The Nine-Mile Circle was a streetcar line of the Atlanta Street Railway, later the Atlanta Consolidated Street Railway which went from downtown Atlanta

Downtown Atlanta

Downtown Atlanta is the first and largest of the three financial districts in the city of Atlanta. Downtown Atlanta is the location of many corporate or regional headquarters, city, county, state and federal government facilities, sporting facilities, and is the central tourist attraction of the city...

 to today's Virginia Highland neighborhood as follows:

• from Marietta and Broad to Peachtree Street
  Peachtree Street
  Peachtree Street is the main street of Atlanta. The city grew up around the street, and many of its historical and municipal buildings are or were located along it...
  
   and north along Peachtree
• east on what was then Houston St. (now most of which is called John Wesley Dobbs Ave., though parts of Houston St. no longer exist)
• north along N. Boulevard
  Boulevard (Atlanta)
  Boulevard is a street in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. The street runs east of, and parallel to, Atlanta's Downtown Connector. It is bordered by Ponce de Leon Avenue to the north , and McDonough Boulevard to the south...
  
   (now Monroe Dr.) to
• Ponce de Leon Ave. from where it made a loop:
  • north along N. Boulevard (now Monroe Dr.)
  • east on Virginia Ave.
  • south along N. Highland Ave., and
  • west on Ponce de Leon back to the intersection of Ponce de Leon and Boulevard.

The line started operation in late 1889, and was the second electric line in Atlanta, after the Edgewood line to Inman Park.

The line was an extension of an earlier horsecar line:

• The original line went from downtown Atlanta up Peachtree to Pine
• Extended in August 1872 to "Ponce de Leon Circle" (today's Ponce de Leon Ave.).
• At some point later it was extended to Ponce de Leon Springs
  Ponce de Leon Springs (Atlanta)
  Ponce de Leon Springs were natural springs located on the site of the future Ponce City Market in Atlanta, where Ponce de Leon Avenue crosses the BeltLine, and where the Old Fourth Ward, Virginia Highland, Midtown and Poncey-Highland neighborhoods of Atlanta meet.In the 1860s, trips to the springs...
  
  , where the Ponce de Leon amusement park
  Ponce de Leon amusement park
  The Ponce de Leon amusement park was built on the site of Ponce de Leon Springs. Omnibus service from Atlanta to the springs started in 1872, and in 1874 horsecar service started. It developed in the late 1880s and 1890s with the addition of attractions for children, a dance hall and theater, and...
  
   would be built; today, Ponce City Market (formerly the Sears building, then City Hall East) stands on the site.
• Finally in 1889 the line was electrified and extended with the "loop" around what is now Virginia Highland.

In its heyday in the 1890s, the Nine-Mile Circle line was one of the streetcar lines popular for pleasure trips. It also took visitors to the Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895, held in what is today Piedmont Park

Piedmont Park

Piedmont Park is a urban park in Atlanta, Georgia, located about northeast of Downtown, between the Midtown and Virginia Highland neighborhoods. Originally the land was owned by Dr. Benjamin Walker, who used it as his out-of-town gentleman's farm and residence...

.

At some point (it seems around 1901 as the line was frequently mentioned in the Atlanta Constitution and suddenly ceases to be mentioned after June 1901), service in a loop was discontinued (see map). Service to the area did continue as individual lines however:

• Along North Boulevard as far as Orme Circle
• Along Ponce de Leon Ave. from downtown past Druid Hills out to Decatur, and
• Along North Highland Ave. as far north as Virginia Ave.

External links

• Sarah Toton, Vale of Amusements: Modernity, Technology, and Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Park, 1870-1920, Southern Spaces (main article)