The English Avenue is a neighborhood of Atlanta just west of the Georgia Dome and Downtown Atlanta. It is bordered:
English Avenue, together with Vine City, Bankhead and Washington Park (Atlanta), form "The Bluff", an area infamous throughout metro Atlanta for availability of drugs on the street, heroin in particular.[2][3] The area has some of the highest poverty and crime rates in the city.
Contents |
The English Avenue neighborhood is named for James W. English, a former mayor of Atlanta (January, 1881 - January, 1883), banker, brick company owner and decorated soldier post Civil War. In 1891, the underdeveloped settlement, known today as English Avenue was purchased by the mayor's son, James W. English, Jr., and developed as a white, working-class neighborhood. The main street through the center of the neighborhood also bears the English family name. Presence of the Southern railroad heavily influenced development. By 1912, the area was also serviced by the Atlanta and Chattahoochee Railway Company trolleys.
During the 1920s, whites lived mostly between the two trolley lines and blacks lived outside those lines. The Southern Railway tracks served as a northeastern barrier to blacks through the 1970s. The period following the Atlanta fire of 1917 that destroyed much of the Old Fourth Ward, which resulted in a rapid increase of African Americans moving into the westside. Simpson Road served as a physical dividing line between blacks and whites. Attempts by African Americans between the 1920s and 1940s to move north of Simpson Road resulted in violence and bombings, but later, they pushed through, transforming English Avenue into a vibrant black community.
Simpson Road (now Joseph E. Boone Blvd.), named for Leonard Christopher Simpson, one of Atlanta's first resident lawyers, was a prominent street for African American businesses, restaurants and shops during its heyday during the 1950s and 1960s. Bankhead Hwy. (now Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy.) was a part of the cross-country highway route between Washington and San Diego; it was in its splendor during the 1960s.
Through the 1970s, English Avenue continued to be the center of employment including metal manufacturing, oil, steel, supplies, a lumberyard and a freight station. However, in the early 1970s when suburban growth and a decrease in population began to drain the area's vitality, many longtime business closed and were replaced by low rent businesses.
A community that was simply forgotten, until the unthinkable happened one the night on November 22, 2006, when Atlanta police busted down the front door of Ms. Kathryn Johnston's home as they staged a drug raid on the home of this 92 year old grandmother. Ms. Johnston was gunned down by police officers executing a "no knock" search warrant they had obtained from Magistrate Judge, based on information that was untrue, which allowed the Atlanta's narcotics officers to enter Ms. Johnston's home without giving her a chance to answer the door. Given the conditions in the neighborhood at that time, Ms. Johnston retrieved her rusty pistol from beneath the seat cushion of her chair, responding to her door being broken down and managing to get off one shot as the plain clothed policemen, came right through her front door, guns blazing. Within seconds, the 92 year old Kathryn Johnston lay dead from multiple gunshot wounds. From there, the shooting was filled with controversy and an apparent cover-up ensued by the policemen. In October 2007, one of the police officers pled guilty to federal charges which lead to an investigation into charges that Atlanta narcotics officers used false warrants.
As with West End and Vine City, English Avenue has endured similar changes and with re-investment occurring along the corridor including the renovation of the historic Carnegie library, proposed redevelopment of the English Avenue School, warehouse conversions occurring to the north, new single family home constructions, renovations of existing traditional Atlanta homes throughout the community and community plans and discussions for new parks and playgrounds, there is a resurgence of development interest in this Intown neighborhood, while retaining its rich history, character and vitality.
Churches in English Avenue include:
English Avenue is served by MARTA buses. MARTA rail stations (Ashby (MARTA station) and Vine City (MARTA station)) are located nearby.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||