Streetscape Palimpsest

A History of Georgia Avenue

This map-based digital essay explores the history of Georgia Avenue, which once served as an important commercial thoroughfare in the neighborhoods south of downtown Atlanta and is now the southern edge of Georgia State University’s campus.

Using the concept of the city as palimpsest – the idea that transformations of a built environment leave traces of the past – we can rediscover a multiethnic, multiracial neighborhood that was entirely erased by massive urban development projects, and see how Summerhill, and other “stadium neighborhoods” in Atlanta, were so thoroughly transformed over the course of the twentieth century. 

Author
Dr. Marni Davis, History Department, Georgia State University

Technical and Design Assistance
Adina Langer, History Department, Georgia State University

Suggested Citation
Davis, Marni. Streetscape Palimpsest: A History of Georgia Avenue [Online Exhibit]. Georgia State University, August 2026 onward.
https://exhibits.library.gsu.edu/georgia-avenue/