Deepdene Park

Deepdene Park. West Entrance. The Ponce de Leon Park and Parkway formed the centerpiece of Frederick Law Olmsted's 1893 design for Atlanta developer Joel Hurt's "ideal residential suburb." Druid Hills is Olmsted's last suburb. His sons, particularly John Charles Olmsted, carried out the Druid Hills plan in the early years of the 20th century. Originally, an electric streetcar ran along the edge of the linear park in an informal allée of trees. Gracious homes on spacious lots rimmed the parkway. The Ponce de Leon Park and Parkway was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, followed in 1979 by listing of the entire Druid Hills suburb., Deepdene Park is a 22-acre public woodland and the eastern most park of the linear park along Ponce de Leon Avenue. This park forms the spine of the Druid Hills neighborhood. Deepdene is a contrast to the other five parks along Ponce de Leon. While open vistas and gently rolling slopes characterize the five pastoral parks, Deepdene is a picturesque park with rugged terrain and lush-vegetation., True to Olmsted's vision, the park offers public access to a Piedmont Forest. Deepdene's west end is the connection to the other five pastoral parks and the entrance to that Piedmont Forest. Also found at the west entrance are trolley tracks, a remnant of Atlanta's electric rail system that transported people throughout the city for over 50 years., The exposed trolley tracks and trolley shelter found at the intersection of Ponce de Leon Ave. and East Lake Rd., are among the last remnants of Atlanta's electric railway system. This system was chiefly financed and developed by entrepreneur Joel Hurt and greatly accelerated the growth of Atlanta during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beginning with the Atlanta and Edgewood Street Railway Company in 1886, Mr. Hurt established the first financially successful street railway company in the world. This company served Atlanta's first suburb, Inman Park, also developed by Hurt. Five years later, in 1891, Hurt consolidated all the other railway companies in Atlanta into the Atlanta Consolidated Street Railway Company and electrified the entire system. Atlanta's electric rail system became a model for other similar systems throughout North America (Atlanta History Bulletin, Vol. IX, No. 37)., Little remains of Atlanta's expansive electric railway system, but some of the clearest evidence is found along the Olmsted Linear Park that forms the backbone of the Druid Hills neighborhood. Lining the northern edge of the other five pastoral parks is a rehabilitated allée of trees through which the rail line ran. Along the southern edge of Deepdene Park in addition to the trolley tracks is the restored trolley shelter., (caption) Joel Hurt, circa 1004, from an engraving by LG. Williams and Sons, Now Jersey, during his presidency of the American Street Railway Association (Courtesy the Atlanta History Bulletin Vol. IX, No. 377)