Midtown Grows: 1830s to 1970s

Established by the Georgia Legislature in 1828, the port city of Columbus was laid out in a traditional grid plan as the city’s commercial life developed at the fall line of the Chattahoochee River. The area now known as Midtown, located east and north of of the city, was first settled by a few wealthy land owners who created estates on a hill east of the river valley. These large estates (that would subsequently be redeveloped into neighborhoods) were interspersed with a few small farms and developed slowly between the 1830s to around 1870.

Since this Antebellum and early Post Civil War Period (1830s-1870) there have been three subsequent periods of expansion: the Late Victorian era (1880-1915), the Interwar Era (1920-1940), and the Post World War II era 1945-1970). These four eras have together given birth to Midtown’s 24 neighborhoods, six of which were established as historic districts in 2001. As this overview of Midtown’s development indicates, approximately half the neighborhoods were constructed prior to 1945 while the rest occurred in the 25 years after the end of World War II. This analysis has some important implications for Midtown’s focus on strengthening its minimum grid.