Archive Atlanta

Opened in 1930, as the Huntington Apartment (1765 Peachtree), they were designed by C. Wilmer Heery and financed by Hugh Ellison and Thomas James. By the 1980s, they were condominiums.

By 2024, a developer, Perennial Properties, through a set of LLCs, owned 21 of the 36 units. Eight people owned the remaining 15 units. According to the Georgia Condominium Act, Perennial has done nothing illegal but this majority of the board means they can do what they please, including demolishing the property for new development.

While an article from 2024 says that wasn’t their plan, friend shared those demo rumors have resurfaced. Without local historic designation, there is nothing to prevent that from happening, and while single owners have expressed a desire over the years, you need a majority vote to go forward with designation.

In 1964, the Shriners announced the building of a new Yaarab Temple and cornerstone laid with the same trowel that George Washington used to lay cornerstone of US Capitol in 1793 (and also the Smithsonian and Washington Monument stones).

In 1965, the iconic Ponce de Leon landmark you see today opened.

The residents of Tye Street weren’t listed in the City Directory until 1906, but this house had a different family each year, as was very typical in Cabbagetown.

In 1880, a Black man named Moses Hill bought property far outside the Atlanta city limits and built this house on Chestnut Street (today James P Brawley Drive). As the city grew and expanded into the English Avenue neighborhood, Hill was surrounded by majority white neighbors. In 1897, Mrs. Mattie Davis, the widow of the previous land owner, brought suit against Moses Hill, claiming that the land was hers. The judge and court sided with Hill, and dissolved Mattie’s claims.

Moses had fought with the 71st US Colored Infantry and became a carpenter after the war. He lived here until 1916, three years before he died at the home of his daughter. His funeral was at Friendship Baptist and he was buried at Southview.