Pairs Pond (Ponce de Leon Springs park)

From the air

No trace of Pairs Pond shows in any aerial photo from 1940 to 2017, so it was probably gone before the first photo was taken.

Gone

The pond is not visible in the earliest aerial, from 1940, so it was gone by then.

Read from aerial photos taken between 1940 and 2026 and from USGS 3DEP lidar, then checked by a second reading. How the photos were read.

History

Pairs Pond was a small lake with shaded walking paths and summer houses around it, added in summer 1890 when the Atlanta street railway remade Ponce de Leon Springs park under designer Julius Hartman. It was made alongside the 4-acre Ponce de Leon Lake, which was filled in 1907 for a ballpark. The sources checked name the pond in a single sentence and give no location, size, feeding stream or later history. The land later became the Sears building, City Hall East and Ponce City Market. 12

Who built it

Added in summer 1890 during the railway's redesign of the springs grounds. W. A. Hemphill, president of the railway company, brought in local landscape designer Julius Hartman, who had earlier developed Little Switzerland near Grant Park (later White City). Hartman's plan, as Southern Spaces describes it, added rustic benches and graveled walking paths. Which stream or spring fed the pond is not stated. Southern Spaces cites 'A Born Genius,' Atlanta Constitution, Aug. 31, 1890, p. 8, for Hartman's plans, including the four-acre lake; whether it mentions the pond is unchecked. 12

Timeline

1. 1818-1820Wikipedia says cattle rancher John Young built a house near the spring that became Ponce de Leon Springs. Not found in Southern Spaces. Likely 2
2. 1860sWikipedia says retired physician Henry L. Wilson named the spring 'Ponce de Leon Springs' and that John Armistead owned it by then. Southern Spaces says Atlantans began visiting in the late 1860s. Likely 12
3. 1887The Atlanta Street Railroad Company buys thirty acres around the springs. 12
4. By 1887Wikipedia reports that Black people arriving by streetcar were told by police they could not enter. Southern Spaces says the springs were open to Black and white visitors before 1887. Likely 12
5. Summer 1890Under Julius Hartman's redesign, the 4-acre Ponce de Leon Lake and the small Pairs Pond are added, with shaded walking paths and nearby summer houses. 12
6. January-June 1903A company that became the Ponce de Leon Amusement Company buys 47 acres in January. The Casino opens June 1; the rest of the park probably opened June 6. Pairs Pond's fate in this era is not recorded. 12
7. 1906The Ponce de Leon Park Association is created and about $50,000 goes into improvements. The pond is not mentioned. 12
8. 1907The four-acre lake is filled in for Ponce de Leon Ball Park (opened May 23, 1907, per Wikipedia). Neither source says what happened to Pairs Pond. 123
9. c. 1910A photograph captioned 'Ponce de Leon Swing, ca. 1910' shows a sign reading 'Colored persons admitted as servants only.' 1
10. 1924Sears, Roebuck and Co. buys the area north of Ponce de Leon Avenue that held the springs and amusement park, for its southeastern headquarters. 12
11. 1966After Atlanta Stadium opened, the ballpark was demolished; Wikipedia says the Midtown Place shopping center now occupies the site. Likely 23
12. 1990 and 2011Wikipedia says Sears sold the building to the City of Atlanta in 1990 (City Hall East), and the city sold it in 2011 to developers who made Ponce City Market. Likely 2

Names

Pair's Pond

Apostrophe variant from the scout notes; the two cited sources both print 'Pairs Pond'. Neither explains the name. 12

The dam

No dam is documented. The sources do not say whether the pond was dammed, spring-fed or dug. No National Inventory of Dams or Georgia Safe Dams record is known for it.

Around the lake

Water

The park grew around a mineral spring. Wikipedia calls the water chalybeate (iron-bearing); Southern Spaces describes a sulphurous taste. What fed the pond is not documented.

Segregation

Before 1887 the springs were open to Black and white visitors. By the 1890s Southern Spaces calls the park one of many white-only leisure spaces in the city. Pairs Pond was made in 1890 inside that park. A c. 1910 sign admitted 'colored persons' as servants only.

Before 1861

Wikipedia says John Young built a house near the spring c. 1818-1820 and that locals drew its water by the 1830s; Southern Spaces dates visiting to the late 1860s. The early dates rest on Wikipedia alone.

Visiting

Getting there

No pond is known to survive. The former park grounds are now Ponce City Market, the Midtown Place shopping center and BeltLine-side development (private and commercial property plus public trail).

What you can see

Nothing of the pond is documented. Southern Spaces says the former lake site is now the parking lot of the Midtown shopping plaza. Wikipedia says the ballpark's magnolia tree still stands behind the shopping center along the BeltLine trail; that tree dates to the ballpark era, not the pond.

Look, don’t dig. Parks, cemeteries and preserves are off limits to digging and collecting, and private land needs the owner’s permission to enter.

Open questions

• Where did Pairs Pond sit relative to the spring, the 4-acre lake and Ponce de Leon Avenue?
• Why 'Pairs' or 'Pair's'? A person's name, or a reference to two ponds?
• Was it spring-fed, stream-fed or dug, and was it dammed?
• Was it filled in 1907 with the big lake, during the 1903 amusement-park build, or later for Sears in 1924?
• Does the Atlanta Constitution, Aug.-Sept. 1890, describe it in more detail than Southern Spaces does?

Know something? Write to hello@historyunderfoot.org. Family papers, photos and deeds often settle these.

Where to look next

• Atlanta Constitution, 'A Born Genius,' Aug. 31, 1890, p. 8, cited by Southern Spaces for Hartman's plans (ProQuest Historical Newspapers / Atlanta-Fulton Library or Georgia State University)
• Sanborn fire insurance maps of Atlanta (1890s and 1911 editions) could show ponds inside the park (Digital Library of Georgia / Library of Congress Sanborn collection)
• 1949 Atlanta aerial photographs (Georgia State University) and 1938-40 aerials (UGA) to see any water remains before and after Sears (GSU Library Digital Collections and UGA Map & Government Information Library)
• Full-text search for 'Pairs Pond' or 'Pair's Pond', 1890-1907 (not searched; automated fetch was blocked by robots rules) (Georgia Historic Newspapers, Digital Library of Georgia)
• Toton, Sarah. 'Vale of Amusements' footnotes and photographs, including the c. 1910 park sign (Southern Spaces)

Sources

1. Vale of Amusements: Modernity, Technology, and Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Park, 1870-1920 (Sarah Toton, 2008) Southern Spaces (Emory University)
2. Ponce de Leon Springs (Atlanta) Wikipedia
3. Ponce de Leon Park Wikipedia