West End Historic District

West End is a large neighborhood in southwest Atlanta, laid out along Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard, an old east-west route that follows an early Indian trail. Most of its buildings are houses from about 1870 to the 1940s, including Queen Anne, Folk Victorian, Colonial Revival and Craftsman designs, with the Craftsman bungalow the most common type. Churches, a Romanesque Revival high school from 1923, a Craftsman fire station and blocks of attached brick shops add to the mix. Two house museums, the 1867 Wren's Nest and the 1859 Hammonds House, are among the oldest buildings. The district developed around a crossroads tavern called Whitehall, and streetcar lines later guided where homes and businesses were built. Large estates were subdivided for middle-class housing, and the area became part of Atlanta in 1894. Parks, wooded back yards, tree-lined streets and West View Cemetery shape its landscape. The district was recognized for its connection to Atlanta's growth and its intact historic character.