.gif)
North Avenue (Atlanta)
Encyclopedia
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...
from Midtown Atlanta
Midtown Atlanta
Midtown is the second largest financial district in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, situated between the commercial and financial districts of Downtown and SoNo to the south and the affluent residential and commercial district of Buckhead to the north...
. North Avenue stretches continuously in Atlanta from Candler Park
Candler Park
Candler Park is a 55-acre city park located at 585 Candler Park Drive NE, in Atlanta, Georgia. It is named after Coca-Cola magnate Asa Griggs Candler, who donated this land to the city in 1922...
in the east, across Interstate 75
Interstate 75
Interstate 75 is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. It travels from State Road 826 and State Road 924 in Hialeah, Florida to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, at the Ontario, Canada, border...
& Interstate 85
Interstate 85
Interstate 85 is a major interstate highway in the Southeastern United States. Its current southern terminus is at an interchange with Interstate 65 in Montgomery, Alabama; its northern terminus interchanges with Interstate 95 in Petersburg, Virginia, near Richmond...
, along the southern boundary of the Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
, to Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard (formerly Ashby Avenue) just southwest of Georgia Tech, where it ends. North Avenue passes through the neighborhoods of Poncey-Highland
Poncey-Highland
Poncey-Highland is a neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, located south of Virginia-Highland. It so named because it is near the intersection of east/west Ponce de Leon Avenue and north/southwest North Highland Avenue. This Atlanta neighborhood was established between 1905 and 1930,...
, Old Fourth Ward
Old Fourth Ward
The Old Fourth Ward, often abbreviated The Fourth Ward or O4W, is a neighborhood stretching east from Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The Old Fourth Ward is one of the city's most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, but is also one of the city's most eclectic, containing a burgeoning nightlife district...
, and Midtown Atlanta
Midtown Atlanta
Midtown is the second largest financial district in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, situated between the commercial and financial districts of Downtown and SoNo to the south and the affluent residential and commercial district of Buckhead to the north...
.
North Avenue got its name long ago, when 150 or more years ago, it was built along the northern city limits of Atlanta, when Atlanta was a young city in the State of Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. For decade
Decade
A decade is a period of 10 years. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek dekas which means ten. This etymology is sometime confused with the Latin decas and dies , which is not correct....
s, huge portions of both Atlanta itself and Metro Atlanta have been built north of North Avenue, and also beyond the eastern and western ends of North Avenue.
The western half of North Avenue carries U.S. Highway 29, U.S. 78, and U.S. 278, but the eastern parts those highways follow Ponce de Leon Avenue, just two city block
City block
A city block, urban block or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest area that is surrounded by streets. City blocks are the space for buildings within the street pattern of a city, they form the basic unit of a city's urban fabric...
s north of North Avenue.
Notable landmark
Landmark
This is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...
s along North Avenue include the Bank of America Plaza
Bank of America Plaza (Atlanta)
Bank of America Plaza is a skyscraper located in the SoNo district of Atlanta, Georgia. At the tower is the 53rd-tallest building in the world. When it first opened, it was the 9th tallest building in the world, and 6th tallest building in the United States...
, The Varsity
The Varsity
The Varsity is a restaurant chain, iconic in the modern culture of Atlanta, Georgia. The main branch of the chain is the largest drive-in fast food restaurant in the world...
, the Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
, the high-rise headquarters of BellSouth Telecommunications
BellSouth Telecommunications
BellSouth Telecommunications, LLC is the Bell Operating Company of AT&T that serves the southeastern United States. It absorbed the operations of South Central Bell in 1992....
, and the high-rise world headquarters of The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...
. The basement of the telephone company building contains the North Avenue MARTA Station
North Avenue (MARTA station)
North Avenue is an underground train station on the Red and Gold lines of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority rail system, named after the nearby North Avenue. The walls are made of white tile and painted with a mural of green hills, a blue sky, and clouds. It is among the busiest...
, which is a station of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
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...
rapid transit system along its main Red & Gold lines. This MARTA station is the closest one to Georgia Tech, and it is a moderate walk between the two.
Georgia Tech is sometimes jokingly referred to as the "North Avenue Trade School" in reference to this street, the largest thoroughfare near its original center.
History
When North Avenue was first constructed, this arrow-straight avenue followed the lines between the already-surveyedSurveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
land lots in Fulton County, Georgia
Fulton County, Georgia
Fulton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat is Atlanta, the state capital since 1868 and the principal county of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
, and it was very near to the original northern city limits. In fact, there was a line of fortification
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
s of Confederate Army dug just north of North Avenue for the Siege of Atlanta
Atlanta Campaign
The Atlanta Campaign was a series of battles fought in the Western Theater of the American Civil War throughout northwest Georgia and the area around Atlanta during the summer of 1864. Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman invaded Georgia from the vicinity of Chattanooga, Tennessee, beginning in May...
in 1864.
The first section of North Avenue was between land lots #50 and #49 west of West Peachtree Street and lots #47 and #48 to the east of this street. Prior to 1925, North Avenue ended at Randolph street. As part of the 1925 agreement with the city to build the Sears, Roebuck & Company's giant Atlanta retail store, North Avenue was extended to the Sidings Rail Road tracks near today's Eastern City Hall (which is the former Sears, Roebuck, & Co. building) and the DuPre Excelsior Mill
DuPre Excelsior Mill
The Masquerade is a mid-sized concert venue located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The venue has both indoor and outdoor concert space, and the live music mostly consists of alternative music styles, such as Indie rock, Metal, Punk Rock, Rockabilly, and Electronic.-History:The building was...
company.
During the 1930s, a vehicle tunnel was dug underneath these railroad tracks, and then North Avenue was extended eastwards towards Atlanta's Candler Park
Candler Park
Candler Park is a 55-acre city park located at 585 Candler Park Drive NE, in Atlanta, Georgia. It is named after Coca-Cola magnate Asa Griggs Candler, who donated this land to the city in 1922...
. North Avenue dead-ends into Candler Park Drive, which forms the western boundary of the Candler Park golf course.
When Richard Peters
Richard Peters (Atlanta)
Richard Peters was an American railroad man and a founder of Atlanta.Grandson of Judge Richard Peters, Jr...
was laying out the avenues and streets on the two large lots of land that he owned (#49 and #48), he counted North Avenue and Ponce de Leon Avenue as the first and second avenues north, and the next one south of those he named 3rd AVenue. Despite this, the "zero" east/west avenue which divides the northern and southern sides of Atlanta for the purpose of their street addresses and Post Office
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
addresses is Edgewood Avenue
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:...
, which is many blocks farther south of North Avenue.