Intown Neighborhoods
Brookhaven is an unincorporated city located on the western edge of DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, adjoining Sandy Springs and Buckhead. Originally home to Creek Indians, John L. Evins began a large plantation in the area now known as Brookhaven in the early 1800’s. Brookhaven is west of Chamblee, north of Buford Highway and south of I-285. Aside from portions in Atlanta, it is a community within the North Atlanta CDP. While Brookhaven is bisected by Peachtree Road, the historic part of the community is located north of the road, and stretches to Windsor Parkway on the north, Peachtree-Dunwoody Road on the west, and Mabry Road on the east. Brookhaven is home to two golf courses, the Capital City Club (listed on the National Register of Historic Places) and Peachtree Golf Club. Historically, there were modest neighborhoods surrounding the historic estates near the Capital City Club, particularly south of Peachtree Road. Brookhaven is less than two miles from Lenox Square Mall and Phipps Plaza, located in Atlanta’s Buckhead district and two of the most affluent shopping centers in the United States.
Buckhead, which comprises the northern one-fifth of Atlanta, is sometimes promoted as the “Beverly Hills of the South” in reference to Beverly Hills, California, an area to which it is often compared. Many local celebrities and the families of early Atlantans make their homes in the wooded estates scattered throughout this beautiful neighborhood. Buckhead could be characterized as mostly suburban in character, with a highly urbanized center with many high-rises centered along Peachtree Rd and GA-400. Buckhead comprises most of the Atlanta North-end neighborhoods between Interstate 85 and Interstate 75 along with several large neighborhoods to the West of I-75. According to Forbes Magazine, Buckhead was home to the ninth-wealthiest zip code in the nation in 2004 with a household income in excess of $341,000 per year and is known as the wealthiest of Atlanta’s neighborhoods. Home to the Georgia Governor’s Mansion, the area’s real estate market is also the most expensive in the state of Georgia with an average home value in 2005 of approximately $761,000. Being a luxurious community where old money meets new money Buckhead is unique in so many ways. From top rated schools to some of Atlanta’s most expensive real estate, Buckhead is truly a gem of the south. Today the area is still thriving despite the recent economic downturn.
It used to be the streets of downtown became deserted and dark after 7 p.m. Then came the 1996 Olympics and the revitalization of the area. Since then the draw of the live/work/play lifestyle has drawn residents to numerous downtown residential developments. Comprised of the Castleberry Hill, Centennial Hill, Centennial Place, Fairlie-Poplar, SoNo and Sweet Auburn neighborhoods, downtown offers everything from the nation’s first public housing project at Centennial Place to killer skyline views, with shops and restaurants at practically every doorstep. Downtown residents are minutes away from museums, the new World of Coca-Cola, the Georgia Aquarium, and lots more. Castleberry Hill, the city’s most complete warehouse district, is thriving with lofts, restaurants and art galleries popping up on every corner.
Second only to Buckhead, Midtown is the largest financial district in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. The area of Midtown is unofficially situated between the commercial and financial districts of Downtown and SoNo to the south and the affluent residential and commercial district of Buckhead to the north. This area measures approximately four square miles and has a resident population of 30,000 as stated by the Midtown Alliance Organization which oversees the wellbeing and development of the area. In regards to population, the area has a daily workplace population of 68,000, as well as another 20,000 students. Furthermore, due to the cultural richness of midtown the area accommodates approximately six million visitors annually. Midtown is considered the finest choice in urban Atlanta living because the area contains roughly one-third of the city’s high-rises and some of Atlanta’s most iconic buildings, such as the Bank of America Plaza, AT&T Midtown Center, Atlantic Center, 1180 Peachtree, and Promenade II. Midtown is the epicenter of the city’s music and artistic scene that includes the Fox Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, the High Museum of Art, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Center for Puppetry Arts, and the 14th Street Playhouse. The outlying edges of the district are the Beltline just east of Monroe Drive on the east, Howell Mill Road on the west, I-85 and I-75 to the north, and Ralph McGill Boulevard on the south.
Arguably the city’s most quiet yet sought-after address, the largely residential Virginia-Highland area has been called Atlanta’s answer to New York’s SoHo and Los Angeles’ Melrose Avenue. In the 1920s it was constructed to accommodate lower to middle income residents. The two-bedroom bungalows that pepper this tree-lined corner of the near east side now fetch a quarter-of-a-million dollars and more. Virginia-Highlands, or more commonly referred to as “the Highlands,” centers on the intersection of its namesake avenues, Virginia and North Highland, and concentrates its activity around three main hubs. Most points are within easy walking distance of the Jimmy Carter Center in Inman Park, Emory University in Druid Hills, and Piedmont Park in Midtown. For the past fifty years, the prevailing atmosphere has gone from staunch middle class to economically-depressed to an avant-garde reclamation phase to a solid enclave of the in-town upwardly-mobile. Today, young professional couples live alongside the older entrenched crowd that smartly held onto their once slumping yet now-booming properties.
