Anyone who is interested in Atlanta history, particularly history of landmarks that once were, should check out this awesome blog:
http://returntoatl.blogspot.com/
Basically a guy studies all sorts of different spots, shows what they looked like circa 1990 (when intown Atlanta was, in some ways, bottoming out before the new influx of wealth and redevelopment), and what they look like now. He also ties in historical photos and aerials.
In the blog, he links to GSU's collection of 1949 aerial photographs.
http://library.gsu.edu/aerialatlas1949/html/map.htm
I've decided to make gifs of them, to make them easy to compare with current aerials from
Google Earth. Since each one takes a few minutes to make, I started out with only two areas, both of which have changed dramatically over the last 60 years: West Downtown and Buckhead.
A bunch of different things are interesting about these to me, but what continues to amaze me is how the makeshift layout of Atlanta's roads impacts the built environment today.
Also, it's simply incredible how dense and built up intown areas were in 1950, basically without a scrap of land going unused, and how completely some of those areas were razed. Below the GWCC used to sit a neighborhood with scores of houses, factories, and a railroad line--which are all but invisible today.
If anyone wants me to do the same with other neighborhoods, let me know and I'll give it a shot.
This is normally something I would have posted on city-data, but that place has become such a hotbed of racism that I decided I had to go. So I'll be posting here from now on, since this forum has a decided more progressive and forward-thinking mindset.