Local Authors Release New Book on East Atlanta

By Patch Staff

East Atlanta residents Henry Bryant and Katina VanCronkhite have in their new book, East Atlanta, woven together East Atlanta's history with more than 200 archival images to tell the neighborhood's story from early settlement to current day.

East Atlanta was released on Monday as part of Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series.

Bryant is a charter member of the East Atlanta Community Association, The Friends of East Atlanta Library and is a Chairman of the Boards of The Porch Press newspaper and BATL- the Battle of Atlanta Commemoration Organization.

VanCronkhite is a retired library media specialist, a board member of the Friends of the East Atlanta Library, a member of the DeKalb Historical Society and the Atlanta History Center.

On Friday, March 7, the pair will be in East Atlanta signing copies of the book in an event that will be held in conjunction with the East Atlanta Community Association's 2014 Membership Drive.

This July marks the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Atlanta claimed over 12,000 lives on the ground that now makes up East Atlanta. Despite the destruction wrought from the battle “within 15 years of the Battle of Atlanta, farsighted businessmen envisioned a future of streetcars and a new suburban development” write the authors.

Over the next 150 years East Atlanta would transition from battleground to a neighborhood which earns such titles as the “epitome of cool.”

“What began centuries ago as a promising land without borders continues to foster a boundless spirit of creativity and acceptance in a community where a brighter day is always dawning. Ultimately, East Atlanta is an experience as much as a place—the sum of its land and the people who labored to inhabit it,” write the authors.

Highlights of East Atlanta include:

• Most of the images have been donated from private collections of residents and former residents and descendants of the early East Atlanta pioneers. They have never been published and have rarely been seen.

• A portion of the profits from the sale of the book will be donated to the restoration of East Atlanta’s two Civil War monuments built to honor Generals McPherson and Walker.

• Several prominent Georgians who lived in East Atlanta include: Billionaire J. Mack Robinson, Herbert Jenkins, and Joel Eaves.