Post-war Years
In 1871 Peters built Atlanta's first street railway, Atlanta Street Railway Company, with the real estate developer George Adair.
After the Kimball House was destroyed by fire, Peters helped lead the efforts to have that center of Atlanta life rebuilt. He invited Hanniball Kimball back to town to help raise money.
With new migrants flocking to the boomtown of Atlanta, Peters began to subdivide his north Atlanta land, first by laying out roads: north/south streets were named by trees (myrtle, juniper, apple, etc.) to match the naming of Peachtree Street. He threw in Penn to harken back to his Pennsylvania roots. The east/west streets were numbered, starting with 3rd St. (since North Avenue and Ponce de León were long-since named) and ending with the northernmost extent of his property, 8th St.
He built his final home on the highest part of his land: the block bounded by Peachtree, 4th, Cypress and 5th streets. In 1884 Peters sold 180 acres (0.73 km2) surrounding W. Peachtree to Kimball for $1,000 an acre to create Peters Park, a development that eventually failed for lack of sales. In 1887 he sold 5 acres (20,000 m2) of his remaining holdings to the state for $10,000 and donated another four acres to help found the Georgia School of Technology.
He left a million dollar estate (convert to current value). Of his two sons, Edward stayed on the estate and built Ivy Hall, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Ralph moved to New York, where he became president of the Long Island Rail Road.
Peters is buried in Oakland Cemetery, in Atlanta.
Read more about this topic: Richard Peters (Atlanta)
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