Page 31 - DeKalb Bicentennial Flipbook

DEKALB’S MUNICIPALITIES

With more than 64 international languages spoken in DeKalb from all countries – whether centuries ago or today – have
County, our communities reflect diversity and the unique found home and built businesses and lives in these lands.
Southern charms of each city that make the DeKalb experience From Atlanta to Tucker, Dunwoody to Stonecrest, and all
eclectic, innovative, and playful. We are a county where people the communities in between, we are the spirit of DeKalb.

CITY OF ATLANTA

I NCORPORATED 1847
Mayor Andre Dickens

tlanta was once entirely in DeKalb County Atlanta’s rail network made it a target in the summer of
until Fulton County was formed in 1853. 1864 when Union General William T. Sherman began the
Today, about 10% of Atlanta is in DeKalb Atlanta Campaign of the Civil War, laying siege to the city.
A County, including the neighborhoods of East After shelling Atlanta and destroying the rails, Sherman’s
Atlanta, Edgewood, Kirkwood, East Lake, and Oakhurst. forces left the area in their push to the coast. Atlantans began
This humble agricultural community became recognized to rebuild shortly afterward, becoming a city of innovation.
as the end of the Western & Atlantic railroad line that would From a soda fountain to the global Atlanta-based empire
connect to the U.S. Midwest. The stake marking this location of today, Coca-Cola was first introduced in Atlanta in 1886.
was hammered into the ground in 1837, thereby earning the Electric streetcars arrived in 1889 and made it sensible that
settlement its first name: Terminus. Atlanta would expand with new accessible suburbs. The
The emerging community was later named Marthasville Candler Park neighborhood is one of Atlanta’s first electric
in honor of the then-governor’s daughter. Atlanta became the streetcar suburbs and is listed on the National Register of
new name of the town when it incorporated formally in 1847. Historic Places. It is adored for its 55-acre park, complete
Atlanta is the feminine of Atlantic – as in the railroad. with a nine-hole golf course.
Homes and stores naturally began to be built around this When Atlanta was chosen as the host city for the
railroad terminus. A community was settling. Between 1845 1996 Olympics, it was more than an honor. Atlanta was
and 1854, rail lines arrived from four different directions. internationally recognized as a progressive city of a new South,
Atlanta became the rail hub for the Southeast. and the heart of the American civil rights movement.

29