Castleberry Hill is a unique urban community with a strong historic identity. Many of the early 20th-century warehouse buildings forming continuous frontages along the streets have been converted to lofts and are now the predominate housing type. The population is culturally diverse and the area is continuing to grow in both the number of residents as well as retail and other establishments.

Come visit, explore the deep roots and learn the history of this vibrant, creative community with its rich transportation history. The railway, which defines street and building patterns as it cuts through Castleberry, is as old as Atlanta itself, and Atlanta’s first horse-drawn trolley line served the neighborhood. The Castleberry Hill historic district, with the largest and best concentrated remnant of railroad buildings in Atlanta, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. As was typical of the era, laborers, carpenters, saloon keepers, tailors, butchers, blacksmiths and other trades people lived here, within walking distance of work. Castleberry Hill supported most of Atlanta’s growth after the Civil War.

The Castleberry Hill Neighborhood, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is Atlanta’s eighth Landmark District, represents the most complete warehouse district still surviving in the City of Atlanta. The area, located at the southwest end of the city’s Central Business District, is in the midst of a renaissance, with these old commercial structures being turned into dramatic loft homes for the many people attracted by the prospect of living Downtown. The neighborhood boundaries are as follows:

• Spring Street at I-20,
• along I-20 to McDaniel Street,
• North on McDaniel Street to Northside Drive,
• along Northside Drive to MLK Jr. Drive,
• East on MLK Jr. Drive to Russell Plaza,
• South from Russell Plaza to Mitchell Street,
• East on Mitchell Street to Spring Street, and
• South on Spring Street to I-20.

Brief Atlanta History:

Originally inhabited by Cherokee and Creek Indians the area was originally named Standing Peachtree. Opened to white settlement in 1823, the area remained mostly woods until 1836, when a local settlement called “Thrasherville” (near present-day Philips Arena) was founded in 1837 at the end of the railroad line as Terminus. Incorporated as Marthasville in 1843 (named after daughter of then Governor Lumpkin) it was soon renamed Atlanta in 1845 as a more marketable name. The city was incorporated in 1847 and the population in 1860 was 9, 554. Atlanta fell to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on Sept. 2, 1864 and almost entirely burned on November 15, 1864, before the start of Sherman’s march to the sea. Rapidly rebuilt, Atlanta thrived as a commercial and industrial center, and became temporary (1868) and permanent (1877) state capital. According to the latest census estimates (as of December, 2004), the city has a population of 425,000 and the Atlanta metropolitan area totaled 4,708,297, making it the ninth-largest metropolitan area in the United States and the 41st-largest city proper.

The city expanded rapidly from 1900 (89,000) to 1930 (302,000) before growth slowed during the Depression. In the 1960’s Atlanta was a center for the American Civil Rights Movement. In 1970, the city’s population topped out at 497,000 before “white flight” to the suburbs dropped the city to 394,000 in 1990. However, in 1996 Atlanta served as the host city for the Centennial 1996 Summer Olympics, and the city has rallied to 425,000 by 2004, fueled in part by a new desire for shorter commutes and intown living.

Brief Castleberry Hill History:

Located on the southwestern edge of the Atlanta Central Business District and south of the Phillips Arena, Georgia Dome and Georgia World Congress Center, Castleberry Hill is one of about 230 neighborhoods defined by the City of Atlanta.

Castleberry Hill was the name generally associated with a topographic rise that peaked along Walker Street between Fair and Stonewall Streets on land owned by Daniel Castleberry, and early settler, possibly the winner of land lot 84 in the lottery of 1821. In the late 1840s and early 1850s, “Snake Nation,” the area was generally noted as being Atlanta’s red light district and was located South of where the Georgia Dome is today and West of Underground Atlanta. This is the area where snake oil salesmen peddled their wares, hence the public press identified “a settlement along Peters Street (earlier, White Hall Road) from the railroad crossing south to Fair Street [that was] devoted almost entirely to the criminal and immoral element” as Snake Nation.

As Atlanta grew after the Civil War from a newly chartered city to a regional rail distribution center, so did Castleberry Hill. The area began as a residential district with Peters Street functioning as a trade and commercial strip supporting adjacent residential areas as well as the railroad-related businesses. As a business center, Peters Street received a boost in 1871 when the first horse-drawn trolley line in Atlanta was routed along it. In 1878, the City Directory lists laborers, clerks, carpenters, saloon keepers, weavers, tailors, grocers, butchers, blacksmiths, cabinet makers and other occupations typical of the pattern of the era of living within walking distance of work. The principal community facilities were the Walker Street School and fire station on the corner of West Fair and Bradberry Streets. A wooden trestle bridge on Nelson Street, likely the first in the city, was the only street in the district over passing the railroad (all other crossings were at grade). Another trolley line crossed this bridge.

By 1892, a substantial increase in non-white occupancy had occurred, mainly concentrated in the southern part of Walker Street, due in part to the continued displacement of non-white housing by commercial/industrial expansion within the district and the availability of housing for whites in other parts of the city. Several new residences and the Walker Street M.E. Church were built in the triangle formed by Nelson, Haynes and Walker Streets. A new iron bridge replaced the wooden structure at Nelson Street.

Real estate development activities were formidable throughout Atlanta in the first three decades of the 20th century, and the effect of this transformation on Castleberry Hill was dramatic. Peters Street continued to function as a neighborhood retail/service center and, in the boom years of the late teens and early 1920s, served both city-wide and regional markets. Two of the nation’s largest meat packing companies, Swift & Company and Kingan & Company, were located there. The only community facility remaining in the neighborhood was the Walker Street School, which was eventually destroyed by fire in 1983.

Between 1950 and 1980, industry and interest left as trade and residential growth moved to the suburbs. Many of the buildings were abandoned for new facilities. Some single-family residences have endured within the neighborhood, and a few businesses have continued to operate for decades. In more recent years, activity returned to Castleberry Hill as a few artists began to inhabit and work in the old warehouse buildings. With the surge in popularity of loft living and the robust economy, the renovation and adaptive reuse of buildings has continued, and the population is growing.

One of the more notable characteristics of Castleberry Hill is its federally recognized historic district, placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, which contains the largest and best concentrated remnant of railroad buildings in Atlanta. The railway, which defines street and building patterns as it cuts through Castleberry, is as old as Atlanta itself. Early 20th-century commercial and industrial structures form continuous frontages at the street and railway lines, giving the area a distinctive urban look. Peters Street, the traditional route from Downtown to West End, cuts through the district.

In 1998 Castleberry Hill began working on a Master Plan, in which residents set out their ideas for the future of the neighborhood. This Master Plan was then instrumental in helping with both the Historic District designation as well as the Landmark Districting, which was approved in 2006. On March, 16, 2006 Mayor Shirley Franklin endorsed the Castleberry Hill Neighborhood Association’s (CHNA) bid for Landmark District designation, completing the process that the City Council approved unanimously. Castleberry Hill is the eighth neighborhood in Atlanta to earn the title Landmark District (others are Baltimore Block, Cabbagetown, Druid Hills, Hotel Row, MLK Jr., Oakland Cemetery and Washington Park).

Additional History & Map Links:

• Click here for historic Atlanta City Directory listings from Castleberry Hill
• Atlanta History Center
• Atlanta Preservation Center
• Atlanta Railway Development – Southeastern Railway Museum
• GA Government Documentation Project – Oral History Collection
• Dept. of Natural Resource – GA Historic Preservation
• Satellite Maps
• National Register
• Castleberry Hill’s National Register Listing
• Pullen Library – Photographic Collection
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (enter full street name)
• Land Use Committee Page (Contains additional documentation on Landmark Districting)

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