Underground Atlanta becomes a hot spot

Down in Atlanta G.A.

Underneath the viaduct one day

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www.atlantatimemachine.com

The Bucket Shop was one of the many happening bars, nightclubs and restaurants in Underground Atlanta.

THAT SEVENTIES CITY:

• Introduction
• Politics: A big change was coming
• The Mouth of the South
• MARTA: A train to greatness
• The hottest spots were Underground
• City quickly became a destination
• Riverbend a decade-long party
• Timeline of the decade

• Photos: Scenes | Politics | People
• YOUR TURN: Send us your '70s photos! | Tell us what you remember — or don't remember — about the 1970s in Atlanta?

Complete coverage

Drinking corn and hollerin’ hoo-ray

Piano playin’ till the break of day

—Blues legend Bessie Smith, from the 1927 song “Preachin’ the Blues”

It’s as if the Atlanta Board of Alderman saw the Seventies coming.

In 1968, the board declared a deserted five-block area near Five Points a historic district, seeking to create an Atlanta version of the French Quarter.

In the early 20th century, the area had been covered by concrete viaducts to improve traffic flow over railroad tracks. As new streets were constructed overhead, a bevy of juke joints and speakeasys thrived underground. Then, for 40 years, they sat forgotten in the bowels of the city.

The party resumed in the Seventies, as the newly christened Underground Atlanta ushered in a vibrant downtown scene.

The clubs

The Bucket Shop, Dante’s Down the Hatch, The Blarney Stone, Rustler’s Den, Muhlenbrink’s Saloon, Ruby Red’s, Scarlet O’Hara’s, Sgt. Pepper’s, etc. For a complete list, go to: www.atlantatimemachine.com/downtown/undergound.htm.

Notable personalities

William Lee Perryman, a.k.a. “Piano Red,” a.k.a. Dr. Feelgood; souvenir shop owner and former Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox; Dante Stephenson, proprietor of his eponymous jazz club known for its fondue

What made it special

The ramshackle complex thrived largely because the counties surrounding Atlanta were dry into the 70s. Except for DeKalb, the suburbs then were still largely rural. If you wanted to go out for a drink or hear live music, Atlanta was pretty much your only option.

What killed it

By 1980, Underground was again a ghost town. You could say much the same about the rest of downtown Atlanta.

“The first Underground collapsed for a lot of reasons. There was the crime, of course, and good-time places started springing up all over the previously dry metro counties, so nobody had to drive all the way downtown for booze and music or whatever else they were seeking,” the late AJC columnist Lewis Grizzard wrote in a 1989 article on Underground’s reopening.