Atlanta, Georgia
The Whitehall Street Retail Historic District, is a good example of a National Register of Historic Places nomination that was done in preparation for developers to use historic tax incentives to spur revitalization in the district. The district is a multi-block area centered on Peachtree Street SW and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, encompassing 11 acres and approximately 70 buildings. It is the intact core of a larger historic commercial urban area typically called South Downtown and is characterized by late-19th and early 20th century commercial retail buildings. The Whitehall Street Retail Historic District was added to the Georgia Register of Historic Places in April 2019.
HISTORY:
When the tracks of the Georgia, Macon & Western and the Western & Atlantic Railroads reached what was to become Atlanta in the 1840s, they formed the structure around which the rest of the city would be developed and divided. Peachtree Street, known as Whitehall Street until 1975, quickly became the primary commercial corridor for the city, fueling a local building boom that put the district at the forefront of commerce beginning in the mid-19th century. The district quickly developed into a commercial shopping corridor for the city, and had a continued role as a major retail area in the “Heart of Atlanta” over time. The district contains good examples of late 19th and early 20th century commercial building types and architectural styles, and is an example of a retail commercial district that has changed over time, yet still exhibits the scale of a pre-skyscraper, late-19th century commercial district in an American urban environment.
OUR ROLE:
Ray, Ellis & LaBrie Consulting prepared the National Register nomination for the Whitehall Street Retail Historic District. The project included boundary assessments, photographic documentation, and research on each property in the district.
Peachtree looking north, 1950s 
Peachtree looking north, 2018
