Atlanta officials are set to unveil the preferred design for a memorial, park and greenspace at the former Chattahoochee Brick Company site, a 75-acre property along the Chattahoochee River where archaeologists have found soil disturbances consistent with possible shallow graves. The Department of City Planning will present the concept at a public meeting scheduled for October 3 at Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, according to a meeting announcement cited by Urbanize Atlanta.
A Long-Planned Reckoning Takes Shape
The site sits at the confluence of the Chattahoochee River and Proctor Creek, fronting active rail lines and Interstate 285 near the Whittier Mill Village, Scotts Crossing and Riverside neighborhoods, as reported by Urbanize Atlanta. The property is more than three times the size of Centennial Olympic Park, per the outlet's reporting, though other sources describe the tract as 77 acres — a discrepancy the available records do not resolve. City of Atlanta officials plan to unveil plans for a greenspace and river connection memorializing the people who suffered there, with Mayor Andre Dickens expected to speak about the project's vision at the meeting, which runs from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is free to attend with required reservations.
The Department of City Planning has described the gathering as a chance for residents to see where the project stands, ask questions and share thoughts about what comes next, according to Urbanize Atlanta's account of the meeting notice. Outreach so far has included neighborhood events, community meetings and other methods of gathering citizen input, and city officials said in 2024 that the process of collecting public input was expected to take several years.
A Brutal Chapter in Atlanta's Construction
Chattahoochee Brick Company opened in 1878, and James W. English founded the operation with William Lowe before becoming its majority shareholder in 1886, according to georgiaencyclopedia.org. The factory, located on what is now Brick Plant Road next to Whittier Mill Village, manufactured bricks used to build much of Atlanta using forced convict labor after the Civil War, per Urbanize Atlanta's reporting. Convict lease labor at the site involved hundreds of men, most of them Black, subjected to forced work and severe beatings, the outlet reports.
Georgia officially abolished convict leasing in September 1908, giving the company ninety days to transition to a free labor force, the Georgia Encyclopedia notes — though Urbanize Atlanta's account places the state's abolition of convict labor in 1909. Historians and others interested in the site believe it contains unmarked graves, according to Urbanize Atlanta, and archaeologists have reported that ground-penetrating radar scans show soil disruption consistent with shallow graves, as detailed by WABE. The city has said those findings do not change the timelines for designing the park or memorial, though it has set no timeline for determining whether the sites are historically confirmed burial grounds, per the same WABE report.
Blocking Industrial Redevelopment
Records on when industrial activity at the property ended are not consistent. Urbanize Atlanta reports industrial uses continued at the site until about two decades before publication, while atlcitystudio.org states operations ceased in 1972 and conservationfund.org states brickwork continued until the site closed in 2011. Lincoln Terminal Company was denied a redevelopment permit for the property in 2017, and Norfolk Southern, which owns tracks adjacent to the site, subsequently hoped to build a train terminal there, a plan reported by WABE as proposed in 2021.
Activists and city leaders opposed Norfolk Southern's proposed terminal, and those redevelopment plans were scrapped in 2021, according to Urbanize Atlanta. The City of Atlanta then purchased the site from Lincoln Terminal Company in 2022, a move that prevented non-public industrial uses such as a train terminal or chemical depot from moving forward, the outlet reports. The Kendeda Fund provided a $4 million grant supporting the purchase, and the Conservation Fund also contributed funding, per Urbanize Atlanta's reporting.
Trails, River Access and Regional Connections
The City of Atlanta has created an 11-member Chattahoochee Brick Company Memorial, Greenspace, and Park Board to help steer the project, according to Urbanize Atlanta. Project designs include a memorial, park and greenspace honoring the site alongside trails, boardwalks and a river access point, aiming to tell the story of Atlanta's construction through forced convict labor after the Civil War. The future park is expected to link to the Proctor Creek Greenway and provide rare public access to the Chattahoochee River for Atlanta residents, per the outlet.
The project is also part of the broader Atlanta RiverLands initiative, which Urbanize Atlanta describes as extending 100 miles, while SCAPE, the firm selected alongside MASS Design Group's Public Memory and Memorials Lab and Toole Design Group to lead a 16-month planning and design process, describes the effort as part of a proposed 125-mile Chattahoochee RiverLands greenway. The segment through Atlanta is intended to connect with the Atlanta BeltLine, the Silver Comet Trail, the Whetstone Creek Trail and the Proctor Creek Greenway, according to atlcitystudio.org. In March 2026, residents and stakeholders gathered for a second public meeting on the project, and additional meetings are scheduled as the city advances what the Georgia Trust calls a community-driven vision for the site.
