Opening Atlanta was a rapidly growing city in the years before Piedmont Park. From 1860 to 1890, the population jumped from 9,554 to 65,533 residents. Those years saw the opening of many education institutions such as
Morehouse College (1867),
Clark College (1869),
Spelman College (1881),
Morris Brown College (1882),
Georgia School of Technology (now known as the Georgia Institute of Technology) (1885), and
Agnes Scott College (1890). Walker farmed the land until, in 1887, he sold the land to the Gentlemen's Driving Club, known today as the
Piedmont Driving Club, who planned "to form exclusive club and racing ground for horse enthusiasts". The driving club entered into an agreement with the Piedmont Exposition Company to use the grounds around the track as exposition space. The main building constructed for the Exposition was long, wide, and two stories high. The first day opened with 20,000 visitors.
Samuel J. Randall opened the Exposition with a speech on the success of the resurrected post-civil war south. Over 50,000 people were in attendance for Cleveland's speech.
The "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry" Five years later, Piedmont Park was the location of the second football game and the beginning of the "
Deep South's Oldest Rivalry" between
Auburn University (then named Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama) and the
University of Georgia. The game was arranged by former
Johns Hopkins classmates, Dr.
Charles Herty of Georgia and Dr.
George Petrie of Auburn. Auburn won the game 10–0. The
Cotton States and International Exposition which opened for 100 days beginning on September 18, 1895 and ending December 31, 1895, attracted visitors from the U.S. and 13 countries. Over $2 million was spent on the transformation of Piedmont Park. The government allocated $250,000 for the construction of a government building and many states and countries such as
Argentina also had their own buildings. Also constructed for the fair were the Tropical gardens, now known as the
Atlanta Botanical Garden, and Lake Clara Meer which was originally a pond but was expanded to for the event. Today, the stone
balustrades scattered around the park are the only part of the enormous main building.
Booker T. Washington delivered his famous
Atlanta Exposition Speech at the Expo, which is "widely regarded as one of the most significant speeches in American history." In his speech, Washington pushed for progress but not integration, a point that angered many other black leaders such as
W. E. B. Du Bois.
John Philip Sousa's "King Cotton" march was created for the expo and was performed at the ceremony, and was conducted by the composer himself. From 1902 through 1906, the
Atlanta Crackers, the city's original
professional baseball team played ball on the fields of Piedmont Park before moving to a stadium on Ponce de Leon Avenue. In 1910, the brothers submitted a plan for the park that was to include a scenic path and driveways that would link Piedmont Park to the streets of Ansley Park. Joining the parks was a success and thereafter, the parks were known as Twin Parks. The same year the first bathhouse was opened, the
Peace Monument, a
Confederate monument, was dedicated in the park, near the 14th Street gate. On January 29, 1913, Calvin Shelverton applied for a building permit to construct the Piedmont Park Apartments. The apartments were designed by
Leila Ross Wilburn and were decidedly middle-class unlike some of the other developments in the area. The apartments remained middle-class up until about 1960, and residents included such prominent Atlantans as accounting company president T. C. Dunlap and lawyer J. B. Stewart. In 1913, seven clay courts were built where the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition's Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building once was. Eight more courts were added in 1914 to accommodate the overwhelming demand. Notable additions and buildings include the
bandstand, built in 1915; a picnic shelter constructed by the
WPA in 1936; the Noguchi
Playscapes, completed in 1976 under the aegis of the
High Museum and a grant from the
National Endowment for the Arts and designed by world-renowned artist and sculptor
Isamu Noguchi, noteworthy as the only public work by Noguchi in the U.S.
21st century The Piedmont Park Conservancy, a group inspired by the
Central Park Conservancy, raised $65 million for a capital campaign between 2000 and 2012. In 2002, the dog park was opened.
Playscapes underwent restoration in 2005 under Eddie Granderson, public arts manager of the City of Atlanta. Jablonski Berkowitz Conservation Inc. was selected to do the restoration and assessments began in September of that year. The company was charged with bringing the playground up to safety codes and restoring the original paint. Some festivals which don't make use of green space were still allowed in the park. The Atlanta Arts Festival ran from September 12–14, 2008, and utilized only paved areas. Other festivals were temporarily moved to alternate venues, such as
Centennial Olympic Park. The drought in Atlanta ended by late 2009. In 2010, several events returned to Piedmont Park, including the Dogwood Festival, the Jazz Festival, and Screen on the Green. In March 2026, the park unveiled Atlanta's first memorial dedicated to veterans of the
Vietnam War. The plaza honors 240 people from Atlanta and
Fulton County who lost their lives in the war.
2011 expansion Approximately in the northwest portion of the park had remained woodlands into the 21st century. In 2007, a park expansion plan called for a new parking deck as well as "open green space, bicycle and walking trails, formal and community gardens, an interactive water feature, children's
playgrounds, a skate park, athletic fields, and woodlands". The project was expected to cost $72 million. On April 23, 2008, a ground-breaking ceremony was held at the Bathhouse for the expansion of the park. The pool and bathhouse are part of a huge
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) renovation as part of a $41 million capital campaign. and Greystone, the park's bathhouse, reopened the same year for $6.1 million. A bocce court opened in early 2010. On April 12, 2011, Mayor Kasim Reed cut the ribbon to open the first phase of a major expansion into the northern third of the park. Areas opened include two oval-shaped plazas (
"The Greensward" and
"The Promenade", which contains the interactive
Legacy Fountain), the
Lower Meadow, the
Six Springs Wetlands, and a vastly expanded dog park.
Later expansions Construction began in early 2013 on areas at the far north of the park, including
The Northwoods,
Piedmont Commons, and
Piedmont Gardens. New park entrances are to be added at the eastern end of Westminster Dr. (off Piedmont Ave.), the northern end of Dutch Valley Pl., and at 1514 Monroe just south of Piedmont Ave., on the site of Agnes & Muriel's restaurant. Mayor
Kasim Reed announced plans in 2018 for a $100 million renovation of Piedmont Park, which were approved by the
Atlanta City Council that May.
Nelson Byrd Woltz was hired in 2024 to design a master plan for the park, details of which the Atlanta government and the Piedmont Park Conservancy announced the next year. The plan includes new bike lanes, service roads, pathways, recreation courts, and picnic areas, along with a dredging of Lake Clara Meer. == Piedmont Park Conservancy ==