Looking north on West Peachtree St toward Pershing Point - late ’70s vs now. A fine, if grungy, collection of early 20th century apartment buildings replaced by blank walls and grass. Way to go!
The northeast corner of West Peachtree St at 17th Street in what I assume was the late ’70s/early ’80s. The source of this photo has a really great collection of images from Atlanta’s punk scene.
West Peachtree Street looking toward Pershing Point in 1948. See the now and then transformation at WhatWasThere. Midtown Atlanta.
“Mixed-use project an apartment developer’s turning point” (1998)
Apartment developer John A. Williams has one great regret in his career —- demolishing the block known as Pershing Point on the northern edge of Midtown.
Up until the mid-1980s, Pershing Point was one of the most vibrant communities in Atlanta with 300 apartments in a half-dozen historic buildings with street-level grocery stores, a pharmacy, retail shops, restaurants and bars. They all sat on a compact, triangular block bounded by Peachtree and West Peachtree where the headquarters of National Service Industries is now located.
1953 photo shot of the spot where the Peachtrees come together, or separate, at Pershing Point. Midtown Atlanta
1986 - Wrecked remains of the Pershing Point Hotel during demolition. Midtown Atlanta
“Bohemia central: Pershing Point Hotel gave gays, others a place to fully express themselves” (2006)
As Leslie Jordan’s mama pulled up to the Pershing Point Hotel in 1974 to see her teenage son’s new Atlanta home, she had a visitor’s common reaction.
A devout Southern Baptist “with the perfect flip hairdo,” his mother took one look at the dilapidated structure and the odd assortment of characters loitering out front, promptly locked her doors and gunned the engine.
“My mother would not get out of the car,” the diminutive actor, now 51, recalls, laughing.
