On August 31, 2023, staff from the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, along with the City of Atlanta Department of City Planning, attended the Mayor’s Black Pride Reception where Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced the completion of Atlanta LGBTQ+ Historic Context Statement. The City of Atlanta was a recipient of a Certified Local Government Grant through the Historic Preservation Fund during the 2021 grant cycle for the purposes of creating this report.
The City of Atlanta’s history is rich, varied, and complex—reflective of the communities, events, and people that make it the thriving city it is today. Understanding Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ history is critical to fully understanding the city’s history. The context statement shows the LGBTQ+ community’s important role in that history.
The context statement will facilitate the identification, documentation, and ultimately preservation of sites associated with Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ community. With this initiative, Atlanta joins major U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., in proactively documenting sites significant to the LGBTQ+ community.
The City of Atlanta received a Certified Local Government Grant through the Historic Preservation Fund in 2021. This grant enabled the creation of this report and was administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior, through the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
Certified Local Government Grants require municipalities to match 40 percent of the grant funds to participate. Historic Preservation staff worked with Atlanta’s project partners to ensure the report meets programmatic requirements as described in the Secretary of the Interior's “Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation.”
“Historic context statements are an important preservation tool for communities, professionals, and practitioners to utilize when looking to identify, codify, and preserve their historic resources,” said Stephanie L. Cherry-Farmer, Director, Office of Documentation and Compliance for the Historic Preservation Division. “As the National Park Service and state-level Registers of Historic Places nationwide look to incorporate the histories of underrepresented groups, the City of Atlanta’s initiative to create this context contributes to a more inclusive preservation field. We congratulate the Atlanta Department of City Planning, Historic Atlanta, and New South Associates on the completion of this groundbreaking context and look forward to seeing community-based preservation efforts in this area.”
Historic context statements provide important information and resources for preservationists, historians, planners, and the general public about topically related historic resources. Context Reports include sections on a broad history of the topic for a particular time period; a framework for the identification of historic resource types and themes within the historical topic that contextualizes properties within the state’s broader history; and guidance on how to evaluate resources for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
All historic context statements that have been reviewed by the Historic Preservation Division and conform to programmatic requirements. These statements can be accessed at the Division’s library and some are available online. Read more about the Atlanta LGBTQ+ historic context statement HERE.
Visit the Historic Preservation Division historic context statement page here.
