Eye on the Street
Decatur Metro | October 20, 2011
Decatur, GA circa 1875 (from Atlanta History Center exhibit) Pic submitted by Chris Billingsley
Decatur, GA circa 1875 (from Atlanta History Center exhibit) Pic submitted by Chris Billingsley
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Very interesting.
The shading appears to be used differently than terrain maps of today. These appear to be highlighting depressions where (some) creeks and streams run instead of rising elevation.
If you look just north of the tracks heading toward the square, there appears to be a line indicating a ridge. But the actual ridge is actually at the tracks. That line is about at the low point past the high school, possibly near where that one intersection tends to flood (maple street?) before you head back uphill toward the square.
Or maybe the cartographer hadn’t calibrated his GPS correctly.
I think the stream is still there. It just runs under McDonough and directly under the DHS football field and DHA in a west, then northern direction. It flows away from the RR tracks, which is the continental divide between watersheds that flow to the Atlantic (south of the tracks) and the gulf (north of the tracks).
My guess is this is the beginning of Peavine Creek that runs through the Lamont/Garden neighborhoods then behind Westchester.
I think the “headwater” of Peavine is also in the Lenox Place area where is bunch of very small streams come together and run into the Parkwoods and cross under west Ponce to join up with what you mention, to form Peavine, near Westchester. DM linked to an interesting article from the Parkwood assoc (?) newsletter a few months ago describing the Peavine headwaters.
I love this stuff more than Politics!
Love seeing the square in all its proper glory. When the U.S. was just beginning to come together, town layouts like these made clear just how central the ideas of community order and justice were to our collective pursuits.
Not sure what it is that the present-day courthouse building says about us, though.
It looks like the old courthouse is just where it should be. And the line running north of it, then to the left? Clairmont.
Is that showing civil war encampents? Looks like the army of Ohio was encamped in Decatur.
I wish Atlanta ave still went through town like its shown on the plan. They sure suburbanized that area when they redeveloped it! cant even jog through Swanton hill without hitting a fence blocking you!…let alone drive.
more maps!