Peachtree Street is one of several major streets running through the city of Atlanta. Beginning at Five Points in downtown Atlanta, it runs North through Midtown; a few blocks after entering into Buckhead, the name changes to Peachtree Road at Deering Road. Much of the city’s historic and noteworthy architecture is located along the street, and it is often used for annual parades, (such as the Atlanta St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Atlanta Christmas Parade), as well as one-time parades celebrating events such as the 100th anniversary of Coca-Cola in 1986 and the Atlanta Braves’ 1995 World Series victory. The Peachtree name is common throughout the Atlanta area. In fact, it is often joked by natives that half of the streets in Atlanta are named Peachtree, and the other half have five names to make up for it. While “Peachtree” alone almost always refers to this street or its continuations, there are 71 streets in Atlanta with a variant of “Peachtree” in their name.

Examples of some of the other Peachtree Names:

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Peachtree Street in the News . . .

Margaret Mitchell, Author of Gone with the Wind

Margaret Mitchell’s epic Civil War romance “Gone With the Wind”, Scarlett O’Hara lives on various points of Peachtree Street along the novel. Coincidentally, it is also where the author herself was struck by a speeding automobile in Midtown, causing her death.
Details: Margaret Mitchell was struck by a speeding automobile as she crossed Peachtree Street at 13th Street in Atlanta with her husband, John Marsh, while on her way to see the movie A Canterbury Tale on the evening of August 11, 1949. She died at age 48 at Grady Hospital five days later on August 16 without fully regaining consciousness. The driver, Hugh Gravitt, was an off-duty taxi driver who was driving his personal vehicle when he struck Mitchell. After the accident, Gravitt was arrested for drunken driving and released on a $5,450 bond until Mitchell’s death. Gravitt was originally charged with drunken driving, speeding, and driving on the wrong side of the road. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in November 1949 and sentenced to 18 months in jail. He served almost 11 months. Gravitt died in 1994 at the age of 73. Margaret Mitchell was buried at Oakland Cemetery, Georgia. When her husband John died in 1952, he was buried next to his wife. In 1994, Mitchell was inducted into Georgia Women of Achievement, and into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2000.

More about Margaret Mitchell: CLICK HERE

Peachtree Street in Music . . .

Frank Sinatra	Lynyrd Skynyrd	Elton John
Frank Sinatra co-wrote a song with Jimmy Saunders and Leni Mason called “Peachtree Street” in 1950. He recorded it as a duet with Rosemary Clooney.	Well, you can see her walkin’ down on Peachtree Street She got high-heeled shoes and a dot on her cheek She’s lookin’ good, she’s headed . . .	Sir Elton John keeps a home on Peachtree Road in Buckhead, for which his 2004 album Peachtree Road was named.
		The album art on the front cover is a photograph from a railroad crossing near the Atlanta suburb of Douglasville.
Frank Sinatra’s YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE	Lynyrd Skynyrd’s YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE	Elton John’s YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE

Peachtree in History . . .

Peachtree DeKalb Airport

DeKalb – Peachtree Airport (IATA: PDK, ICAO: KPDK, FAA LID: PDK) is a county-owned, public-use airport in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The airport is located in the city of Chamblee, just northeast of Atlanta. It is also known commonly as Peachtree – DeKalb Airport, or simply PDK.

The history of the Peachtree DeKalb Airport

The property was originally part of Camp Gordon, a World War I military training camp. That facility closed in 1922. (The Army re-created Camp Gordon during World War II, but built it in Augusta, Ga., 150 miles away, and it has since been renamed Fort Gordon.) In 1940, the United States government authorized construction of a military airport on the former site of the Chamblee camp. The airport began operations on March 22, 1941, a few months before the U.S. entry into World War II, as Naval Air Station Atlanta. Barracks constructed at the facility during the war became classrooms in late 1948 for Southern Technical Institute, a new engineering technology school created by Georgia Tech for former soldiers. Leased from the county by the United States Navy, the airport was converted from military to civilian use from 1957 to 1959.

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The Most Famous Soldier from Camp Gordon,
a World War I Military Training Camp

Alvin Cullum York (December 13, 1887 – September 2, 1964), also known as Sergeant York, was one of the most decorated United States Army soldiers of World War I. York was born in rural Tennessee. York was drafted and began his army service at Camp Gordon in Georgia. York served in Company G, 328th Infantry Regiment, 82nd Division. He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, taking at least one machine gun, killing at least 25 enemy soldiers and capturing 132. York’s Medal of Honor action occurred during the United States-led portion of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France, which was intended to breach the Hindenburg line and force the Germans to surrender. He earned decorations from several allied countries during WWI, including France, Italy and Montenegro.

More about Alvin York: CLICK HERE

The Movie: Sergeant York (1941)

Plot: The film begins in the summer of 1916. Alvin York, a poor young farmer from the rural area near Pall Mall, Tennessee, lives a hardscrabble existence in a community whose poverty and isolation leave them with a lifestyle hardly different from people of a century earlier. He is an exceptional marksman, but a ne’er-do-well prone to drinking and fighting, which does not make things any easier for his long-suffering, widowed mother. Alvin’s farm is on rocky land high in the mountains, which barely supports him and his siblings. He meets a sweet-natured local girl, Gracie Williams, and works night and day at strenuous odd jobs to accumulate the payment for a fertile “bottomland” farm so she’ll marry him. The owner, Tomkins, gives Alvin sixty days to raise the purchase price. On the day the last payment is due, Alvin is short the total needed. He asks Tomkins for a four day extension in the hope that Alvin wins a turkey-shooting contest. Alvin wins the contest only to learn that Tomkins has reneged and sold the farm to Alvin’s romantic rival, Zeb Andrews, keeping all of the partial payments Alvin had made. Alvin drinks heavily and swears revenge. That night, en route to attack Tomkins and Andrews, the rifle Alvin is holding is struck by lightning, splitting the barrel in two and knocking him off his mule. Similar to the biblical conversion of Paul, York survives the lightning strike and undergoes a religious awakening when he joins a revival meeting at the nearby church, vowing never to get drunk or angry again. He makes amends with the men who cheated him out of the land, while Gracie points out that her love is tied to him and not the bottomland. When the U.S. enters World War I and York is drafted into the army, he tries to avoid induction into the Army as a conscientious objector, but is denied since his church has no official standing. He reluctantly reports to Camp Gordon for basic training, where he is harassed because of his objector status, but his superiors eventually discover that he is a phenomenal marksman and decide to promote him to corporal. York still wants nothing to do with the Army and killing. Major Buxton, his sympathetic commanding officer, tries to change York’s mind, citing sacrifices made by others throughout the history of the United States. He gives York a leave to go home and think it over. He promises York a recommendation for his exemption as a conscientious objector if York remains unconvinced. While York is fasting and pondering, the wind blows his Bible open to the verse in Matthew 22:21: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s”. York reports back for duty and tells his superiors that he can serve his country, despite not having everything figured out to his satisfaction, leaving the matter in God’s hands. His unit is shipped out to Europe and participates in an attack during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on October 8, 1918. Pinned down by deadly machine gun fire, the lieutenant orders Sergeant Early to take some men and try to attack the machine gun nests from behind. York suddenly finds himself the last remaining unwounded non-commissioned officer in the detachment, and is placed in command by Early. Seeing his comrades being shot down all around him, his self-doubt disappears. He works his way to a position flanking the main enemy trench and, as a sniper, fires individual rifle shots with such devastating effect that the Germans surrender. Then, York forces a captured officer at gunpoint to order the Germans still fighting in another section of the line to also surrender. He and the handful of other survivors end up with 132 prisoners. York becomes a national hero and is awarded the Medal of Honor. When Major Buxton asks him why he did what he did, York explains that he was trying to save the lives of his men. Arriving in New York City in early 1919, York receives a ticker tape parade and a key to the city. He is impressed with the Waldorf-Astoria hotel and its indoor electricity. Congressman Cordell Hull guides him through the city and informs him that he has been offered opportunities to commercialize on his fame, all totaling around $250,000 (for context, $3.7 million today). York mentions the bottomland he wanted and Hull responds he could buy it with the money. York rejects the offers, however, saying that he was not proud of what he did in the war, but it had to be done, and he will not profit from his fame. He tells Hull he wants to go home. He returns to Tennessee greeted by Gracie and his family. To his surprise, the people of his home state have bought him the bottomland farm he wanted and built him a house on the land.

“Sergeant York” (1941) Official Trailer Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan Movie