Sweet Auburn Curb Market once center of Atlanta

In the 1920s, Sweet Auburn Curb Market was the center of Atlanta – not only geographically, but in terms of shopping.

The building – then called the Municipal Market of Atlanta – started as an open-air market organized after the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917. Following its instant success, a fireproof building designed by A. Ten Eyck Brown was built in 1924.

The name “Sweet Auburn” was coined by John Wesley Dobbs, who called Auburn Avenue “the richest Negro Street in the world,” while “Curb Market” refers to the segregation of that time when blacks could only sell outside along the curb.

– Caroline Parsley, The 100 Companies