Endangered Sweet Auburn - Historic Atlanta

Endangered Sweet Auburn
July 6, 2011
Rhetta Akamatsu
Examiner.com

Today begins a series of articles about some of the places listed on the Atlanta Preservation Center's 2011 list of the most endangered properties. See yesterday's overview of the list.

Let us begin with Sweet Auburn. Sweet Auburn is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Atlanta. From the 1920's to the 1960's, it was a bustling and thriving African-American social and commercial center. According to the Spirit of Sweet Auburn website,"More financial institutions, professionals, educators, entertainers and politicians were on this one mile of street than any other African American street in the South." It was John Wesley Dobbs, the African-American civic and political leader, who coined the name, "Sweet Auburn," because it was a beacon for all the sweet dreams of black Atlantans of that time.

Dr. Martin Luther King was born here, and later preached here. Sweet Auburn is part of the Dr. Martin Luther King Landmark District.

Although the street is only a mile and a half long, it was full of life and variety at its heyday. Banks, churches, eateries, shoeshine shops, barbers, and nightclubs crowded the street. Ragtime and blues music filled the air from clubs like The Top Hat. The air was filled with the smell of food from the restaurants. There was a remarkable cluster of five black colleges around Atlanta University.

Now, despite its enormous historic significance, Sweet Auburn is in grave danger of falling to neglect and redevelopment. There have been many demolitions in recent years, in part to make way for the expansion of Georgia State University, and damage from the tornado of 2008 led to more demolition rather than repair. The proposed Atlanta Streetcar is scheduled to travel along the street, and the impact that would have on the neighborhood is unknown.
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The National Trust for Historic Places put Sweet Auburn on its endangered list in 1992. It first appeared on the Atlanta Preservation Center's list in 2005. In 2006, The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation listed it in its Places in Peril. The Historic District Development Corporation is trying to stop the demolition and deterioration of Sweet Auburn, beginning with the houses around the King birthplace and working outward.

If Sweet Auburn were to disappear, it would take away a huge visual part of Atlanta's history. It would be a loss to every Atlanta and metro Atlanta resident, no matter their ethnicity, whether they realize it our not. Our history is a huge part of who we are, of how we recognize and identify ourselves in the universe, and if we live in or near Atlanta, whether we were born here or came from somewhere else, places like Sweet Auburn matter to us now. We need to know about them, and we need to know they exist, what they were and even what they are, even if what they are is damaged.

Caring about the past is caring about the present,and the future. If we cease to care about one, it diminishes our care for the other two. That is why it is important to fight for Sweet Auburn and all the other significant historic places we are tearing down every day. Maybe we need more high-rises, condos and commercial buildings in Atlanta, but we better think long and hard about where we need them, and how much we need them, at what price.