MARTA is seeking public input on a history-focused environmental review of its Five Points Station makeover, a $206 million project that previously stirred controversy about timing and design. While the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review covers a broad range of potential impacts, it is focused on mitigations for destroying the canopy and plaza of the […]
Author Archives: John Ruch
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Atlanta City Council committee members for 2024 are named
The Atlanta City Council committee chairs and members for 2024 have been named. City Council President Doug Shipman makes the appointments, which he announced on Dec. 4. The committees are sub-groups of the council where legislation and policies typically get the most in-depth discussion. “My goal, as it has always been, is to assure the […]
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From presidents to punk rock, new book documents a metro Atlanta photographer as ‘Witness’ to history
The photo of Hank Aaron’s record-breaking home run in 1974 is so literally iconic it hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame: the Hammer running the bases while two teens who sneaked onto the field congratulate him. It’s one of many historic moments captured by metro Atlanta photographer Ron Sherman in more than a half-century […]
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Galloway School delays plan to demolish historic building as preservation petition launches
The Galloway School has again delayed a controversial plan to demolish its historic Gresham Building, citing ongoing neighborhood discussions. Meanwhile, an alumnus has launched a petition calling for the building to be saved. Laurel David, an attorney for the school, said it has deferred City zoning applications related to the plan until January “in order […]
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New Georgia Trust leader takes charge in a special moment for historic preservation
The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation has its first new leader in 15 years — a transition that comes as Atlanta, the nonprofit’s hometown, is shifting its notoriously anti-preservation attitude amid such pressures as housing affordability. It’s the sort of challenge that appeals to W. Wright Mitchell, the Georgia Trust’s new president and CEO. He’s a local […]
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Preservationists seek $65K to save and move log cabin that may be Cobb’s oldest building
Preservationists are racing to save and move a log cabin that may be the oldest structure in Cobb County, with a $65,000 fundraising campaign underway. The Power-Jackson Cabin on Post Oak Tritt Road in East Cobb — likely dating to sometime before 1840 — is threatened by lack of maintenance and a recently withdrawn development […]
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Atlanta’s pedestrian death rate is rising and worse in majority-Black neighborhoods, report says
Atlanta’s rate of pedestrians killed by vehicles is rising and is worse in majority-Black neighborhoods, according to new data mapping by the advocacy group Propel ATL. The new report, “38 Reasons Why,” analyzes the 38 pedestrian deaths reported within city limits in 2022, the last year for which complete data is available. That death rate […]
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Atlanta Constitution building, Gullah Geechee community are among Georgia Trust’s 10 historic ‘Places in Peril’
The former Atlanta Constitution newspaper building and a Gullah Geechee community facing displacement are among the “Places in Peril” on the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list of the state’s 10 most endangered historic sites. The 2024 list — announced Nov. 15 and dated to encourage rescue actions in the coming year — includes […]
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Atlanta Public Schools seeks to rebuild trust on future of historic properties
Officials from Atlanta Public Schools and the Atlanta Preservation Center standing side-by-side, taking questions from the public about a chummy historic preservation plan, would have been unimaginable less than two years ago. That’s when APS, out of the blue, announced a demolition of the highly historic Lakewood Elementary in Lakewood Heights. This is how things typically go in […]
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Galloway School demolition plan prompts alumni preservation group, talk of protecting Chastain Arts Center
The Galloway School’s plan to demolish its historic Gresham Building is prompting a preservation-minded alumni group and talk of protecting a nearby sister structure that houses the Chastain Arts Center. Neighborhood Planning Unit A removed the school’s plan from its November meeting agenda. Laurel David, an attorney for the school, says zoning-related requests will return at NPU-A’s December […]
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City Council approves landmarking of Midtown’s World War I memorial
The World War I memorial in Midtown’s Pershing Point Park is on its way to becoming a City landmark. The Atlanta City Council on Nov. 6 — just ahead of Veterans Day — unanimously approved an ordinance designating the Fulton County World War I Memorial at Peachtree and West Peachtree streets as a landmark building/site, […]
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Former ATLDOT official to press MARTA on claim it has spent over $50M on bus services with little result
A former City of Atlanta transportation official plans to press MARTA to explain what he says is an unexplained spending of over $50 million on “enhanced” bus routes that created little or no increases in bus service. Douglas Nagy, a former Atlanta Department of Transportation (ATLDOT) deputy commissioner, said he will press the MARTA Board […]
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Shepherd Center CEO to retire; co-founder’s son named successor
Shepherd Center CEO Sarah Morrison will retire next year after seven years leading the private rehabilitation hospital. Replacing her on Sept. 21, 2024, will be President and Chief Operating Officer Jamie Shepherd, a son and grandson of the hospital’s co-founders. Morrison will wrap up a 40-year career at the hospital at 2020 Peachtree Road in […]
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Girl Scouts mural joins Auburn Avenue’s gallery of Civil Rights icons
Another Civil Rights history mural has joined the growing collection on Auburn Avenue, adding to renewed preservation momentum. The mural on the former Atlanta Daily World building at 145 Auburn celebrates District V, Atlanta’s first Black Girl Scouts troop, by highlighting Roslyn Pope, the long-unsung Civil Rights activist who grew up in it. Sweet Auburn’s vital […]
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Four ‘Cop City’ protesters and a journalist sue over arrests on day of training center vote
Four protesters and a journalist claim they were unlawfully arrested by Atlanta Police Department (APD) officers as retaliation for a protest against the public safety training center on the day the City Council approved its lease. According to lawsuit complaints filed in U.S. District Court, the arrests happened as the plaintiffs left a Sept. 8, […]
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‘Cop City’ protesters to rally at Nov. 6 arraignment of RICO defendants
“Stop Cop City” protesters are planning a Nov. 6 rally to support 61 defendants facing racketeering and other charges related to activism opposing Atlanta’s public safety training center. The rally is planned for 9 a.m. at the Fulton County Justice Center & Courts at 185 Central Ave. The defendants are expected to be arraigned in […]
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Georgia Trust seeks nominations for 2024 Preservation Awards
The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation is seeking nominations for its 2024 Preservation Awards. The awards honor projects and people in the state who have made “significant contributions to the field of historic preservation.” The awards have various categories recognizing rehabilitation, sustainable rehabilitation, restoration, preservation, stewardship and “preservation service.” The 2023 award-winners included five Atlanta […]
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Galloway School confirms it will demolish historic building; preservationists urge a rethink
The Galloway School in Buckhead has confirmed its campus renovation plan will involve demolishing the historic, iconic Gresham Building while saving some pieces for incorporation into a new structure. Preservationists are urging the school to reconsider. “In order to remain responsible fiscal stewards of our school, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to […]
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In Southwest Atlanta, they’re praying for the preservation of a historic religious camp ground
Nearly two centuries ago, Methodists established a religious camp in the woods of what is now Southwest Atlanta as part of a historic Christian revival movement that established the Bible Belt and shaped Georgia’s future. Today, an effort is underway to preserve Mt. Gilead Camp Ground, or at least its roughly 140-year-old “arbor,” a roofed, […]
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Marker honoring Westside community reformer is another step to spotlighting Atlanta’s underrepresented history
The new movement to spotlight Atlanta’s underrepresented history took another step forward on Oct. 21. A marker to Lugenia Burns Hope (1871-1947), a community organizer and social reformer whose national and local work for African Americans prefigured the Civil Rights Movement, was unveiled in Washington Park. The marker is part of a nationwide program called National Votes […]
