A project in discussions for decades that would transform a southside site with deep historic meaning and abundant natural beauty into one of Atlanta’s largest public parks has reached a key milestone. 

Officials with the City of Atlanta’s Department of Parks and Recreation plan to give their final presentation next month on memorial and preservation efforts for the former Atlanta Prison Farm. The site could reemerge as a scenic greenspace spanning more than 125 acres in coming years, next to Intrenchment Creek in the broader South River watershed. 

A promotional flyer for the HGOR-designed master plan presentation lends an idea how historic ruins around the prison farm could be preserved and repurposed, next to sweeping new park trails and open greenspace.

The free public meeting is planned at Oakland Cemetery from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 16 in the Overlook at the Oakland Visitor Center (374 M.L.K. Jr. Drive SE). RSVP is required here. 

The presentation will recap a year of engagement, design, and research efforts led by the Department of Parks and Recreation, which included four public meetings. Expect the results of archaeological, historical, and ecological research to be presented, along with plans for a new public greenspace that aims to lure in residents from across Atlanta “for reflection, education, recreation, and healing.” 

The city-owned site is situated off Key Road in southwest DeKalb County, just east of Moreland Avenue near the Starlight Drive-In Theatre and Flea Market.

City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation

The broader goal is to elevate the Atlanta Prison Farm site to regional—if not national—significance, while spotlighting its history for coming generations, per Department of Parks and Recreation officials. 

Project leaders consider the process complete of “listening, stewardship, and acknowledgment of the site’s layered history, from Indigenous land stewardship and agricultural labor to incarceration and civic change.”

The Atlanta Prison Farm operated—often with hundreds of hogs and cattle onsite—from the mid-1920s to the 1990s and has been the subject of repurposing talks for years, including discussions regarding the acreage becoming parkland that date back to at least 2002, per the Atlanta History Center. 

A portion of the site was more recently redeveloped as the controversial, 85-acre Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. 

A relic at the former Atlanta Prison Farm site off Key Road today. City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation; HGOR; Eventbrite

Overview of Atlanta Prison Farm ruins at the southside site off Key Road. City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation

The remaining, vacant portion of the former prison farm spans more than 200 acres (larger than Piedmont Park), with features that include two large lakes, historic ruins, a cemetery, and South River frontage, as preservationists have noted over the years. 

Formerly the property of Muscogee Native American people and farmers, the land was purchased by the City of Atlanta in 1911 and first used as a crematory, later a city-run dairy farm, and most recently as the city’s official prison farm for inmate labor, per the history center.  

Planned location of the public memorial and greenspace in relation to downtown Atlanta, the airport, and other landmarks. Google Maps

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