Thread by @donovanreyno1ds

History of Buckhead
(a thread)

In the Piedmont Park thread, we talked about how the Creek were forced out of the area & how GA began giving the land away to entice white settlers into the area.

Well in 1838, 4 years after Sam Walker purchased the 189 acres of what would eventually become Piedmont Park for $450....

Henry Irby purchased 202 ½ acres surrounding the present intersection of Peachtree, Roswell, and W Paces Ferry Rd for $650.

(or $18k-$22k in today’s money)

Irby built a successful tavern & store there.

The area was 1st called Irbyville, but legend has it that Irby, at some point, killed a large buck & hung its head from a post for all to see.

Soon people starting referring to this meeting place as “the buck’s head”

In the 1850’s the area remained a rural pass-through town.

But in the summer of 1864, the Civil War came to Buckhead.

Battle of Peach Tree Creek ended in ≈ 5,000 casualties & a Union victory. According to some, the battle marked the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

Unlike most of Atlanta, Buckhead wasn’t damaged in the Civil War.

So post war, in the late 19th century into the “Roaring 20s”, Buckhead became the site of mansions for Atlanta’s wealthiest white families fleeing the now dense & diverse inner cities for estate lots & privacy.

Buckhead became part of Atlanta in 1952 & in the time since, some of the large estates were sold off & subdivided.

Like the Ottley Estate...

Their 150 acre estate was purchased by developers in 1956, demolished & is now the site of Lenox Mall...the 1st major mall in GA.

Buckhead, also coined Beverly Hills of the South, continued as an upscale destination.

But as fallout from drugs & crime grew Downtown, some people left places like Underground, for bars like Aunt Charley’s & Johnny’s Hideaway that became huge draws for Buckhead in the 70s-80s.

As disco 🕺🏽 took over the music world in the 80’s, Buckhead became home to the hottest disco club outside of Studio 54 in NY.

It was called Limelight. It had a glass dance floor with sharks swimming underneath & it was frequented by the likes of Andy Warhol & Tina Turner.

Due to the tech boom, music scene, 18 drinking age, drugs, Freanik & nightlife, Atlanta quickly became the party capital of America in the 80s & 90s.

But the way bread, peanut butter & jelly go together, so does clubs, drugs & criminal activity.

The 90’s was the crescendo.

Buckhead wasn’t very welcoming to black nightlife, but club owners knew it was too lucrative to pass up.

Black promoters were given the slow nights, like Mondays, but at its peak, there were ≈ 100 bars & restaurants packed into a 2.5 block radius w/ high traffic & no parking.

Mark aka Biddy Barnes was 1 of the people who helped make the nightlife possible.

He moved to Atlanta in ‘92 from the Bronx & became a party promoter for venues like Chaos, Havana, Shadows, Fuel & 112.

At his peak, he was bringing in $15k to $20k a week promoting.

In 1994, Steve Kaplan opened Gold Club in Buckhead.

The strip club brought Vegas VIP rooms & bottle service to the strip-club scene. Patrons included Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Chipper Jones, Joe Montana, Dennis Rodman, Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Ewing, Madonna & countless others....

Kaplan, a known associate of mafioso John Gotti, is later indicted in Nov 1999, on racketeering charges, credit-card fraud, prostitution, money laundering & police corruption.

He could have faced 195 years if convicted on all charges.

He took a plea deal & served 16 months.

The nightlife scene is part of what convinced Frank Ski, probably our most recognized radio personality, to move from Baltimore to Atlanta in ‘98.

He described seeing Jagged Edge, Outkast, OJ Simpson & Bill Clinton out at the clubs in Buckhead.

While Buckhead was becoming a celebrity club hotspot, cocaine in Atlanta was mainly run by Demetrius Flenory aka Big Meech & his crew BMF (Black Mafia Family)

They owned a Buckhead mansion & it wasn’t uncommon to see them in the area in fleets of Escalades, Lambos & Bentleys.

At its peak, the enterprise employed over 500 people, raked in $270M in profits & distributed 2500 kilos of cocaine a month in Atlanta alone.

Big Meech is credited w/ starting the rap career of Jeezy & it’s rumored that he gave Diddy money to start his Bad Boy record label.

Reaching its climax in the late 90’s, things started to get out of control.

Buckhead transformed from a rural town of farmers to the home of Grammy winning singers & Home Depot billionaires mixed w/ partying, drugs, sex & violence.

The turning point was the 2000 Super Bowl.

Held at the GA Dome, it brought tourists & celebrities from all over to partake in the festivities.

After the game ended, a fight broke out b/w Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis & friends vs a group of locals in the Cobalt nightclub.

In the end, 2 Atlanta men were stabbed to death.

Lewis & associates left the scene in a bloody limo.

They were indicted for murder & aggravated assault.

Lewis took a plea deal to have his charges reduced to obstruction of justice, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to 12 months probation. His two associates were acquitted.

The affluent community was convinced something needed to change. Atlanta cracked down on the area almost immediately.

Earlier closing times & last calls were instated.

The city became more selective when handing out operating licenses.

It was the beginning of the end.

7 MORE murders took place in Buckhead b/w the Super Bowl & Nov. 11, 2003.

The last nail in the coffin was after an altercation w/ BMF inside club Chaos, “Wolf” Jones & “Riz” Girdy were killed in a shootout w/ Big Meech in the parking lot.

Jones was Diddy’s friend & bodyguard.

Big Meech eventually got off on self defense but the shooting led to him being arrested later on other matters.

Popular clubs like Lulu's Bait Shack, Mako's, Clarence Foster's & Tongue & Groove began to close their doors.

The area was purchased & eventually bulldozed in ‘07.

The area was purchased with the intent of turning it into the “Rodeo Drive” of the South but plans were killed by the ‘08 market crash.

In 2011, developer Oliver McMillan acquired the property, & 7 years after ground was 1st broken, the luxury shopping center was finally opened.

Current businesses include Hermès, Louboutin, Dior & Tom Ford.

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