Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
's Fourth Ward encompassed mainly what is now called the
Old Fourth Ward
The Old Fourth Ward, often abbreviated O4W, is an intown neighborhood on the eastside of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The neighborhood is best known as the location of the Martin Luther King Jr. historic site.
Geography
The Old Fourth Wa ...
.
1874
A new city charter increased the radius of the city from one to one and a half miles, reduced the
number of wards back to five and created a bi-cameral council of two councilmen from each ward and a second body of three at-large aldermen was established.
The new Fourth ward layout was from Pryor and tracks east on Georgia RR to city limits then north west to West Peachtree and south to origin. Two councilmen would be elected from each ward each year.
In late 1875, an ordinance passed where each year one councilman would be elected from each ward for a two-year term. The first year, 1876 just had one citywide alderman and a single councilman from each ward and they would be fully staffed two years later.
1883
On November 5, 1883, a
Sixth Ward (beige) was carved out of the Fourth and Fifth Wards. The Fourth lost the entire Peachtree St corridor leaving a district of
working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
citizens: Germans and Jews to the north and Blacks to the south. Before 1910, the ward had become almost exclusively Black centered on
Sweet Auburn
Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, ...
and a large portion of it was destroyed in the
Great Atlanta fire of 1917
The Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 began just after noon on 21 May 1917 in the Old Fourth Ward of Atlanta, Georgia. It is unclear just how the fire started, but it was fueled by hot temperatures and strong winds which propelled the fire. The fire, ...
.
See also
*
Atlanta ward system
From its incorporation in 1847, the municipal boundaries of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were extended repeatedly from a small area around its railroad station to today's city covering .
Prior to 1954, Atlanta was divided into political di ...
References
* {{cite book , last=Garrett , first=Franklin Miller , authorlink=Franklin Garrett , year=1969 , title=Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events , publisher=University of Georgia Press , location=Georgia , isbn=0-8203-0263-5
Ward 1