Westside Story
Vine City's story.
Neighbors, civil rights leaders, floods and recovery: the history that shapes Vine City today.
The neighborhood
A Westside community of achievement
In the early to mid-twentieth century, the area around Sunset Avenue was home to both working-class Black and white residents. As more African Americans moved to Atlanta's Westside, Vine City became known for residents linked to the civil rights movement and African American achievement.
The National Park Service names educators like Charles Gideon and entrepreneurs and activists such as Alonzo Herndon and Julian Bond among them.
Civil rights
Sunset Avenue
In 1965 Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King bought the home at 234 Sunset Avenue for their growing family. After Dr. King's assassination, the first offices of the King Center were in its basement. In 2018 the home became part of Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park.
Next door is the childhood home of Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first Black mayor. His mother, Irene Jackson, desegregated the Fulton County public library system by becoming the first Black person to receive a library card. Westside Future Fund restored the house, which is now on the Georgia Register of Historic Places and houses Spelman College faculty and staff.
Sources: National Park Service: The King Family Home · FOX 5 Atlanta: Maynard Jackson's childhood home
Resilience
From the 2002 flood to Cook Park
A flood in 2002 destroyed more than 60 homes in Vine City. A 2010 Park Pride master plan for Vine City and English Avenue proposed green space that could also hold stormwater.
After years of resident activism, the 16-acre Rodney Cook Sr. Park opened in 2021 with a stormwater retention lake. Its namesake was one of two Atlanta council members who voted against the Peyton Wall, built to separate white and Black communities.
Sources: SaportaReport: Cook Park opening · Trust for Public Land: Cook Park
Main street
Historic Westside Village
The Atlanta Housing Authority announced Historic Westside Village in 1999 as a commercial, residential, and retail project near Martin Luther King Jr. Dr and Ashby St (now Joseph E. Lowery Blvd). A Publix opened in 2002 and closed in 2009; a Walmart opened in 2013. Today's Walmart Neighborhood Market reopened in May 2024 after an 18-month closure.
Eat and shop in Vine City todaySources: Historic Westside Village (Wikipedia) · The Atlanta Voice: Walmart returns to Vine City
This is a starting point, not a complete history. The association welcomes sourced corrections and neighbors' stories. Visit places from this history.