Piedmont Heights
Piedmont Heights was founded in the early 20th century. It is located between the BeltLine on the west; across from the Sherwood Forest neighborhood; I-85 on the north, across from an industrial area (Armour Drive); and Piedmont Avenue/Road and Morningside-Lenox Park on the east.
Piedmont Heights is Atlanta’s oldest community, settled in 1822 by Benjamin Plaster. This was two years before Archibald Holland bought a tract where Terminus, now Atlanta, was founded in 1837. Plaster built a bridge over Peachtree Creek and the trail to it later became Piedmont Road. In 1835 a one-room log schoolhouse was built beside a “cool, clear sparkling spring” bubbling from under a rock at the intersection of today’s Piedmont and Rock Springs roads, and the area became known as the Rock Spring Community.
Gradually a little township called Easton grew up on Clear Creek where Ansley Mall is located today. The second oldest house in Atlanta is located here, a two-story frame Liddell house on Montgomery Ferry, built circa 1860. The first references to Piedmont Heights at the county tax offices are from 1912. The area was developed during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Largely due to efforts by the Morningside civic association MPLA, construction of I-485 was avoided which would have gone either close to or through part of Piedmont Heights.
It is currently home to Ansley Mall and has been positively impacted by the new development at Piedmont and Cheshire Bridge. Housing stock was originally a mix of styles including 1940 ranch homes, duplexes, Tudor revivals and even a Mediterranean or two. Learn more about Piedmont Heights at their website.