Inman Park Festival 2013

Photo by me, April 2013.

By the time Spring is usually well underway in Atlanta comes one of the better arts festivals in the city, the Inman Park Festival in April. The festival takes place over a weekend and features the standard booths of artists selling their creations, a spirited parade, live musical performances and a tour of homes in the neighborhood, which I sadly missed this year. This festival is hugely popular in a city that features so many arts festivals and street fairs from Spring into Fall. Of all the arts festivals this one is my favorite for it takes place in such a wonderfully historic location at a time of the year when Atlanta is coming alive with the colorful blossoms of nature.

The history of Inman Park is that it was  established in 1890 by Joel Hurt. It is a neighborhood of fine homes on curving streets and interspersed parks. Joel Hurt made his fortune in real estate development with the Atlanta Building and Loan Association and later co-founded the Trust Company of Georgia. Inman Park was a streetcar suburb on the edge of the city then instead of the in-town neighborhood we consider it to be today. The streetcar line, also owned by Hurt, was the Atlanta and Edgewood Street Railway Company and it began service in 1886. Inman Park is considered the first suburb in Atlanta even though it resembles nothing of what we would consider suburb today. Inman Park was named after another legendary Atlanta businessman Samuel M. Inman. Despite how grand and expensive Inman Park may seem today there was a period of decades beginning in the 1950s when the neighborhood went into decline. During that time many of the large homes were subdivided into apartments and poverty and crime was commonplace which seems hard to imagine now walking through the neighborhood. In the 1970s the neighborhood began to turn around and restoration and investment began to bring the neighborhood back from its decline. Our city is very fortunate to still have this neighborhood for the residents of today to admire.

Photo by me, April 2013.

Photo by me, April 2013.

A group dressed as garden gnomes in the parade. Photo by me, April 2013.

After the parade one of the floats decided to keep performing for the crowds. Photo by me, April 2013.

A band performs in Delta Park, one of the parks in the neighborhood. Photo by me, April 2013.

An example of one the many beautifully restored homes in the neighborhood. This one is on Edgewood Avenue. Photo by me, April 2013.

Spring in Inman Park. Photo by me, April 2013.

Photo by me, April 2013.

We stopped like many others to enjoy the grass and a beer on this Spring day in one of the parks in the neighborhood. This particularly large park is on Euclid Avenue. Like I always say, it seems like you can never escape the Bank of America tower in this city. It is so tall that you can see it from so many places and I was surprised to see it from here.

Photo by me, April 2013.

One of my favorite beers is SweetWater Blue from the SweetWater Brewing Company. SweetWater is also a local Atlanta brewery so I'm glad to support them.

Photo by me, April 2013.

Photo by me, April 2013.

Photo by me, April 2013.

Photo by me, April 2013.

Maybe the most notable landmark in the neighborhood is the Trolley Barn on Edgewood Avenue. The barn which opened in 1889 was a housing and maintenance facility for Atlanta's first streetcar line. The barn is currently owned by the City of Atlanta and managed by a private company. The city bought the building in 1976 and had it restored by 1987. Prior to that, the building had fallen into disrepair and decline much like the neighborhood had at that time. Today it houses special events, parties and weddings. Very recently there has been some discussion that the city may sell the building. On the day I attended the festival, a dance troupe was performing in it for the festival attendees.

Inman Park United Methodist Church. Photo by me, April 2013.

Above is the Inman Park United Methodist Church. The main sanctuary was constructed in 1898 of granite from Stone Mountain. It is of the Romanesque style and was designed by Willis Franklin Denny, II who also designed Rhodes Hall. The similarities between the two buildings can certainly be seen.

The dates for the 2014 festival are April 25-27 and I hope to do it again next year and the year after.