Photo exhibit looks at Cabbagetown in the 70s

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Photo exhibit looks at Cabbagetown in the 70s

Photo exhibit looks at Cabbagetown in the 70s

Former Cabbagetown resident Jackie Owens, 47, poses next to a photo of him when he was 10 years old at an exhibit at Agave restaurant in Cabbagetown. The exhibit features photos taken by W.A. Bridges of children who hung out at The Patch, a community center for what was then a hardscrabble neighborhood.

Former Cabbagetown residents Jackie Owens and Lisa Maddox reunite at Agave restaurant for an exhibit of photographs of them taken when they were kids. W.A. Bridges, a former AJC photographer, took the photos of what was then a blue-collar Appalachian neighborhood when he was fresh out of high school and for The Patch, which was housed in the current Agave restaurant location.

Former Cabbagetown resident Lisa Maddox talks about growing up in the neighborhood in front of a photo of her and her best friend Cassie Owens when they were 9 & 10 years old, respectively.

Lisa Maddox (left) and Cassie Owens were among the children who spent time at The Patch. Owens passed away six years ago. Harriet Treadwell Unfug, a teacher and bookkeeper at The Patch, said, "I loved these kids, but they put you through hell."

Photographer W.A. Bridges (left) talks with former Cabbagetown resident Lisa Maddox, 44, about photographs he took of her and her friends when they were kids at The Patch community center. Bridges, a former AJC photographer, took the photos while he worked at the center fresh out of high school. He says Cabbagetown was a "warm, wild and bustling place."

"Look at the holes in those sneakers," said Lisa Maddox, 44, after looking at an image of her 9-year-old self at Agave restaurant, former home of The Patch community center where she and her friends used to hang out.

Photographer W.A. Bridges (left) and Jackie Owens at The Patch in Cabbagetown. The photo was shot by another kid at The Patch.

Photographer W.A. Bridges (left) listens as former Cabbagetown resident Jackie Owens talks about his childhood in the neighborhood. Though the neighborhood is trendy these days, unemployment, violence and drugs were rampant in Cabbagetown in the late 1970s.

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Former Cabbagetown resident Jackie Owens, 47, poses next to a photo of him when he was 10 years old at an exhibit at Agave restaurant in Cabbagetown. The exhibit features photos taken by W.A. Bridges of children who hung out at The Patch, a community center for what was then a hardscrabble neighborhood.

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