- Buried stream
- Water
- western branch buried by the 1930s; eastern mostly by 1950
- City of Atlanta
- Location approximate
Clear Creek
Clear Creek drained downtown's northeast side, the Old Fourth Ward, Inman Park and Midtown to Peachtree Creek. Its western branch was buried by the 1930s and most of its eastern branch by 1950; it runs open only from Piedmont Park north.
The record
Wikipedia describes a western branch rising in the northeast quadrant of downtown between Decatur and Peachtree streets, where the Union army camped in fall 1864 (for decades it was called Shermantown Branch), and an eastern branch rising in springs in Inman Park and the Old Fourth Ward. Its sources included Angier Springs, Ponce de Leon Springs, the Clara Meer springs and Stillhouse Branch. A Clear Creek post office (1831-39) took its name from the stream (marker 060-83). The creek served as a sewer in the late 1800s; today its basin drains to the Clear Creek CSO facility and the West Area tunnel, Historic Fourth Ward Park holds a stormwater pond in the buried headwaters, and the Piedmont Park expansion daylighted a formerly culverted reach.
Today: Open channel from Piedmont Park north to Peachtree Creek; piped upstream.
Look for: Where the creek emerges in Piedmont Park (about 33.7844,-84.3715 in USGS NHD); the stormwater pond at Historic Fourth Ward Park.
Where on the map: Open channel mapped by USGS NHD from Piedmont Park north past the BeltLine to Peachtree Creek; buried branches run under Ponce de Leon Ave, the Old Fourth Ward and downtown's northeast side.