Sweet Auburn Gets Historic Preservation Help

The Historic District is getting help in efforts to preserve its cultural and economic legacy.

SWEET AUBURN — While the residential portion of this historic district enjoys its renaissance of revitalization, the commercial corridor at its heart, Auburn Avenue, continues to languish. So much so, that in 2012, the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the Sweet Auburn commercial district as one of the 11-most endangered places of cultural and historic significance in America. The year before, the Grant Park-based Atlanta Preservation Center listed Sweet Auburn as one of 19 most endangered spots in the city. But the National Trust Main Street Center, a private non-profit whose mission is to help save historic places, is working with local preservationists to revitalize the commercial corridor. The NTMSC helped form a steering…

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A Conversation With. . .

Boyd Coons of the Atlanta Preservation Center on Saving Architectural Gems

The APC's executive director explains why saving architecturally and historically important buildings is critical to Atlanta.

Historic preservation. In a city so rich in history and events that served as milestones in the local and national timeline, Atlanta’s success at saving what came before is mixed. But preservationists can take heart in recent victories. In March, they saved Sweet Auburn’s Atlanta Daily World building from the wrecking ball. Last week came a crucial victory with the Urban Design Commission voting against the Georgia Tech Foundation’s application to tear down most of the Crum & Forster Building, the Midtown, a 1928-era Renaissance façade structure. Preservation-minded Atlantans watched that case closely because it dovetailed with an earlier proposal by City Councilman Kwanza Hall to de-designate parts of the property a national historic …

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