Buckhead Village - History

History

In 1838, Henry Irby purchased 202 1/2 acres surrounding what is now Buckhead Village from Daniel Johnson for $650. Irby subsequently established a general store and tavern at the northwest corner of the Peachtree/Roswell/Paces Ferry intersection. The name "Buckhead" comes from a story that Irby killed a large buck deer and placed the head in a prominent location. Prior to this, the settlement had been called "Irbyville."

The surrounding area, which is now the larger Buckhead Community, remained dominated by country estates until after World War I, when many of Atlanta's wealthy began building mansions among the area's rolling hills. The area that is now the Buckhead Community was annexed by Atlanta in 1952, following an earlier attempt by Mayor William B. Hartsfield in 1946 that was voted down by residents. In 1956, an estate known as Joyeuse was chosen as the site for a major shopping center to be known as Lenox Square, starting the development of Peachtree Road as a major commercial, financial, and high-rise residential corridor.

To reverse a downturn in the Village during the 1980s, minimum parking spot requirements for bars were lifted, which quickly led to it becoming the most dense concentration of bars and clubs in the city. These establishments included BAR, World Bar, Lulu's Bait Shack, Mako's, Clarence Foster's, Tongue & Groove, Chaos and John Harvard's Brew House. By 1996, Buckhead Village nightlife was comparable to "Mardi Gras, complete with nightly arrests, puking in the streets and college girls."

In the late 1990s, the clientele of some of the nightclubs and bars began to change from mostly white to mostly black, and illegal cruising on Peachtree Road became rampant. Violent crime increased, culminating with two murders on Super Bowl Sunday in 2000. Buckhead Alliance founder Robin Loudermilk claimed that there were at least ten murders during this period related to the nightlife in the Village. Beginning in 2000, residents sought to ameliorate this situation by taking measures to reduce the community's nightlife and re-establish a more residential character. The Buckhead Coalition and councilwoman Mary Norwood were instrumental in persuading the Atlanta City Council to pass an ordinance to close bars at 2:30 a.m., rather than 4 a.m., and liquor licenses were made more difficult to obtain. Eventually, most of the Buckhead Village nightlife area was acquired for the Streets of Buckhead multi-use project and many of the former bars and clubs were torn down in 2007.