A January 2025 architecture column in Rough Draft Atlanta looked back at the history beneath the South Downtown project, where tech entrepreneur David Cummings is revitalizing 56 buildings across 10 continuous blocks and one million square feet as a second location of Atlanta Tech Village. His team includes April Stammel and architect Lucas Roberts. The district sits between Interstate 20 on the south and Five Points on the north, with the Interstate 75/85 connector to the east and Castleberry Hill to the west.
According to the column, this part of the city thrived more than 150 years ago. During the 1870s, department stores here, among them M. Rich and Brothers and Company and Chamberlin-Johnson-DuBose Company, sold groceries, textiles and general merchandise. M. Rich and Brothers moved in 1907 into a larger four-story building, designed by the Atlanta firm Bruce & Morgan, on what is now Peachtree Street, and made its final move in 1924 to the corner of Broad and Alabama Streets. Five-and-dime stores in the area, including McCrory's, S. H. Kress and Woolworth's, kept household goods affordable.
Hotel Row on Mitchell Street
When Atlanta Terminal Station was completed in 1905, six commercial buildings of three to four stories went up on Mitchell Street, a stretch that came to be called Hotel Row. Atlanta architects Bruce & Morgan, Willis F. Denny and George W. Laine designed the brick buildings with ground-floor retail, and they housed railroad workers and their guests near the station, which has since been demolished. The column notes that early 20th-century commercial buildings like these were once common in Atlanta, but others of their kind have since been demolished due to redevelopment. For more on the block's past, see Hotel Row and Mitchell Street through the years.
Broad Street and the city's first market
To the east of Hotel Row, Atlantans flocked in the 1910s to the city's first market on the renamed Broad Street. Produce sold there came from every state in the Union and from Europe, Central America, South America and Cuba. The Sunday, October 27, 1912 edition of the Atlanta Constitution described Broad Street as "the most romantic spots in Atlanta." Decades later, in 1967, Miller's Rexall Pharmacy opened on Broad Street before moving to Decatur.
Old tile, new tenants
As of the column's January 2025 publication, Atlanta-based Spiller Park Coffee had opened a location in the historic Sylvan Hotel along Hotel Row. Visitors to the shop see the words "Imperial Café" inlaid in the historic ceramic floor tile, a reference to a one-time tenant of the building. New features such as counters and lighting blend into the historic surroundings.
Roberts described the team's goal in the column: "We envision this development as a startup community with local companies, retailers, and eateries that wish to stay in South Downtown throughout their growth."
At the time of the column, Stammel was leading free tours of the development, which she called the best way to introduce South Downtown to the public. In her words, the tours are "helping people to enjoy the history, stories, and journey of this project." The column also points readers to the Uplifting Places podcast, hosted by Melody Harclerode, for more about the South Downtown development.
Original reporting by Melody Harclerode for Rough Draft Atlanta.
