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Contact Us
Piedmont Park Conservancy
P.O. Box 7795
Atlanta, GA 30357-0795
404.875.7275 (PARK)
404.875.0530 fax
[email protected]
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In 1887, the Gentlemen’s Driving
Club purchased 189 acres of land from Benjamin Walker to establish
an exclusive club and racing ground for horse enthusiasts.
Shortly after its founding, the Driving Club entered into
an agreement with the Piedmont Exposition Company (which shared
members with the Driving Club) to hold expositions and fairs
on a portion of the land. The Exposition Company called the
fairgrounds Piedmont Park.
Many expositions and fairs were held at Piedmont Park during
the next seventeen years, most notably the Piedmont Exposition
of 1887 and the Cotton States and International Exposition
of 1895. While the Piedmont Exposition was regional, the Cotton
States and International Exposition was a World’s Fair.
It ran for 100 days, featured 6,000 exhibits and attracted
800,000 visitors. Several features of the park created during
this time remain evident today, including:
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Today’s ball
fields were carved out of the hillside below the Driving
Club to form a horse racetrack. Five years later, this
field hosted the first game in what has become the oldest
intercollegiate football rivalry in the South, Georgia
vs Auburn. From 1902 – 1904, the Crackers, Atlanta’s
original professional baseball team played ball on the
fields of Piedmont Park before moving to a stadium on
Ponce de Leon Avenue. |
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A small lake was created from
a spring that flowed into the park near today’s
Visitor Center for the exposition in 1887. In 1895,
the lake was enlarged to approximately its current size
of 11.5-acres and named Clara Meer. |
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The stone balustrades scattered
around the park once held steps leading to the major
building built for the 1895 Cotton States and International
Exposition. |
In 1887 and again in 1894, the owners of Piedmont Park considered
selling it to the City of Atlanta. This purchase was a tough
sell for a number of reasons— the park was considered
too far away from the city; although the price for the land
was fair, the City wasn’t in the land business; and
Atlanta already owned Grant Park and didn’t see the
need for another park. The third attempt to sell the park
was successful. On June 15, 1904, the City of Atlanta purchased
Piedmont Park and extended its city limits north to encompass
the park acreage, as well as several developing neighborhoods
between West Peachtree Street and North Highland Avenue.
In 1909, the City elected to transform the decaying fairgrounds
into a park and enlisted Olmsted Brothers, pre-eminent landscape
architects of the time, (and sons of Frederick Law Olmsted),
to develop a master plan for the park. Due to budget limitations,
their plan for Piedmont Park was not fully implemented. Nevertheless,
the Olmsted Brothers’ 1912 plan greatly influenced the
development of Piedmont Park. In fact, the current master
plan, adopted by the City of Atlanta and Piedmont Park Conservancy
in 1995, honors the brothers’ original vision for the
park.
During its first quarter century as a city park, many features
familiar to park visitors today, were developed.
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In 1910, the first
permanent building in the new park, the rest house was
erected, funded by the sale of the remaining 1895 Exposition
buildings. In 1996, Piedmont Park Conservancy restored
this historic building to create the Visitors’
Center located near the 12th Street gate. |
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During 1913 and 1914, tennis
courts were erected on the site of the old 1895 Manufacturers
Building, the same site as today’s Tennis Center. |
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To support the swimmers, a
wooden bathhouse was built in 1911, eventually replaced
by the current stone bathhouse in 1926. Clara Meer was
host to swimmers, diving platforms, sunning platforms
and a giant, double water slide. |
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The Park Drive Bridge was built,
which provided residents of the developing neighborhoods
east of the park more convenient access. (1916) |
While the park experienced few physical changes from the 1930s
to 1960s, the next two decades were a sea of change. In 1976,
the high ground of Piedmont Park was leased by the City of
Atlanta to the Atlanta Botanical Garden. In 1979, the golf
course was closed, freeing up 70 acres of green space on what
is now Oak Hill and the Meadow. In 1983, Piedmont Park was
closed to through traffic, creating a more pedestrian-friendly
park and opening the pathways to a new mix of wheeled traffic—skateboarders,
bicyclists, and rollerbladers.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the rapid growth of organized
events produced a dramatic increase in park usage. The Dogwood
Festival (est. 1936), the Arts Festival of Atlanta (est.1954)
and Gay Pride (est.1972) attracted large, diverse crowds to
the park. In-park musical performances also took center stage,
ranging from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Allman Brothers
concerts, to the Montreux Jazz Festival. Increased park usage
compounded by a decreased city budgets led to a clear deterioration
of Piedmont Park. Now also plagued by illegal activities,
it became clear that a long-term solution to fund the care,
maintenance and security of park was critical.
The solution was a public-private partnership.
In 1989, unwilling to accept the decline of their beloved
park, a small group of concerned citizens and civic leaders
joined together to form Piedmont Park Conservancy, a private,
nonprofit organization dedicated to the restoration and preservation
of Piedmont Park. In 1992, The Conservancy established a Memorandum
of Understanding with the City of Atlanta, making official
the public–private partnership and mutual goals to rehabilitate
and maintain Piedmont Park.
Through the generosity of corporate, foundation and individual
contributions, Piedmont Park Conservancy has raised nearly
$20 million in private funds to complete the first half of
the Master Plan restoration, including the renovation of Oak
Hill, Lake Clara Meer and the Meadowlands. Through its member
support, Piedmont Park Conservancy funds landscaping maintenance
workers and off-duty police officers to keep Piedmont Park
safe, clean and beautiful, and offers a variety of educational
programming through its new Community Center.
Through the work of Piedmont Park Conservancy and its members
and supporters, century-old Piedmont Park is once again the
premier green space and central gathering place of Atlanta.
To learn how you can help improve Piedmont Park, click Support
the Park. To learn about educational and recreational
programs offered by Piedmont Park Conservancy, click Discover
Our Programs.
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As the old adage says, “we have all
been warmed by fires we did not build and shaded
by trees we did not plant... ” Perhaps the ultimate question
for a responsible citizenry is not how will we live, but how will
the coming generation live?
Donald Keough
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