- Urban renewal
- Segregation
- 1957–late 1960s
- City of Atlanta
- General area only
Thomasville urban redevelopment project
The city designated this southeast Atlanta community a 'slum area' in 1957 and cleared most of it. The land was rebuilt with single-family lots and a 350-unit public housing project north of McDonough Road.
The record
A 1968 Housing Authority fact sheet puts the area four miles southeast of downtown and 277 acres in size. The Board of Aldermen designated it a slum on August 19, 1957; it then had 356 houses, 67 percent rated substandard, holding 402 families, with unpaved streets and no parks. After the federal contract of July 10, 1959, the Authority relocated 283 families, 26 individuals and 19 businesses and demolished 302 structures. By 1968, 222 new houses were finished, 92 more had been started, and 350 public housing units were planned north of McDonough Road. The city's 1962 map of 'Negro Residential Areas' shades the Thomasville renewal area as a Black residential district.
Today: The Thomasville Heights neighborhood. The 350-unit public housing complex (opened 1967) was demolished in 2010, per Wikipedia's list of demolished projects.
Where on the map: Project boundary on GSU layers atlpm0002–atlpm0011i, around McDonough Blvd east of the federal penitentiary and South-View Cemetery.