Cabbagetown

            We have moved into a neighborhood of Atlanta known as Cabbagetown. In the 1880s a cotton mill was built in the city (now converted into loft homes), along with a number of small houses for the workers, mostly Scottish and Irish recruited from Appalachia. As the story goes, one day a truck carrying cabbages tipped over, and the residents took the spillage home, and soon the neighborhood was filled with the odor of boiled cabbage. Outsiders applied the derisive name “Cabbagetown,” which the residents happily adopted.

 

            Cabbagetown today wears its name with pride. The most obvious sign of this is the number of murals painted on the walls along Carroll Street. (Interesting fact about the street is that it’s two-way but allows curb-side parking, so it’s only wide enough for one car at a time. This, in Cabbagetown, leads to courtesy.) Cabbagetown promotes a number of events, such as The Stomp and Chomp Festival and two annual mural projects. An indirect indication of Cabbagetown pride is a bumper sticker I saw: “Keep Cabbagetown shitty.” The place has a hippy vibe.

 

            Here are a few of the murals we saw:

Welcome to Cabbagetown

a few of our neighbors

a shop on Carrol Street

This is a painting of the house directly across the street.

These murals are on a long wall next to our buildings in the Stacks.

How can you not love it here?