![Little five points shops](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Little_five_points_shops.jpg)
Little Five Points (also L5P, LFP, Little Five, or Lil' Five) is a district on the
east side of
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 ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, United States, east of
downtown. It was established in the early 20th century as the
commercial district
A commercial district or commercial zone is any part of a city or town in which the primary land use is commercial activities ( shops, offices, theaters, restaurants and so on), as opposed to a residential neighbourhood, an industrial zone, or ...
for the adjacent
Inman 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 ...
and
Candler Park
Candler Park is a 55-acre (223,000 m2) city park located at 585 Candler Park Drive NE, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is named after Coca-Cola magnate Asa Griggs Candler, who donated this land to the city in 1922. The park features a nin ...
neighborhoods, and has since become famous for the
alternative culture it brings to Atlanta. It has been described as Atlanta's version of
Haight-Ashbury
Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...
, a melting pot of sub-cultures, and the
bohemian
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Beer
* National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst
* Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...
center of the
Southern United States
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
.
Name
The name is a reference to
Five Points, which is the center of downtown Atlanta. "Little" Five Points refers to the
intersection at the center of the neighborhood. Two points are provided by
Moreland Avenue (
U.S. 23
}
U.S. Route 23 or U.S. Highway 23 (US 23) is a major north–south U.S. Highway between Jacksonville, Florida, and Mackinaw City, Michigan. It is an original 1926 route which originally reached only as far south as Portsmouth, Ohio, and has sinc ...
and
Georgia 42
State Route 42 (SR 42) is a state highway that runs southeast-to-northwest through portions of Peach, Crawford, Monroe, Butts, Henry, Clayton, and DeKalb counties in the central and north-central parts of the U.S. state of Georgia. The ...
), which runs perfectly north/south, and forms the
county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
line dividing
Fulton
Fulton may refer to:
People
* Robert Fulton (1765–1815), American engineer and inventor who developed the first commercially successful steam-powered ship
* Fulton (surname)
Given name
* Fulton Allem (born 1957), South African golfer
* Fult ...
and
DeKalb DeKalb or De Kalb may refer to:
People
* Baron Johann de Kalb (1721–1780), major general in the American Revolutionary War
Places Municipalities in the United States
* DeKalb, Illinois, the largest city in the United States named DeKalb
**DeKal ...
. Two points are provided by
Euclid
Euclid (; grc-gre, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of ...
Avenue, which runs northeast/southwest. The fifth point was originally
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...
Avenue, which met the intersection from the northwest, but the Seminole point was converted to a plaza and there is no longer a five-point intersection, though some regard McLendon Avenue, extending east from Euclid's southern intersection at Moreland, as the new fifth point.
History
The first
Atlanta streetcars were constructed just south of the Little Five Points in the 1890s. According to the National Park Service, as the population grew on Atlanta's east side, the area where the trolley lines converged became one of the earliest major regional shopping centers. Little Five Points thrived until the 1960s, when a proposed freeway through the heart of the district drove residents out of the neighborhood.
By the 1970s, Little Five Points had fallen into
disrepair. A
revitalization began as
urban pioneers moved into the then-cheap neighborhood and restored the
Victorian-style homes. By 1981, local merchants formed the Little Five Points Partnership to continue the
restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
and expansion of the retail area, turning what was formerly a
gas station into the "484 retail area" — several retail shops aligned in
strip-mall style.
Geography
Little Five Points is surrounded by the
Inman 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 ...
,
Edgewood Edgewood may refer to:
Places Canada
*Edgewood, British Columbia
South Africa
*Edgewood, a University of KwaZulu-Natal campus in Pinetown, South Africa
United States Cities and towns
*Edgewood, California
*Edgewood, Florida
*Edgewood, Illinois, a ...
,
Candler Park
Candler Park is a 55-acre (223,000 m2) city park located at 585 Candler Park Drive NE, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is named after Coca-Cola magnate Asa Griggs Candler, who donated this land to the city in 1922. The park features a nin ...
and
Poncey-Highland neighborhoods of Atlanta
:
The city of Atlanta, Georgia is made up of 243 neighborhoods officially defined by the city. These neighborhoods are a mix of traditional neighborhoods, subdivisions, or groups of subdivisions. The neighborhoods are grouped by the city plann ...
. Immediately to the south on Moreland, just through the DeKalb Avenue and
Georgia Railroad
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
underpass
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...
, is the Edgewood Retail District, a late-2000s
urban infill land development of former
Atlanta Gas Light Company land. This provides the area its
big-box store
A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The t ...
s (
Lowe's,
Target
Target may refer to:
Physical items
* Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports
** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports
** Aiming point, in field artillery, f ...
,
Kroger
The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States.
Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinci ...
,
Ross,
Best Buy,
Office Depot and others), mostly at the opposite end of the spectrum from the historic Little Five Points. Its smaller shops constructed along Caroline Street, occupied by many
chain store
A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...
s, are done in a small-town "
main street" style (with
underground parking
A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...
), and the entire development is done in
brick, as Little Five Points originally was.
Culture
Little Five Points is renowned for its alternative culture. It is home to
metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urb ...
-
wide
WIDE or Wide may refer to:
*Wide (cricket)
*Wide and narrow data, terms used to describe two different presentations for tabular data
*WIDE Project, Widely Integrated Distributed Environment
*Wide-angle Infinity Display Equipment
*WIDE-LP, a radio ...
indie radio station
WRFG
WRFG (89.3 FM broadcasting, FM) is a non-commercial radio, commercial public broadcasting, public radio station in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. It calls itself Radio Free Georgia and is owned by the Radio Free Georgia Broadcasting Foundation, featur ...
FM 89.3; two independent
bookstore
Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librar ...
s (Charis Books and More and A Cappella Books); a skateshop staffed by some pro skateboarders
StratosphereSkateboards); record stores (Criminal Records, Wax'n'Facts, and Moods Music);
coffee shops (Village Coffee House, Java Lords, Aurora Coffee,
Starbucks); a health and wellness center (Sweetgrass Wellness Spring); new and used
clothing
Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...
stores (Rag-O-Rama); a shoe store (Abbadabba's)
novelty
Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...
shops (Junkman's Daughter); a
new-age shop (Crystal Blue); a vegan cafe and musical meditation center
Govinda’s Vegan Cafe; a locally owned
credit union
A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is a member-owned nonprofit financial cooperative. Credit unions generally provide services to members similar to retail banks, including deposit accounts, provisi ...
BOND Community Federal Credit Union; a
natural food
Natural food and all-natural food are terms in food labeling and marketing with several definitions, often implying foods that are not manufactured by processing. In some countries like the United Kingdom, the term "natural" is defined and regu ...
s store
Sevananda Natural Foods Market; an independent
pharmacy; and
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
record labels
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produc ...
(
DB Records
DB Records (stylized as DB RECS) was a record label owned by Danny Beard, active from 1978 to 1997. The label was operated out of the Wax'n'Facts record store in the Atlanta, Georgia neighborhood of Little Five Points. Through the 1980s, the ...
) and Shut Eye Records & Agency; two theaters (7Stages and Horizon Theatre); a major music venue (
Variety Playhouse
The Variety Playhouse (originally known as the Euclid Theatre) is a music venue in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is located on Euclid Avenue and features a variety of music acts including rock, indie, electronic, funk, country, folk, bl ...
); a community music school (The Little 5 Points Music Center); a smoking store (42°); and several local restaurants and bars. The neighborhood is featured in the
Cartoon Network show ''
Class of 3000'' as well as the ''
Internet Girls'' series of books by
Lauren Myracle, who mentions several of the businesses in Little Five Points by name.
Little Five points is home to the
Little Five Points Halloween Festival, which takes place every year on the Saturday of
Halloween. The official L5P Poet used to freestyle poetry in the square and has a mural located in the alley way between Earthtones and American Apparel; he has not been present in 2014. Local vendors sell
arts and crafts and the highlight of the celebration is the Little Five Points Halloween Parade. The
parade features local celebrities,
biker
Biker or bikie may refer to:
* A cyclist, a bicycle rider or participant in cycling sports
* A motorcyclist, any motorcycle rider or passenger, or participant in motorcycle sports
** A motorcycle club member, defined more narrowly than all motor ...
s in costume, live music,
hearse
A hearse is a large vehicle, originally a horse carriage but later with the introduction of motor vehicles, a car, used to carry the body of a deceased person in a coffin at a funeral, wake, or memorial service. They range from deliberately a ...
s, several local
marching band
A marching band is a group of musical instrument, instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass instrument, brass, woodwind instrument, woodwind, and percus ...
s, and many
parade float
A float is a decorated platform, either built on a vehicle like a truck or towed behind one, which is a component of many festive parades, such as those of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, the Carnival in São Paulo, the Carnival of Viareggio, the Ma ...
s that are put together by community action groups and local businesses. Little Five is also the host of
Little Five Fest, which is an annual music festival featuring 50-100 local bands spread across multiple venues. Little Five Points is also the host of weekly musical meditation open house every Friday evening at the Govinda’s vegan cafe.
![Jerkface in Little Five Points](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Jerkface_in_Little_Five_Points.jpg)
Little Five Points is one of Atlanta's best neighborhoods for viewing street art. Unlike most of Atlanta's neighborhoods, the street art in Little Five Points is highly concentrated in a compact easily walked area. Works by internationally known street artists such a
Jerkfacecan be found as well as works by local artist such a
Chris Vealan
R. Land But finding the murals can be a bit of a treasure hunt. Many works of street art are tucked away on the back sides of buildings, in alleyways, and in back parking lots. Both the easily visible and hidden gems of street art in Little Five Points are mapped on th
Atlanta Street Art Map
References
External links
L5P Alliance
{{Authority control
1900s establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
Neighborhoods in Atlanta