The Highs and Lows of Little Five: A History of Little Five Points Book

A fascinating little book, although it might not mean much to folks who don't live in Atlanta. It's not a comprehensive history of Little Five Points, but primarily an account of its revitalization.

I live a mile from Little Five Points, the crossroads which is Atlanta's center of the unconventional, the independent, and the just plain weird. L5P grew as a shopping district for Inman Park, an upscale neighborhood that was Atlanta's first suburb in the 19th century, and the adjacent town of Edgewood, which is now the Candler Park neighborhood of Atlanta, and my home. I love Little Five, but was unaware of the extent to which it deteriorated during the 1960s and 1970s, and how hard a handful of people, primarily real estate developer Kelly Jordan, worked to revitalize the area. L5P's two wonderful theaters, which now house the Variety Playhouse and the Seven Stages Theater, were literally one day away from demolition when, assisted by a phone call from the mayor, Jordan convinced the owner to lease him the theaters.

I thought that this book might very well be dry or boring, but I found it to be inspiring. Hartle occasionally injects himself into the writing unnecessarily, in a magazine-article kind of way, but the book works in spite of that. I've got some new heroes now, and I'll think about them the next time I walk up to Criminal Records or the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club.