Then and Now: 24 Years of Cabbagetown Photographs

In 1991, geographic explorer and photographer Mark Hedlund took photos of Cabbagetown that would eventually be logged on his website, Encyclopedia of Fornlorn Places. The haunting images show rusted fences, broken glass, dilapidated houses and boarded-up windows in what has since become a tight-knit neighborhood that is anything but forlorn. Once a mill town based around the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill, Cabbagetown has survived the mill's 1977 closing, a major fire in 1999, the 2008 tornado and even the Krog Masquerade of 2014.

Hedlund says, "After the mill closed in 1977, the neighborhood entered a period of decline. Thankfully during its decade of decline, no one put the time and effort required into demolishing the mill building as so often happens. When these pictures were taken the area had just begun to attract artists and young people with its unique history, architecture and cheap real estate. … The gentrification of Cabbagetown is definitely a win for preservation. Most of the industrial, commercial and residential buildings have survived with minor modifications. Of course, the blue collar jobs and affordable housing are gone forever but had the mill building and surrounding houses been demolished, as has happened so many other places, then the thriving Cabbagetown of today would never have existed. It's a very interesting and mostly positive example of the recycling and life cycling of an entire neighborhood."

· Encyclopedia of Forlorn Places [website]
· The Only House For Sale in Cabbagetown Isn't Selling [Curbed Atlanta]