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MARTA seeks public comment on history-focused review of Five Points Station project impacts

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 […]

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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Tritt Road in East Cobb — likely dating to sometime before 1840 — is threatened by lack of maintenance and a recently withdrawn development […]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 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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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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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 […]

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Buckhead’s Galloway School proposes campus renovation that could alter or remove historic building

Buckhead’s The Galloway School is proposing a campus renovation that could spell changes to — maybe even the end of — its historic, trademark Gresham Building. The private school has been based in the 112-year-old former Fulton County Almshouse, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, since its founding in 1969. Preliminary documents […]

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Midtown’s Peachtree Manor marks 100 years as a ‘timeless architectural jewel’

Residents of Midtown’s Peachtree Manor condominiums are marking the tower’s 100th birthday as what they call a “timeless architectural jewel of Atlanta.” Opened in 1923 as a luxury apartment building at Peachtree and 6th Street, the Manor is now part of the Cornerstone Village condo and commercial complex. The brick-and-limestone Georgian Revival tower is on […]

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Pioneering LGBTQ+ history report lays the groundwork for preserving Atlanta spaces and places

A pioneering report on the city’s LGBTQ+ history is complete, laying the groundwork for further research and future preservation efforts. The “Atlanta LGBTQ+ Historic Context Statement” covers the period of 1895 to 2000. It was created by consultant New South Associates on behalf of the City and the nonprofit Historic Atlanta, which advocates for underrepresented […]

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Atlanta Public Schools plans affordable housing and more for surplus properties, names two pilot projects

Atlanta Public Schools (APS) may team with the City’s brand-new affordable housing organization on community-led, history-preserving remakes of several surplus properties – starting with the former Lakewood Heights and Peeples Street school sites. The Atlanta Board of Education Sept. 19 gave a thumbs-up to the innovative disposal strategy, which could involve partnership with the new […]

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In Central State Hospital demolition decision, ‘in-depth’ historic preservation study was a single phone call

The state agency planning to demolish historic buildings at Milledgeville’s Central State Hospital said an “in-depth” exploration of preservation alternatives it claimed to have conducted consisted of a single, undocumented phone call with an unnamed expert. For weeks, the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) did not respond to SaportaReport questions about the supposed analysis and […]

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Preservationists to call for saving Central State Hospital historic buildings at Aug. 31 meeting

Preservationists plan to press officials at an Aug. 31 meeting to back off a demolition plan for historic buildings at Milledgeville’s Central State Hospital. Friends of Central State Hospital (FCSH) and the Atlanta Preservation Center (APC) are among those who plan to attend the meeting of the Board of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health […]

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Candler Park digs deep into possibility of an official historic district

Candler Park is digging deep into the possibility of joining the ranks of Atlanta neighborhoods protected by some type of official historic district. A Historic Designation Committee of the Candler Park Neighborhood Organization (CPNO) was scheduled to hold the first of four “deep-dive” community meetings about the concept on Sept. 7. Committee chair Emily Taff […]