- Neighborhood
- Segregation
- 1870 onward
- City of Atlanta
- General area only
Mechanicsville
A railroad workers' neighborhood south of downtown, once racially mixed, that declined after the stadium and interstates were built beside it. It was also the site of two renewal plans and a 1967 public housing project.
The record
Mechanicsville grew up from about 1870 beside the rail lines just south of downtown and was named for the mechanics who worked on them. Working-class Black and middle-class white families lived there, including the Rich family of department-store fame (Wikipedia). The out-migration of middle-class families and the construction of Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium and the interstates brought heavy decline. City planners drew renewal areas for Mechanicsville and its Cooper-Glenn section (GSU Planning Atlanta maps). The McDaniel-Glenn housing project opened in 1967 with up to 768 units and was demolished in 2006.
Today: The mixed-income Columbia at Mechanicsville Station replaced McDaniel-Glenn. The neighborhood lies between the stadium district and Pittsburgh.