Atlanta History Center is partying through yesteryear

It was a rainy Wednesday on June 25 in Virginia Highland, but Neighbor’s Pub was packed to the brim with antsy customers, all waiting to kick off the neighborhood’s first-ever Party with the Past bar crawl. 

The Atlanta History Center has hosted some version of a Party with the Past since 2012. Typically, the museum opts for a single historic location: the Fox Theatre, Oakland Cemetery, Zoo Atlanta, the Swan House. It’s part of the history center’s effort to uplift different parts of the city’s past.

“Atlanta History Center’s mission statement is to connect people to history and culture,” the bar crawl organizer, John Schmidt, said. “We hope, with a program like this, to accomplish all of that in some capacity.” 

Hundreds of participants gather at each free event to buy drinks and get an introduction to the area’s history. Atlanta History Center Special Projects Program Associate and Communications Coordinator John Schmidt, who organized the crawl, said the event helps connect the community to their shared history.

“The idea is essentially to get people started on their journey to learning about Atlanta history by holding a party on the history that’s everywhere, that’s in their own backyard,” Schmidt said. 

But this year, Schmidt and the History Center took a different approach to the party. Organizers approached different neighborhoods and asked what the best way to highlight their community would be. In Little Five Points, the History Center hosted an “open house” with historic information. The Virginia Highland District had a different vision. 

“They suggested the idea of a neighborhood crawl, because there are so many great legacy bars along North Highland Avenue, some of the oldest in the city,’ Schmidt said. 

Virginia Highland District Executive Director and Co-Founder Katie Voelpel landed on four bars for the first official crawl in the neighborhood: Neighbor’s, Atkins Park, Moe’s and Joe’s and George’s. Participants would crawl on their own time and see historic “activations” at the locations. 

“I definitely wanted it to be a little bit more of a crawl, so we decided to choose two (bars) in two different walkable nodes,” Voelpel said. 

The bars are some of the oldest in the neighborhood. Atkins Park is over 100 years old, and Voelpel said it has one of the longest-standing liquor licenses in the city. George’s and Moe’s and Joe’s have both been open for almost 50 years, and Neighbor’s has been around for about four decades. 

The spots all have deep character, loyal customers and lots of history. The Virginia Highland District lets each business handle its own approach to putting information on display. Moe’s and Joe’s kept their history on the walls, while Atkins Park has a 15-minute chat with a guest speaker.
 
But the busy events are just an introduction to history. On June 25, the turnout was so high it was hard to even get in the door to hear the Atkins Park speaker, or move around Moe’s and Joe’s to see the hung-up history. 

Schmidt said about 300 people signed in at the event, and even more joined on the crawl without registration. It’s a significant increase from the average turnout, which is around 150 to 200 people. 

The event organizers and neighborhood leaders said it was a surprising success. Schmidt was pleased to see the results of an “experiment” with the center’s first bar crawl. Meanwhile, Voelpel was struck by the all-ages crowd engaging with each other at each stop. 

“My heart fluttered when there were like, people telling their stories to the younger generations,” Voelpel said. 

It’s an innovative way to get newcomers and younger people engaged with the history of the city. Virginia Highland is a popular nightlife destination for people in their twenties and thirties, but not every customer knows the rich history of their hangout spot. 

George’s owner, Mary Haklaj, understands this deeply. She inherited the bar and restaurant from her father, who took over from her grandfather, who opened the spot in 1961 as a Middle Eastern grocery store and deli. Now it’s an iconic Atlanta burger joint. 

“It’s really important to us to show who we are, that we’re one of the oldest bars in Atlanta,” Haklaj said. “With the younger generation, a lot of people don’t really know about that too much.” 

Haklaj herself is only in her thirties, but she has spent years promoting the story of her spot. Her grandfather was about to become a professional baseball player decades ago when his wife gave him an ultimatum: sports or his relationship. He chose love and opened up George’s instead of a sports career. 

The Lebanese immigrant family started the spot as a Middle Eastern locale, but Haklaj said the cuisine wasn’t as popular back then. They eventually became a burger joint. Some of the original food remains – the hummus is still her grandmother’s recipe. 

“We’re like the original,” Haklaj said.”We definitely should be a part of the crawl.” 

But the June 25 crawl was a chance to put that history on full display. The walls are already adorned with memorabilia, but Haklaj pulled out a collection of ephemera to create a full display in the dining room. The table was lined with menus, articles and other artifacts dating back to the 1960s. 

Haklaj said she was “really impressed” with the turnout. She also fell in love with the history display. 

“We were like, we should have a museum room or a history section now,” Haklaj said. 

After the June 25 crawl, the bar owners and organizers all said the same thing – they would love to do it again. Voelpel said the neighborhood is looking to future historic bar crawls with other spots in the mix, like blues bar Blind Willie’s or cocktail spot Dad’s. 

Schmidt said the Atlanta History Center will keep throwing more Parties with the Past and working to engage people with history on their terms. Overall, he hopes it will create a “shared civic understanding.” 

“Stuff like this, even before I worked with AHC, is kind of how I fell in love with the city,” Schmidt said. “Learning about how these places came to be while trying to get my bearings, it changed from being the place where I lived to the place I call home.” 

The next Party with the Past takes place Oct. 9 at Westview Cemetery. More details are available on the Atlanta History Center website.