The Beacon Community

The Beacon Community was the center of Decatur’s African American community until urban renewal programs in the mid-1960s led to its demolition. Bounded by North McDonough Street on the east, West Trinity Place on the north, Water Street on the west, and Howard Avenue on the south, it included a tight-knit residential community, schools and churches, and numerous African American-owned businesses. Atlanta Avenue, which once connected Trinity Place West, formerly Herring Street, and Howard Avenue, was the center of the African American business district, and Tyler Funeral Home is the only remaining business. Buildings on this site once housed Beacon Elementary and Trinity High School, which served African American children until 1967, when integration of the Decatur School System was completed; these schools replaced the Herring Street School, which served the community from 1913 to 1956. The Allen Wilson Terrace Public Housing Project, constructed in 1941, was named for Decatur’s first African American school principal. These school buildings, Lilly Hill Baptist Church, the former Trinity Presbyterian Church on Robin Street, and the Allen Wilson Terrace project are the only remaining buildings dating to the neighborhood’s early years. The community was home to business owner Henry Oliver, who was honored in 1902 with a local street named for him; in 1983 the street name was changed to Commerce Drive and his name was given to a meeting room in the new Decatur Conference Center. It was also home to Deacon J.H. Ebster, for whom Ebster Park was named, Federal Court Judge Clarence Cooper, and Elizabeth Wilson, Decatur’s first African American city commissioner and mayor.

Decatur, Georgia · United States