“Summerhill has undergone multiple sweeping metamorphoses over the past decades, from which Georgia Avenue was not spared,” writes Dr. Marni Davis.

With new Summerhill businesses opening, heavy machinery growling at construction sites, and a college football team settled into the former Major League Baseball stadium nearby, Georgia Avenue’s era as an abandoned, boarded-up retail strip might seem distant.

The reality, however, is that those desolate days weren’t long ago.

What might be harder to remember, though, is that Summerhill—one of Atlanta’s oldest African-American neighborhoods—was also once flourishing with retail activity and diverse, communal pride, long before Georgia State University and developer Carter began transforming the area.

“Summerhill has undergone multiple sweeping metamorphoses over the past decades, from which Georgia Avenue was not spared,” writes Dr. Marni Davis, associate professor of history at GSU.

Read the full article in Curbed Atlanta.

For a fuller story, venture through Dr. Davis’s treasure trove of history on what’s arguably one of the fastest changing corridors, and overall neighborhoods, in Atlanta.