What Happened to Millionaires' Row in Atlanta?
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- Опубліковано 7 жов 2024
- Before Atlanta’s Midtown became the South’s “Heart of the Arts,” it was once home to some of the largest, most lavish mansions the city had ever seen. But what happened to Atlanta’s Millionaires' Row?
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Location: Atlanta, GA
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Another example of beautiful structures being replaced with ugly ones.
... Its called Communism/Socialism...
@@EcceHomo1088 how is it communism/socialism?
@@dxb4691 .... Government excessive taxation until the individual family unit fails to pay and turns over their land to the state/fed so they can create low-income housing... Happens all the time...
Amen
It’s called Progressivism.
I’m from Atlanta and know it’s history. I am 65 and have seen so many changes. Atlanta today is very different from when I grew up. It makes me sad, but generations come and go as progress moves on.
I’m a native Atlantan and this video taught me a lot. Thank you!
Atlanta also has another row of mansions on Ponce de Leon going into Druid Hills, but sadly almost all of those were torn down as well
I found this interesting but mostly thoroughly depressing. So sad to see beautiful homes left to rot and decay. The new buildings are so unattractive to me!
I’m an old soul and always connect with old homes. Kitchens especially interest me whether in mansions or small cabins. It’s the heart of the home.
The only mansion I know of that is left is Rhodes Hall and it is not decaying. Atlanta went through a horrible phase in the 1960’s and 70’s tearing anything down it could. It would have been even worse if the 2008 market downturn hadn’t happened. Atlanta has no shame when it comes to their history as it is a shameful past. I am from there and I will never live there again.
@@keithlampkin I echo your reply. I also grew up in downtown Atlanta. I have not been back there in over 20 years and probably will never go back. When I think of how it was when I was growing up and what it has become, it makes me depressed.
There was a revolution in politics that installed a new order in the 1960s Atlanta @@keithlampkin, the new managers delighted in tearing down the old
What I find unattractive is the fetishization of architecture and decorative arts created for those who exploited their workers and used racism to spread misery. There ain't enough parquet flooring in the world. Hell with these people and their self-congratulatory oppression.
I lived in Atlanta for several years. Love it's history. My apt was along Peachtree Battle Creek, in Buckhead. Oh the things I saw!
Oh I bet! Would love to hear some of those stories 😂😂😂
Atlanta is still a transportation hub; huge airport! One photo shows snow on the ground, but I believe they do have cold weather there once in a while. Governor's mansion was beautiful. I visited the Margaret Mitchell house when I was there, as well as the Antebellum homes that were moved to Stone Mountain. After braving the cable car to the top, I was told that Atlanta is known as the " City in the Pine Forest"; the view of the skyscrapers rising from the trees is amazing. The Atlanta History Center has fantastic exhibits covering the Cherokee people and the history of the Civil War. Swann House is amazing too.
I'm glad you enjoyed your visit! It's fun to hear a positive review or our City.
That Margaret Mitchell house is essentially a replica. i remember in the late 1970s the old house was being renovated to be some sort of tourist attraction, but it caught fire and was gutted. They said F***** it and built a fancy new copy, so it's essentially a fake. There's little of historical interest to see in Atlanta, most of it was torn down, so somebody came up with the Margaret Mitchell House idea. Author Ms Mitchell lived in the small apartment house only briefly in the 1930s and referred to it as " the dump." Back in the '60s the area had old houses that had become a bit shabby and they're now gone, replaced by fancy hotels and office buildings. In 1969 my boyfriend's mother was a waitress in a nearby restaurant and rented a small apartment in a subdivided old house there near 10th street. The area between about 10th and 14th street was nicknamed "the strip." Hippies, prostitutes and adventurous young people sauntered along the strip then and the area was sort of scruffy, but had loads of character. There were two X- rated theatres and shops that sold "mod" apparel, posters, porno mags and stuff, along with a couple of bars and restaurants, including The Crystal. The biggest shop was "Atlantis Rising." The Stein club had a nice juke box. Among others, there was a scruffy character named "Wolf" who hung out on the street corner and sold the "Great Speckled Bird," a counter culture newspaper. Another well known street guy ,Tom, sold "The Hip Atlanta Sex Ads" along with pot. Yeah, they're both dead now, of course. Anyway, it's now nothing like it was, and back then it was nothing like it was before that, and so on. Time marches on.
@@SteffiReitsch14th street was the main hippie drag in the day. It was our fav Sunday pastime when I was growing up. Ride to 14th Street and look at the hippies. Good times
@@cindyinnew Yeah, lots of cars would cruise through to gawk at the counter culture street scene.
@@SteffiReitsch R.I.P. WOLF
Downtown Macon, Ga still has many mansions that have been saved an restored that were built in the late 1800s to early 1900s. They're are mostly along College St, Washington Ave/Coleman Hill area.
and its a world of difference between Atlanta's growth and Macon's stagnation unfortunately.
@@02nupe what does that have to do with mansions in Macon still standing?
@@markj9544lack of progress and holding on to the past vs moving forward. Says a lot actually. As a Maconite, it’s sad to see with all the potential Macon has.
Macon is GA’s best kept secret
Loved Atlanta when I lived there!
All the mansions were gorgeous.
Love the governor's mansion and the interior of Frank E. Block's house.
We still have a few stately old mansions where I live.
The retrofitting and upkeep is indeed costly.
Thank you, Ken.
I'm in an Atlanta suburb. It's sad, they tear down anything old and beautiful here. I actually live in a townhome built on the ground of a beautiful planation home. Thankfully they didn't tear the house down.
Thank the Communists/Socialists...
Beautiful plantation home is an oxymoron lol
@@aroaris843 Good point!
@@aroaris843 You need to learn to separate architecture from agenda.
@@cisium1184 interesting how just noting the name “plantation” is an agenda
Omg that governors mansion!!!
💜💜💜
You should see the ugly one they replaced it with. Looks like a plastic funeral home.
@@keithlampkin i think the first one was over near GA tech.
I agree, that first one was gorgeous. It's tragic to hear they replaced it.
Thanks for covering Atlanta. It is often overlooked. Fortunately we still have Rhodes Hall, which is somewhat hidden but last I checked still open for tours. The formers governors mansion still stands as the Capital City Club.
Also “Terminus,” which is Atlanta’s version of Grand Central and is now called the Gulch, is being redeveloped and included in project L for the World Cup.
I live in Midtown in one of the oldest buildings still on Peachtree Street, Cornerstone Village! a collection of four buildings, the oldest was built in 1923. Great video! I enjoyed the history lesson of my neighborhood.
I was just in Newnan Ga. And thought, Atlanta must have looked similar. Of course it in fact did!
I love how your videos go into such depth and are so well researched. Thanks, Ken!
They all could have become lawyers offices,fashion houses, the lobby’s of hotels , with the towers behind them, the work, and materials of their grandeur were not appreciated, in America’s disposable culture.
Lots of the ones still standing are exactly that
I live near Dover Ohio and the Reeves House is certainly a place to visit. Lots of fun events they do!
Once again I say thank you for your phenomenal work putting together these fine videos.
Sadly, it is what it is. Ken, you offered a wonderful explanation of why this happened. Great video, thank you!
This site is so informative and I love the old houses
I lived there, wonderful place. Even the hippies in Piedmont park were nice in the 70s!
Such an array of beautiful Mansions but sadly left to decay and rot only to have urban sprawl and “ renewable” swallow them up and eventually be demolished. Soo sad to see this happen after viewing such lovely homes in photos from a better time . Thanks Ken as always ❤😊👍🏻
Ken! Great to see the man behind the voice :-) Excellent video. Thank you!
Let's just say that I wouldn't say "No" to the Willis B. Jones mansion. Excellent video.
Amazing how much one area changed through the years! Your research is appreciated and enjoyed.
This was interesting. When I think of Peachtree Street I think of a bio of Margaret Mitchell I read long ago in which it states she told her brother Stevens Mitchell that she wished him to tear down their family home ( on Peachtree) after he no longer wished to live there as she “ did not want strangers looking in rooms that were once their own.”
Seemed to be quite an array of various styles. Unfortunate to lose so much to urban sprawl 😮
"Urban Renewal."
Thank God for me photographs and Ken! ❤😊
Thank you Ken. Quite interesting and sad to hear about Atlanta’s millionaires row. Reminded me a little bit of Cleveland’s millionaires row where the homes are left to decay, rot, destroyed or torn down.
I've lived in Atlanta since 1980, and one of my favorite sights was Rhodes Hall, where Peachtree Street bends to the west, then north. I regularly patronized an art cinema in a strip mall facing the south side of the mansion. Its walls and turret reminded me of a castle, and I thought it was lovely. At the time, there was a struggle to preserve it from the wrecking ball. It was inconceivable to me that this wonderful place could be at risk. I'm so happy it's still there!
I was just thinking of that movie theater yesterday! My first boyfriend and I would go see films there. Once we saw a short film festival that included the Dali/Bunuel film "Un Chien Andalou". My mom and I saw "It Happened One Night" there on a Saturday afternoon. There was a 90 year old ticket taker who had been there for decades. Great memories!
@@mariawesley7583 Haha, UN CHIEN ANDALOU sure is one wild film to see on a big screen! I do vaguely remember a venerable old lady who manned the ticket booth with refined grace, but I can't recall the name of that theatre. We also used to go to Silver Screen at Peachtree Battle a lot, so I know it wasn't that one.
@Susie_Floozie I think it was called the Rhodes Theater. I also remember the Silver Screen at Peachtree Battle. I think it changed its name to The Screening Room and moved to Broadview Plaza. I also enjoyed seeing classic films at the Ellis Theater, which is now the Variety Playhouse. Good times!
@@mariawesley7583 Thanks for putting me out of my mystery, Maria! Ah, of course--the Rhodes Theatre, DUH me! I saw so many avant-garde films there I thought it had some edgy, artsy cinema name. One of my roommates was a projectionist at Film Forum at Ansley Plaza, and he'd come home with all sorts of crazy stories about working for the cantankerous George Ellis. I wish I could remember them!
@@mariawesley7583 The man you're talking about is John D. Williams and he was the ticket man at Rhodes Theatre. Look up his name on Atlanta history web archives - there's quite a lot of info related to him.
Well I live in Atlanta and I can promise you our in town streets, Buckhead, Piedmont, Peachtree street (all of them) are narrow. I drive a ford expedition and it’s a very tight fit.
You could easily get a job as a narrator. Your voice is magnificent. 👍👍
One more beautiful than the last!!
Another nice video - thanks. Are there any mansions left in ATL and are you aware of any that can be toured?
Rhodes Hall still stands.....Atlanta is my hometown....in 2000 I was able to take a private tour of the mansion...beautiful inside and out. The house can be toured by appointment.
Excellent. Thanks so much.
Of course Peachtree St. Every street in Atlanta is some form of Peachtree st.
Imagine having an apartment in one of these!!!
I would have loved to tour those mansions, especially the opulent governor's mansion. Interesting history! I always enjoy your videos; thank you!
I would have liked to know which ones actually survive to this day.
I live in Midtown Atlanta/Ansley Park area and this was very interesting to see what had been here before my time.
What happened to Atlanta is what’s happened to so many US cities. Now it’s totally unlivable.
I remember reading about this in high school.
I enjoyed this vid and could’ve watched more it was so interesting. I ove those type of elegant mansions I hate seeing them being cut into common apartments but accept they’re nit most peoples taste and style you could have save one for me dang lol. I understand time is filled with swift transitions and it has made wonderful progress to accommodate present times but, some people are privileged to a fault and don’t cherish anything because for them it can be easily replaced . It would have been nice to see the mansions that remained.
There are still a few older mansions present along the north end of peachtree street…they’ve primarily been turned into historical landmarks…
Actually there are still a lot of mansions left in Atlanta. They just aren't on the main roads anymore. Check out the neighborhoods of Tuxedo Park, Morningside-Lenox Park, Chastain Park, Mt Paran-Northside just to name a few. They widened the roads and built businesses on Peachtree, Piedmont, Ponce, but there are plenty of large, lovely homes and actual mansions in the City.
Such beautiful homes. Too bad they were destroyed.
I liked the honest brick-built 'Tudor' manor house, I would never have guessed its actual location.
Have you ever done something on the Hutchinson Homes in Chicago? Maybe not old enough.
You should do a video on Lake George NY’s millionaires row as well as Saratoga Springs. Keep up the great videos
Nice video! I grew up in metro Atl.
Well, you might have included the few that remain, like Rhodes Hall.
Architectural tragedy 💔
I was an art student at 1280 Peachtree Street NE back in the 90s. I used to walk those streets as a teen but never knew the history of the area until now. This comes as a surprise. I don't recall seeing any mansions. But that was a long time ago.
Thanks Ken, there is even another story as these millionaires moved further down Peachtree and into Buckhead. The fate of the newer homes is as the same as the older homes; torn down for big ugly Buildings. I am old enough to remember them before taken over. The novel, Peachtree Road by Anne Rivers Siddons. A part of old Atlanta is probably torn down every day. And it didn't take Gen. Sherman and a war, just Greedy Politicians.
I don't know if it's considered a mansion, but the Rufus M Rose house is still in downtown Atlanta on Peachtree. It's had some rough years, but it's still an eye catcher.
Sadly, these treasure are all but gone. ATL is not alone. Cities all over the US did the same "urban renewal" disaster and ruined these great neighborhoods/homes.
Well, that definitely explains why I like Midtown better.
Hmmmm… Atlanta, what changed? I think the answer is obvious. In fact is was mentioned in this video ever so briefly and subtle
i wish i could take a train to atlanta
At least there are photos of them!
Wonderful video. So interesting. Change is inevitable. Sad at least a few of those homes couldn't be saved. As the World Churns.. 😅. Thanks for your work. You guys are very talented
The house at 2:50 time stamp to 2:56 time stamp amazing Victorian eclectic mansion
❤
You should do a Video of Capital Ave and the Parallel streets of Washington Street and Pryor street that ran South from the Georgia State Capital that Ended at the Railroad Tracks that Crossed McDonough Blvd and ended at beyond the Entrance Gate into the South Atlanta Campus of Clark College And Gammon theological Seminary of which I grew up in the South Atlanta Community surrounding these Campus. There were large Mansions built on Capital Avenue, Washington Street and Pryor street that Was subdivided the to Compliment the Georgia State Capital of the 1880s.
I love old homes and great architecture. But as a practical matter times change and urban needs change. Homes like this are difficult to retrofit for other purposes and all that fancy architecture requires a lot of expensive maintenance. Fact is if the structure is not financially viable it has to come down. Fortunately in almost all cities a few such homes can be repurposed or turned into museums to be saved.
Thank you for this video. Did you forget to mention the Peachtree Center?
I wish we still had multiple long distance rail routes
St. Paul MN managed to save most of its mansions, Summit Avenue has the longest stretch of these types of mansions in the United States. Beautiful, stately and well preserved.
Money knew no bounds back in the day
It's interesting to watch the flow from wealthy elites to poor to commercial and then the art/counterculture with diversity, followed by a return of the elite. The changes in zoning laws allowed the area to become more commercial, displacing the low-income people occupying the apartments. Could you expand on what enabled the transitions in the 60-70s that made it affordable for a more diverse, artistic community to thrive and then what displaced them to allow the luxury apartments and other high-income properties?
I live a bit outside Atlanta, and we've put years of work into our 1886 house to get it ready for the next hundred or so years.
A the 4:05 mark is the Morton Emmons home, not the Joseph Burke home. The Emmons house stood at the NW corner of Peachtree Street and Peachtree Place. The Burke house stood several hundred feet West of Peachtree on Peachtree Place. The Emmons home stood 2 houses South of the Margaret Mitchell house which still stands today.
Inman park and Grant park still have some beautiful Victorians .
Great history lesson. You really do your homework! I lived nearly half my life in Midtown and let me tell you the late 80s and early 90s were trashy! Most of the old buildings were divided into tenements and quite nearly uninhabitable. Rent was cheap and the "artistic types" flourished! It's now so very Rha Sha Sha...
I liked the old Governor's mansion 🙂
Rhodes hall is not only still there but accessible and it wasn’t even featured. You left a lot out that was right there easily available.
So sad none if those gorgeous architectural works of art were never saved!😢
Booth Tarkington's "The Magnificent Ambersons" dramatizes what happened to the great neighborhoods of that era.
Diverse array of residence brought a vibrant culture seen to the area? Is that what we’re calling it? 😂
I know right!
The truth is these houses didn't hold up well and needed a lot of work if they weren't taken care of they started to look horrible. Look at the size of these homes. It happened here in Durham NC in the 1970s *urban renewal* or the new term gentrification had a lot of these houses torn down. Because they looked horrible. Backyards used as parking lots..etc
There's an old beautiful stone building on P'tree Street just as you get off the 85 spur that goes past Monroe Drive. I think it's a women's club now
Rather sad. The same thing has happened in many cities. It put me in mind of Booth Tarkington's classic novel "The Magnificent Ambersons."
Thankfully, New Orleans was able to keep their historic homes.
I wish we'd come back to show the 3 or 4 remaining mansions along Peachtree including Rhodes Hall, Wimbish House and the sad legacy of the Rufus-Rose House. They're survivors.
As with all cities of the 20th-21st century, the charm and humanity is gone - replaced by grim, tall structures.
I live on 5th Ave...in Kettle Falls!
Which ones are still there?
It was culturally enriched
To the modern, deracinated American goy peasant, these videos make no sense. He cannot comprehend why such grandeur and beauty was destroyed solely to maximize profits, because he is oblivious to the character of the in- group that rules over him. He also has no idea of the history of forced desegregation and its disastrous consequences on American society.
The fact that elegant homes focused on past conventions and did not plan for plumbing electric and AC doomed them quickly. I’ve always considered Atlanta as moving forward at breakneck speed without consideration of the future.
I loved the history lesson of the area. The city's dymanic changed for the worse, and once the beautiful homes of the rich were divided into small apartments and the city's growth, there was nowhere else to go. As the buildings were no longer feasible and the land was premium, the owners of what was left really didn't have much of a say on keeping or selling. If there were any hold outs, they could have lost what they had simply by the city declaring eminent domain. Sometimes thats progress, or loss due to inheritance taxes. Too bad to.
I disagree that it changed for the worse. Change is the only constant and looking back at that time, al lot of ppl who built the city and made it flow were shut out from wealth, ownership opportunities.
And in 150 years homes you are building now will be left and ignored by heirs thus torn down. Especially if they’ve moved away…will sell easily.
Me frankly l'd rather have saved these grand old houses and built the ugly suburban areas, shopping centers, apartments and high rise buildings elsewhere at least preserved more than than had. What's even more shame these stately houses were probably torn down and hauled off somewhere with little to none of it's materials salvaged. Shame!
I think they're beautiful to look at but after having lived in one I would never do it again.
2:51 is that Richardsonian???
You do not happen to have blue prints of these structures, like the major's mansion?
Atlanta: from mansions to McMansions. Meanwhile, an art museum that looks like a public bathroom turned inside out is lauded for its beauty and genius. I don't understand it, but then there's so much I don't understand.
Went on "street view" and followed Peachtree Street from end to end, not many Mansions to see. It the Atlanta Woman's Club at 1150 Peachtree St. NE a former Mansion ??????
Where's Scarlett O'Hara Rhett Bulter's mansion? :-)
On a Movie Studio's back lot in Hollywood.
I believe the building they used as a model is in Covington, GA. Last I knew it was a B&B called Twelve Oaks.
Would have like to know which ones have survived. A wealth of beauty replaced for the beauty of wealth.....
What happened 🤔 well the same thing that happened to most every other city in America , the 13%ers moved in
I would like to see the photos colorized