One may look at the downtown connecter today and may think of it as nothing more than a large highway, however many don’t stop to think what used to be in these locations. After some digging around I’ve found that there is more to these areas than many realize.
In the North eastern region of the connector the space between Memorial drive(N), Capital avenue(W), and Martian Street(E) once was a dense residential area. This space mostly consisted of duplex housing apartments and small businesses like drugstores. While this space is mostly residential there are some notable locations here. East of Capital avenue and south of Fair street (90 Capitol Ave SE) is the Jewish educational alliance and the Hirsch Morris Clinic. South of Fair St. and west of Martin St. (59 Martin Street) is the Woven Wire Factory. Finally just west of Terry St. and south of Fair St. is the Fraser Street Baptist Church.
The Morris Hirsch Clinic
One of the more notable locations in this area is the Morris Hirsch clinic. This clinic is responsible for launching a campaign which increased the overall health standards of its neighborhood (318 capital Ave). Its services varied greatly ranging from ear ,nose and throat treatment to dentistry and genecology. This clinic mostly specialized in the improvement of child health. It also Provided modern facilities and medical attention for those who could not afford private attention. This allowed allowed for poorer individuals to receive medical attention.
Today this section of the highway bears little resemblance to how it looked in 1911 and only a small silver of this area can even be considered residential. Just east of the highway and Capital avenue where the Jewish educational alliance used to be, lies the Georgia Supreme court and South of that where Morris Hirsch clinic used to be lies one of this cites many parking lots. To the south east of the court a small residential area with some apartments and capital gateway park. Every thing else is just empty green space. In spite of the other changes to this location the street names (with the exception of Fair St. which was changed to Memorial Dr. in 1930) are one of the few things that stayed the same.
Citations:
1911 map from Atl Sanborn:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3924am.g3924am_g01378191104/?sp=64&st=image#viewer-image-wrapper
“Morris Hirsch Clinic Aids Health Problems”,The Atlanta Constitution (1881-1945):
1932 Map from Sanborn:
