The
Great AtlantaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the state of Georgia, as well as the urban core of one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States....
Fire of 1917 began just after noon on Monday, May 21 and was finally extinguished by 10 PM. Destroyed were 300
acreThe acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre....
s (much of the
Fourth-1874:A new city charter increased the radius of the city from one to one and a half miles, reduced the number of wards back to five and created a bi-cameral council of two councilmen from each ward and a second body of three at-large aldermen was established....
WardAtlanta's Ward System were a series of political divisions used by the city of Atlanta from early in its founding until switching to a district system in 1954.-1854:...
), including nearly 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, and 10,000 people were displaced. There was only one fatality, a woman who suffered a heart attack after her home burnt to the ground. Losses totalled $5.5 million.
The Day of the Fire
It was a clear, warm and sunny day with a brisk breeze from the south. This was not the only fire of the day, but the fourth call in the span of an hour: a small fire at the Candler Warehouse across the tracks from
West EndThe West End neighborhood of Atlanta is on the National Register of Historic Places and can be found southwest of Castleberry Hill, east of Westview, west of Adair Park Historic District, and just north of Oakland City...
at 11:39 AM; at 11:43 a fire seven blocks north that destroyed three houses; and at 12:15, south of the Georgia Railroad from the big fire, ten homes were destroyed before being extinguished. At 12:46 a call came from a small warehouse just north of Decatur Street between Fort and Hilliard, and the crew sent to inspect it found a stack of burning mattresses, but had no firefighting equipment with them. If the fire department had not been spread across so many different parts of the city already, the fire would have been put out there; but by the time reinforcements arrived, it was quickly leaping north.
The Great Fire
The fire spread quickly up to Edgewood Avenue and from there throughout the main residential areas of
Sweet AuburnThe Sweet Auburn Historic District is a historic African-American neighborhood along Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. The name Sweet Auburn was coined by John Wesley Dobbs, referring to the "richest Negro street in the world." The Sweet Auburn district includes:*the Martin Luther King, Jr...
, sparing little. Unfortunately, the area between Decatur and Edgewood was crammed with
shantiesShanty may refer to:* Ice shanty, a portable shed placed on a frozen lake* Sea shanty, shipboard working songs* Shanty Hogan , Major League Baseball catcher* Shanty town, unit of irregular, low-cost dwellings-See also:* Shanty Bay...
and lean-tos, which provided fuel to build the fire very strong and fast.
A corridor was burned due north between Jackson (now Parkway and
Charles AllenCharles Livingstone Allen was an American ordained Methodist minister most notable for his work as a Pastor.Born in Newborn, Georgia, he ministered around the state, including 1948 to 1960 at Grace United Methodist in Atlanta...
) and Boulevard, with a few prominent bulges at Highland and just south of Ponce de Leon Avenue. At Houston Street, the fire was still being stopped on the east by Boulevard (just sparing
John Wesley DobbsJohn Wesley Dobbs , an African American civic and political leader, was often referred to as unofficial 'mayor' of Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia....
' block). When the fire reached Highland, it raced both east and west through many fine homes. Around 4:00 in the afternoon, fire-fighters had begun to stall the fire by using
dynamiteDynamite is an explosive material based on the explosive potential of nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth or another absorbent substance such as sawdust as an absorbent...
to destroy many homes along Pine, Boulevard and finally Ponce de Leon.
By nightfall the fire crossed Ponce. While reduced, it headed north through the recently built-out neighborhood along St. Charles, Vedado Way and Greenwood Avenue. It finally stopped at 10 PM, more than a mile north of where it had begun.
In eleven hours, 22,000,000 gallons of water were pumped to put out the fire. Additional fire trucks had been sent from nine Georgia towns (as far away as
MaconMacon is a city located in central Georgia, USA. It is among the largest metropolitan areas in Georgia, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. It lies near the geographic center of Georgia, approximately 85 miles south of Atlanta, hence the...
and
AugustaAugusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia. The City of Augusta and Richmond County governments merged operations in 1996; as of September 2008, the Augusta-Richmond county population was 192,851, not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the...
), as well as from
ChattanoogaChattanooga is the fourth-largest city in Tennessee , and the seat of Hamilton County. Located in southeastern Tennessee on Chickamauga Lake and Nickajack Lake, which are both part of the Tennessee River, Chattanooga lies approximately 120 miles to the northwest of Atlanta, Georgia, about 135...
and
KnoxvilleFounded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is also the largest city in East Tennessee. As of the 2000 United States Census, Knoxville had a total population of 173,890; the July 2007...
in
TennesseeTennessee is a state located in the Southeastern United States. According to the 2008 census, it has a population of 6,214,888, an increase of nearly 9.5% since 2000. Tennessee is the 14th fastest growing state in the US and is ranked 17th by population. It is ranked 36th by total land area. In...
. 1,938 buildings were destroyed over spanning 73 city blocks. Fires smoldered for the rest of the week.
Aftermath
Since more than 85% of the destroyed buildings had wood
shingleShingle can refer to:*A flat covering element for a roof, including**Shake **Roof shingle* Shingle beach, especially in Western Europe, a beach composed of pebbles* Shingle, former name of Shingle Springs, California...
s, the city quickly passed an ordinance banning them for new construction. By 1931 all older buildings had replaced the shingles. In the history of the city, only Sherman's fire of 1864 did more extensive damage.
Rebuilding was sporadic, with large swaths kept open for years. Commercial strips were quickly built on the destroyed portions of Edgewood and Auburn where busy streetcar routes ran: 17 and 3 respectively. Where large estates with spacious front yards had been, along the entire stretch of Boulevard up to Ponce, dozens of two- and three-storey apartment buildings that hugged the sidewalk were built. Large open spaces were left at what is now the
King MemorialMartin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site established on October 10, 1980, consists of several buildings surrounding Martin Luther King, Jr.'s boyhood home on Auburn Avenue in the Sweet Auburn district of Atlanta, Georgia. Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church where King and his father Martin...
and Bedford-Pine Park (host of
Music MidtownMusic Midtown was a large music festival held in Atlanta, Georgia from 1994 to 2005. At its peak, the event drew in excess of 300,000 attendees for its three-day run. Six main stages, each typically sponsored by a local radio station, were used to present dozens of bands playing a wide variety of...
in the 2000s).
Low-income housing developments were built in the destroyed extreme southern section and the areas south of
North AvenueNorth Avenue in Atlanta is a major street dividing downtown Atlanta from Midtown. It stretches continuously from Candler Park in the east to Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard southwest of Georgia Tech, passing through the Atlanta neighborhoods Poncey-Highland, Old Fourth Ward, and Midtown. The western...
. Some around Boulevard and Highland were eventually developed as the campus for Atlanta University's Medical Center. Except for where single family homes were quickly rebuilt north of Ponce de Leon, the character of this large area of Atlanta was changed forever.
The next U.S. fire of more significance wouldn't occur for more than 70 years: The Oakland Hills firestorm of 1991.