HISTORY

One of two settlements established after the Civil War by William
Jennings in 1865, Summerhill’s early inhabitants were freed slaves and
Jewish immigrants.  Wood’s Chapel and Clarke’s Chapel began offering
worship services in 1866 within close proximity of each other. Wood’s
Chapel subsequently became Allen Temple AME.  Clarke’s Chapel’s
congregation was mixed and sought to also promote education which it
accomplished by holding the first classes of Clark College and Gammon
Theological Seminary in its basement.  Clarke’s Chapel was ultimately
renamed the Lloyd Street Church.  In 1867 Frederick Ayer founded his
school at Richardson and Martin Streets.  The Atlanta Board of
Education bought it three years later, making it the only public school
for Black children in the City.  The school was eventually renamed the
E. P. Johnson Elementary School.

Summerhill was once considered the most prosperous African American
neighborhood in Atlanta and was a relatively stable residential
neighborhood for almost a complete decade and was home to several of
Atlanta’s influential civic and business leaders,  Sam Massell, Herman
Russell S. W. Walker and Leon Eplan are a few whose life began in
Summerhill.  

But, like neighboring Mechanicsville and Peoplestown,
Summerhill fell victim to economic and political pressures beyond its
control.   As Atlanta grew to the north and west during the early part
of the twentieth century, the more affluent moved to larger lots with
bigger houses.  The politics of Urban Renewal left Summerhill with a
prevalence of dilapidated, sub-standard housing, vacant lots, and
abandoned commercial buildings.  

By the 1960s Summerhill was inhabited by African Americans who were in the lower economic bracket and its housing stock the victim of absentee landlords’ lack of maintenance.
In the mid-1960s, a riot occurred in Summerhill over the shooting of a black male by the police.  This incident served to galvanize the residents into civic action which resulted in the formation of a neighborhood organization, Summerhill Neighborhood Inc.

By 1990, through the efforts of Summerhill Neighborhood Inc., a CDC named Summerhill Neighborhood Development, Inc., was founded to take charge of the physical redevelopment of the neighborhood in preparation for the 1996 Olympics, which would take place at Turner Stadium on Summerhill's doorstep.   In 2004, a new neighborhood organization was formed, the Organized Neighbors of Summerhill, who in conjunction with the CDC work to develop Summerhill as one of the rising intown neighborhoods of Atlanta.