From its founding in 1847, Atlanta has had a penchant for frequent street renamings, even in the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

, usually to honor the recently deceased. As early as 1903 (see section below), there were concerns about the confusion this caused, as "more than 225 streets of Atlanta have had from two to eight names" in the first decades of the city. Many recent Atlanta street renamings commemorate prominent African Americans in Atlanta's history. These renamings can be identified by the use of the person's full name (e.g., Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard) rather than the more traditional last name only (e.g., Cain Street). According to local and state rules and regulations, street renamings must have support of 75% of property owners along that street, and state guides advise against using proper names as street names. However, these rules and procedures are usually ignored or waived, as demonstrated by the recent Ted Turner Drive at Historic Spring Street renaming resolution by the Atlanta City Council.

Name changes

*Current name **Former name(s) Midtown Atlanta 1895

*10th St. **Bleckley Ave. (alternative name, 1890s, Piedmont Avenue to Peachtree); Madison (between Crescent and West Peachtree) *11th St. **Harrison Ave. (alternative name, 1890s, Piedmont to Peachtree); Davis (between Crescent and West Peachtree) *12th St. **Downe St. (alternative name, 1890s, Piedmont to Peachtree); Stewart (between Crescent and West Peachtree) *13th St. **Center St. (alternative name, 1890s, Piedmont to Peachtree); Cleveland Street (between Crescent and West Peachtree) *14th St. **Wilson Ave. (alternative name, 1890s) *Andrew J. Hairston Pl. (as of April 30, 2014) **Newport Street * Andrew Young International Boulevard **International Boulevard **Cain Street (for pioneer John J. Cain) **Magnolia Street (1886 map, one block section between Marietta St. and railroad tracks) *Argonne Ave. (Midtown) **Bedford Place (Bedford Place continued south to Forrest Ave., now Ralph McGill; that portion is now called Central Park Place) *Atlanta Student Movement Boulevard **Fair Street (Pertains to the 14 blocks of Fair Street between Northside Drive and James P. Brawley Drive (formerly Chestnut Street). * Auburn Avenue (as of April 17, 1893) **Wheat Street (for Augustus W. Wheat) *Barnett Avenue ( Virginia Highland/ Poncey-Highland) **Kearsarge AvenueSanborn's Map of Atlanta, Ga., 1917
/ref> *Benjamin E. Mays Drive **Sewell Road *Briarcliff Road (

Atkins Park Atkins Park is an intown neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, nestled against the southeast corner of the neighborhood of Virginia-Highland, west of Briarcliff Avenue and north of Ponce de Leon Avenue ("Ponce"). It consists of just three streets - ...

/ Virginia Highland) ** Williams Mill Road (for Frederick A. Williams) **Stillwood Avenue *Bolton Road **River Road, roughly parallel to the

Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chatta ...

*Broad Street **Bridge Street * Boulevard **Jefferson Street (marked in 1878 map - section from North Ave. to Foster St. (now Edgewood Ave.) in today's

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 ...

)1878 Hopkins Griffith and Morgan map
/ref> **Rolling Mill Street (north of the railroad) from the late 1860s to about 1880, for the Confederate Rolling Mill, which the retreating Confederate army inadvertently destroyed in 1864 **See also Monroe Drive below *Cameron M. Alexander Blvd. (

English Avenue English Avenue and Vine City are two adjacent and closely linked neighborhoods of Atlanta, Georgia. Together the neighborhoods make up neighborhood planning unit L. The two neighborhoods are frequently cited together in reference to shared ...

neighborhood) **Kennedy Street (until 2010) *Camilla St. SW ** Carolina Ave *Capitol Avenue (as of 1885) ** McDonough Boulevard (for the town it eventually reaches) *Carroll Street **Factory Street (1892 Bird's eye view and 1906 map) *

Centennial Olympic Park Centennial Olympic Park is a public park located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, owned and operated by the Georgia World Congress Center Authority. It was built by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) as part of the infrastructu ...

Drive (from North Avenue south to around Mitchell Street) **Techwood Drive (from North Avenue into Georgia Tech campus) **Orme Street (from around North Avenue south to Cain St. (now Andrew Young Intl. Blvd.) **Walker Street (from around Mitchell Street south to Peters Street) *Central Park Place (Old Fourth Ward) **Bedford Place *Charles Allen Drive (Midtown) **Parkway or Parkwood Drive, prior to that Jackson St. *Cleburne Avenue **Augusta Avenue (1906 map) *Courtland Street (as of September 20, 1886) **North Collins Street (for pioneer James Collins — renamed because of South Collins Street's reputation as a red light district) *Crescent Avenue ** Macon St., Old Peachtree Rd. *

Donald Lee Hollowell Donald Lee Hollowell (December 19, 1917 – December 27, 2004) was an American civil rights attorney during the Civil Rights Movement, in the state of Georgia. He successfully sued to integrate Atlanta's public schools, Georgia colleges, univers ...

Parkway **

Bankhead Highway The Bankhead Highway was a United States cross-country automobile highway connecting Washington, D.C., and San Diego. The Bankhead Highway's beginnings can be traced back to 1916 when the Bankhead Highway Association was organized to promote the h ...

(renamed in an effort to revitalize and mask the name stigma attached to this high-crime section of the city) ** Bankhead Avenue (Changed to honor Senator Bankhead of Alabama) **Bellwood Avenue **Mayson & Turner's Ferry *Edgewood Ave. **Foster St. (portion marked in 1878 map, from Calhoun (now Courtland) St. to just east to BeltLine in today's

) *Euclid Terrace **Kuhns Street *Felton Drive (for Rebecca Felton) **Summit Avenue *Fulton Industrial Boulevard **Carroll Road *

Hamilton E. Holmes Hamilton E. Holmes (8 July 1941 – 26 October 1995) was an American orthopedic physician. He and Charlayne Hunter-Gault were the first two African-American students admitted to the University of Georgia. Additionally, Holmes was the first Afri ...

Drive **Hightower Road * Hank Aaron Drive (from Fulton Street south to McDonough Boulevard/University Avenue) **Capitol Avenue * Hosea L. Williams Drive **Boulevard Drive *

Ivan Allen Jr. Ivan Earnest Allen Jr. (March 15, 1911 – July 2, 2003), was an American businessman who served two terms as the 52nd mayor of Atlanta, during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Allen took the helm of the Ivan Allen Company, his father's ...

Boulevard (from West Peachtree Street west to Marietta Street) **Simpson Street (for Leonard C. Simpson, Atlanta's first lawyer), Jones Avenue and Alexander Street (for Dr. James F. Alexander) *James P. Brawley Drive **Chestnut Street *

Jesse Hill Jr. Jesse Hill Jr. (May 30, 1926 – December 17, 2012) was an African American civil rights activist. He was active in the civic and business communities of the city for more than five decades. Hill was president and chief executive officer of the ...

Drive **Butler Street * John Portman Boulevard At Historic Harris Street (as per Atlanta City Council vote May 16, 2011)Ernie Suggs, "Council finally agrees -- barely -- to honor Portman with a street", ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'', May 16, 2011
/ref> **Harris Street - (for Fulton County's first elected legislator) * John Wesley Dobbs Avenue (for John Wesley Dobbs, African American civic and political leader, "mayor of Auburn Avenue") **Houston Street (pronounced HOW-stun) (for pioneer

Oswald Houston Oswald Houston (April 16, 1798 – June 11, 1861) was a merchant as well as the first treasurer of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, serving the city from just after its inception in 1847 to the mid-1850s when he was disabled by a stroke. Ea ...

) *

Joseph E. Boone Joseph Everhart Boone (September 19, 1922 – July 15, 2006) was an American civil rights activist and organizer who marched together with Martin Luther King Jr. Biography Joseph E. Boone was the son of John L. and Mattie Roberts Boone. He at ...

Boulevard (as of March 24, 2008, for the civil rights activist) **Simpson Street/Road (for Leonard C. Simpson) * Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard **Ashby Street (for Civil War General Turner Ashby) * Lindbergh Drive ( Garden Hills) (as of 1927 for Charles Lindbergh, American aviator; from Peachtree Road to Piedmont Road) **Mayson Avenue *Maiden Lane ( Virginia Highland) **Grove Street * Martin Luther King Jr. Drive **Hunter Street, Gordon Road *Mackenzie Drive NE **Garfield Place * Memorial Drive **Fair Street (for the South Central Agricultural Society fair, which moved to facilities on Fair St. in 1850) * Metropolitan Parkway **Stewart Avenue (renamed because of redlight district reputation) *Monroe Drive (to honor the Monroe Landscaping Company which did extensive plantings in the area) **N. Boulevard *

Moreland Avenue The City of Merri-bek is a local government area in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. It comprises the inner northern suburbs between 4 and 11 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. The Merri-bek local government area covers , and in June 2018, ...

, after Major Asbury Fletcher Moreland (1828-1909), father-in-law of architect

Willis F. Denny Willis F. Denny (1874-1905) was an architect active in Atlanta, Georgia around the turn of the twentieth century. He was the architect of Rhodes Hall (1903) and the Kriegshaber House (1900, now Wrecking Bar Brewpub), both listed on the Nation ...

. The

Moreland Park Inman Park is an intown neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, and its first planned suburb. It was named for Samuel M. Inman. History Today's neighborhood of Inman Park includes areas that were originally designated * Inman Park p ...

community also named after him is now part of Inman Park. **County Line RoadAtlanta City Council resolution (2002) to expand the Inman Park
historic district">Inman Park">Atlanta City Council resolution (2002) to expand the Inman Park
historic district *Park Avenue West (as of April 20, 2001) **Foundry Street and Luckie Street (south of Baker Street - formerly Thurmond Street) *Parkway Dr. (Old Fourth Ward) ** Jackson St. *Paschal Blvd. NW **Jeptha *Peachtree Center Avenue **Ivy Street (for pioneer Hardy Ivy) *Peachtree Street (south of railroad gulch) **Whitehall Street (for the Whitehall Tavern, a tavern/inn established in the 1830s) *Peachtree Walk **Centre Street (from 1895 map) * Piedmont Road / Piedmont Avenue **(Lindbergh/Buckhead area): Plaster's Bridge Road (or Plaster Bridge Road) for Benjamin Plaster who owned land between Piedmont and Peachtree around Lindbergh. Renamed Piedmont around 1915-1920. **(Midtown area): For the 1895 Cotton States Expo, Plaster's Bridge Road south of 10th street was rerouted to connect to an extension of Calhoun Street from downtown, all of which was renamed Piedmont Avenue. * Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard **Gordon Street (for Civil War general John Brown Gordon) * Ralph McGill Boulevard (for the Atlanta Constitution publisher who won the Pulitzer Prize for his anti-segregation editorials in 1969) **Forrest Avenue (for Civil War lieutenant general and first Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan

Nathan Bedford Forrest Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821October 29, 1877) was a prominent Confederate Army general during the American Civil War and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan from 1867 to 1869. Before the war, Forrest amassed substantial wealt ...

) **eastern portion just west of the BeltLine was Fortune St. *

Sidney Marcus Sidney Julius Marcus (February 5, 1928 – October 27, 1983) was a Georgia (U.S.) legislator from Atlanta's 26th district, now the 106th district, who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1968 until his death in 1983. He served on se ...

Boulevard **Marian Road *Seminole Avenue **Augusta Avenue (1906 map) *Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Way (as of May 10, 2010) **Raymond Street *T.P. Burruss Senior Dr. SW **Ashby Pl. * Ted Turner Drive at Historic Spring Street **Spring Street (south of Alabama — for Walton Spring) ***Madison Avenue ***Thompson Street (for Dr. Joseph Thompson) **Spring Street (between Whitehall Street and West Peachtree in Downtown) *Trinity Avenue **Peters Street (for Richard Peters) *United Avenue **Confederate Avenue, changed in 2018 to remove references to the Confederate States of America; minor street Confederate Court off of it was renamed Trestletree Court, after the apartment complex it serves *Washington Street **South Collins Street *West Peachtree Street **Atwood Street (alternative name on 1895 map) *William Holmes Borders Drive **Yonge Street

List of street name changes prior to 1903

On October 17, 1903, '' The Atlanta Constitution'' published the list shown below. Developer Forrest Adair had provided the Atlanta City Council this list of more than 225 streets whose names had been changed from the 1847 founding of the city up until that time. Some streets had experienced multiple renamings, bearing as many as nine different names, resulting in over 650 total names, such as: * Haynes Street, 7th name, as of 1903, formerly named: 1) Manning Street; 2) Harris Street; 3) Booths Alley; 4) Hayden Street; 5) Markham Street, and; 6) Stewart Street * Maple Street, 9th name, as of 1903, formerly named: 1) Porter Street; 2) Proctor Street; 3) Loyd Street; 4) Rock Street; 5) Love Street; 6) Howe Street; 7) Law Street, and; 8) Back Street

Other street origins

*Baker Street (for Thomas Baker) *Cone Street (for

Reuben Cone Judge Reuben Cone (July 14, 1788 – April 10, 1851) was an important pioneer and landowner in Atlanta, Georgia. He was an early pioneer in DeKalb County, Georgia where he married Lucinda Shumate (1796–1872) and served on an education com ...

) *Ellis Street (for James M. Ellis) *Robin Street (no longer exists)

References

Old Atlanta Street Names
{{Atlanta history Streets Roads in Atlanta Atlanra

Street names A street name is an identifying name given to a street or road. In toponymic terminology, names of streets and roads are referred to as hodonyms (from Greek ‘road’, and ‘name’). The street name usually forms part of the address (th ...

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