North Avenue (Atlanta)

North Avenue is a major avenue in

Poncey-Highland, Old Fourth Ward, and Midtown Atlanta

North Avenue was named at least 150 years ago and was built along the northern city limits of a young Atlanta. For

have been built north of North Avenue, and also beyond the eastern and western ends of North Avenue.

The western half of North Avenue carries

only Piedmont Avenue, westbound lanes one block west on southbound-only Juniper Street, which continues south as Courtland Street. These are the two blocks east of Peachtree Street

, Atlanta's main north/south street and the division between the eastern and western quadrants of the city.

Further east, North Avenue crosses the northern branch of

Moreland Avenue where it crosses the Fulton/DeKalb county line, one block north of the end of the eastern branch of Freedom Parkway. East of here, it loses its middle turn lane and all of the homes on the south side of the street, which were destroyed by the Georgia Department of Transportation in anticipation of the never-built section of the Stone Mountain Freeway. The road ends at Candler Park

, with Candler Park Drive going only south and no roads to the north or east.

Notable

rapid transit system

along its main north/south Red & Gold lines. This MARTA station is the closest one to Georgia Tech, and it is a moderate walk between the two.

Georgia Tech is sometimes jokingly referred to as the "

North Avenue Trade School" in reference to this street, the largest thoroughfare near its original center.^[1]

History

When North Avenue was first constructed, this arrow-straight avenue followed the lines between the already-

Siege of Atlanta

in 1864.

The first section of North Avenue was between land lots #50 and #49 west of West Peachtree Street and lots #47 and #48 to the east of this street. Prior to 1925, North Avenue ended at Randolph street.

Sears, Roebuck, & Co.

building) and the DuPre Excelsior Mill.

During the 1930s, a vehicle tunnel was dug underneath these railroad tracks, and then North Avenue was extended eastwards towards Atlanta's Candler Park. North Avenue dead-ends into Candler Park Drive, which forms the western boundary of the Candler Park golf course.

When

Five Points

. Because of this, the street numbers in midtown (the only part of the city that uses them) do not match the block numbers.

References

^ McMath, Robert C.; Ronald H. Bayor; James E. Brittain; Lawrence Foster; August W. Giebelhaus; Germaine M. Reed. Engineering the New South: Georgia Tech 1885-1985. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
^ Insurance maps of Atlanta, Georgia, Volume 2, 1911, Sanborn-Perris Map Co. Limited, http://dlgcsm.galib.uga.edu/StyleServer/calcrgn?browser=ns&cat=sanb&wid=380&hei=400&style=sanborn/sanb.xsl&item=atlanta-fulton-ga-1911-s-250.sid
^ "Timeline: Old Sears building, once a boom, then a bust". www.ajc.com. 2010-06-01. Retrieved 2012-11-07.

[ens-1] McMath, Robert C.; Ronald H. Bayor; James E. Brittain; Lawrence Foster; August W. Giebelhaus; Germaine M. Reed. Engineering the New South: Georgia Tech 1885-1985. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

[2] Insurance maps of Atlanta, Georgia, Volume 2, 1911, Sanborn-Perris Map Co. Limited, http://dlgcsm.galib.uga.edu/StyleServer/calcrgn?browser=ns&cat=sanb&wid=380&hei=400&style=sanborn/sanb.xsl&item=atlanta-fulton-ga-1911-s-250.sid

[3] "Timeline: Old Sears building, once a boom, then a bust". www.ajc.com. 2010-06-01. Retrieved 2012-11-07.

[1]