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Buckhead is the commercial and residential district of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, comprising approximately the northernmost fifth of the city. Buckhead is the third largest business district within the Atlanta city limits, behind Downtown Atlanta and Midtown Atlanta, and a major commercial and financial center of the Southern U.S.
Buckhead is anchored by a core of high-rise office buildings, hotels, shopping centers, restaurants and condominiums centered around the intersection of Peachtree Street and Piedmont Road near Georgia State Route 400, the Buckhead station, and Lenox Square.
Buckhead 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. Simultaneously, a number of Black people enclaves began popping up in Buckhead, following events like the 1906 Atlanta race riot and the Great Atlanta fire of 1917, which drove black residents from the city center. Predominantly black neighborhoods within Buckhead included Johnsontown, Piney Grove, Savagetown, and Macedonia Park.
Despite the stock market crash of 1929, lavish mansions were still constructed in Buckhead throughout the Great Depression. In 1930, Henry Aaron Alexander built one of the largest homes on Peachtree Road, a house with 33 rooms and 13 bathrooms. During the mid-1940s, Fulton County decided to acquire the land comprising Macedonia Park to build what is now Frankie Allen Park. This process, which entailed both eminent domain and "outright coercion" displaced over 400 families.
During the mid-1940s, Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield sought to annex Buckhead, and a number of other predominantly White people of Atlanta. Fearing that the city's "Negro population is growing by leaps and bounds", and was "taking more white territory inside Atlanta", Hartsfield sought to annex these communities to counteract the threat of increasing political power for the city's Black residents. The annexation of Buckhead was put to a vote in 1947, but it was rejected by Buckhead voters. Atlanta annexed Buckhead and a number of other nearby communities in 1952, following legislation which expanded Atlanta's city boundaries.
In 1956, an estate known as Joyeuse was chosen as the site for a major shopping center to be known as Lenox Square. The mall was designed by Joe Amisano, an architect who designed many of Atlanta's modernist buildings. When Lenox Square opened in 1959, it was one of the first malls in the country, and the largest shopping center in the Southeastern U.S. Office development soon followed with the construction of Tower Place in 1974.
To reverse a downturn in Buckhead Village during the 1980s, minimum parking spot requirements for bars were lifted, which quickly led to it becoming the most dense concentration of pub and clubs in the Atlanta area. Many bars and clubs catered mostly to the black community in the Atlanta area, including Otto's, Cobalt, 112, BAR, World Bar, Lulu's Bait Shack, Mako's, Tongue & Groove, Chaos, John Harvard's Brew House, Paradox, Frequency & Havana Club. Scott Henry, "Buckhead Rising", Creative Loafing, May 31, 2006 The area became renowned as a party spot for Atlanta area rappers and singers, including Outkast, Jazze Pha, Jagged Edge, Usher and Jermaine Dupri, who mentioned the neighborhood's clubs on his song "Welcome to Atlanta".
Following the events of the Ray Lewis murder case in Buckhead on the night of the 2000 Super Bowl (held in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome), as well as a series of murders involving the Black Mafia Family, residents sought to ameliorate crime by taking measures to reduce the community's nightlife and re-establish a more residential character. The Buckhead Coalition's president and former Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell, along with councilwoman Mary Norwood were instrumental in persuading the Atlanta City Council to pass a local ordinance to close bars at 2:30 AM rather than 4 AM, and were made more difficult to obtain. Eventually, most of the Buckhead Village nightlife district was acquired for the "Buckhead Atlanta" multi-use project, and many of the former bars and clubs were razed in 2007. Clark Dean, "Lost in Buckhead Atlanta", Atlanta Business Journal, June 29, 2011
Discussions revolving around potential secession from Atlanta were revived in late 2021, with proponents of secession arguing that splitting from Atlanta would enable Buckhead to better tackle crime in the area. In Atlanta's Police Zone 2, which includes Buckhead, Lenox Park, Piedmont Heights, and West Midtown, murder was up 63% in 2021 compared to the previous year, going from 8 cases to 13. However, in the same period crime overall was down by 6%, and according to police chief Rodney Bryant, Zone 2 had only a fraction of the violent crimes seen in other neighborhoods of Atlanta. Crime concerns behind neighborhood's idea to secede from Atlanta from ABC News
Buckhead, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Atlanta, would deprive the city of upwards of 40% of its tax revenue if it seceded. Political scientists and journalists have also highlighted that Buckhead is significantly more conservative and white than the rest of Atlanta. Commentators have also noted that this secession attempt is "more serious" than earlier efforts, due to polling data showing 54% to 70% of Buckhead's residents favor the move, and due to pro-secession organizations raising nearly $1,000,000 to promote the split. A referendum did not occur in 2022 or early 2023, as the Georgia General Assembly tabled the bills that would have provided for this referendum during the 2022 legislative session.
During the 2023 session, on April 27, the issue of incorporation was brought to the Georgia State Senate in the form of SB114. The bill prompted a response from governor Brian Kemp on the legality and workability of incorporating Buckhead as a city, but was ultimately rejected 33-23. The against votes consists of all Democrats in the Senate, and ten Republicans who broke rank to join them. The Republicans who were in favor of allowing a secession vote argued that the citizens of Buckhead were not being represented by their municipal government and that the decision to form their own municipality should be up to the citizens themselves. Additionally, it was noted by the media that there was no Senator from Buckhead in the Senate at the time of the vote. If the bill succeeded, it would have begun the referendum process to secede from Atlanta.
The southernmost area around the Brookwood and Ardmore neighborhoods is sometimes regarded as a separate neighborhood of "South Buckhead". "South Buckhead apartment project under way", Atlanta Business Chronicle, Douglas Sams, November 13, 2012
The same group reported the average household income at $280,631, with an average household net worth of $1,353,189. These 2011 figures are up from a similar 2005 study that pegged Buckhead as the wealthiest community in the South and the only settlement south of the Washington D.C. suburb of Great Falls, and east of the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley to be among the 50 wealthiest communities in the country. However, according to Forbes magazine, (30327) is the ninth- zip code in the nation, with a household income in excess of $341,000.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Excess household income of Buckhead
The Robb Report magazine has consistently ranked Buckhead one of the nation's "10 Top Affluent Communities" due to "the most beautiful , best shopping, and finest restaurants in the Southeastern United States". Buckhead: A Place for All Time Due to its wealth, Buckhead is sometimes promoted as the "Beverly Hills of the East" or "Beverly Hills of the South" in reference to Beverly Hills, California, an area to which it is often compared.
Buckhead is also a center for healthcare, and is home both to Piedmont Hospital and the private, catastrophic care hospital Shepherd Center which specializes in spinal cord injury and acquired brain injury. The two hospitals are located adjacent to one another along Peachtree Road. (This location is known as "Cardiac Hill" by runners of the annual Peachtree Road Race.)
Buckhead is also the location of a large share of Atlanta's diplomatic missions. Consulates in Buckhead include the Consulate-General of Australia and the Australian Trade Commission," Australian Consulate-General and Trade Commission, Atlanta, United States of America ." Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Retrieved on July 28, 2009. the Consulate-General of France and the French Trade Commission," THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF FRANCE IN ATLANTA IS MOVING ." French Consulate General, Atlanta. Retrieved on September 19, 2010. the Consulate-General of Brazil, the Consulate-General of Japan,Williams, Trevor. " It's Official: Brazil's Consulate Open in Atlanta." Global Atlanta. August 26, 2008. Retrieved on July 28, 2009." Directions to the Consulate General of Japan in Atlanta." Consulate-General of Japan in Atlanta. Retrieved on July 28, 2009. and the Consulate of Greece." Consulate Atlanta, GA ." Embassy of Greece in Washington, DC. Retrieved on July 28, 2009.
While much of west and north Buckhead is preserved as single-family homes in forested settings, the Peachtree Road corridor has become a major focus of high-rise construction. The first 400-foot (121 m) office tower, Tower Place, opened in 1974. Park Place, built in 1986, was the first 400+ foot (121+ m) condominium building. 1986 also saw the completion of the 425-foot (129 m), 34-story Atlanta Plaza, then Buckhead's tallest and largest building. In 2000, Park Avenue Condominiums pushed the record to 486 feet (148 m).
Since that time, a wave of development has followed. The 660-foot (201 m) Sovereign and 580-foot (177 m) Mandarin Oriental, now renamed the Waldorf-Astoria, were completed in 2008. Many luxury high-rise apartment buildings have been built recently, including the 26-story Post Properties Alexander High Rise in 2014 and the 26-story SkyHouse Buckhead in 2014. Today, Buckhead has over 50 high-rise buildings, almost one-third of the city's total.
The following public elementary schools serve Buckhead:
The area is served by Sutton Middle School and North Atlanta High School.
By 2012, due to overall population increases in Buckhead, many schools became increasingly crowded. Brandon Elementary was at 97% capacity, Garden Hills was at 102% capacity, E. Rivers was at 121% capacity, and Sutton was at 150% capacity. In the round of school zone change proposals in 2012, Ernie Suggs of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that the zones of Buckhead "remained pretty much intact."Suggs, Ernie. " Buckhead comes out ahead in redistricting battle." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Friday March 16, 2012. Retrieved on March 28, 2012.
There is an area charter school, Atlanta Classical Academy.
Local private schools include the Atlanta International School, the Atlanta Speech School, Christ the King School, the Atlanta Girls School, The Galloway School, Holy Spirit Preparatory School, Trinity School, The Lovett School, Pace Academy, and The Westminster Schools.
MARTA operates three stations in Buckhead, the southernmost being Lindbergh Center. Just north of there, the Red and Gold lines split, with the Gold Line's Lenox station at the southwest corner of the Lenox Square parking lot, and the Red Line's Buckhead station on the west side of the malls where Peachtree crosses 400. A free circulator bus called "the buc" (Buckhead Uptown Connection) stops at all three stations. The proposed extension of the Atlanta Streetcar to Buckhead (nicknamed the "Peachtree Streetcar" because it would run along Peachtree Street in Downtown Atlanta and Peachtree Road in Buckhead) would provide street-level service with frequent stops all the way to downtown Atlanta, complementing the existing Rapid transit-type MARTA train service for the area.
Bike Share
In 2017, the Relay Bike Share program expanded into Buckhead. Three new stations were installed with plans to add more in the future.
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