About Druid Hills & Olmsted Linear Park

In 1890, Frederick Law Olmsted traveled by train, streetcar and then horseback from Asheville, where he was working on Biltmore, to Atlanta. There, he would design the “ideal residential suburb” for developer Joel Hurt, who had amassed 1,400 acres of woodland and scrub farmland. Three years later Olmsted and his son, John Charles, created a preliminary plan. 

Olmsted’s plan envisioned a residential community of spacious lots along curvilinear streets, with a linear park and parkway as the centerpiece of the design. In addition to two lakes and six parks, one of the property’s main features was its position along a two-mile stretch of Ponce de Leon Avenue. The linear parkway included a 40-foot-wide carriageway and trolley-track connecting the development to the city. Olmsted Brothers continued the project after the senior Olmsted’s retirement and drew up a planting plan for the park as well as the final 1905 graphic plan. 

It was not until 1908 when the project was sold to the Druid Hills Corporation that lots began to be sold and houses built. Early residents included Asa Candler, Coca-Cola magnate and head of the Druid Hills Corporation, along with successful businessmen, professionals and seven prominent Atlanta architects who built their own homes in the new suburb and designed homes for others. 

The years after World War II brought changes that threatened the integrity of the Olmsted plan. The greatest threat was a proposed roadway that engulfed the neighborhood in a decade-long fight marked by protests, arrests and court cases. 

The Olmsted Network (formerly the National Association of Olmsted Parks) joined with the Druid Hills Civic Association and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to oppose the road in a long but ultimately successful campaign. A master plan for the linear park was completed and the Olmsted Linear Park Alliance emerged from that plan as the park conservancy. 

Today, Olmsted Linear Park Alliance and the Druid Hills Civic Association continue as stewards of Druid Hills and its linear park. The residential community and its linear park are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1975) and have local protection as designated historic districts.