Cabbagetown, wedged between Oakland Cemetery and the CSX railroad tracks southeast of Downtown, took a direct hit from the March 14 tornado.
The 20-block district, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, was originally an Appalachian working-class community, created by industrialist Jacob Elsas in 1881 for workers at his Fulton Cotton and Spinning Company. That company would eventually become the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill, with its iconic smokestacks rising over the campus of buildings.
Driving through Cabbagetown in mid-May, one could see that most of the debris had been cleared, but many of the homes still had missing roofs and collapsed porches, and blue tarps were everywhere. More than 20 homes were damaged, and last week a 100-year-old home had to be demolished.
The Cabbagetown Neighborhood Improvement Association is still seeking donations for cleanup and repairs, which can be made via PayPal at www.cabbagetown.com. The association is also encouraging shoppers to support businesses and restaurants along Carroll Street that were affected by road closings after the storm.
The mill complex, transformed into lofts in the late 1990s by Aderhold Properties, sustained heavy damage, but rebuilding is under way, and sales will resume in the fall.
"The spirit of Cabbagetown is fluid, but it still is predominantly artsy, funky and grass-rootsy," said Celine Bufkin, president of Cabbagetown Neighborhood Improvement Association. "And after the storm, all the clichÈs became realities: neighbors came together and helped each other, looked out for each other, took care of each other. I love the place. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else."
Early Beginnings
Born in Wurttemberg, Germany, dry goods retailer Jacob Elsas, a Union Army veteran, arrived in Atlanta in 1868 from Cartersville, Ga., via Cincinnati, Ohio. The 26-year-old merchant operated three businesses by 1870, advertising the Fairmount jeans brand name in his Star Store on Whitehall Street, today’s Underground area.
When Elsas shifted from retail to manufacturing, he joined forces with Isaac May, forming Elsas, May & Company in January 1872. The two Jewish immigrants from Germany established the Southern Bag Factory, located on Pryor and Mitchell streets on the second floor of Atlanta’s old slave market house. By early 1876, the partners chartered the Fulton Cotton Spinning Company, soon to be one of the two earliest cotton mills in Atlanta. The spinning mill produced cotton bags for flour and feed grains.
In 1881, Fulton Cotton Spinning purchased the eight-acre historic Civil War ruins of the Atlanta Rolling Mill destroyed by the Confederacy to prevent it from falling into Union hands in September 1864. The mill opened with 12,000 spindles and 450 looms. The first homes in Cabbagetown, then called Factory Town, were also built in 1881.
The Later Years
In 1956, Eastern and Midwestern investors bought controlling interest in the company. The Atlanta mill, which remained known as Fulton Cotton Mill, continued in operation under the management of Elsas’ family members until 1968, when it was sold to Allied Products Corporation.
The mill was finally closed in 1978 and remained empty until 1995, when Aderhold Properties purchased the property and transformed it into rental lofts in 1997.
Cabbagetown itself went into a steep decline until the late 1980s and early 1990s, when artists discovered the old homes and cheap rent. By the early and mid-90s, urban pioneers were snapping up the modest homes and meeting their neighbors, many of whose families went back generations to the opening of the mill.
Cabbagetown Name Puzzle
Many myths surround the origin of the Cabbagetown moniker. Most stories involve a man, a truck and a load of cabbage overturning in the middle of Boulevard. One version said local vandals stole the cabbage while the driver was fixing his truck, while another has mill workers helping the driver with repairs in exchange for some of his cabbage.
Both versions agree that for weeks after the accident the aroma of cooking cabbage permeated Factory Town. One story said outsiders coined the word roughly between 1919 and the late 1920s. They poked fun at the poverty and illiteracy of the Appalachian community mill workers.
Others say the name was coined during the Great Depression, while others maintain it didn’t stick until after World War II, and others believe it was made up by a newspaper reporter and that the truck incident never happened at all.
