INTERPRETIVE PLANNING FOR VISITOR EDUCATION AND ENJOYMENT BUCKHEAD REIMAGINED HISTORIC SITES BUCKHEAD REIMAGINED HISTORIC SITES THE PLANNING TEAM MASTER INTERPRETIVE PLAN Signature Design Project Team Therese McKee Huffman PROJECT MANAGER, LEAD PLANNER & DESIGNER for Scott C. Neale EXHIBIT CONSULTANT Elaine G. Swanger EXHIBIT AND SIGNAGE CONSULTANT Russell Huffman MAPPING CONSULTANT BUCKHEAD Core Planning Team ATLANTA,GA Erica Danylchak, BUCKHEAD HERITAGE Hillary Hardwick, ATLANTA HISTORY CENTER DECEMBER 2014 Denise Starling, LIVABLE BUCKHEAD, INC. Steering Committee Ivan Allen IV, BUCKHEAD HERITAGE Susan Barnard, AUTHOR & HISTORIAN Andrea Bennett, NPU-B Dan Calvert, CITY OF ATLANTA DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION Gordon Certain, NORTH BUCKHEAD CIVIC ASSOCIATION Boyd Coons, ATLANTA PRESERVATION CENTER Allison Duncan, ATLANTA REGIONAL COMMISSION Jim Durrett, BUCKHEAD COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT Jo Ann Haden-Miller, ATLANTA CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU Henry Howell, PEACHTREE BATTLE ALLIANCE Nancy Jones, BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE Mark Karelson, MASON MURER FINE ART Thornton Kennedy, NORTHSIDE NEIGHBOR BUCKHEAD HERITAGE SOCIETY Calinda Lee, ATLANTA HISTORY CENTER Wright Mitchell, BUCKHEAD HERITAGE Major Funding for the Master Interpretive Plan Provided By: Ray Mock, CHASTAIN PARK CONSERVANCY The SunTrust Bank Trusteed Foundations: Nasir Muhammed, HISTORIAN/BLACK MECCA OF THE SOUTH TOURS Florence C. and Harry L. English Memorial Fund Elon Osby, COMMUNITY ADVOCATE The Office of Atlanta City Council Member Yolanda Adrean Garth Peters, BUCKHEAD COALITION The Office of Atlanta City Council Member Howard Shook Raul Pino, COLLIER HILLS CIVIC ASSOCIATION The Buckhead Coalition Roxanne Smith, MEMORIAL PARK CONSERVANCY The Buckhead Community Improvement District Robin Suggs, SIMON PROPERTIES/LIVABLE BUCKHEAD, INC. The Isdell Family Foundation Frank Troutman, MEMORIAL PARK CONSERVANCY The Cooper Family Foundation Chad Wright, BUCKHEAD HERITAGE The Atlanta Preservation Center Doug Young, ATLANTA URBAN DESIGN COMMISSION Georgia Development Partners INTERPRETIVE CONCEPT > PARALLELS OF THE PAST 8 INTERPRETIVE MISSION > GOALS > BENEFITS 3 MISSION BENEFITS Foster Create Contribute compelling opportunities to the health of the an for learning the history community by providing understanding and cultural values of encouragement to walk Buckhead to and within interpretive that Buckhead’s sites rich history Increase GOAL tourism and tourism Foster is worth Engage spending dollars in the a preservation ethic and exploring and community generate enthusiasts for urban explorers Buckhead Heritage’s preserving. in experiences that Integrate values and mission interpretive features educate, into the entertainment, Establish entertain, and shopping, and a base for Buckhead recreational activities Heritage’s sustainability cultivate an of the community to through revenue understanding of enhance personal generation from experience and memory programs, special Buckhead’s of this place, Buckhead events, and creative rich history. merchandising BACKGROUND > BRIEF HISTORY OF ACHIEVEMENTS 4 BACKGROUND > BUCKHEAD GREENSPACE ACTION PLAN 5 BUCKHEAD HERITAGE’S MISSION and Brief History of Achievements Planning Context: Buckhead Greenspace Action Plan Background The Buckhead Heritage Society Buckhead Heritage Founding The Buckhead Master Interpretive Plan experience of the new network of parks, trails, and is a 501c3 non-profit that was President Wright Mitchell is an outgrowth of the 2010-2011 Buckhead greenspaces, further the community’s awareness of conducts a tour of the established in 2005 to sustain the Greenspace Action Plan. Championed by City Buckhead’s history, and position Buckhead to take rehabilitated Harmony Grove quality of life in Buckhead by identifying, Councilman Howard Shook, the Greenspace Cemetery. Photograph courtesy advantage of the State of Georgia’s fastest growing preserving, and promoting its historic of Tim Small. Action Plan was precipitated by a need to tourism industry segment—Heritage Tourism. resources. The organization endeavors identify strategic ways to add greenspace to The Buckhead Collection vision, therefore, to foster a conscious respect within Atlanta City Council District 7, which had been recommended that cultural and historic sites the community for its rich and diverse identified as the lowest parked district in the be physically connected and integrated into the history, ensuring that Buckhead’s historic City of Atlanta. The consultant group AECOM greenspace system wherever possible through land resources are accommodated in future developed the Greenspace Action Plan with the acquisition, public access easements, bikeways, growth and secured for the benefit of the input of a Steering Committee composed of and trails, and that significant Buckhead stories community. 2009 The Society began developing Buckhead Heritage successfully prevent- representatives from the Buckhead Coalition, the and events be interpreted and communicated 2007 For its first project, the organiza- and hosting educational programs related ed a developer from removing the graves Buckhead Community Improvement District, throughout the system. tion began an extensive rehabilitation of to Buckhead’s historical events, historic at Mt. Olive Cemetery, the last remnant Livable Buckhead, the City of Atlanta the historically significant Harmony Grove architecture, and historic landscapes to of an African American community locat- Department of Parks and Recreation, as Cemetery at the corner of West Paces foster a greater awareness of the commu- ed where Frankie Allen Park is today. The well as representatives from Buckhead Ferry Road and Chatham Road. In 2009, nity’s past. By 2014, over 4,200 people site was at risk because few people knew schools, churches, neighborhoods, the organization received the Excellence had attended the organization’s lectures, of its existence. The Society is currently commercial businesses, and the arts and in Rehabilitation Award from the Georgia walking tours, and other events. The So- rehabilitating this .22 acre site. It should historic preservation communities, including Trust for Historic Preservation for its work ciety’s future educational events should be included in the interpretive program representatives from Buckhead Heritage. at the site. The cemetery now serves integrate into the proposed interpretive to raise widespread awareness of its Together the group formulated a vision— the community as passive greenspace, program. significance. known as the Buckhead Collection—for which is embedded with late nineteenth 2009 The Society also began conduct- 2014 Buckhead Heritage installed an interconnected network of parks, trails, and early twentieth century history. This ing its Oral History Project to preserve “Buckhead: Our Story,” a permanent plazas and greenspaces serving the social, site should be included in the proposed personal recollections of the community’s exhibit of images chronicling the evo- economic, mobility, and environmental interpretive program set forth in this history and evolution. The organization lution of the Buckhead community at needs of Buckhead residents, workers, and document. provides full transcripts and select video the Buckhead Theatre. The exhibit was visitors. The goal is to add over 100 acres of 2008 Buckhead Heritage launched its excerpts of the interviews on its website. based upon a photographic retrospective new greenspace to the district and for every View of the battlefield of Peach Tree Creek, 1864, formal membership program and currently Video excerpts of poignant and interest- presented at the organization’s 2013 Buckhead resident to have access to greenspace by George N. Barnard, Library of Congress Prints counts over 500 members. ing first-hand stories should be integrated fundraiser—Buckhead’s 175th Anniver- within ½ mile of their home. and Photographs Division. into the digital component of the pro- sary Celebration. During the community engagement process for posed interpretive program. the Greenspace Action Plan, stakeholders identified While Livable Buckhead, Inc. was tasked with 2010 The Society has also various opportunities that would serve to enrich overseeing the overall implementation of the advocated for the protection Buckhead Heritage the experience of the greenspace system, leverage Greenspace Action Plan, Buckhead Heritage board members and preservation of historic a variety of funding sources, foster economic committed to being a long-term partner in the Wright Mitchell, resources in the community Tamara Bazzle, development, and ensure the success of the District development and implementation of the history in danger of being lost. and Chad Wright 7 greenspace system. Stakeholders agreed that component of the Buckhead Collection project, participate in a integrating Buckhead’s cultural and historical including the creation of a Master Interpretive Plan workday at Mt. Olive assets into the greenspace system would enrich the for the community. Buckhead Heritage hosts a Civil War Cemetery Living History Demonstration at Tanyard Creek Park. BACKGROUND > BUCKHEAD GREENSPACE ACTION PLAN 6 BACKGROUND > BUCKHEAD GREENSPACE ACTION PLAN 7 LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR THE INTERPRETIVE PLAN The Buckhead Collection t h e b u c k h e a d c o l l e c t i o n Cultural + Historical Resources Vision During the Buckhead Greenspace Action The Cultural and Historical The Cultural and Historical Site Interpretation Strategies Plan process, Buckhead Heritage worked