Peachtree Street

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Peachtree Street
Peachtree Road (Buckhead), Peachtree Industrial Boulevard (Dekalb & Gwinnett Cos.)
Direction: South to North
From: Memorial Drive in Atlanta
To: Gwinnett/Hall County Line
Major cities: Atlanta
Peachtree and 10th at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Peachtree and 10th at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Peachtree Street is the main north-south street of Atlanta, Georgia. The city grew up around this one street, and many of its historical and municipal buildings are or were located along it. Beginning at Five Points in Downtown Atlanta, it runs north through Midtown and into south Buckhead before changing names to Peachtree Road and ultimately Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. In recent years the street's extension south from Five Points to the beginning of the Peachtree Bottoms at Memorial Drive, formerly named Whitehall Street, was renamed Peachtree Street as well. After Memorial Drive, the street continues as Whitehall Street. The street is for Atlanta what Broadway is for New York City: the proverbial and legendary heart of the city. On March 26, 2007, Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin unveiled a $1 billion, 20-year plan to transform Peachtree Street with streetscape upgrades, public parks, buried utilities and the addition of a streetcar, based on a sixteen-month study by her Peachtree Corridor Task Force.[1]

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[edit] History

Historically, Atlanta grew up on a site occupied by the Creek people, and the "peachtree" street was, in fact, not named for a peach tree of any sort, but for a large Creek settlement called Standing Pitch Tree after a tall lone tree. Reportedly, the Creek used trees with fresh pitch (the sap of a pine tree) for solemnizing vows and treaties. The "pitch tree" was corrupted to "peach tree", perhaps by mistake, or because it sounded better to English speakers. While peaches are so widely feral they seem native to northern Georgia and the Atlanta area, and though Georgia is the "Peach State", there was apparently no historical peach tree that led to the name.

A trail known as the Peachtree Trail stretched from northeastern Georgia to Standing Pitch Tree along the Chattahoochee River[1]. The original Peachtree Road originated at a fort located at Hog Mountain in present-day Gwinnett County and ran along the course of the trail to the Chattahoochee. Some portions of the present road trace this route.

[edit] Similarly named streets

In 1907, Peachtree Street contained streetcar, horse, and automobile traffic.
In 1907, Peachtree Street contained streetcar, horse, and automobile traffic.

There are several streets in Atlanta with "Peachtree" as part of their name (not all of which are listed here), including Peachtree Creek Road, Peachtree Lane, Peachtree Avenue, Peachtree Circle, Peachtree Drive, Peachtree Plaza, Peachtree Way, Peachtree Memorial Drive, New Peachtree Road, Peachtree Walk, and Peachtree Valley Road. West Peachtree Street is not the western branch of Peachtree Street, but a major parallel north-south street located one block west of Peachtree Street running through Midtown. Others include Peachtree Battle Avenue, commemorating the Battle of Peachtree Creek, Peachtree-Dunwoody Road running between Peachtree Street and Dunwoody, Georgia, and Old Peachtree Road, which traces part of the route of the original Peachtree Trail for which the road is named. Some of these streets intersect with Peachtree Street, others are extensions of it, and some are nowhere near it.

[edit] Landmarks

Peachtree Street and Bank of America Plaza greenspace looking toward the SoNo district of Downtown Atlanta
Peachtree Street and Bank of America Plaza greenspace looking toward the SoNo district of Downtown Atlanta

Many of Atlanta's most prominent buildings and landmarks are located along Peachtree Street. In Downtown, 191 Peachtree Tower, Georgia-Pacific Tower, Westin Peachtree Plaza and SunTrust Plaza all line Peachtree. In Midtown, Bank of America Plaza (Atlanta), Atlanta's tallest building, is a block south of the Fabulous Fox Theatre, a grand movie palace completed in 1929. Author Margaret Mitchell was killed in 1949 crossing Peachtree Street as a pedestrian at the intersection with 13th Street. Mitchell wrote her classic Gone with the Wind in the basement apartment of a boarding house at the corner of 10th Street and Peachtree Street. That house is now a museum and is located across 10th Street from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta which serves the southeastern United States. Office buildings 1100 Peachtree formerly owned and occupied by BellSouth, and 1180 Peachtree, home to major law firms, are prominent business addresses. The heart of Atlanta's arts scene is found just north on Peachtree where the Woodruff Arts Center, including the High Museum of Art, Atlanta Symphony, Alliance Theatre Company, and the Atlanta campus of the Savannah College of Art & Design are located.

[edit] Geography

Atlantans are often convinced that the ridge followed by Peachtree Street is part of the Eastern Continental Divide. While Peachtree Street is atop a ridge, railroad tracks were built on the actual Eastern Continental Divide, which follows DeKalb Avenue from Decatur to Five Points, then turns southwest toward the airport, with the north side draining into the Chattahoochee or Flint Rivers and therefore into the Gulf of Mexico, and the south side eventually into the Atlantic Ocean. Atlanta's primary water source is the Chattahoochee and much of the water is pumped over the watershed. To balance the river flows, treated sewage is pumped back to the Chattahoochee.

[edit] Gallery

View of Peachtree from Federal Reserve.

Peachtree Street in Downtown Atlanta

An example of shopping on Peachtree Street.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Mahoney, Ryan (2007-03-30). Streetcar named Peachtree may not begin when desired. Atlanta Business Chronicle. Retrieved on 2007-05-21.

[edit] External links

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