- Neighborhood
- Segregation
- 1890s onward
- City of Atlanta
- General area only
Vine City and English Avenue
Once among the most prestigious addresses in Black Atlanta, home to Alonzo Herndon and later to Martin Luther King Jr.'s family. From the 1960s it declined, and later convention-center and stadium projects displaced residents.
The record
Vine City grew south of Simpson Road (now Joseph E. Boone Blvd) in the late 1800s, and its Black population grew after the 1917 fire (AUC exhibit). Alonzo Herndon built his mansion there in 1910. English Avenue, north of Simpson, was laid out for white workers in 1891 and changed as Black families crossed the road from the 1920s to the 1940s; its school was reassigned to Black students in 1951 (Wikipedia). Eagan and Herndon Homes opened in 1941. City planners drew a Vine City urban redevelopment area (GSU Planning Atlanta map), but the AUC exhibit says the neighborhood had 'deteriorated into a corner of poverty' by the 1970s. The Georgia World Congress Center and the Georgia Dome displaced residents in the 1980s and 1990s.
Today: The Herndon Home museum, Rodney Cook Sr. Park (2021), and renewed redevelopment interest since Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened.
Where on the map: Vine City: Joseph E. Boone Blvd (N), Northside Dr (E), MLK Jr Dr (S), Joseph E. Lowery Blvd (W). English Avenue lies north of Boone Blvd.