Historic Atlanta, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and advocating for the thoughtful reuse of Atlanta’s historic resources.

Historic Atlanta launched in the Spring of 2018, after a few years hosting and moderating the Atlanta Preservation Alliance, a network of preservation professionals and passionate lay-people united in the belief that for Atlanta to become a truly world-class city, we need to respect our history, not destroy it. Though a relatively young organization, we have hosted community input sessions and roundtable discussions, created site activation, organized advocacy efforts for a number of threatened properties, assisted others in fundraising and are pursuing the development of a Revolving Fund.

Through the Special Committee on Black Heritage and the LGBTQ Historic Preservation Advisory Committee, Historic Atlanta is dedicated to preservation efforts of communities and stories that have been traditionally underserved by Historic Preservation.

The origins of Atlanta’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities (LGBTQ+) are threatened. Buildings and other physical spaces that were important gathering spots for generations of LGBTQ+ Atlantans who came before us — who fought for us — are unknown and unrecognized. Many have been demolished, and those that remain have been stripped of their LGBTQ+ identities.

I have set out to find and document those places here, on Gay A.F. — Gay ATL Flashback. 

Gay A.F. identifies buildings and other physical locations that were connected to LGBTQ+ community in Atlanta, Ga., from roughly the mid-1900s until the early 2000s.

Gay A.F. aims to complement and bring additional visibility to the people and organizations that have been working for years to uncover, preserve, and share accurate information about Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ history.

A Night at The Sweet Gum Head tells an epic but intimate story of Atlanta in the 1970s. It’s the story of gay-rights activist Bill Smith and of John Greenwell, who performed as the legendary Rachel Wells at the Sweet Gum Head, the “Showplace of the South.” Sweet Gum Head vividly reanimates a decade of drag, drugs, and disco—while it reminds us all that sometimes, to find out who we really are, we have to become someone else.