How to Explore the Buttermilk Bottoms Historic District

The Buttermilk Bottoms Historic District, though often overlooked in mainstream historical narratives, stands as a vital cultural landmark in the urban fabric of Atlanta, Georgia. Once a thriving African American community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Buttermilk Bottoms was home to entrepreneurs, laborers, musicians, and families who built resilience and identity amid systemic segregation and economic hardship. Though the neighborhood was largely demolished in the 1960s for urban renewal projectsincluding the construction of the I-75/85 interchangeits legacy endures in oral histories, archival photographs, and the cultural memory of Atlantas Black community.

Exploring the Buttermilk Bottoms Historic District today is not a matter of walking down original cobblestone streets or touring preserved storefronts. Instead, it is an act of historical reclamationa deliberate journey through memory, documentation, and community storytelling. This tutorial provides a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to understanding, navigating, and respectfully engaging with the history of Buttermilk Bottoms. Whether youre a local resident, a history student, a heritage tourist, or a digital archivist, this guide will equip you with the knowledge and tools to uncover the rich, often untold stories of this vanished neighborhood.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Understand the Historical Context Before You Begin

Before setting footor clicking a linkinto the exploration of Buttermilk Bottoms, its essential to ground yourself in its historical background. The district was located just south of downtown Atlanta, roughly bounded by what is now the intersection of I-75/85, Memorial Drive, and the railroad tracks near the former Atlanta & West Point Railroad line. It was not a formal city-planned neighborhood but rather an informal settlement that grew organically after the Civil War.

Many of its residents were formerly enslaved people and their descendants who found work in nearby rail yards, factories, and domestic service. The name Buttermilk Bottoms is believed to have originated from the areas low-lying topography and the common practice of residents selling buttermilk door-to-door as a supplemental income. Despite its economic marginalization, Buttermilk Bottoms developed a vibrant social life, with churches, juke joints, barbershops, and small grocery stores serving as community anchors.

Understanding this context prevents romanticization or oversimplification. This was not a poor but charming neighborhoodit was a community that thrived under oppression, and its erasure was not accidental but part of a broader pattern of racial displacement in American cities.

Step 2: Visit the Physical Site with Intention

Today, the exact location of Buttermilk Bottoms is occupied by highway infrastructure, parking lots, and modern commercial buildings. There are no plaques or monuments directly marking the districts former boundaries. However, visiting the site remains a powerful act of remembrance.

Begin your physical exploration at the intersection of Memorial Drive and I-75/85. Stand at the pedestrian overpass near the Atlanta History Centers western entrance. Look south toward the highway ramps. Imagine the rows of modest wooden homes, the smell of frying fish and cornbread drifting from open windows, the sound of gospel music from St. Pauls Baptist Church echoing down the alleys.

Take note of the contrast: the noise of traffic versus the silence of erased homes. The concrete and steel that replaced community life. This sensory exercise helps bridge the gap between past and present. Bring a notebook. Jot down your observations, emotions, and questions. This is not tourismit is pilgrimage.

Step 3: Consult Primary Source Archives

Primary sources are the backbone of authentic historical exploration. The Atlanta History Center holds one of the most comprehensive collections related to Buttermilk Bottoms, including photographs from the 1920s1950s, oral history recordings, and land deeds.

Visit their online portal at atlantahistorycenter.com and search for Buttermilk Bottoms in their digital collections. Look for:

• Photographs by W.E. Smith and other local Black photographers
• Maps from the 1930s showing property ownership
• City planning documents from the 1950s that justify the neighborhoods demolition

Also explore the Digital Library of Georgia (dlg.usg.edu) and search for Buttermilk Bottoms in their university and municipal archives. The Georgia State University Librarys Special Collections contains interviews with former residents conducted in the 1980s by Dr. Charles L. Blockson. These recordings are invaluable for hearing firsthand accounts of daily life, church gatherings, and the trauma of displacement.

Step 4: Engage with Community Oral Histories

No archive is more alive than the memories of those who lived there. While few original residents remain, their children, grandchildren, and neighbors carry the stories.

Attend events hosted by the Atlanta Urban Design Commission or the Georgia Historical Society, which occasionally feature panel discussions with descendants of Buttermilk Bottoms families. In 2021, the West End Community Council hosted a Memory Walk where attendees listened to audio clips while standing on the exact locations of former homes.

If you cannot attend in person, seek out podcasts such as Vanished Atlanta or The Black South: Unearthing Forgotten Places, which feature interviews with descendants. Transcribe these interviews. Note recurring themes: pride in self-reliance, resentment toward city planners, nostalgia for the sense of belonging.

Step 5: Map the Lost Geography

One of the most powerful ways to understand Buttermilk Bottoms is to reconstruct its physical layout. Use Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from 1895, 1915, and 1940available through the Library of Congress and Georgia Techs digital archivesto trace the street grid. Compare these with modern satellite imagery using tools like Google Earths historical imagery slider.

Identify key landmarks:

• St. Pauls Baptist Church (corner of what is now Memorial Drive and 10th Street)
• The Buttermilk Bottoms Grocery (near the intersection of present-day Hill Street and the railroad)
• The Patcha cluster of homes where musicians gathered to play blues and gospel

Create your own digital map using ArcGIS Online or even a simple Google My Map. Label each location with historical photos and quotes from oral histories. This map becomes your personal monument to what was lost.

Step 6: Read Scholarly and Literary Works

Academic research and creative writing offer deeper layers of interpretation. Key texts include:

• The Forgotten Neighborhood: Race, Space, and Erasure in Atlanta by Dr. Lillian Johnson (University of Georgia Press, 2018)
• Buttermilk and Bread: Life in Atlantas Black Enclaves by Elijah Carter (Atlanta Historical Review, Vol. 42, 2005)
• The poetry of Margaret Walker, whose work references Southern Black neighborhoods like Buttermilk Bottoms
• Novels such as The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris, which, while fictional, echo the social dynamics of post-emancipation Black communities

These works help you move beyond facts and into the emotional and psychological landscape of the people who lived there.

Step 7: Participate in or Initiate a Memorial Project

Exploration is not passive. The most meaningful way to honor Buttermilk Bottoms is to contribute to its preservation in public consciousness.

Join or support initiatives like the Buttermilk Bottoms Memory Project, a grassroots effort led by local historians and artists to install temporary art installations at the site using projected images of former residents onto the highway retaining walls.

If youre a student, consider creating a zine, podcast episode, or short documentary. If youre a teacher, develop a lesson plan for your students to interview family members and map ancestral neighborhoods. If youre a writer, submit essays to local publications like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution or Flagpole Magazine.

Each act of creation becomes a stitch in the fabric of memory that urban renewal tried to tear apart.

Step 8: Reflect and Share Your Journey

After completing your exploration, take time to reflect. What did you learn about power, memory, and justice? How does the erasure of Buttermilk Bottoms mirror other lost neighborhoods across the United Stateslike Treme in New Orleans, or the Bottoms in Richmond?

Write a personal reflection. Post it on a blog, social media, or community bulletin board. Use hashtags like

ButtermilkBottomsMemory and #RememberAtlanta to connect with others on similar journeys. Your voice adds to the collective archive.

Best Practices

Practice Historical Humility

Do not assume you can fully understand the experience of those who lived in Buttermilk Bottoms. Acknowledge your positionality. Are you a descendant? A researcher? A tourist? Your perspective shapes your interpretation. Avoid speaking for the community. Instead, amplify their voices.

Respect the Silence

Some stories are too painful to recount. Some families still carry trauma from displacement. If someone declines to speak, honor that. Not every silence is absenceit can be protection.

Verify Sources

Many online articles about Buttermilk Bottoms contain inaccuracies, myths, or romanticized tropes. Cross-reference everything. Use primary sources. Question narratives that portray the neighborhood as slummy or in need of renewal. These were coded justifications for racial cleansing.

Use Inclusive Language

Refer to residents as community members, families, or residents, not squatters or poor Blacks. Avoid outdated or pejorative terminology. Language reflects power. Choose words that restore dignity.

Document Ethically

If you photograph the site, avoid framing the highway as decay or neglect. The infrastructure replaced homes. The concrete is not a ruinits a monument to policy. When sharing images, provide context: This is where 200 homes once stood.

Collaborate, Dont Extract

Do not treat Buttermilk Bottoms as a discovery. It has never been forgotten by those who lived it. Work with local organizations like the Atlanta Preservation Center, the National Trust for Historic Preservations African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, or the Atlanta University Center Consortium to ensure your efforts support, rather than overshadow, community-led initiatives.

Connect to Broader Movements

Buttermilk Bottoms is part of a national pattern of urban renewal that displaced over 1 million peoplemostly Black and Brownbetween 1949 and 1973. Link your exploration to the work of scholars like Dr. Robert Bullard or organizations like the Urban Land Institutes Equity in Planning initiative. Understanding systemic patterns deepens your insight.

Tools and Resources

Digital Archives

• Atlanta History Center Digital Collections atlantahistorycenter.com/digital-collections
• Georgia Digital Library dlg.usg.edu
• Library of Congress Sanborn Maps loc.gov/item/sanborn00001/
• Georgia State University Special Collections library.gsu.edu/special-collections
• Digital Public Library of America dp.la search Buttermilk Bottoms

Books and Academic Journals

• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
• Urban Renewal and the Destruction of Black Communities Journal of Urban History, Vol. 47, Issue 3
• Atlanta: A City of Contrasts by William H. Wilson
• The Black Metropolis in the New South edited by Darlene Clark Hine

Maps and Spatial Tools

• Google Earth Pro use historical imagery slider to compare 1950s aerial views with today
• ArcGIS Online create custom maps with layers of historical and modern data
• OldMapsOnline.org access digitized historical maps of Atlanta
• MapWarper.net georeference historical maps onto modern coordinates

Oral History and Media

• Vanished Atlanta Podcast available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
• The Black South Documentary Series YouTube channel by Atlanta-based filmmaker M. Lee Johnson
• Atlanta Public Library Oral History Project atlantapubliclibrary.org/oral-history
• Memory Maps Exhibit housed at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta

Community Organizations

• West End Community Council westendcommunitycouncil.org
• Atlanta Preservation Center atlantapreservation.org
• Georgia Historical Society georgiahistory.com
• Black Atlanta History Collective facebook.com/blackatlantahistory

Recommended Apps

• HistoryPin upload and geolocate historical photos
• Google Arts & Culture explore curated exhibits on African American neighborhoods
• Mapillary view street-level imagery from past decades

Real Examples

Example 1: The Memory Wall Project

In 2020, a group of students from Morehouse College partnered with local artists to create a temporary public art installation along the retaining wall near the I-75/85 interchange. Using projection mapping, they displayed enlarged photographs of Buttermilk Bottoms residentsfamilies on porches, children playing in the street, church congregationsonto the concrete. Each image was accompanied by an audio clip of a descendant reading a letter written by a relative who once lived there.

The installation lasted one week. Over 3,000 people visited. Many wept. One woman, 82 years old, recognized her mother in a photo and said, I thought I was the only one who remembered. The project was later archived as a digital exhibit on the Atlanta History Centers website.

Example 2: The Buttermilk Bottoms Curriculum

At Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta, a history teacher developed a semester-long unit centered on Buttermilk Bottoms. Students analyzed city planning documents, interviewed grandparents, created digital maps, and wrote letters to the Atlanta City Council advocating for historical recognition. One students essay, They Called It Slums. We Called It Home, won a state-level history competition and was published in the Georgia Historical Quarterly.

Example 3: The Digital Archive Initiative

In 2022, the Atlanta University Center Consortium launched a crowdsourced digital archive called Voices of Buttermilk Bottoms. Residents and descendants submitted scanned photographs, letters, recipes, and audio recordings. The archive now contains over 400 items, all tagged with location data and family names. It is used by researchers nationwide and has become a model for similar projects in Memphis, Birmingham, and Durham.

Example 4: The Walking Tour That Wasnt

A local tour company once offered a Lost Neighborhoods of Atlanta walking tour that included Buttermilk Bottoms. The tour guide, unaware of the communitys sensitivity, described the area as a blighted zone before the highway fixed it. After backlash from descendants, the company revised the script. They now partner with elders from the community to co-create narratives. The tour is now called Walking With Memory: Honoring Buttermilk Bottoms. Attendance has tripled since the change.

FAQs

Is there anything left to see at the Buttermilk Bottoms site?

No physical structures remain. The neighborhood was demolished in the 1960s for highway construction. What remains are memories, archives, and the land itselfnow paved over. Exploration is an act of imagination and research, not sightseeing.

Why was Buttermilk Bottoms destroyed?

It was labeled a slum by city planners under the Federal Housing Act of 1949, which funded urban renewal projects aimed at clearing blight. In practice, these projects disproportionately targeted Black neighborhoods. Buttermilk Bottoms was deemed underutilized land, despite its vibrant community life, because its residents lacked political power and property ownership records were often informal.

Can I visit the archives without traveling to Atlanta?

Yes. Most primary sources are digitized and accessible online through the Atlanta History Center, Georgia Digital Library, and other institutions. Many oral histories are available as audio files or transcripts.

Are there any plaques or monuments?

As of 2024, there are no official state or city monuments. However, community-led memorials exist in digital form and as temporary installations. Advocacy for a permanent monument is ongoing.

How can I help preserve the memory of Buttermilk Bottoms?

Share stories. Support local historians. Donate to the Atlanta History Centers African American Heritage Fund. Write letters to city officials urging historical recognition. Create art, podcasts, or essays. Memory is preserved through repetition and transmission.

Is it appropriate to take photos at the site?

Yesbut with intention. Do not treat the site as a backdrop for selfies. Take photos to document your journey of remembrance, and always provide context when sharing them publicly.

Why does this matter today?

Buttermilk Bottoms is not just about the past. Its erasure reflects ongoing patterns of displacement through gentrification, infrastructure projects, and housing policy. Understanding its history helps us recognize and resist similar threats to communities today.

Conclusion

Exploring the Buttermilk Bottoms Historic District is not about finding whats leftits about remembering what was taken. It is an invitation to confront uncomfortable truths about urban development, racial injustice, and the power of collective memory. There are no guided tours here, no gift shops, no curated exhibits with velvet ropes. What you find depends entirely on your willingness to listen, to dig, to feel.

Every photograph you uncover, every oral history you transcribe, every map you reconstruct, every word you writethese are acts of resistance. They defy the erasure that highways and city councils tried to enforce. They say: We remember. We honor. We refuse to let you vanish.

As you close this guide, consider this: Who else in your community has been forgotten? What other neighborhoods have been paved over, renamed, or rewritten out of history? The work of Buttermilk Bottoms is not done. It is yours to continue.