The southern half of Midtown between 8th Street and North Ave was originally purchased by
Richard Peters in 1848 to use the pine forest there for fuel for his downtown flour mill. Over the next 40 years, Peters slowly subdivided sections of these land lots off for a gridded residential area and built his own home there on Peachtree at 4th Street. His son, Edward, built his home on the block bounded by North Avenue,
Piedmont Avenue, Ponce de Leon Avenue, and Myrtle Street. The home, now called
Ivy Hall, was restored by the
Savannah College of Art & Design in 2008 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After the
Civil War, Peachtree between what is now 8th and 12th streets was still about a mile beyond the city limits, which ended at Pine Street. After the
American Civil War a shantytown named
Tight Squeeze developed at Peachtree at what is now 10th Street. It was infamous for vagrancy, desperation, and robberies of merchants transiting the settlement. As Atlanta grew ever further outwards from its historic center, mansions were constructed along Peachtree Street and the area around
10th was known as
Blooming Hill. In 1904, the development of
Ansley Park began. The 1910
Encyclopædia Britannica listed Peachtree Street in Midtown as one of the finest residential areas of the city, along with Ponce de Leon Circle (now Ponce de Leon Avenue),
Washington Street, and
Inman Park. The
Downtown Connector freeway opened in the 1950s, and the blocks between Williams Street and Techwood Drive were demolished to make way for it. In 1959
Lenox Square and in 1964,
Ansley Mall opened, and the
Tenth Street shopping district went into decline. By the late 1960s, Peachtree Street between Eighth and Fourteenth Streets had become a center of hippie culture known as
The Strip Large-scale commercial development began with
Colony Square, the first
mixed-use development in the Southeast, which was built between 1969 and 1973. The
MARTA subway line opened in 1981. In the 1980s, many older properties were demolished, some remaining vacant for decades. High-density commercial and residential development took root in the north–south corridor along Peachtree and West Peachtree. The BellSouth Center (1982), now the
AT&T Midtown Center, was long the landmark skyscraper in the area. However, commercial development escalated after 1987, when
One Atlantic Center was completed. The 2000s decade saw the construction of numerous high-rise condo buildings in Midtown, such as the
Spire, Viewpoint, and
1010 Midtown. In 2006, then-Mayor
Shirley Franklin set in motion a plan to make the 14-block stretch of
Peachtree Street a street-level shopping destination. The 2004 opening of the Seventeenth Street Bridge over the
Downtown Connector reconnected Midtown with the west side of the city and to the
Atlantic Station mixed-use development, which was built on the former site of the Atlantic Steel company. The Midtown Alliance, a group of volunteers, employees, and business and community members, was formed in 1978 in order to work towards improving the overall quality of life in Midtown and transform it into an ideal place for people to actively live, work, and play. Activities of the Alliance include improving neighborhood safety, developing area arts and education programs, and building community leaders. The master plan from the Alliance, called Blueprint Midtown, is credited with fueling the economic resurgence that has helped the once downtrodden Midtown area transform over the past number of years into a popular neighborhood. A 2011
Creative Loafing article claimed that:No part of the city has evolved more dramatically over the past two decades ... Impersonal office buildings, imposing parking decks and cold asphalt arteries have given way to high-rise living and an explosion of street life ... Where once there was a wasteland, now there are great restaurants, groceries, specialty shops, townhouses, lofts, and ... people. ==Architecture and historic districts==