History of the East Lake Garden
Welcome to the East Lake Garden! We (Chuck and Emilie, along with our daughter Ruby) are long time East Lake residents who bought the garden on a bit of a whim in the late summer of 2020. We saw a post on Facebook that the property was for sale and at that point, we couldn’t even think of where the East Lake Garden was. We immediately paid a visit and realized we had a history with this property, which I’ll cover in a bit. We were completely taken with the lovely homegrown hardscaping and the beautiful mature bushes and trees (many of them fruiting and/or native). This was also during the height of the pandemic when green space was the coveted place where we could most safely connect with our neighbors (six feet please!) during this fraught and fragile time. We decided on the spot to buy it as a gift for our neighborhood. It is adjacent to the four corners of our little East Lake downtown, so it was very likely to become townhomes if someone didn’t act quickly. While we understand that density drives a healthy metropolis, we also believe that green space is equally as important; not only for our human community but also for all of the flora and fauna who live right beside us. So here began our journey with this incredible property!
Herb beds at the garden
HISTORY OF THE GARDEN AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF EAST LAKE
In July 2010, the East Lake Community Learning Garden was founded as a safe, supportive environment where neighborhood residents will grow organic produce in a small urban farm and participate in interactive workshops while learning from each other and gardening experts. It was an active educational environment, as well as a hub for the community. The Learning Garden was an outdoor classroom for East Lake students from Charles R. Drew Charter & East Lake Elementary Schools.
An early iteration of the patio area
To understand why this was important for the community, it helps to have some history of the East Lake neighborhood. The very short of it: East Lake was home to one of the most dangerous and poorly funded housing projects in the country, East Lake Meadows. A resident and activist named Eva Davis was instrumental in securing HUD funding to tear it down and build a multi-income housing community. East Lake became a model community for this strategic action in other communities.
Ken Burns did a documentary about it: https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/east-lake-meadows/
The East Lake Foundation was a key player as well: https://www.eastlakefoundation.org/home/our-neighborhood/history-legacy/
Sheep and goats were added to the East Lake Community Garden in subsequent years, which is when Chuck and I stumbled upon the project. After living in the neighborhood since 2006, it was such a fun discovery for us. We quickly volunteered to help care for the animals
Chuck and one of the goats in 2013
Shortly after this, some of the herd was killed by (presumably) stray dogs or coyotes. We were devastated and stepped away from the project. It was my opinion that the project was not properly funded and failed to provide a proper fence to keep the animals safe. I tried to engage the community and also reached out to the Southeastern Horticultural Society (who was funding the animal part of the project) to use my voice and never heard back. Sadly, there were multiple groups of animals killed in the night over the next couple years and in 2015, the remaining animals were re-homed.
Adjacent to the East Lake Garden is the main street in intersection in East Lake, Hosea Williams (named after the Civil Rights leader) and 2nd Ave. This intersection consisted of 4 undeveloped corners, one corner of which was being used as The East Lake Community Urban farm and the East Lake Farmers (ELF) market. (Incidentally the ELF Market was one of the first places I sold Mama products in Atlanta). In 2015, development was underway to give the neighborhood our own little downtown area of restaurants and retail.
During this time (2015-2017 or so) there seem to have been efforts to continue the work of the East Lake Community Garden, but I can’t really find a trail of what happened and at some point it fell into disrepair. At some point during this time, Clay Harper, one of the investors, purchased the garden from the East Lake Foundation and was designing a community center. He decided to sell the property in 2020 and that’s we stepped in.
Sources:
https://www.atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-articles/5-reasons-to-love-east-lake/
https://www.eastlakefoundation.org/east-lake-foundation-creates-east-lake-community-learning-garden/
https://eastlakecommunitylearninggarden.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/EastLakeUrbanFarm/