Comments on: Breaking news! Atlanta’s seedy past!

By: » Why Castleberry?

» Why Castleberry? — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:41:04 +0000

[...] Now that we are firmly ensconced in Atlanta, jostling for space between cars on our bikes, sampling restaurants to soothe our California palettes, and working to make The Boxcar Grocer a reality, it is time to reference the community into which we decided to build our business. Because everyone seems to want to know why two die-hard San Franciscans decided to open a business on the other side of the country in a neighborhood few people have ever heard of. [...]

By: atlpaddy

atlpaddy — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:35:07 +0000

I think the histories of Murrell’s Row and Slabtown would also converge nicely with the history of the Irish in Atlanta.

By: ray henderson

ray henderson — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:57:41 +0000

I have just finished a book on the Pony Club in West Atlanta from about 1826-38. It covers Gwinnet, Dekalb, Henry, Fayette, Campbell , and finally Fulton Counties, where Sandtown was located at one time or another. Sandtown was the first stop for the 50 related family members from Tennessee who moved here for the specific purpose of Operating a “pony club”. Also covered is Alabama, where the club stole horses from both Creek and Cherokees, prompting local “slicks’ to converge on Carroll County to get justice. The club moved to Paulding county in 1832 and had its HQ at Clean town, in Polk County. They operated over Tennessee, North and South Carolina and had some activity in Florida as well. Their activities opened up a whole genre of early 19th century literature…the “border romance”..with books like “Guy Rivers” that told tales of the Pony Club in NW georgia.

I hope to have this in print this year and think many will discover just how lawless this area was until the 1840s.

By: ATL history blogging | Atlanta Metblogs

ATL history blogging | Atlanta Metblogs — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:30:00 +0000

[...] Christa has some great posts on the old Ponce de Leon Springs, historic Atlanta cross dressers, and Atlanta’s seedy past. Rusty did some digging on Alex Cooley, found some great old postcards, and gives the low down on [...]

By: If I were going to write a blog about Atlanta history, I would call it Snake Nation | Rusty's Blog

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:09:12 +0000

[...] you want to know how a lot of the posts would read, surf over to this Pecannelog entry about Atlanta’s seedy past culled from various sources. That post even gave me an idea for what I’d name the blog: Snake [...]

By: pecanne log

pecanne log — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:03:14 +0000

And all the prostitutes who were shipped out of Murrel’s Row and Slabtown into Decatur went on to start Agnes Scott College.

By: Mark Davis

Mark Davis — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:40:31 +0000

This is related, sort of, to Rusty’s reference to digging up Atlanta history: Today I spent an hour or so at the Atlanta History Center, where I came across photos taken in Atlanta during the New Deal. A lot of the images detailed crews as they worked to replace Atlanta’s aged sewer system.

Now, those pipes, put in the ground seven decades ago, are coming to light again as crews work to replace Atlanta’s aged sewer system.

By: Rusty Tanton

Rusty Tanton — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:02:23 +0000

Interesting info, thanks for posting. I love all this stuff and wish there was a blog dedicated to digging up Atlanta history tidbits like this.

Lain,
If this was Facebook I would “Like” your comment.

By: Lain

Lain — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:14:05 +0000

I would like to write my own history of Atlanta keeping everything the same except for the Ying-Yang twins — they will become the Romulus and Remus of the ATL.

By: Ben K

Ben K — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:59:54 +0000

I find the Murrell’s Row tidbit interesting – by 1906, Decatur street downtown was referred to in the New York Times (in an article about the race riots):

Decatur street, which in a way is Atlanta’s Bowery, being thickly studded by negro saloons and restaurants, was swept away by a great mob.

No idea if there was a racial angle to the Murrell’s Row stuff – it is quite possible that in the aftermath of Murrell’s Row, Decatur Street had a hard time rehabilitating its image, thus the “negro” saloons.

Also worth mentioning in this post – in the late 19th century, Thompson Street downtown was changed to Madison Street because of the “seedy” association of Thompson Street. Where is Madison Street? It is now Spring Street at the Norfolk Southern building – it got its name changed again when the viaduct was built in the 1920s.