College Park (Georgia)

The community that would become College Park was founded as Atlantic City in 1890 as a depot on the Atlanta and West Point Railroad. The town was renamed Manchester when it was incorporated as a city in 1891. It was renamed again as the city of College Park in 1896. The city's name came from being the home of Cox College (where the city hall and other buildings now stand) and Georgia Military Academy (now the Woodward Academy). The history of College Park has been closely linked with what is now known as Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport — airport development having spurred several radical changes to the landscape of the municipality over the course of the 20th century. In the 1970s and 1980s, large swaths of property in College Park were purchased in order to address concerns about aircraft noise. The 1985 Chuck Norris film Invasion U.S.A. was filmed in these abandoned portions of College Park; houses owned by the City of Atlanta and the FAA were allowed to be blown up to simulate bazooka attacks, which was criticized because nearby properties were still in the process of being purchased. This site, in 2003, became the Georgia International Convention Center. Next door is the Gateway Center Arena, which opened in November 2019, home to the NBA's G-League College Park Skyhawks and the WBNA's Atlanta Dream....