Buckhead Village
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Buckhead Village is a neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, one of 42 neighborhoods in the larger Buckhead district and the community's historic business section. The Village as defined by the city as the area between Piedmont Road, Peachtree Road, and Pharr Road.NPU B Map, City of Atlanta Online


History

In 1838,
Henry Irby Henry Irby (January 26, 1807 – February 20, 1879) was an American farmer who is credited with founding the city of Buckhead in what is now Atlanta, Georgia. Biography The son of a harness maker, Irby was born in York County, South Carolina, on ...
purchased 202 1/2 acres surrounding what is now Buckhead Village from Daniel Johnson for $650. Irby subsequently established a general store and
tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern t ...
at the northwest corner of the Peachtree/Roswell/Paces Ferry intersection. The name "Buckhead" comes from a story that Irby killed a large buck deer and placed the head in a prominent location. Prior to this, the settlement had been called "Irbyville." The surrounding area, which is now the larger
Buckhead Buckhead is the uptown commercial and residential district of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, comprising approximately the northernmost fifth of the city. Buckhead is the third largest business district within the Atlanta city limits, behind Downto ...
community, remained dominated by country estates until after World War I, when many of Atlanta's wealthy began building
mansions A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property la ...
among the area's rolling hills. The area that is now the Buckhead district was annexed by Atlanta in 1952, following an earlier attempt by Mayor William B. Hartsfield in 1946 that was voted down by residents. In 1956, an estate known as Joyeuse was chosen as the site for a major shopping center to be known as
Lenox Square Lenox Square is a shopping mall in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, Georgia. With 198 tenants and of gross leasable area, it is the third-largest mall in Georgia. The mall is currently owned and managed by Simon Property Group, and is consider ...
, starting the development of Peachtree Road as a major commercial, financial, and high-rise residential corridor. To reverse a downturn in the Village during the 1980s, minimum parking spot requirements for bars were lifted, which quickly led to it becoming the most dense concentration of
bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...
s and clubs in the city. These establishments included BAR, World Bar, Lulu's Bait Shack, Mako's, Clarence Foster's, Tongue & Groove, Chaos and John Harvard's Brew House. By 1996, Buckhead Village nightlife was comparable to " Mardi Gras, complete with nightly arrests, puking in the streets and runkcollege girls."Scott Henry, "Buckhead Rising", ''Creative Loafing'', 2006-05-31
/ref> In the late 1990s illegal cruising on Peachtree Road became rampant, making crime harder to spot and the shortage of police officers more apparent. Violent crime increased, culminating with two murders on Super Bowl Sunday in 2000.
Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays it ...
football player
Ray Lewis Raymond Anthony Lewis Jr. (born May 15, 1975) is an American former professional football player who played as a middle linebacker with the Baltimore Ravens for his entire 17-year career in the National Football League (NFL). He played co ...
was implicated in the murders which occurred after he left the Cobalt Club at 265 East Paces Ferry Road. Lewis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor obstructing justice charges and his two co-defendants were found not guilty. Buckhead Alliance founder Robin Loudermilk claimed that there were at least ten murders during this period related to the nightlife in the Village. Beginning in 2000, residents sought to ameliorate this situation by taking measures to reduce the community's
nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ...
and re-establish a more residential character. The Buckhead Coalition and councilwoman
Mary Norwood Mary Norwood (born 1952) is an American businesswoman and politician who is a member of the Atlanta City Council. She was a candidate for mayor of Atlanta in 2009 and 2017. In both campaigns she advanced to the runoff, but respectively lost ...
were instrumental in persuading the Atlanta
City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
to pass an
ordinance Ordinance may refer to: Law * Ordinance (Belgium), a law adopted by the Brussels Parliament or the Common Community Commission * Ordinance (India), a temporary law promulgated by the President of India on recommendation of the Union Cabinet * ...
to close bars at 2:30 a.m., rather than 4 a.m., and
liquor license A liquor license (or liquor licence in most forms of Commonwealth English) is a governmentally issued permit to sell, manufacture, store, or otherwise use alcoholic beverages. Canada In Canada, liquor licences are issued by the legal authority ...
s were made more difficult to obtain. Eventually, most of the Buckhead Village nightlife area was acquired for the
Streets of Buckhead Buckhead Village District (previous named the Streets of Buckhead and Buckhead Atlanta) is a planned mixed-use development in the Buckhead district in Atlanta, Georgia. The project is a redevelopment of part of the Buckhead Village neighborho ...
multi-use project and many of the former bars and clubs were torn down in 2007.


Parks

* Charlie Loudermilk Park: In the triangle formed by Peachtree Road, and Roswell Road, is a triangular park known as Charlie Loudermilk Park (renamed from Triangle Park in 2009). Located within the park is ''The Storyteller'', by sculptor Frank Fleming, depicting a man with a buck's head telling a story to various other animals. The descriptive plaque explains:
Local lore has recorded that in 1838 a hunter hung a deer's head at about this location in front of Irby's Tavern. The Henry Irby Family owned 803 surrounding acres and the area was designated Irbyville on maps at that time. People started identifying the area by the buck's head and the community then changed its name to Buckhead... The storyteller is sharing this information with its circle of small animal friends.


Community organizations

The key organizations organizing neighborhoods businesses and residents and working for improvements are the
Buckhead Community Improvement District Buckhead is the uptown commercial and residential district of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, comprising approximately the northernmost fifth of the city. Buckhead is the third largest business district within the Atlanta city limits, behind Downto ...
(CID), the Buckhead Area Transportation Management Association (BATMA), the Buckhead Business Association (BBA) and
Neighborhood Planning Unit The neighborhood planning unit (NPU) is a community-scale governmental structure used in the City of Atlanta, Georgia. History The system was established in 1974 by Atlanta's first black mayor, Maynard Holbrook Jackson. His aim was to ensure that c ...
(NPU) B. These organizations backed a new zoning ordinance that the
Atlanta City Council The Atlanta City Council is the main municipal legislative body for the city of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It consists of 16 members primarily elected from 12 districts within the city. The Atlanta City Government is divided into three bo ...
adopted on October 4, 2010 that expanded the SPI-9 zoning area from a small area immediately around and southwest of the intersection of Peachtree and Paces Ferry, to cover a much larger commercial area west of Piedmont Ave. and north of Pharr Rd. The stated aim of the community organizations is to create in the Village a "walkable, urban community enriched with public art and parks, wide sidewalks, greenspace, transportation options, and outdoor dining, all designed to have international appeal." As of May 2011, there are plans for a $4 million streetscape program aims to improve the experience for pedestrians in the Village. The program is funded by private donations, CID funding, and a grant from the Woodruff Foundation. While the
Streets of Buckhead Buckhead Village District (previous named the Streets of Buckhead and Buckhead Atlanta) is a planned mixed-use development in the Buckhead district in Atlanta, Georgia. The project is a redevelopment of part of the Buckhead Village neighborho ...
project went on hold, other developments were moving forward around Peachtree Rd. and Roswell Rd, and so the CID will first improve pedestrian amenities around that area. Completion is targeted for mid-2012."Village Streetscape Program", Buckhead Community Improvement District


References

{{coord, 33.83942, -84.379869, display=title Neighborhoods in Atlanta