Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry is a park in the City of Atlanta located on the site of the former Bellwood

Quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

. The park is between Johnson Road and Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway and between the neighborhoods of Bankhead, Grove Park, and Knight Park/Howell Station, of which a large portion of the park falls within the Grove Park boundaries. Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry was a major green space project of the

Atlanta BeltLine The Atlanta BeltLine (also Beltline or Belt Line) is a open and planned loop of multi-use trail and light rail transit system on a former railway corridor around the core of Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta BeltLine is designed to reconnect neig ...

master plan. The park has trail connectivity to the Proctor Creek Greenway Trail (Phase 1) and will ultimately have connectivity to the BeltLine.

Status

The land, which was owned by

Fulton County Fulton County is the name of eight counties in the United States of America. Most are named for Robert Fulton, inventor of the first practical steamboat: *Fulton County, Arkansas, named after Governor William Savin Fulton *Fulton County, Georgia *F ...

, was previously leased to

Vulcan Materials Vulcan Materials Company () is an American company based in Birmingham, Alabama. It is principally engaged in the production, distribution and sale of construction materials. Vulcan is the largest producer of construction materials, primarily gra ...

. On December 10, 2005, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin announced a plan to acquire the lease and the land in order to create a park with a lake which would also serve as a drinking water reservoir. The plan was a portion of the extensive BeltLine project to construct a ring of parks, trails, and transit surrounding the core of Atlanta. As proposed, Westside Reservoir Park was nearly twice the size of Atlanta's premiere greenspace, Piedmont Park. Acquisition by the city was completed on June 30, 2006. On December 29, 2017, outgoing mayor

Kasim Reed Mohammed Kasim Reed (born June 10, 1969) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 59th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia's state capital and largest city, from 2010 to 2018. A Democrat, Reed was a member of the Georgia House of Represe ...

unveiled plans for phase one of the park's construction. The cost of the first phase was approximately $26.5 million. Phase one includes a gateway to the park, a "grand overlook" of both the quarry and the Atlanta skyline, and pedestrian connections to the Proctor Creek Greenway. On September 6, 2018, the official groundbreaking took place for Westside Reservoir Park. On August 27, 2019, Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry received a major boost with the announcement that the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation awarded a $17.5 million grant for the BeltLine project. The Blank grant accelerated the development of parks and trails along the 22-mile circular corridor – especially on the Westside. At a ribbon cutting ceremony August 20, 2021, Atlanta's Westside Park was opened to the public.

Bellwood Quarry

The former granite quarry, which closed in 2007, was a popular hang-out spot for local teens. The site was used as a location for the filming of the

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...

's series The Walking Dead in summer 2010. It was also used as a filming location in season four episode 14 of ''

The Vampire Diaries ''The Vampire Diaries'' is an American supernatural teen drama television series developed by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, based on the book series of the same name written by L. J. Smith. The series premiered on The CW on September 10, ...

'', a scene in

Mockingjay Part 1 ''Mockingjay'' is a 2010 science fiction novel by American author Suzanne Collins. It is chronologically the last installment of ''The Hunger Games'' series, following 2008's ''The Hunger Games'' and 2009's '' Catching Fire''. The book continu ...

, as well as the final scene of

The Fundamentals of Caring ''The Fundamentals of Caring'' is a 2016 American road comedy-drama film written and directed by Rob Burnett, based on the 2012 novel '' The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving'' by Jonathan Evison. Starring Paul Rudd, Craig Roberts, and Sele ...

. Most recently, (2016) it serves a significant role and is featured prominently in several episodes of the highly acclaimed

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

series '' Stranger Things''. During construction of the reservoir and the park, the area is closed to the public and trespassers will be arrested. A five-mile tunnel was dug to access water and the reservoir began filling in April 2020.

References

External links

Bellwood Quarry/Westside Park
- Trust for Public Land
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{{Atlanta parks Mines in Georgia (U.S. state) Parks in Atlanta Proposed buildings and structures in Georgia (U.S. state) Proposed parks in the United States