Buckhead —- Signs invite travelers to pull off I-20 and head to the "Buckhead Historic District," where it begins to sink in for many that either they can't read a map or Lenox Square mall sure has aged badly.

There's no Macy's. No Buckhead Diner. No West Paces Ferry, no stoplights, no Starbucks, no lattes. No, relatively speaking, nothing.

Just, what locals call "The Real Buckhead" —- a three-block downtown with two restaurants and an abandoned boarded-up building between them with an old-fashioned gas pump out front where the price on the meter is rusted fast at 33.9 cents a gallon.

"We're the exact opposite of the Buckhead most people heard about," says Buckhead City Councilman Gene Porter, 39, who grew up in the town (population 251) about 70 miles east of downtown Atlanta and has heard the talk of the affluent northside Atlanta neighborhood of Buckhead breaking off from the Big A and forming a city.

"We laughed about it and joked about it at the last council meeting," Porter says. "But in answer to your next question, no, Buckhead can't have our name. They tried that a few years ago, and we said 'No' then, too."

According to Mayor Ricky Walker, a few years ago, the city was approached by unidentified people from the Buckhead community about at least getting the Buckhead, Ga., ZIP code, 30625, so mail meant for Buckhead, the neighborhood, wouldn't keep ending up in Buckhead, the town east of Madison.

"We wouldn't do that now because that might lead to them somehow getting our name," says Walker, who pointed out that nobody from the Buckhead neighborhood has even approached the city lately about getting the ZIP code or name.

The town's postmaster, Alicia Young, says she has no problem forwarding errant mail to Atlanta, and does frequently. "But they might as well forget getting our name," she says. "The town just turned 100."

The town of Buckhead has its charms. On a weekday around lunch time, it's so quiet walking down Railroad Street, birds can be heard chirping over the absence of any traffic passing for minutes at a time.

The community, before incorporation, has its own Civil War Sherman history (yeah, he burned this place, too). And it's within about six miles of the burgeoning resort area of Lake Oconee. There are indications "if the real estate market holds, we may be getting a little housing boom" because of that, says Mayor Walker.

The city recently extended its city limits for a housing development where three of the homes will go for $350,000 apiece, he says.

But for the most part, prosperity in this town, where the population has hovered around 200 for several decades, seems somewhere off in the indefinite future. And, when tourists come by, unlike in the neighborhood of Buckhead, it's often by accident.

A.T. Bray, a regular at the Gathering Place Cafe, recalls over lunch that a couple of women came through town last month, and he noticed New York plates on their car.

"They asked me, 'Where's the Ritz-Carlton in Buckhead?'" Bray says. "I told them, 'You need to turn around and head back about 70 miles that way.' Oh, you ought to heard them cuss."

A TALE OF TWO BUCKHEADS

.................Buckhead, Ga. Buckhead, ATL

Population.......251..............45,280

Housing value....$87,059..........$485,115

College degree...14.5%............66.5%

Median Household

Income...........$40,250..........$80,132

Households with

income over

$100,000.........5................27,449

Restaurants......3................386

Nightclubs.......0................86

Hotels, motels...0................41

Movie theaters...0................6

Sources: Buckhead ATL includes the following ZIP codes: 30305, 30319, 30324, 30326, 30327, and 30342

*Information provided by ReferenceUSA

All other info from Claritas SiteReports

Research by Sharon Gaus