Learning from Mistakes

Since I last wrote, I have learned SO MUCH---both specifically about the Center as a result of oral history interviews, and about the general process of historical research.  I haven't had much time to work on the writing of the history since the semester started, but the learning and research hasn't stopped.  Sometimes I've had the humbling experience of learning that I was wrong about a particular fact or issue--but I'm learning that it's part of the process.  Additionally, I have learned about a ton of resources to check my theories :)

One particular instance in which I learned that I was WRONG was about the location of the second Stewart Center building---but I was close!

The red building on the left WAS the recreation building, but the blue/stone building was NOT the Center!  The Center sat on the property directly behind these two buildings, and was quite large.

While I initially thought the Center was housed in the blue building above, it turns out that the Center was actually housed in a large brick building with columns on the front---much bigger than the blue building!  The property sat on a hill at the corner of Pelham and Paines Street, and sat behind the blue building previously mentioned.  The building was inevitably demolished sometime after the Center moved in 1949, but clues to it's presence still exist, like the front steps and the base where the bronze plaque once hung (which is now hanging inside at the current Stewart Center).  The red building (now St. James Baptist Church) was in fact the Center's temporary gym--this property was purchased in order to have street frontage on English Avenue.  It was intended for a permanent recreation/chapel building to be constructed, but for some reason, never was.

THIS was the 2nd building that housed the Stewart Center!  It was built by the Stewart Center, and used for close to 30 years before the Center moved to Reynoldstown.  The building was sold to be used as an apartment house, and presumably demolished at a later date.  (Upon inspection of the current abandoned building on the property, which is hidden behind overgrown bushes, it has different brickwork, a different roof style, and doesn't line up with the steps correctly.)

This 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the two properties (outlined in blue) that the Stewart Center later purchased for the 2nd location. The larger of the two plots was where the main building was constructed, and the small, narrow plot is where the recreation building was constructed.  The English Avenue School (At that point named Western Heights) where children attended school is outlined in red.  

These are the steps that I believe led to the front door of the Stewart Center on Pelham Street.  (The brickwork on the lefthand wall seems to match the brickwork in the black and white photo.)  Believe it or not, there's a building behind all those weeds.

And this (the corner of the brick wall at Pelham and Paines St) is where I believe the Stewart Center plaque hung!  The Center sat up on the hill over this wall, looking over much of the community.

White Flight and the Stewart Center: Part One

In 1950, the Stewart Center moved locations as a result of racial tensions in it's neighborhood.  While this entry explores issues of racism and "white flight," it's purpose is not to place judgement on the Stewart Center's leadership or their decision to move. Rather, it is simply to explore the greater issues that were taking place around them.  While I wish I could have been a fly on the wall as decisions were made, I know that the factors of the move were likely more complex than we can know.
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In 1950, the Andrew P. Stewart Center moved from English Avenue to Reynoldstown.  The question has plagued me since I began delving into the Center's history: why, after 34 years in the English Avenue community, did the Center uproot and move across town?  All of my research and reading has produced a two word explanation:

"Owing to city growth and community changes, the Atlanta Baptist W.M.U. Association felt the need to relocate the Good Will Center.  Already the churches in the community had relocated." 

This vague, unsatisfying rationale begs for more detail.  Due to the time period and details regarding the sale of the Pelham buildings, I immediately assumed that the phrase "community changes" was referring to neighborhood desegregation and white flight.  We know that the Center sold it's buildings on Pelham street to African American residents, further supporting our concept of the nature of the "community changes" occurring in the English Avenue neighborhood.

"The Chapel-Recreation Building was sold to the St. James Negro Baptist Church.  The main building was sold for a negro apartment house."  

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I recently began reading a book called "White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism" by Kevin M. Kruse.  What I've learned so far has been very interesting and incredibly relevant to the Center's history.

On Atlanta's west side, Joseph E. Lowery Blvd runs north/south for nearly 3.5 miles.  Originally named Ashby Street, this road forms the western border of the present day English Avenue neighborhood, where the Center called home for 34 years.

As it turns out, Ashby Street saw some of the earliest neighborhood racial transitions in the city of Atlanta.

"Just to the east stood the Ashby Street region, which had grown rapidly during the previous decades, emerging as one of Atlanta's most overcrowded black neighborhoods.  Indeed, by the 1940's nearly 40 percent of the city's black population lived there, making the enclave's name synonymous with 'black Atlanta.'...The end of World War II brought a severe housing crisis to Atlanta, as thousands of veterans returned home to discover the city had not only failed to build new homes during their absence but actually started to destroy old ones. Black leaders banded together to create new housing on the city's outskirts, but found such projects blocked by local resistance and government red tape.  In the end, they had only one option.  'Following the pressure of increased population,' Atlanta's Metropolitan Planning Commission observed, 'their only avenue for expansion has been 'encroachment' into white neighborhoods adjoining their own areas of concentration.'  Logically, the bulk of the early years of black 'encroachment' emerged from the most significant 'area of concentration,' Ashby Street."

In addition to giving us more information about Ashby street and the environment surrounding the Center in the late 1940's, it also tells us that it was among the first neighborhoods to transition in the city of Atlanta.  "White Flight" had not yet begun on a large scale, as this was one of the very first areas to deal with the issue of neighborhood desegregation.


It is reasonable to believe that most (if not all) of the children who attended the Center would have left the neighborhood during this transition.  As long time families left the neighborhood, the Center lost the people it had served for over 30 years. Did the leadership of the Stewart Center reach out to African American families in English Avenue before deciding to move?  We don't know. 

"Mrs. S.D. Katz was appointed chairman for the committee for the relocation of the Good Will Center.  A grave responsibility rested upon her.  The task was not an easy one.  Mrs. Katz worked faithfully and with the aid of the missionaries diligently combed the city for the right location.  There was much to be considered.  The committee after much prayer and deliberation, felt the directed guidance to this, our present location, 153 Stovall Street, S.E.  Occupancy took place January 1950."

The written histories of the Center do not give any information about why Reynoldstown was chosen for the next location, but demographic data shows that in 1950, Reynoldstown was inhabited by almost exclusively white residents.  (Which is interesting, considering Reynoldstown was founded by freed slaves after the civil war---but that's a subject for another blog!)  Little did they know, they would be faced with a similar neighborhood demographic change a little over a decade later. 

Regardless of the motives and rationale behind the Center's move in 1950, the leadership made a very different decision 15 years later when African Americans began moving into Reynoldstown.

To be continued.