Trees, Winding Streets Among Ansley Park's Major Assets Ansley Park: Suburb in City/ By TOMxwtronlihgeYWSRPNLKEA WALKER hours, those wide streets also withstood these trends, al- mercial use. 'Ansley Park resi- Northeast Expressway and the Atlanta Journal Krai KPiedmont Park is imme- located—an office building or close-in. " valuable land is to woods. The civic association diately to the cast. But its matchless location develop the property for high- a parking lot. ^estfribes Ansley Park as When it was first developed also is one of its key prob- densitv residences—such as bounded on the north by the lems, fo'r during peak traffic However, Ansley Park has high-rise apartments—or com- Ansley Park Golf Course. Turn to Page 61), Column 1 ^6-D 8|taBaala3tegial Friday, October 18, 1968 Ansley Park: City Suburb '» ANSLEY Con tinned From Page ID to the city's overall advantage street on the Ansley Park PARK as a residential neighborhood. to preserve in-town residential side. neighborhoods, such as Ansley But the neighborhood in Ansley Park was about as Park. Sar out" as Sandy Springs other places lends itself to appears to be now. "It's highly important townhouse development in the The land was bought by whether the city wants to pre- true sense of the word—re- Edwin P. Ansley and his asso- serve close-in living," said modeling of existing dwellings Mr. Lamar. "I'm not so sure or construction of new houses dates, about the turn of the its a good thing just to turn ATLANTA antury. They platted the "in town" by people who also Frvf r\yi*r< over the downtown to com- have homes in the country. * whole area on thtf" northern mercial development and run Outskirts of Atlanta and the everybody out to the suburbs. Al B. Braselton, advertising features which made the executive and immediate past neighborhood desirable have "Ansley Park really, is about president of the civic'associa- not changed: topography and the last substantial residential tion, refers to Ansley Park as location. area of some quality within a residential enclave, like the railroad choker." (The Grammercy Park in New By the 1920s. Ansley Part "choker" is the.belt of rail- as among the city's finest road tracks that encircles the York City. residential areas, a result of heart of Atlanta; streets that planning and well-thought-out connect the city inside the "WE'RE NOT opposed to deed restrictions. Prominent railway belt with the land out- progress," Mr. Braselton said Atlantans built homes (here. side the belt form some of At- of Ansley Park. "We know lanta's major bottlenecks.) that Peachtree Street will be ; IN 1924, the governor's man- for high-rise development, but sion was built on The Prado, Ansley Park is an enclave MR. LAMAR said the civic ANSLEY PARK: RESIDENTIAL 'ENCLAVE' further enhancing the status association is exploring possi- that can be surrounded by Of the neighborhood. ble developments which might commercial development. Neighborhood Just .Minutes From Five Points ; The new governor's mansion go into the old governor's "The beauty of Ansley Park ciation hired the city planning on West Paces Ferry Road in mansion property. The asso- to me — and the reason I like downtown Atlanta with the Northwest Atlanta was opened ciation, by law, has tffc "oppor- it — are .the trees and side- consultants, Eric Hiil Asso- outskirts. late last year, and the Ansley tunity to buy the old mansion walks, which tie the neighbor- ciates, Inc., to draw up a Builders looking to develop Park Civic Association is property. hood together. Another main grand design for the future. It land close to Ansley Park studying plans for the develop- thing is the diversity, it's not have gotten used to approach- This central location also is was published in 1964, and Mr. ing the civic association al- ment of the old mansion prop- the highest land point in the a stratified neighborhood, Lamar said other studies a& erty. park and is decribed by Mr. there's a mixture of ages and most automatically, Mr. Bra- under ^y along these same selton explains, to . get the During the 1940's, however, Lamar as the "key to the de- of income groups." Apd occu- x Ansley Park suffered a de- velopment of Ansley Park." pations, he might have added. lines. ' neighborhood's a.p p>r o v a I. cline. This resulted from the That's what happened with the "We are concerned about Some home buyers remodel The Eric Hill report sug- Colony Square project, which press of Atlanta's growth in the quality of what goes in existing structures, while oth- population, and Was a by-prod- gests that development be received association endorse- there," he said. "We'd be in- ers find it more economical to ment uct of World War n activity terested in some-kM of resi- raze an old house and rebuild. controlled through such chan- here. nels as zoning, enforcement of Ansley Park, like Sandy dential development:." This At almost any time of the Springs, is an area that has a,! By then, the residential year, a motorist could spot building codes and deed re- would require structures dif- strictions. A n imaginative community pride and a sense movement towards the sub- ferent from the old mansion two or three remodeling or of identity. The people \v,io j urbs had begun, leaving be- that's there rtow. building projects under wrrt. suggestion is to sharply re- duce Ansley Park's through live there aim to keep it ihat hind housing in other parts of Mr. Braselton believes that way. the city that would one day be However the site is devel- traffic by creating culs-de-sac oped, Mr. Lamar said, the other in-town neighborhoods at strategic streets. slums occupied by. low-income civic association is vitally in- could be revitalized as en- families. Increased automobile terested in seeing that the nat- claves, a move which he sees traffic also contributed to a as one answer to urban decay. BUT THIS scheme must depreciation of land values. ural features^ are not de- inevitably await the opening 1-2-3 BE! stroyed. Instead of residential devel- of more major arteries outside r-URNISHED OR UNFU During the war, the housing opment following the "spread- INCLUDEDCLUB RC The architectural firm of Ansley Park that would siphon shortgage prompted many ing pool" movement outward off the traffic connecting homeowners to convert their Jova-Daniels-Busby has been from downtown, enclaves of houses into apartments. Dou- hired to do preliminary stud- fine neighborhoods would The Ca.rriai bling up occurred in many of ies into possible site use. spring up close-in, inter- Ansley Park's fine, large "Townhouse development spersed with commercial de- homes. might be possible without velopment but protected as damaging the site," Mr.* santuaries for humans. THE SUBURBAN exodus In- Lamar said. creased during the 1950s and THE PROBLEMS facing many of Ansley Park's origi- ANOTHER townhouse pro- Ansley Park and its civic as- nal families became a part of ject of condominium units, has sociations are formidable, but the outward trek. By then, been open for some time in this association of citizens who too, commercial expansion Ansley Park, on 15th Steet have no coercive power other had encroached along Peach- near Piedmont. This is West- than their own collective voice tree Street. chester Square, built by Cous- in community affairs is deter- Two major pressures con- ins Properties, Inc. Units sell mined to preserve their neigh- tinue: at/to traffic and eco- for as much as $75,000. borhood. nomic pressures to utilize the Still another proposed town- Several years ago, the asso- land for more profitable high- house project will be a part of denslty development. The Colony Square, the projected A. L. Oliver Jr. traffic situation is created by $40 million office-hotel-restau- bottlenecks on 1-85, Peachtree rant - apartment development Street and Piedmont Road. which the Cushman Corp. is Gets High Post Thomas A. Lamar Jr., an building on Peachtree between ttomey and president of the 14th and 15th streets. The With Hudgens Ivic association, believes it is f—r i — townhouses would face 15th ' Albert L. Oliver Jr. has