Cone and Harris streets may be renamed
Judge Reuben Cone, one of the pioneers of Atlanta, may lose his namesake Jan. 3 when the City Council decides whether to rename Cone Street as Xernona Clayton Way as a majority of council members propose.
Cone, who died in 1851, owned the land comprising the Fairlie-Poplar District and Centennial Olympic Park.
Clayton, a longtime Turner Broadcasting executive, arrived in 1965 to work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and is credited with helping desegregate the city hospitals. She is chairwoman of the Trumpet Awards Foundation, which hosts an annual event highlight African-American achievement.
On Wednesday, the Urban Design Commission recommended against renaming the street and also against renaming Harris Street for John Portman, the architect responsible for much of the downtown skyline.
