Marietta Street Artery (formerly designated as "Bellwood") is an officially defined neighborhood of the city 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 498,7 ...

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 ...

, part of the

West Midtown West Midtown, also known as Westside, is a colloquial area, comprising many historical neighborhoods located in Atlanta, Georgia. Once largely industrial, West Midtown is now the location of urban lofts, art galleries, live music venues, retail ...

area of Atlanta, also known as the "Westside." The neighborhood consists of

Marietta Street Marietta Street is a historic street in Downtown Atlanta. The street leads from Atlanta towards the town of Marietta, as its name indicates. It begins as one of the five streets intersecting at Five Points, leading northwest, forming the sou ...

and the

city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...

s immediately to the east and west of it, stretching from 8th Street NW on the north to North Avenue NW on the south. It is bordered by the

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

s of

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of Football League One club Plymouth Argyle since 1901.Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

on the east,

downtown Atlanta Downtown Atlanta is the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The larger of the city's two other commercial districts ( Midtown and Buckhead), it is the location of many corporate and regional headquarters; city, county ...

on the south, and English Avenue on the west. The neighborhood consists of many former industrial and

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of citie ...

properties which have been transformed into

loft A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to large ...

s, galleries,

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

shop Shop or shopping refers to: Business and commerce * A casual word for a commercial establishment or for a place of business * Machine shop, a workshop for machining *"In the shop", referring to a car being at an automotive repair shop *A wood ...

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

s, and coffee shops.

History

The area began as an industrial area along the

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

line northwest from Atlanta even before the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

— the

Western and Atlantic Railroad The Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia (W&A) is a railroad owned by the State of Georgia and currently leased by CSX, which CSX operates in the Southeastern United States from Atlanta, Georgia, to Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was fo ...

line was completed in 1837. In 1881 the

International Cotton Exposition International Cotton Exposition (I.C.E.) was a world's fair held in Atlanta, Georgia, from October 4 to December 31 of 1881. The location was along the Western & Atlantic Railroad tracks near the present-day King Plow Arts Center development in t ...

was held at the north end of the corridor, for which the

Exposition Cotton Mills The Exposition Cotton Mills were cotton mills located in what is now the West Midtown area of Atlanta at the upper end of the Marietta Street Artery, an area rich with industrial heritage architecture. They were built on what had been Oglethorpe ...

were built.

Mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two po ...

-pulled trolleys brought workers starting in 1882, and these became

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

in 1894. The area continued as an industrial and warehouse area, though the commercial strip along Marietta Street suffered with

suburbanization Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas into suburbs, resulting in the formation of (sub)urban sprawl. As a consequence of the movement of households and businesses out of the city centers, low-density, peripheral urba ...

starting in the 1960s. In the 1990s, several

adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the o ...

projects kicked off (Hasting's Seed Company, The Carriage Works,

King Plow Arts Center The King Plow Arts Center is a commercial, performing, and visual arts center located on Marietta Street in the Marietta Street Artery district of West Midtown, Atlanta. King Plow is the largest center of its kind in the city. King Plow is also a ...

, and the Allied Warehouse #2), signaling the renaissance of the area. Bellwood was

annexed Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...

to the city of Atlanta in 1897. In January 1913 the Bellwood Viaduct was opened, allowing car and foot traffic to cross the railroad line parallel to Marietta Street to the west side of the city via Bellwood avenue (now Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy.)."First trip made across viaduct", ''Atlanta Constitution'', January 24, 1913, p,5 The neighborhood of Bellwood was officially renamed Marietta Street Artery in the 2000s.

Historic districts

The Artery area contains or is adjacent to the following

NRHP The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

-listed historic districts: *

Means Street Historic District The Means Street Historic District in the Marietta Street Artery district 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, ...

Southern Railway North Avenue Yards Historic District The Southern Railway North Avenue Yards, now repurposed as the NorthYards business park, is located just west of the railway line northwest from downtown Atlanta, south of the Marietta Street Artery Marietta Street Artery (formerly designated as ...

Howell Interlocking Historic District Howell Interlocking Historic District is the area in West Midtown, Atlanta where four railroad lines converge. It is adjacent to the Marietta Street Artery neighborhood, an area rich in industrial history, as an original industrial district bui ...

Historic buildings

Besides the historic buildings in the historic districts mentioned, the neighborhood also includes the following NRHP-listed buildings: *

References

{{Coord, 33.774311, -84.405998, region:US-GA, display=title Neighborhoods in Atlanta Roads in Atlanta Adaptive reuse of industrial structures in Atlanta