The Neighborhoods of Atlanta

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With no oceans or mountains to hem it in, Atlanta was free to sprawl in every direction. And it did. The result is a myriad of distinctive neighborhoods, some predating the city of Atlanta, and some on the cutting edge of modern development. The three main areas of the city are Downtown, Midtown and Buckhead. These are the three visible “clumps” of highrise buildings on the city's skyline.

Downtown Atlanta is the historic core and the largest commercial district in the city. The oldest part of Atlanta, the Downtown area has also been undergoing regentrification of old buildings and construction of new condominiums and residential lofts. The center of town, where five major streets converge, is referred to as Five Points.

Travel along Peachtree Street north of Downtown will bring you to another business district called Midtown. Atlanta's music and arts institutions are centered around Midtown, including the Fox Theatre and the Woodruff Arts Center. Midtown continues to grow in popularity as a residential address, as well as an education center with the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), John Marshall Law School and the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD).

Continuing north on Peachtree Street leads you to Buckhead, the third largest business district in Atlanta with a high concentration of companies in the financial services industry, high-end retail and hotels. Buckhead is surrounded by leafy suburban neighborhoods and is the wealthiest part of greater Atlanta.

Other notable neighborhoods of Atlanta include the Victorian residential area around Grant Park (home of Zoo Atlanta); Edgewood, developed in the late 1800s as a home for the city's blue collar workers, with a wonderful collection of craftsman bungalows; the shotgun houses of Cabbagetown, built as a mill town in the 1880s.