English Avenue and Vine City

What is now the English Avenue neighborhood was purchased in 1891 by James W. English Jr., son of Atlanta mayor James W. English. It was created as a white working-class neighborhood. Simpson Road was long a residential race barrier with whites to the north and blacks to the south.[11] Today's English Avenue was known at different times as Bellwood[12] and as Western Heights. In 1910 the Western Heights school (later renamed Kingbery after a principal of the school, then renamed English Avenue Elementary School) was built at the northeast corner of English Ave. and Pelham St.[13]

Overcrowding in the neighborhood's school is documented as a serious issue from at least 1910 through 1946 (photo), notwithstanding multiple expansions of the facility.[14][15][16][17]

The area south of Simpson Road — today's Vine City — was settled at the end of the 1800s by large land owners, and a predominantly African-American residential area was established, though there were also white subdivisions, schools, and churches. A mix of social classes were present. In 1910 Alonzo F. Herndon, founder of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, built his home at 587 University Place, now listed on the National Register and open to visitors.[18]

The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 contributed to the already great need for housing for African Americans and by the 1920s-1940s, despite violence and bombings trying to prevent it, blacks started to move north across Simpson Road.[11]

In 1941, the Eagan Homes and Herndon Homes public housing projects opened and as a result, the black population in the area increased. On Hunter Street (now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive), white business owners once lived behind their stores, but in the 1940s, black owners started taking over these businesses.[18] In 1947 Paschal's Restaurant, an Atlanta soul food landmark and meeting place for civil rights leaders, opened in its original location on West Hunter Street.[18] In 1951, the English Avenue Elementary School's designation was changed from white to black in response to most whites having moved out of the area.[19]

During the mid-20th century, the area was a middle-class African-American neighborhood.[20] Commercial areas included English Avenue; Simpson Street/Road, in its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s; and Bankhead Highway, which was part of the US Highway system, and was in its splendor in the 1960s. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. moved to the area in 1967, and his widow Coretta Scott King continued to live here until she moved to a Peachtree Road luxury condominium purchased for her by Oprah Winfrey in 2004.

In 1960, the English Avenue elementary school was dynamited, likely in retaliation for civil rights demonstrations by blacks. Mayor William B. Hartsfield condemned the dynamiting as the work of those from outside Atlanta, "the outhouse set".[19] The area experienced notable pro- and anti-Black Power riots in 1966[21] and 1967.[22]

Abandoned houses, Proctor at Oliver streets, English Avenue

Suburbanization started draining the area's vitality starting in the 1970s.[11] Over the following decades, it attracted buyers and sellers of heroin, and deteriorated into a corner of poverty in the city, characterized by large numbers of abandoned, boarded-up houses.[20]

In 1995 the English Avenue Elementary School closed.[13]

In 2006, a "no-knock raid" in search of a drug dealer, burst into the home of Kathryn Johnston. Ms. Johnston, in her 80s, opened fire on the officers and wounded three and was killed by return fire from the officers. The incident resulted in much anger in the neighborhood and in close scrutiny of police use of "no-knock warrants" in drug raids.[23]

The 2008 tornado caused major damage in areas of Vine City (photos).

The 2010s foreclosure crisis hit the neighborhoods hard.[24] In April 2012, Creative Loafing reported that "on some streets more houses are boarded up than are lived in". Occupy Atlanta protested the Vine City foreclosure of Mrs. Pamela Flores by Bank of America.[25]

The desperate state of the area was described by reporter Thomas Wheatley in Creative Loafing in September 2012 as:[26]

"boarded-up homes built among the trees along the narrow streets,…people loitering in the middle of vacant lots, casting hollow stares at passing motorists, and…young men hanging out on street corners, hollering at passers-by and then to lookouts down the street"

In November 1994, the Atlanta Empowerment Zone was established, a 10-year, $250 million federal program to revitalize Atlanta's 34 poorest neighborhoods including the Bluff. Scathing reports from both the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs revealed corruption, waste, bureaucratic incompetence, and interference by mayor Bill Campbell.[27][28]

As part of the Atlanta Housing Authority's systematic replacement of public housing projects by mixed-income communities (MIC), Eagan Homes was demolished and the Magnolia Park MIC replaced it. Herndon Homes was demolished in 2011.[29]

New townhomes at Westside Village, August 2012

A Walmart under construction at Westside Village, August 2012

In 1999, the Atlanta Housing Authority first announced plans for the "Historic Westside Village", a $130 million commercial, residential and retail project at the area's southern end near Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. at Ashby St.[30] A Publix supermarket opened in May 2002[31] but the overall project stalled by 2003 as further anchor tenants did not materialize.[32] This, along with disappointing sales, caused the Publix - the only full-sized supermarket for miles around - to close in December 2009.[33] Creative Loafing called the project the most notorious "municipal boondoggle...to have tarred Atlanta" during mayor Bill Campbell's era; the project "fell victim to...cronyism, bureaucratic incompetence and a flagrant disregard for federal lending guidelines".[34] In December 2010 things looked up as the Atlanta Development Authority announced plans for Wal-Mart to open a store on the site, which Mayor Kasim Reed called "an end to the food desert in the area".[35][36] In January 2013 the Wal-Mart opened for business.[37][38]

The Christian Science Monitor reported that by 2008, businessman John Gordon and Rev. Anthony Motley, a 20-year resident of The Bluff, "Atlanta's roughest 'hood", had "formed a black-white coalition seeking angel investors" and brought together "local businesses, neighboring Georgia Tech, and church leaders to inspire not just city and private investment, but also to light a spark of hope among law-abiding residents – many of them older people fearful of the streets outside their front doors. Their unusual friendship" had "helped inspire two massive clean-up efforts, a small but significant drop in crime, and glimmers of fresh paint and clean-swept front walks."[39]

Cook Park is under construction by a partnership consisting of the City of Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management, The Trust for Public Land of Georgia, and the National Monuments Foundation. The park will consist of a system of storm water management including a retention pond similar to the one in nearby Historic Old Fourth Ward Park, walking trails and amenities including a terraced amphitheater and splash pad[40] and statues and monuments honoring a number of prominent Atlantans and Civil Rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Booker T. Washington.[41]

The site, located along the south side of Joseph E. Boone Boulevard, has been vacant for many years, after the city purchased several homes there that perpetually fell victim to severe flooding caused by historic mismanagement in the Proctor Creek watershed. In December 2011 Park Pride, a greenspace advocacy group, proposed a network of greenspaces and parks that—through the incorporation of green infrastructure—would help mitigate the recurring flooding from stormwater runoff that plagued the neighborhoods of Vine City and English Avenue for years.[2] In 2015, the City began cleaning the site, and the Trust For Public Land joined the partnership to plan, raise funds, and construct the park above and around the stormwater management solutions. The National Monuments Foundation and Rodney Cook will fund and construct "sculptures of civil rights leaders, an urban farm, and an 80-foot "peace column."[42][43]

The design mimics Mims Park, now demolished, which was once a prominent city park in Vine City named after Livingston Mims, who was mayor of Atlanta from 1901 to 1903. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed Piedmont Park in Midtown and Central Park in New York City.[44]

English Avenue Elementary School, site of a proposed "green technology global community center"

In 2017, it was announced that construction will commence, however the park will be named Rodney Cook Sr. Park and it is hoped to stimulate revitalization.[45] Along with this park, Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park, named in honor of former neighborhood resident Kathryn Johnston, was also built in the neighborhood, being officially opened in 2019.[46]

In May 2010, the non-profit Greater Vine City Opportunities Program, founded and directed by "Able" Mable Thomas bought the English Avenue Elementary School with the intention to convert it into a "state of the art green technology global community center".[47]

In March 2011, NPU L voted in favor of a Sunset Avenue Historic District from Joseph E. Boone Blvd. southward to Magnolia Street.[5]

In December 2011, the nonprofit Friends of English Avenue arranged for a married couple, both police officers, to live rent-free in a neighborhood house. "Able" Mable Thomas and others expressed the need for a "rebranding" of the area similar to the one which rebranded crime and prostitution-infested Stewart Avenue in Southwest Atlanta as Metropolitan Parkway.[48]

Other transformative efforts continued in 2014. A new Urban Perform gym opened on Joseph E. Boone Blvd designed to empower residents to make healthy lifestyle changes.[49] The gym also hosts a local farmer's market on Saturdays which offers fresh, organic, produce from local community gardens. One of these gardens is the Historic Westside Gardens, which hopes to expand through a cooperative effort with the National Monument Foundation into Mims Park.

The Westside Works, a non-profit and jobs training center, opened in 2014 at the site of former E.R. Carter School at 80 Joseph E. Lowery Blvd. NW. Their mission is to serve the underserved by teaching new skills crucial to the modern workforce. In Summer 2014 they graduated their first class of trainees.[50]

There are multiple efforts underway to encourage and promote home ownership in Vine City and English Avenue. Invest Atlanta has a trust fund which provides up to 10% of the downpayment for a first time homeowner, up to $15,000.[51] Home Atlanta 4.0 provides up to 5% of the house cost, but waives the first-time buyer requirement.

Invest Atlanta and the Arthur M. Blank Foundation partnered to provide $30 million in seed money for innovative and transformative non-profits to help revitalize the two neighborhoods.

In 2018, Friendship Baptist church held talks with developers regarding Downtown West, a new construction development adjacent to the new home of the Atlanta Falcons, Mercedes-Benz Stadium.[52]

In 2012, an annual festival was established, the Historic Westside Village Festival. The event includes educational seminars, vendors, a Kids Zone, and a concert stage, with proceeds going to local charities and services. In 2013 the festival took place on September 21.[53]

The annual English Avenue Festival of Lights is directed by the Historic Westside Cultural Arts Council. The Festival is an exhibition of the community and encourages community members to be a light in their neighborhood. There is a Children's pavilion, free food and drinks, and an exhibition of local non-profits.