Collier Heights neighborhood

Home and Garden

The Collier Heights neighborhood in west Atlanta has been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. If the National Park Service approves, it would become the first post-World War II suburb in metro Atlanta and among the first modern African-American neighborhoods anywhere to make the register.

If the National Park Service approves, it would become the first post-World War II suburb in metro Atlanta and among the first modern African-American neighborhoods anywhere to make the register.

A home with purple shutters and garage door is a colorful part of the neighborhood.

"Collier Heights was built by blacks for blacks and financed by blacks," says Juanita Abernathy, who moved into a ranch house there with her late husband, civil rights leader Ralph David Abernathy. "We wanted to live in a place like that. It was something you could take pride in."

Juanita and Harold Morton live in Collier Heights with their dog Jackie.

A circular home on Duffield Drive is among the offbeat houses in the neighborhood. "There are some very interesting homes around here," Harold Morton says.

"Collier Heights might not have the greatest architectural splendor," Michael Russell says, "but I think we have a pretty good story."

Collier Heights is an expression of the city's vaunted black middle class, in much the same way as Auburn Avenue or the Atlanta University Center colleges.

Many of the neighborhood's houses have iron door covers.

Some of the homes have decorative garage doors.

A pagoda house is one of the more unusual homes in the neighborhood.

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An elaborate home on a hill with pink shutters and lions is one of the better-known houses in the Collier Heights neighborhood in west Atlanta. The state of Georgia has nominated Collier Heights for the National Register of Historic Places.

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