You know Buckhead for the great bars, shopping, dining, and beautiful mansions. But where did the name Buckhead come from? The story may surprise you. In the mid-1800s, a man named John Whitley left North Carolina and settled near the present day site of Buckhead. Like many early settlers in the area, he bought some land and began growing corn, cotton, and tobacco. Sometime between 1838 and 1840, Whitley shot a large deer near a creek on the present day site of the Atlanta History Center. He then took the head from the animal and affixed it to a nearby pole or tree. Soon after, the area came to be known as “Buck Head.” Eventually the name was shortened to “Buckhead.” Looking around Buckhead today, it’s easy to assume that anything having to do with that time has since been erased (except for the name). But hidden in the woods behind an unassuming Buckhead mansion sits the small one room cabin Whitley called home. Whitley built this cabin in Cobb County in the 1840s after leaving Buckhead. Three generations of Whitley’s lived in the cabin, the last being Jim Whitley, grandson of John Whitley. By the 1950s, highway construction threatened the structure, and it was moved to Buckhead where it remains today. The John Whitley Cabin is on private property and is not accessible to the public.
Learn more about the history of Buckhead at Party With the Past at the Atlanta History Center on November 15, 2012!
