Image 1: built 1961
Image 2: built 1953
Image 3: built 1951
Image 4: built 1963
Image 5: built mid 1950s

Built between 1951 and 1963, the five apartment complexes above took advantage of cheap land in an African American neighborhood 4 miles east of Atlanta. Formerly a 19th Century farming and railroad community between Atlanta and Decatur at the confluence of two creeks, shotgun houses were torn down to make way for higher density post WWII apartments. In the middle 1940s Atlanta's Mayor Hartsfield supported subsidized housing in "unused" residential areas for veterans within the city to keep the white population intact. This neighborhood existed as an "unused" pocket of dirt roads between Candler Park and Druid Hills. Two churches built before 1900, a Baptist and a Methodist, still stand just south and east respectively of all five apartment complexes as a reminder of the community's roots.



The apartment complexes are not as auto dominant as more recent apartments. The parking lots are smaller and located in rear for those built in the early 1950s, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th images, and the front for those built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, 1st and 4th images. All apartments are one or two bedroom, one bath, and less than 800 square feet. The apartments were designed as post war starter housing, became dilapidated low income housing, and now have mostly been converted to condos. These 1950s complexes now seem dated, separated, and ill fitting in a restored predominantly Craftsman neighborhood, especially when new infill housing mimics the early 20th Century originals.