In 1838,
Henry Irby purchased 202-1/2 acres surrounding the present intersection of Peachtree, Roswell, and West Paces Ferry roads from Daniel Johnson for $650. Irby subsequently established a
general store and
tavern at the northwest corner of the intersection. The name "Buckhead" comes from a story that Irby killed a large buck deer and placed
the head in a prominent location. Prior to this, the settlement was called Irbyville. By the late 1800s, Buckhead had become a rural vacation spot for wealthy Atlantans. In the 1890s, Buckhead was rechristened
Atlanta Heights but by the 1920s it was again "Buckhead". Buckhead remained dominated by country estates until after
World War I, when many of Atlanta's wealthy began building mansions among the area's rolling hills. Predominantly black neighborhoods within Buckhead included
Johnsontown, Piney Grove, Savagetown, and
Macedonia Park. Fearing that the city's "Negro population is growing by leaps and bounds", and was "taking more white territory inside Atlanta", Hartsfield sought to annex these communities to counteract the threat of increasing political power for the city's Black residents. Many bars and clubs catered mostly to the black community in the Atlanta area, including Otto's, Cobalt, 112, BAR, World Bar, Lulu's Bait Shack, Mako's, Tongue & Groove, Chaos, John Harvard's Brew House, Paradox, Frequency & Havana Club. The area became renowned as a party spot for Atlanta area rappers and singers, including
Outkast,
Jazze Pha,
Jagged Edge,
Usher and
Jermaine Dupri, who mentioned the neighborhood's clubs on his song "
Welcome to Atlanta". Following the events of the
Ray Lewis murder case in Buckhead on the night of the 2000
Super Bowl (held in Atlanta at the
Georgia Dome), as well as a series of murders involving the
Black Mafia Family, residents sought to ameliorate crime by taking measures to reduce the community's
nightlife and re-establish a more residential character.
Proposed secession from Atlanta In 2008, a
newsletter by the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation began circulating that proposed the
secession of Buckhead into its own city after more than 50 years as part of Atlanta. This came on the heels of neighboring
Sandy Springs, which finally became a city in late 2005 after a 30-year struggle to incorporate, and which triggered other such incorporations in
metro Atlanta's northern
suburbs. Like those cities, the argument to create a city of Buckhead is based on the desire for more local control and lower
taxes. Discussions revolving around potential secession from Atlanta were revived in late 2021, with proponents of secession arguing that splitting from Atlanta would enable Buckhead to better tackle crime in the area. In Atlanta's Police Zone 2, which includes Buckhead,
Lenox Park,
Piedmont Heights, and
West Midtown, murder was up 63% in 2021 compared to the previous year, going from 8 cases to 13. However, in the same period crime overall was down by 6%, and according to police chief
Rodney Bryant, Zone 2 had only a fraction of the violent crimes seen in other neighborhoods of Atlanta. Buckhead, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Atlanta, would deprive the city of upwards of 40% of its tax revenue if it seceded. During the 2023 session, on April 27, the issue of incorporation was brought to the
Georgia State Senate in the form of SB114. The bill prompted a response from governor
Brian Kemp on the legality and workability of incorporating Buckhead as a city, but was ultimately rejected 33-23. The against votes consists of all Democrats in the Senate, and ten Republicans who broke rank to join them. The Republicans who were in favor of allowing a secession vote argued that the citizens of Buckhead were not being represented by their municipal government and that the decision to form their own municipality should be up to the citizens themselves. If the bill succeeded, it would have begun the referendum process to secede from Atlanta. ==Geography==