Buckhead (Atlanta)

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The Buckhead skyline as seen from Lenox Square.

Buckhead is a community within the city of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Comprising over 100,000 residents and approximately the northern one-fifth of the city, Buckhead is legally defined as that portion of the city of Atlanta northwest of I-85 and northeast of I-75. Thus, the boundaries are the city limits on the north, northeast, and northwest, and the interstates on the southeast and southwest. Local advertisers stretch the definition, sometimes including places in northwestern DeKalb County.

1 History and economy
2 Buckhead high-rise buildings
3 Education
4 Healthcare
5 Trivia
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] History and economy

The Buckhead skyline as seen from Cobb County, Georgia.

Lenox Square

Buckhead acquired its name from a long-gone local tavern that prominently displayed a large stuffed buck's head. The community was annexed by Atlanta in 1952, following an earlier attempt by Mayor William B. Hartsfield in 1946 that was voted down by residents.

The main north-south street is Peachtree Road, which extends south into the heart of the city as Peachtree Street. This name change is significant in that it defines a border between Buckhead and Midtown Atlanta. The main east-west street is West Paces Ferry Road, named for a former ferry across the Chattahoochee River. Hardy Pace, one of Atlanta's founders, operated the ferry and owned much of what is now Buckhead, and as far west as Vinings. The area north of Buckhead, beyond the Atlanta city limit, is the city of Sandy Springs.

Buckhead has many attributes of a functioning city, including its central core of high-rise office and residential condo buildings, mainly along the Peachtree corridor, surrounded by heavily-wooded single-family neighborhoods. The central core comprises two main areas: Buckhead Village to the south and the financial/retail district to the north. Buckhead Village is home to several high-rise residential buildings as well as the majority of Buckhead's nightlife. The financial/retail district contains many high-rise office and condo towers and dense retail developments, including Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza regional malls.

Buckhead is one of Atlanta's most important business districts, and includes Atlanta's wealthiest neighborhoods as well as the Georgia Governor's Mansion, a part-time residence of Elton John, and the Atlanta History Center museum and library. Buckhead was also the home of golf legend Bobby Jones until his death in 1971. Although there are some moderately-priced homes in the area, the price of most homes and condos starts at around $500,000 and extends well beyond $10,000,000.^[1] Buckhead also helps to cement Atlanta's reputation as the "Shopping Mecca of the Southeast" with more than 1,400 retail units where shoppers spend in excess of $1 billion a year.^[2] The primary shopping district comprises Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza. Located diagonally across Peachtree Road from each other, these sister malls together feature more than 350 boutiques and offer the highest concentration of high-end stores in the United States.^[3]^[4]

The area has numerous luxury hotels, including an InterContinental, a Grand Hyatt, a JW Marriott, and a Ritz-Carlton. The area also includes more modest lodgings, as well as many restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. Robb Report magazine has consistently ranked it one of the nation's "10 Top Affluent Communities" for "some of the most beautiful mansions, best shopping and finest restaurants in the southeastern United States".^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

To reverse a downturn in the Village area 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.^[9] During the late 1990s Buckhead experienced an increased crime rate around the area's nightclubs and shopping districts, culminating in several gang-style shoot-outs and homicides including one involving NFL star Ray Lewis. Beginning in 2004, 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 was 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. Ben Carter, an Atlanta based developer, assembled 7 acres comprised of a large number of the properties in the East Buckhead Village bordering Peachtree Street for his Streets of Buckhead development, a collection of upscale hotels, restaurants, retail boutiques and office space. Grand opening is scheduled for Fall 2009.^[10] Buckhead maintains its title as Atlanta's entertainment district, with more than 100 restaurants, bars and night clubs still in operation.^[11]

[edit] Buckhead high-rise buildings

A portion of the Buckhead skyline.

While much of west and north Buckhead maintains itself in single-family unit residential 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, in 1986, was the first 400+ foot (121+ m) condominium. 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 Condominums upped the ante, pushing the record to 486 feet (148 m). Since that time, a wave of development has followed. Currently the 660-foot (201 m) Sovereign and 580-foot (177 m) Mansion on Peachtree are in a race for the sky (both set for completion in mid to late 2008). Today Buckhead has over 50 high-rise buildings, almost one-third of the city total.^[12]

[edit] Education

[edit] Primary and secondary schools

[edit] Public schools

Buckhead, like all areas of Atlanta, is part of the Atlanta Public Schools district.

The following public elementary schools serve Buckhead:

E. Rivers Elementary School
Garden Hills Elementary School
Morris Brandon Elementary School
Sarah Rawson Smith Elementary School
Warren T. Jackson Elementary School

The area is served by Sutton Middle School and North Atlanta High School.

[edit] Private schools

Local private schools include the Atlanta International School, the Atlanta Speech School, Christ the King School, the Atlanta Girls School, The Galloway School, The Heiskell School, Holy Spirit Preparatory School, The Lovett School, Pace Academy, and The Westminster Schools.

[edit] Colleges and universities

Also located in Buckhead is the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business Executive Education Center. This facility houses the e.M.B.A. program and Terry Third Thursday, a lecture series featuring business leaders.

[edit] Public libraries

Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System operates the Buckhead Branch [1].

[edit] Healthcare

Buckhead 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.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Buckhead is featured heavily in Tom Wolfe's novel A Man in Full.

Robert B. Parker's Spencer has lunch at Buckhead Life Group's Corner Cafe in "Hugger Mugger."

The novel Peachtree Road by Anne Rivers Siddons takes place almost entirely in Buckhead, and explores the values, morals and accomplishments of the community through the eyes of Shep Bondurant, a quintessential Buckhead gentleman.

Author James Dickey of Deliverance fame grew up in the area.

The novel The Red Hat Club takes place in Buckhead and has many references to Atlanta culture.

On his debut for the Atlanta Braves in 2007, fans initially believed that back-up catcher Corky Miller had been recruited by the club from the ESPNZone restaurant located in Buckhead.

The name "Buckhead" comes from a story that Henry Irby, who had a general store and tavern at what is now the intersection of West Paces Ferry Rd. and Roswell Rd., killed a large buck deer and placed the head in a prominent location ^[13].