Lost neighborhood
Segregation
1912–1982
City of Atlanta
General area only

Johnsontown (lost to MARTA's Lenox station)

A Black community begun in 1912 near the Buckhead estates where its residents worked, condemned and razed in 1982 for MARTA's Lenox station. Wikipedia and the AUC exhibit place it at Lenox, not Lindbergh.

See it on the map All Segregation records

The record

Columbus and Callie Johnson built a home on the south side of Railroad Avenue in 1912. Others followed who worked as maids, yardmen, carhops and chauffeurs in Buckhead, and the community had a grocery, restaurant, dance hall, church and school; Carter Elementary closed in 1955 (AUC exhibit). About thirty families lived on narrow 23-by-143-foot lots and saw their first paved street only in the neighborhood's last years. After the 1971 MARTA referendum the land was earmarked for the Lenox station and demolition began in 1982. Banker T. M. Alexander Jr. helped owners win settlements far above the first offers. The neighborhood was recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey before it was razed, and MARTA's archaeology collection is at the AUC's Woodruff Library.

Today: Lenox MARTA station and its parking.