Washington–Rawson

Fine residences along Washington St. in a postcard from est. 1890–1910

Julius L. Brownresidence on Washington St., 1881

Washington–Rawsonwas a neighborhood ofAtlanta, Georgia.It included what is nowCenter Parc Stadium(formerlyTurner Field) and the large parking lot to its north, until 1997 the site ofAtlanta–Fulton County Stadium,as well as theI-20-Downtown Connectorinterchange. Washington and Rawson streets intersected where the interchange is today. To the northwest wasDowntown Atlanta,to the westMechanicsville,to the eastSummerhill,and to the south Washington Heights, now calledPeoplestown.

Fine residential district

1890 newspaper ads describing the mansions of Washington Street

By the mid-1870s, Washington Street was becoming one of the city's finest residential streets.The neighborhood was wealthy at the turn of the twentieth century:Encyclopædia Britannicaof 1910 listed Washington Street as one of the finest residential areas of the city, along withPeachtree Street,Ponce de Leon Circle (nowPonce de Leon AvenueinMidtown) andInman Park.Mansions included those of governor and senatorJoseph E. Brown,his brother, attorneyJulius L. Brown,restaurant ownerHenry R. Durand,and fertilizer magnate andStandard Clubco-founderIsaac Schoen.

Center of Jewish community

Sanborn fire insurance mapsfrom 1911 confirm that the area was a center of Jewish community in Atlanta at the time:

• the reformHebrew Benevolent Congregation synagogue(1902) was located at S. Pryor and Richardson streets (it would move toAnsley Parkin 1931)
• Beth Israel Synagogue (orthodox)
• theStandard Club,a Jewish gentlemen's club, now located inJohns Creekin the northern suburbs
• theHebrew (or Jewish) Orphans' Homewas at the south end at 478 Washington St. SE (SE corner of Love St.)

The neighborhood was also home to the Convent of the Immaculate Conception, and to Piedmont Sanitorium, which would become the originalPiedmont Hospital.

Decline and razing

Map of Washington–Rawson district in 1911. Virtually all of these urban blocks are now the site of either Turner Field, a parking lot, or freeway interchange.

With the advent of the electric streetcar in the 1890s and then the automobile, wealthy Atlantans flocked to new, leafy neighborhoods likeAnsley ParkandDruid Hillsand the southside soon became unfashionable. The Standard Club moved to Ponce de Leon Avenue in Midtown in 1929. By the 1950s the neighborhood had fallen on hard times and was targeted for "aggressive" urban renewal. It was at this time that the term "Washington–Rawson" was used for the area. Prior to that, most references to the area were references to individual streets, intersections or directionals (e.g. south side). The western side of Washington–Rawson neighborhood was leveled in the 1950s to construct theDowntown Connector,reducing the neighborhood by half.

Some sources state the leveling of the neighborhood for the stadium was part of MayorIvan Allen, Jr."vision was to build an entertainment facility that would bring black and white Atlantans together", "cradled as it was between the commercial business community and the black neighborhood of Summerhill."Other sources note that the original 1940s plan was to route the Downtown Connector freeway on the west side of downtown; the later plan to route it east of downtown was an effort to remove low-income black neighborhood and provide a buffer between the central business district and what remained of the black Summerhill,MechanicsvilleandPeoplestownneighborhoods.

Aerial view of the former Washington–Rawson district in 1966, with Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium and the Interstate 20/75 interchange having taken its place.

The remaining eastern side of Washington–Rawson neighborhood was demolished in the early 1960s to make room forAtlanta–Fulton County Stadiumand its parking lots.Today, the area is part of the neighborhood ofSummerhill.

References

• Atlanta History Center, photos