http://www.gpb.org/media/pdf/peachtreestreet.pdf
IN THE LATE 1960S AND EARLY 1970S, THE MEMBERS FACED A VERY DIFFERENT PROBLEM – A PLAGUE OF HIPPIES.
Jim Auchmutey #31 [08:16:57:00] The strip was that area up around Peachtree and 10th street that was uh the south’s little version of Haight Ashbury. And uh I remember going down during the summer of 1970 when I was not quite 15 years old. And it was the first time I’d ever let my hair grow over – I had hair – I’d ever let my hair grow over my ears. (08:17:16:00) (08:17:26:00) The streets would just be crawling with folks. I mean, there, there was a real happening place then. And Margaret Mitchell’s old neighborhood had become hippie. And uh I’d buy bootleg records down there and blacklight posters.
[08:17:38:00] (08:18:50:00) And a lot of people who had – who were probably appalled by hippies, were coming down there uh the traffic used to be backed up on Peachtree for miles uh with folks from the burbs coming in to look at all these people, you know. That was, that was what everybody was talking about back then, so everybody wanted to come down and see it. It was like the big cruising scene.
(08;19;11)
NARRATION: THE MEMBERS OF THE ATLANTA WOMAN’S CLUB HUNKERED DOWN AND TRIED TO IGNORE THE HIPPIES SLEEPING ON THEIR PORCH. IT WOULD PROVE TO BE A SHORT-LIVED PHENOMENON. MIDTOWN WAS ABOUT TO SHAKE OFF ITS SLEEPY POST-WAR LOOK TO BECOME ATLANTA’S SECOND BUSINESS CENTER AND ITS CULTURAL CENTER.
THE ARTS WERE BEGINNING TO FLOURISH IN THE NEW MEMORIAL ARTS CENTER, DEDICATED IN 1968 TO THE MEMORY OF 106 ATLANTA ARTS PATRONS WHO DIED IN A 1962 PLANE CRASH IN ORLY, FRANCE. HERE THE SYMPHONY, THE HIGH MUSEUM OF ART, THE ATLANTA COLLEGE OF ART AND THE ALLIANCE THEATER ALL HAD ROOM TO GROW. IN 1982 THE CENTER WAS RENAMED THE ROBERT W. WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER ON THE
93RD BIRTHDAY OF THE COCA COLA MAGNATE, WHO HAD BY THEN GIVEN IT ABOUT $50 MILLION. THE NEXT YEAR, THE HIGH MUSEUM MOVED INTO A NEW SIGNATURE BUILDING NEXT DOOR. TODAY THE WOODRUFF ARTS MUSEUM.