serving as a community hub, “providing social services, educational opportunities, and religious training,” was activated by the missionaries here at Storrs School. 310 As a result of community members gathering in the Storrs School’s chapel, the Black residents expressed their desire for a church. In May 1867, a new Church of Christ charter was voted on and acted upon; Erastus M. Cravath preached the first service on May 26. 311 IMPORTANT COMMUNITY LEGACIES, HISTORIES, AND CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT CONTEXT TO HIGHLIGHT IN THE DESIGN PROCESS GREAT FIRE 1917 On May 21, 1917, a fire rapidly spread on a day were three other four-alarm fires raged across the city. The fire began near Grady Hospital on Butler Street and swept across the Fourth Ward, including Auburn Avenue and Buttermilk Bottom following the line of wood-frame structures. 312 The reason the fire damaged so much property, buildings were not designed with fire retardation in mind. Houses were constructed with wood roofs, wood shingles, wood paneling and wooden floors. Additionally, many houses were constructed close together. Only fire breaks set by blowing up mansions on Ponce de Leon quelled the fire. It was after the Great Fire that Black families began to move across the city to the westside. Between 1920 to 1950
REPO History Project James Malone, Dr. Gregory Sholette, Great Fire of 1917
Mississippi Bottom became Buttermilk Bottom
310 McEwen, “First Congregational,” p. 311 McEwen, “First Congregational,” p. 312 Claude C. George, Special to the Atlanta Daily World. “Fourth Ward Atlanta Daily World Paperboys Recall 1930’s and 1940’s.” Atlanta Daily World, September 6, 1998.
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