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Five Points (Atlanta)
Encyclopedia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the primary reference for the downtown
Downtown Atlanta
Downtown Atlanta is the first and largest of the three financial districts in the city of Atlanta. Downtown Atlanta is the location of many corporate or regional headquarters, city, county, state and federal government facilities, sporting facilities, and is the central tourist attraction of the city...
area. The name refers to the convergence of Marietta
Marietta, Georgia
Marietta is a city located in central Cobb County, Georgia, United States, and is its county seat.As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 56,579, making it one of metro Atlanta's largest suburbs...
Street, Edgewood
Edgewood (Atlanta)
Edgewood is a neighborhood located on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, located approximately three miles east of downtown Atlanta.-History:...
Avenue, Decatur
Decatur, Georgia
Decatur is a city in, and county seat of, DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. With a population of 19,335 in the 2010 census, the city is sometimes assumed to be larger since multiple zip codes in unincorporated DeKalb County bear the Decatur name...
Street, and two legs of Peachtree Street
Peachtree Street
Peachtree Street is the main street of Atlanta. The city grew up around the street, and many of its historical and municipal buildings are or were located along it...
(the south-southwestern leg was originally Whitehall Street, a section of Whitehall was renamed as an extension of Peachtree Street to give businesses south of Five Points the prestige of a Peachtree Street address). Five Points is usually considered by Atlantans to be the center of town, and it is the origin
Origin (mathematics)
In mathematics, the origin of a Euclidean space is a special point, usually denoted by the letter O, used as a fixed point of reference for the geometry of the surrounding space. In a Cartesian coordinate system, the origin is the point where the axes of the system intersect...
of the street addressing system for the city and county, although four of the streets (except Edgewood) are rotated at least 30° clockwise from their nominal directions, along with the rest of the downtown street grid.
History
Prior to the arrival of white settlersEuropean colonization of the Americas
The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492. The first Europeans to reach the Americas were the Vikings during the 11th century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement in present day Newfoundland...
, Five Points was the intersection of two Creek Indian trails, the Pitch Tree
Pitch Pine
The Pitch Pine, Pinus rigida, is a small-to-medium sized pine, native to eastern North America. This species occasionally hybridizes with other pine species such as Loblolly Pine , Shortleaf Pine , and Pond Pine The Pitch Pine, Pinus rigida, is a small-to-medium sized (6-30 meters or 20-100 feet)...
(corrupted to Peachtree) Trail and the Sandtown
Sandtown
Sandtown is a predominantly African-American neighborhood located southwest of Atlanta, Georgia. It is one of the Atlanta area's most affluent African American communities with the majority of the population belonging to the middle and upper middle class....
Trail. In 1845, George Washington Collier opened a grocery store
Grocery store
A grocery store is a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are...
at what is now Five Points, and the store later served as Atlanta's first post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
in 1846.
In 1848, Five Points served as the location of Atlanta's first mayoral election. Moses Formwalt
Moses Formwalt
Moses W. Formwalt was the first mayor of the city of Atlanta then in DeKalb County, Georgia. Atlanta was chartered in December 1847 and the first election of officers took place on January 29, 1848...
became Atlanta's first mayor, defeating Jonathan Norcross
Jonathan Norcross
Jonathan Norcross , fourth Mayor of Atlanta, GA. Dubbed the "Father of Atlanta" and "hard fighter of everything." - Henry W. Grady - Personal life :...
.
In 1875, Atlanta's drinking water system began with the construction of three artesian wells at Five Points. The system delivered water to Atlanta's residents via wooden pipes.
Modern era
In the 1940s and 1950s, Five Points represented the central hub of downtown Atlanta. The downtown Rich's department storeDepartment store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
near Five Points became a common gathering point for Atlanta's residents prior to urban sprawl
Urban sprawl
Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...
, white flight
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
, and the development of shopping malls. A highlight of many Atlanta residents' childhoods was riding the Pink Pig (a small elevated train with enclosed cars, molded and painted to look like a pig) around the Rich's Great Tree
Rich's Great Tree
The Rich's Great Tree, now the Macy's Great Tree , is a large tall cut pine Christmas tree that has been an Atlanta tradition since 1948. -History:...
Christmas tree
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...
atop the Rich's
Rich's
Rich's was a department store retail chain, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, that operated in the southern U.S. from 1867 until March 6, 2005 when the nameplate was eliminated and replaced by Macy's...
department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
building.
Today, the Five Points station
Five Points (MARTA station)
Five Points is a tri-level underground multi-platform metro station of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority rail system. It is the transfer point between the Red and Gold Lines and the Blue and Green Lines and serves as MARTA's transportation hub. It provides access to the Five Points...
is MARTA
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority or MARTA is the principal rapid-transit system in the Atlanta metropolitan area and the ninth-largest in the United States. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit system consisting...
's largest, where its north-south and east-west lines intersect. The station, however, is actually one block south of the famous Five Points intersection. To the east extends the campus of Georgia State University
Georgia State University
Georgia State University is a research university in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Founded in 1913, it serves about 30,000 students and is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities...
. To the northeast is Woodruff Park
Woodruff Park
Woodruff Park, named for Robert W. Woodruff, is located in the heart of downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The park's are north of Edgewood Ave, between Peachtree Street NE and Park Place NE...
. To the northwest lies the Fairlie-Poplar
Fairlie-Poplar
The Fairlie-Poplar Historic District is part of the central business district in downtown Atlanta. It is named for the two streets that cross at its center, northeast-only Fairlie and southeast-only Poplar. Fairlie-Poplar is immediately north of Five Points, the definitive centerpoint and...
district. Just southeast lies Underground Atlanta
Underground Atlanta
Underground Atlanta is a shopping and entertainment district in the Five Points neighborhood of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States, near the intersection of the east and west MARTA rail lines. First opened in 1969, it takes advantage of the viaducts built over the city's many railroad tracks...
, a shopping center built underneath Atlanta's viaduct
Viaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
system.
Notable places and businesses
- Sun Dial Restaurant, Atlanta's only tri-level dining complex which include a revolving floor for 360° viewing.
- Centennial Olympic Park
- The TabernacleThe TabernacleThe Tabernacle, informally known as The Tabby, is a mid-size concert hall, in the U.S. city of Atlanta, currently managed by concert promoter Live Nation...
, a very popular concert hall. - Imagine It! Atlanta's famed children's museum.
- Five Points Consulting, one of Atlanta's premier PR firm.
- Coca-Cola MuseumWorld of Coca-ColaThe World of Coca-Cola is a permanent exhibition featuring the history of The Coca-Cola Company and its well-known advertising as well as a host of entertainment areas and attractions...
- Philips ArenaPhilips ArenaPhilips Arena is an indoor arena in Atlanta, Georgia.Completed in 1999 to replace The Omni, at a cost of $213.5 million, it is home to the Atlanta Hawks, of the National Basketball Association, and the Atlanta Dream, of the Women's National Basketball Association...