Flashback Photos: Atlanta's Cabbagetown in the '70s and '80s

Flashback Photos

This entry in the Flashback Photos series takes a look at Atlanta's Cabbagetown neighborhood as it was in the late 1970s and early 1980s as seen through the lenses of Atlanta Journal-Constitution photographers.

The Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill (background) began operations in 1881 on Atlanta's east side, with the Cabbagetown neighborhood populated by mill workers, mostly transplanted poor Appalachian folk, springing up around it. There are many legends as to how the name "Cabbagetown" came about, but none has been verified. The area went into decline after the mill's closure, but experienced a comeback in the early 1990s. Documented here is the Cabbagetown of the 1970s and 1980s prior to the neighborhood's renaissance.

April 18, 1983 -- Portrait of Mildred Gilleon, whose home in Cabbagetown was scheduled to be repaired under the Fulton Cooperative Village rehabilitation effort.

April 18, 1983 - Mildred Gilleon (left) and Emma Patterson on Mrs. Patterson's front porch in Cabbagetown.

Aug. 5, 1982 - Henry 'Pee Wee' Phillips sits on his porch in Cabbagetown.

April 18, 1983 - Neighbors come to see Mrs. Patterson's home in Cabbagetown, where she lived for 57 years and raised seven children.

May, 1979 - Cabbagetown residents pose for a group picture. From left to right: Dan and Faye Hardy, Warren Presley (boy with tire) and James Perkins (by telephone pole).

Aug. 5, 1980 - Priscilla House stands in front of the ramshackle Cabbagetown house on Savannah Street which she and her husband purchased as an investment for about $5,000. The house when renovated should be worth from $32,000-$36,000.

Aug. 5, 1980 - Cabbagetown houses about to be renovated.

April 18, 1983 - Heather Shaddix (child at left), Paul Gilstrap and Mildred Gilleon (right) chat on Mrs. Emma Patterson's front porch in Cabbagetown.

Aug. 3, 1988 - The city bought rundown houses in Cabbagetown seven years ago to get them away from an absentee landlord and to keep from displacing the elderly residents who lived there. Pictured are row houses at 185-199 Savannah St.

Nov. 26, 1984 - A piggyback trailer sits on a siding next to the old Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill in Cabbagetown.

Nov. 26, 1984 - Julia Romero sits on her porch and watches as her front door is repaired on her shotgun house in Cabbagetown. Her house sits in the shadow of the abandoned Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill.

Aug. 5, 1982 - Officer 'Slick' Sullivan chats with Dwayne Bales on Carroll St. in Cabbagetown.

Dec. 20, 1994 - This vacant structure at the corner of Boulevard and Carroll St. in the Cabbagetown neighborhood is within the Empowerment Zone.

April 3, 1980 - Wayne Winntage and his menagerie of cats live in Cabbagetown.

Feb. 7, 1980 - MARTA train travels through the Cabbagetown neighborhood near Wylie St.

May 21, 1989 - Sherrill Bales and Jerry Smith pass the time of day by McCullum grocery store in Cabbagetown.

Aug. 5, 1980 - The old mill area of Cabbagetown. Shown are the backs of row houses that fronted Carroll St.

1982 - A row of houses on Savannah St. in Cabbagetown.

June 18, 1984 - Terri Gilcrest waits patiently outside the Fulton Girls Club for lunch to be served.

Aug. 5, 1982 - A lone youngster walks down Carroll St. in Cabbagetown.

Feb. 7, 1980 - Tonnelle St. in Cabbagetown has a Neighborhood Watch program.

Aug. 5, 1982 - Effie Gray tends to the flowers on the porch of her Gaskill St. home in the Cabbagetown community.

June 19, 1979 - Joyce Brookshire walks down Carroll St. in Cabbagetown.

Amy Henry, 1, and Audrey Keener, 4, play among debris at the Powell St. Apartments in Cabbagetown.

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The Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill (background) began operations in 1881 on Atlanta's east side, with the Cabbagetown neighborhood populated by mill workers, mostly transplanted poor Appalachian folk, springing up around it. There are many legends as to how the name "Cabbagetown" came about, but none has been verified. The area went into decline after the mill's closure, but experienced a comeback in the early 1990s. Documented here is the Cabbagetown of the 1970s and 1980s prior to the neighborhood's renaissance.

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