HISTORY

Before there was Adair Park there was West End, a small frontier outpost founded in 1830 outside of Atlanta and built around the railroad, Fort McPherson, and Whitehall Tavern. After the civil war the area west of the railroad (now Lee St.) began to be developed.  Governors, Mayors, Georgia’s first poet laureate, world famous authors, prominent Atlanta businesses men and executives began to build large Victorian homes on the westside of this suburb. The westside of town was annexed into the city of Atlanta in 1894.

The eastside of West End was slower to develop. After the civil war the area was mostly rural, raw land owned by a handful of real estate speculators who didn’t live on the grounds. The land was cow pasture and a pond occasionally used for baptisms. This is what would become present day Adair Park. There were a few early occupants however, notably Elbert and Catherine who were freed slaves and who the present day neighborhood streets are named for. The owner of the majority of the northside of the neighborhood and most famous resident was Anothy Murphy. He was the founder of the Atlanta Waterworks and Atlanta public school system. Murphy was a civil war hero, famous for chasing a stolen locomotive named the “General” through multiple counties. His great locomotive chase would be made into a movie starring Buster Keathon in 1926 and a Disney movie in 1956.