Clear Creek (Atlanta)

Birdseye view of Midtown Atlanta showing branch of Clear Creek (no longer existing) running from the lower left corner to the upper right corner

Streetcar along North Ave. crossing branch of Clear Creek (no longer existing), near today's intersection of North and Penn in Old 4th Ward

Clear Creek is a stream in Intown Atlanta that feeds into Peachtree Creek, and eventually into the Chattahoochee River. It is the Creek that played to the Union's advantage in their Civil War victory at the Battle of Peachtree Creek. The apparent start is in Orme Park in Virginia Highland near Grady High School, but the source begins before there. The portion of the creek that flows parallel to Glen Arden Way was piped and filled over in the 1930s. From Orme Park, the creek flows behind Ansley Mall, through Ansley Golf Club, through the Armour industrial area, behind Brookwood Hills, finally merging into Peachtree Creek. The creek is known as being polluted and not clear at all.

Southern branch (no longer existing)

Another branch of Clear Creek used to flow from the eastern edge of Piedmont Park, southwestwards across what is now the Midtown Historic District towards what is now what is approximately the intersection of Ponce de Leon Avenue and Penn Avenue, and from there southwards towards Angier Ave. in today's Old Fourth Ward.^[1] An 1892 map shows that bridges and viaducts crossed the creek at North Avenue and other nearby streets.^[2]

References