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Peachtree Street is the main north-south street of Atlanta, Georgia. The city grew up around this one street, and many of its historical and municipal buildings are or were located along it. Running from downtown to Midtown and on through Buckhead, it is for Atlanta what Broadway is for New York City: the proverbial and legendary heart of the city.
History
Historically, Atlanta grew up on a site occupied by the Creek people, and the "peachtree" street was, in fact, not named for a peach tree of any sort, but for a large Creek settlement called Standing Pitch Tree after a tall lone tree. Reportedly, the Creek used trees with fresh pitch (the sap of a pine tree) for solemnizing vows and treaties. The "pitch tree" was corrupted to "peach tree", perhaps by mistake, or because it sounded better to English speakers. While peaches are so widely feral they seem native to northern Georgia and the Atlanta area, and though Georgia is the "Peach State", there was apparently no historical peach tree that led to the name.
Similarly named streets
Because of the rapid growth of the city of Atlanta, and in particular its suburban communities, visitors to the city can have trouble. A local joke is that all directions begin, "Go to Peachtree . . . . " Peachtree Street itself changes its name to Peachtree Road (mostly an urban principal arterial road today, but with an interesting Peachtree_Corners_History#1812_-_Old_Peachtree_Road) just north of Midtown in Buckhead and then becomes Peachtree Industrial Boulevard (mostly an expressway with a freeway section) a few miles north of Buckhead.
The name is so popular that there are many streets with "Peachtree" as part of their name: thus there are Peachtree Creek Road, Peachtree Lane, Peachtree Avenue, Peachtree Circle, Peachtree Drive, Peachtree Plaza, Peachtree Way, Peachtree Memorial Drive, New Peachtree Road, and Peachtree Valley Road. West Peachtree Street is not the western branch of Peachtree Street, but a parallel major north-south street that is west of Peachtree Street. Others include Peachtree Battle Avenue, commemorating the Battle of Peachtree Creek and Peachtree-Dunwoody Road runs between Peachtree Street and Dunwoody, Georgia. Some of these streets intersect with Peachtree Street or are extensions of it, and some are nowhere near it. Not all the "Peachtrees" in Atlanta are given here.
Landmarks
Many of Atlanta's most prominent landmarks are located along Peachtree Street.
- The Fabulous Fox Theatre is a historic movie house located at 660 Peachtree Street.
- Author Margaret Mitchell wrote her classic Gone with the Wind in the basement apartment of a boarding house at the corner of 10th Street and Peachtree Street. In 1949 she was killed as a pedestrian crossing Peachtree Street at the intersection with 13th Street. Her house has been restored and a museum with guided tours is located at 990 Peachtree Street.
- The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, which serves the southeastern United States, is located at 1000 Peachtree Street.
- The Woodruff Arts Center, which includes the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta's largest art museum, is located at 1280 Peachtree St.
Geography
Atlantans are often convinced that the ridge followed by Peachtree Street is part of the Eastern Continental Divide. While Peachtree Street is atop a ridge, railroad tracks were built on the actual Eastern Continental Divide, which follows DeKalb Avenue from Decatur to Five Points, then turns southwest toward the airport, with the north side draining into the Chattahoochee or Flint Rivers and therefore into the Gulf of Mexico, and the south side eventually into the Atlantic Ocean. Atlanta's primary water source is the Chattahoochee and much of the water is pumped over the watershed. To balance the river flows, the sewage is pumped back to the Chattahoochee.
External links
"Peachtree Street"