Techwood Homes Historic District

We’ve been talking a lot about the tornado that shocked Atlanta back in 2008. From this point forward, none of the rest of the stops on our tour were significantly affected by the disaster, as they were too far north. Our first stop in the Midtown Atlanta portion of the tour is the Techwood Homes Historic District. There is some debate regarding whether Techwood was the first public housing project in the US. It wasn’t available for tenants until 1936; almost a year after the First Homes project was opened in Manhattan. However, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated Techwood Homes a few days before the opening of New York’s famous public housing project. An architect named Flippen David Burge designed Techwood, after real estate developer Charles F. Palmer conceived the idea for it. They hoped that it would offer better housing for poorer residents. The name is taken from Techwood Drive, referring to the nearby Georgia Institute of Technology.

Due to segregation laws at the time, Techwood was designated for white families, which caused the displacement of a great number of African American residents. The Civil Rights Movement in the late sixties helped to change that, though the many residents of all races were still negatively affected by the high crime rate in the area.

Before the 1996 Summer Olympics, most of Techwood was demolished and rebuilt as luxury units for athletes. Today, along with another neighborhood, it is known as Centennial Place – a mixed-use development.

Techwood Homes Photo Provided to ListenUp Audio by Bruce Hyer