The vibrant communities of Butler Street and Buttermilk Bottom in Atlanta were profoundly impacted by the construction of the Downtown Connector and subsequent urban renewal initiatives. To ensure their rich history is honored appropriately, our project is reaching out to past residents and their descendants.
If you have any connections to these neighborhoods or know someone who does, we invite you to share your contact information on the second tab below to participate in our oral history project.
Timeline
Atlanta’s Displacement of Buttermilk Bottoms
The land between Peachtree Street and Boulevard attracted dense, poorly constructed buildings. The area became known as Buttermilk Bottom and was home to a vibrant Black community.
City officials requested that the expressway be built through the areas of the city where “it would be feasible to purchase suitable rights-of-way, being the most depreciated and least attractive, [and] in need of rejuvenation.” The neighborhoods through which the expressways were planned were described as “depreciated” and so in need of improvements that the construction of the road system could be “classed as slum clearance.” The Connector was to act as a barrier “between the central business district and the East Side African American Community."
Land clearing for the Downtown Connector begins in 1948, eventually displacing over 7,000 Black Atlantans, and contributing to the elimination of the Buttermilk Bottom and Butler Street neighborhoods.
Following the completion of the Atlanta Civic Center urban renewal project, two Urban Redevelopment Area (URA) plans are combined into one large 278-acre Bedford Pines Urban Redevelopment Area that now includes the former Buttermilk Bottom plan area. This leads to additional urban renewal projects further disrupting these communities.
While there is no bringing back communities destroyed by the Downtown Connector, the Stitch will reconnect neighborhoods that have remained separated for over half a century.
