Grant Park

In 2000, the neighborhood became Atlanta's largest Historic District, bringing additional zoning protections.

Grant Park today is a mixture of the old and new residents with people of all levels of education, age and racial backgrounds living in the same neighborhood. The park is today visited by more than a million visitors yearly.

Grant Park, as a neighborhood, began to be populated in the 1890's by middle and some upper middle class families. Craftsmen built many of the architecturally distinctive homes you see today. Most of the lots were shallow and narrow with unpaved alleys in the back of the houses, from the days when the city sewerage wagons had to have access to the outhouses.

The neighborhood reached its zenith around 1905. Shortly after the turn of the century, the neighborhood's battle with the automobile began when some of the wealthier residents, who could afford to buy cars, were drawn to Druid Hills, Morningside and Buckhead. Grant Park remained middle and upper middle class into the 1950's. In the 1960's, the automobile was responsible for cutting the neighborhood in half by means of a six-lane highway. Grant Park was severely disrupted and declined in the wake of I-20's construction.

A restoration trend began in Grant Park in the early 1970's and the neighborhood began to blossom in the late 80s and into the 1990s. Demolition of older homes has largely been halted and new construction seeks to conform to the character of the old neighborhood. During the 1980's, the entire area, both north and south of I-20, was placed on the national register of historic places.

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The Historic Oakland Foundation conducts guided walking tours of the cemetery on a regularly scheduled basis. For more information see their website.