Ten things that were here before Atlanta

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Ten things that were here before Atlanta

Ten things that were here before Atlanta

When railroad engineers staked the Zero Mile Post (pictured) in a wooded wilderness in 1837, they weren’t alone in choosing this area. Here are just a few of the people, places and things that were already here before Thrasherville (later Terminus, Marthasville, then Atlanta) came to town. (PETE CORSON / pcorson@ajc.com) [Captions by Pete Corson]

Creek Indians: Obvious, right? Meet the former landowners: The Creeks were an alliance of chiefdoms that spread across most of today’s Georgia. The alliance got its name from the English, who noted that these native settlements were near water. Trading relations were good with the new “Georgians” until United States expansion into Creek territories led to hostilities and broken treaties, culminating with the Creeks ceding their remaining lands in 1825. Georgians would spend the next decade forcibly removing remaining Creeks from the state. Seen here is Chief William McIntosh, who signed away those lands in 1825 before being branded a traitor by his people and executed. (AJC archive)

Decatur: Before there was a railroad running by it, the town of Decatur was founded as the county seat of DeKalb County in 1823, only one year after the county itself was formed. The town is named after a guy who fought pirates in the early 1800s (Commodore Stephen Decatur). Other local towns founded before 1837: Lawrenceville (1821), Covington (1822), McDonough (1823), Fayetteville (1823), Newnan (1828), Cumming (1833) and Marietta (1834). (BITA HONARVAR / AJC file)

Fort Standing Peachtree: The confluence of Peachtree Creek and the Chattahoochee was a busy place. This spot in today’s Buckhead was the boundary between the Creek and the Cherokee, and was like a trading checkpoint between the two nations. In 1814, the U.S. built a frontier fort in the spot in an effort to control the Creeks, who had recently fought alongside the British in the War of 1812. The Standing Peachtree fort is where the “Peachtree” name originates. According to archaeologist James D'Angelo, peachtrees were a common feature at Creek Indian settlements and were referenced in several letters from the time. As for the "pitch tree" theory of the name's origin, D'Angelo says that the theory was never well supported and is best forgotten. Today, the site is part of a city water intake plant, although no one knows the exact spot where the fort stood. The replica shown in this photo was built by the city decades ago at the plant and shows what part of the fort may have looked like. The replica is largely abandoned and rarely visited. (PETE CORSON / pcorson@ajc.com)

Peachtree Road: It began as a Creek Indian trail from nearby Toccoa that came southwest to today’s Atlanta, branching in Buckhead along Paces Ferry and Moore’s Mill roads toward the Fort Standing Peachtree spot. The other branch, known as Sandtown Trail, continued south along the natural ridge that goes straight through downtown’s Five Points. In 1812, a road was built over the trail from Fort Standing Peachtree to Fort Daniel, located in today’s Flowery Branch. Other notable roads built before 1937: Sandtown (now Cascade and Abernathy) Road; Montgomery Ferry Road; Fayetteville Road and Shallowford Road. (BEN GRAY / bgray@ajc.com)

West End: Long before Atlanta had a tourism industry, a popular tavern poured. White Hall Inn, established sometime in the 1830s, stood at the crossroads of White Hall and Sandtown Roads (now called Lee Street and Abernathy Blvd, respectively). The community of West End would grow up around this intersection at the same time that the Thrasherville settlement was getting started about one mile to the northeast. (Copy of a William G. Kurtz painting / Wikimedia Commons)

Soapstone Ridge: About 3,500 years ago, prehistoric people used outcroppings of a soft rock called soapstone to carve out bowls. Some of these rock carvings can still be found along a two-mile ridge near I-285 and I-675, known as Soapstone Ridge. Some homes in the area have incorporated these stones into their landscaping. Other quarries from the Late Archaic period have been found in Gwinnett and near Stone Mountain. (DAVID TULIS / AJC file)

Panthersville: Late historian Franklin Garrett speculated that this area in south DeKalb got its name in the early 1830s. The story goes that three members of a Decatur family, while returning to their plantation, killed a large panther that chased them near the swamps of Shoal Creek. Read the full story here. (PETE CORSON / pcorson@ajc.com)

The Goodwin House: This home was one of a handful of pioneer homesteads that dotted the area we now know as metro Atlanta. It was built sometime in the 1830s and still stands today on Peachtree Street in Brookhaven, behind a Subway sandwich shop. It can be visited on appointment. Learn more here. Other pioneer homes from the early 1800s include the George Washington Collier house in Midtown and the Mary Gay House in Decatur. (PHIL SKINNER / AJC file).

Utoy Primitive Baptist Church: The church, which disbanded in 1983, was founded in 1824 about a mile west of today’s Oakland City MARTA station. Its cemetery predates Oakland Cemetery by 22 years and is notable for including 19th-century African-American slaves among the interred. Other nearby churches from that time: Collins Memorial U.M.E. (1821—Atlanta’s oldest); Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist in Chamblee (1824); Mt. Gilead M.E. Church (1824) and Owl Rock United Methodist (1828) in Ben Hill; and Camp Creek Primitive Baptist in Lilburn (1825). (BRANT SANDERLIN / bsanderlin@ajc.com)

Sandtown: Opposite an island on the Chattahoochee called Buzzard’s Roost, this Creek Indian community (called “Oktahasasai” by the Creek) became a frontier town for white settlers once the Creek were forced to cede the land in the 1820s. Never actually incorporated as its own town, Sandtown was a big enough deal to have its own post office in 1828. Today's Cascade Road (once Sandtown Road) was built in 1823 in order to connect it with Decatur. (PETE CORSON / pcorson@ajc.com)

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When railroad engineers staked the Zero Mile Post (pictured) in a wooded wilderness in 1837, they weren’t alone in choosing this area. Here are just a few of the people, places and things that were already here before Thrasherville (later Terminus, Marthasville, then Atlanta) came to town. (PETE CORSON / pcorson@ajc.com) [Captions by Pete Corson]

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