College Park (Georgia)

College Park is a city of 15,000 people (2019) in Metro Atlanta.

Understand

The east-west avenues in College Park are named for Ivy League colleges, and the north-south streets are named for influential College Park residents.

History

The community that would become College Park was founded as Atlantic City in 1890 as a depot on the Atlanta and West Point Railroad. The town was renamed Manchester when it was incorporated as a city in 1891. It was renamed again as the city of College Park in 1896. The city's name came from being the home of Cox College (where the city hall and other buildings now stand) and Georgia Military Academy (now the Woodward Academy).

The history of College Park has been closely linked with what is now known as Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport — airport development having spurred several radical changes to the landscape of the municipality over the course of the 20th century.

In the 1970s and 1980s, large swaths of property in College Park were purchased in order to address concerns about aircraft noise. The 1985 Chuck Norris film Invasion U.S.A. was filmed in these abandoned portions of College Park; houses owned by the City of Atlanta and the FAA were allowed to be blown up to simulate bazooka attacks, which was criticized because nearby properties were still in the process of being purchased. This site, in 2003, became the Georgia International Convention Center. Next door is the Gateway Center Arena, which opened in November 2019, home to the NBA's G-League College Park Skyhawks and the WBNA's Atlanta Dream.

Although the Atlanta hip hop music scene in the 1980s and 1990s was largely credited to artists from nearby suburban Decatur, College Park and the adjacent city of East Point have been strongly associated with artists and record producers from "SWATS" ("Southwest Atlanta, Too Strong"), whom have substantially contributed to the evolution of the southern hip hop genre over the course of the 2000s.

In the later 2010s redevelopment spread to College Park. From the 1990s and into the 2010s, the City of College Park succeeded in repurchasing the entirety of the 320 acres adjacent to downtown; commercial and residential development in this abandoned area, now referred to as "Airport City," is part of a larger transit-oriented revitalization plan referred to as "Aerotropolis."

Get in

By plane

See
  • Main Street, ☏ +1 404-767-1537. One of College Park's historic sites and main attractions. You can visit this street for some great restaurants. This street will also take you straight to downtown Atlanta and all the way to Mobile, Alabama. 
  • The city center is part of the College Park Historic District, a 606-acre historic district listed with the National Register of Historic Places. According to the federal agency, the district contains 853 recognized historical resources constructed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The majority of the 852 historic structures are homes of the Queen Anne style, various Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals, and bungalows of the American Craftsman style, all dating from 1882 to 1946. Other major historical structures include: The College Park Woman's Clubhouse at Camellia Hall (1927); the College Park First United Methodist Church (1904); a United States Postal Service Office (1937); four schools (constructed between 1914 and 1942); and the College Park Depot (pre-1900), part of the Atlanta & West Point Railroad.

Do
  • 🌍 Georgia International Convention Center, 2000 Convention Center Concourse, ☏ +1 770-907-3077. Georgia's newest and second-largest convention center. 
  • 🌍 Gateway Center Arena, 2330 Convention Center Concourse (next to the convention center), . Opened in 2019 next to the new convention center, this small arena is most notably home to two professional basketball teams. The College Park Skyhawks, playing in the NBA G League as the farm team for the Atlanta Hawks, began play there in the 2019–20 season, and were joined later in 2020 by the WNBA's Atlanta Dream. 
  • College Park Golf Course, 3711 Fairway Drive, ☏ +1 404-761-0731. College Park Golf Course is a nine-hole course with no tee times required, there is also a driving range. $9-15. 
  • The College Park Municipal Golf Course is a nine-hole course established in 1929.

Drink
  • The Tavern at J.R. Crickets, 5040 Old National Hwy, ☏ +1 404 765-9230. Monday Night Football, $2 Tuesday Domestic Draft Beer, $3 Wednesday on 5pc Wings and Karaoke, $4 Thursday, $7 Friday, DJ on Saturdays and Double Down Sunday (buy one drink get the second drink 1/2 price) $. 

Sleep
  • Radisson Hotel Atlanta Airport, 4475 Best Road (from South Georgia, I85N to exit 69B Old National Highway; left onto Old National Highway, right onto Sullivan Rd, left onto Best Rd), ☏ +1 678-975-3470. Check-in: 3PM, check-out: noon. 100 percent non-smoking. 
  • 🌍 Ramada Plaza Atlanta Airport, 5010 Old National Hwy, ☏ +1 404 768-9199. Check-in: 3PM, check-out: noon. Free shuttle service to and from the airport and to the nearby MARTA (metro) station. Amenities include full-service restaurant and bar on-site, pool and fitness center, business center, free parking. From $99. 

See the separate Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport article under "Sleep" for an additional list of available accommodations closer in towards the airport.

Connect
  • College Park City Hall, 3667 Main St, ☏ +1 404 768-1537. (updated Dec 2019)

Go next
Routes through College Park
Atlanta ← East Point ←  N  S  → LaGrange → Montgomery
Atlanta ← East Point ←  N  S  → LaGrange → Auburn
Downtown Atlanta ← East Point ←  N  S  → Hartsfield-Jackson ATL → END


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