A Name That Tells a Story
Most Atlanta neighborhoods are named for white landowners and civic leaders. Blandtown is different.
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In 1872, Samuel Bland, a Black landowner in post-Civil War Atlanta, purchased four acres in Fulton County lot 188. His son Felix later inherited the land, and though Felix eventually sold the property, the family's name held on. By the 1880 U.S. Census, the area was already known as "Blandtown."
A Community Takes Root
What grew here was something remarkable. In the decades that followed, Blandtown became a thriving African American neighborhood of more than 200 homes. Rail lines arrived in the 1890s, bringing mills, factories, and jobs. Even a devastating 1928 fire that destroyed 15 homes, two restaurants, and a church couldn't break the community's momentum.
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Blandtown also became home to a piece of civil rights history. WERD, the first Black-owned radio station in the country, built its broadcasting tower right here. Purchased by Atlanta University professor and bank president Jesse B. Blayton Sr. in 1949, WERD gave crucial airtime to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the Civil Rights Movement.
What Was Taken
In 1956, the Atlanta City Council rezoned Blandtown for heavy industrial use. It was a deliberate act designed to break up a cluster of African American residences and dilute the power of the Black vote. Heavy industry moved in, and the fabric of the neighborhood began to unravel. Families were pushed out over the following decades. An elementary school named for Atlanta University registrar John P. Whittaker opened in 1959 but was eventually shuttered. By 2002, the area's last remaining school had closed.
Blandtown Today
Today, Blandtown is writing its next chapter. The neighborhood is home to a growing mix of residents, local businesses, restaurants, and creative spaces, including the Goat Farm Arts Center, a late 19th-century industrial complex that now hosts art and events. New homes are returning to the neighborhood, and two streets in the West Town development are named in memory of Azalee Stewart Hester Wharton, a longtime president of the Blandtown Neighborhood Association.
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The "Welcome to Blandtown" street sign you may have spotted on English Street is the work of local artist Gregor Turk, who has made it his mission to keep the neighborhood's name and its story alive.
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We honor that story by building a neighborhood that lives up to it: connected, informed, and looking out for one another.
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Want to learn more? Explore these resources on Blandtown's history:
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