Intown Lots, Steep Driveways and Low Branches
Grant Park was laid out in the 1890s and early 1900s on a grid of narrow rectangular lots, with Victorian cottages and Craftsman bungalows, original brick sidewalks and retaining walls built to handle the hilly terrain. In practice that means short, steep, often walled driveways, and a truck that parks on the street while the carry happens on foot.
Druid Hills was planned by Olmsted and built between 1905 and 1936 around a parkway and a chain of parks, with large houses on deep lots and long private drives, so the problem there is distance from curb to door rather than stairs. Tree canopy is the constraint people forget. Atlanta’s canopy covered nearly 48 percent of the land inside the city limits at the last full study, and low overhanging limbs on intown streets are why a 26-foot box truck with a shuttle often works better here than a full tractor-trailer.