heritage Preservation Program (HPP) available in ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University is a compendium of student projects produced under the supervision of the HPP faculty from 1991 until the present. The Archive contains a variety of completed projects that document buildings and historic areas in and around Metropolitan Atlanta. The projects include Historic Structure Reports of historic or endangered buildings, Historic District Information Forms prepared for submission to the Georgia Historic Preservation Division for eventual National Register Designation, Design Guideline and Planning projects that are intended to assist communities and neighborhoods in making design decisions about Locally Designated Historic Districts and Historic Context studies that focus on a particular building type, period of development (developmental history) or particular community. These documents embody a wide variety of buildings, neighborhoods and communities across Metro Atlanta. They demonstrate the body of work accomplished by the students of the Heritage Preservation Program and are here to be utilized by anyone seeking to research historic places in and around Atlanta.

Historic District Information Form authored and submitted by GSU Case Studies in Historic Preservation students, Spring 2017. Located partially in the City of Atlanta, DeKalb County and in unincorporated DeKalb County, East Atlanta is a good example of an evolving suburb. In the late 19th and early 20th century the area was an urban neighborhood that relied on the streetcar system and by World War II had evolved into an automobile-reliant suburban. Development progressed from a densely gridded street pattern in the northern portion indicating a traditional urban neighborhood to a curvilinear street pattern in the southern section indicating an automobile-centric suburb. The area includes at least three commercial nodes, a variety of historic houses and community and commercial buildings, a cemetery, a park, a Civil War monument, and five state historic markers.

Design guidelines prepared by graduate students in the Preservation Planning Class of Georgia State University’s Heritage Preservation Program under the direction of Richard Laub and Mary Ann Eaddy, Spring 2011. These guidelines explain and interpret general design criteria in the local preservation ordinance for Decatur, serves as a tool to guide preliminary design decisions, preserves historic character of the area, protects and stabilizes property values, makes suggestions for design appropriateness and provides neighborhood continuity, stability and predictability in assessing future change. The purpose of this report is to provide recommendations that aid in the preservation of the unique architectural and historic character of the city. The recommendations incorporate and revise the Design Supplement to the Decatur Historic Preservation Resource Manual, developed in 1997, the McDonough-Adams-King the Guidelines for MAK district property owners, developed in 2008, and the Historic Resource Survey: Final Report, City of Decatur, Georgia, September 1, 2009, developed in 2009. Students consulted with the Historic Preservation Commission of Decatur to ensure that these revisions accurately reflect the intent of Decatur’s local historic designations and the design review process. We hope that consideration of these recommendations will aid in the preservation of the unique architectural and historic character of the city. The Historic Preservation Planning Class would like to extend its appreciation to Regina Brewer and the entire Decatur Historic Preservation Commission for their support. We would also like to grate fully acknowledge the express help of Laura Drummond, Ken Kocher, Andrew Kohr, and the staff of the DeKalb History Center and Decatur Branch of DeKalb Public Library.

Prepared by the Spring 2006 Preservation Planning Class. These Design Guidelines explain and interpret general design criteria in the local preservation ordinance in Old Decatur, serves as a tool to guide preliminary design decisions, preserves historic character of the area, protects and stabilizes property values, makes suggestions for design appropriateness and provides neighborhood continuity, stability and predictability in assessing future change. The purpose of this report is to provide recommendations that aid in the preservation of the unique architectural and historic character of the city.

Prepared by the Spring of 2013 Case Studies in Historic Preservation class. The Decatur Northwest Residential area is an outstanding representation of early to mid-twentieth century revival house styles. The district has remained consistent to its historic twentieth century layout and context. This Historic District Information Form (HIDF) has been compiled in anticipation of its submission to the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office Review Board. Following approval, it would be sent to the National Parks service for The National Register of Historic Places.

Information form for the historic district known as Kirkwood. Contains Sanborn maps, early plattings of the properties, interviews, as well as historic photographs and newspaper clippings.

Date created:
Spring 2002