{"nrhp_refnum":"80001077","name":"Underground Atlanta Historic District","other_names":["Underground Atlanta","Underground","See Also:Western and Altanti"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr., Central Ave., Wall and Peachtree Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Atlanta","county":"Fulton County","state":"GA","lat":33.752107927000054,"lon":-84.38928854481603,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-07-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Commerce","Engineering","Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district in downtown Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, made up of about two blocks of late 19th- and early 20th-century commercial buildings, late-1920s concrete viaducts that buried the original street level, the 1869 Georgia Railroad Freight Depot, and the 1850 Zero Mile Post.","why_significant":"The district records Atlanta's growth from a railroad and pedestrian town into an automobile-oriented city. The 1928-29 viaducts raised the streets one story and left the original ground-floor stores underground. The 1869 freight depot is the oldest extant building in the Central Business District and the last downtown railroad building. The form does not state the criteria or period of significance in the surviving text.","narrative":"Underground Atlanta is a downtown district where the street level was raised by one story, leaving older ground-floor shops below the city. It includes about two blocks of brick commercial buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s, mostly Victorian with some Neoclassical and Functional designs. Concrete viaducts built in 1928-29 over Central Avenue, Pryor, Alabama and Wall streets lifted traffic above the railroad gulch that had divided the city. Stores along Alabama Street became basements, with new entrances built at the higher level. The district also holds the 1869 Georgia Railroad Freight Depot, an Italianate red-brick building that is the oldest surviving structure in the central business district, and the 1850 Zero Mile Post of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. Its significance rests on how these elements show Atlanta's change from a railroad and walking town to an automobile city. Renovation beginning in 1968 and later MARTA rail construction altered parts of the area, though many iron-column facades remain.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Viaducts designed by Walter F. Shulz, consulting engineer, and built by the MacDougald Construction Company; Century Building by Bruce and Morgan (demolished)","architectural_style":"Generally Victorian, with some Neoclassical and Functional examples; freight depot is Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as fair and altered, on its original site. The form records 1968-72 conversion of underground stores to retail and restaurants, and MARTA construction that demolished buildings on the north side of Alabama Street.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:40.577221-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/80001077.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80001077/1001a3373d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80001077/1001a3373d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Thomas Moeller","credit_html":"Thomas Moeller, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atlanta_Underground.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93208378","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Atlanta","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7883623"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/fulton-county/underground-atlanta-historic-district-80001077/"}