Inman Park

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Inman Park is a neighborhood of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, its first planned suburb. It is adjacent to Little Five Points.

During the battle of Atlanta, the area which would become Inman Park was the scene of a number of skirmishes. Inman Park was developed by Joel Hurt in 1887 who handled the civil engineering aspects while Joseph Forsyth Johnson took care of landscape architecture. Largely from Johnson's contribution the original 138 acre (558,000 m²) development was the first naturalistic suburb plan south of the Mason-Dixon line, its only precursors in the country were Llewellyn Park and Riverside Park. The centerpiece of the neighborhood was ten-acre Springvale Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

The center of Inman Park was two miles (3 km) from Five Points with no direct access; in order to make it work Hurt extended the stub of Line St due East (renamed Edgewood Ave) and established an electric streetcar system, the Edgewood Atlanta Streetcar Company, to run along it.

He had early commitments from some of Atlanta's elite to build homes here: Asa Candler, Charles Winship and Ernest Woodruff.

By 1910, the neighborhood started to decline. The High Victorian Queen Ann architecture that characterized its homes became increasingly passe and greater mobility afforded by the automobile resulted in the flight of many of the community's elite to newer subdivisions being developed to the north and east, most notably Druid Hills. By the 1920's, most of the stately Victorian mansions were acquired by absentee landlords and subdivided into smaller units. By the 1950's, the neighborhood had become one of the poorest in Atlanta. During the 1960's, part of Springvale Park was paved over as a result of road construction. Restoration of the neighborhood began in 1970, when the Inman Park Development Corporation was established. In 1973, the neighborhood was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Residents succeeded in defeating the construction of the proposed Stone Mountain Freeway, which would have cut the neighborhood in two. Inman Park was one of the principal beneficiaries of Atlanta's intown revival of the mid-1990's, spurred in part by the 1996 Olympics.

Inman Park is noted for its annual Spring Festival, which features the largest street market in the city, a tour of the neighborhoods' historic homes and a colorful parade. The neighborhood is served by the Inman Park/Reynoldstown MARTA station. Visit the neighborhood's web site at http://www.inmanpark.org for more information.