Edgewood's Ghost Town: Annexed and Reborn

Lyrics

[Intro]
There’s a ghost on these streets.
Not a person, but a name.
A memory of a map...

[Verse 1]
Before the city lines were drawn so wide
You had a council, you had your own pride.
A town apart, on this eastern ridge,
Where Edgewood Avenue was the bridge
Connecting homes with their own laws, their own time.
The Georgia Railway car, a steady climb,
Brought the people, the commerce, the friendly sound...
And the future that was circling 'round.

[Chorus]
Nineteen-oh-nine, in a downtown room.
A signature sealed a quiet doom.
No cannons fired, no flags were torn,
Just the rustle of a paper, and a ghost was born.
A town erased by ink and lead,
From the silent, official words they said.

[Verse 2]
Who was your mayor? Do you recall his name?
The archives hold no fire for that flame.
No record of the final, solemn vote,
Or the last words that a councilman wrote.
You just became a ward, a section, a part,
Another chamber in Atlanta’s growing heart.
Your separate pulse was folded in,
And no one remembers where you begin.

[Chorus]
Nineteen-oh-nine, in a downtown room.
A signature sealed a quiet doom.
No cannons fired, no flags were torn,
Just the rustle of a paper, and a ghost was born.
A town erased by ink and lead,
From the silent, official words they said.

[Bridge]
Now the BeltLine traces over the old seams,
Fulfilling someone else’s dreams.
MARTA rumbles where your border used to be,
For all the new arrivals to see.
They build on the ghost of a phantom deed,
Planting a new and different seed.
But the grid of your streets, it still remains,
Whispering through the summer rains.

[Outro]
Do you remember, Edgewood?
Before the paper came down.
The ghost of a town.
The ghost... of a town.