The Reason Georgia’s Capital Has Dozens of Streets Named Peachtree

Ask for directions in Atlanta, and there’s a good chance the word Peachtree comes up more than once.

But Georgians who’ve gotten turned around there know one name can point to several different places.

Here’s how a single name ended up on so many signs.

A Creek Town Called Standing Peachtree

The name behind Atlanta’s Peachtree streets traces to a Creek settlement called Standing Peachtree.

Standing Peachtree was where Peachtree Creek meets the Chattahoochee River.

You’ll find the creek named Peachtree too, Georgia Public Broadcasting reports, running through DeKalb and Fulton counties before it joins the river.

A Georgia Historical Society marker in Atlanta calls Standing Peachtree a Creek trading post town.

Its Creek name was Pakanahuili, which the Atlanta History Center translates as Standing Peach Tree.

A 1782 letter already refers to a gathering of Coweta Creek people at Standing Peach Tree.

Atlanta didn’t exist yet.

So the Peachtree sign you pass today carries a name older than the city around it.

Borrowing a Famous Name

Some have called Peachtree Street Atlanta’s Main Street, and the Atlanta History Center says developers and city planners have provided variations on the original name.

Peachtree Lane, Peachtree Circle, Peachtree Memorial Drive, Peachtree Valley Road and Peachtree Dunwoody Road are all on that list.

Those variations all borrow the original name.

The Atlanta Regional Commission counted 71 variations of the name across a 20-county planning area, according to a 2013 report from WABE, Atlanta’s public radio station.

Atlanta magazine built its list of 40 streets by starting downtown and working outward.

Boundaries matter.

Within Atlanta proper, there are 15 separate streets called Peachtree, a much smaller area than the other two counts cover.

So you’ll find dozens of Peachtree streets across the metro area, but only 15 inside the city.

The Road That Carried the Name

The original Peachtree Road began as a military supply route from Fort Daniel to the village of Standing Peachtree.

The army used it to move supplies toward the Chattahoochee during the Creek Wars of 1813 and 1814.

Those supplies were meant to float downstream to the troops of Generals Jackson and Floyd.

At the river end, Fort Peachtree went up in 1814 on a summit above the town.

People kept calling the road Peachtree.

Then came the railroad.

When the Western & Atlantic Railroad picked its southern end in 1837, the spot was near the end of that Peachtree Trail, the Atlanta History Center says.

If you follow Peachtree Street north through Midtown, you’ll reach Buckhead, where it becomes Peachtree Road.

Farther north, Peachtree Road splits, and the left route becomes Peachtree Boulevard.

At I-285, that route changes name to Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.

Peach Tree or Pitch Tree

If you’ve assumed Peachtree means peach, Atlanta magazine says the Creek name may translate as Standing Pitch Tree, which would make the tree a pine.

Pitch is the sticky resin that pine trees produce.

A story passed down among early Buckhead settlers says Native Americans burned a big pine at the settlement to collect rosin, and “pitch tree” eventually turned into “peach tree.”

The Buckhead Heritage Society’s president recounted that story in a 2010 piece for Rough Draft Atlanta.

That piece also offers a counter-account from George Washington Collier, a Buckhead landowner who delivered mail to the Standing Peachtree post office.

Collier remembered a big peach tree growing on top of a large earthen mound at the site.

Georgia Public Broadcasting reports that many historians believe the name was mistranslated, pointing to historian Kenneth Krakow’s work.

According to the Atlanta History Center, the settlement most likely had an orchard or grove of peach trees, a common sight at many Creek villages.

Sources disagree, so which tree you picture is up to you.

The signs say peach.

The Smaller Peachtrees

Atlanta magazine says Peachtree Walk is a street that’s only for walking, at least in part, and that it begins at 10th Street.

If you’re looking for Peachtree Drive, its nondescript entrance is next to Krystal on Piedmont Road.

You’ll find two different Peachtree Ways, one near Duck Pond Park in Buckhead and one in Dunwoody.

Peachtree Circle loops through Ansley Park, where the writers say they’re forever lost on the roundabout.

In 2022, searching for Peachtree Boulevard in Google Maps returned Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.

Wrong street, right name.

Sorting Out the Peachtrees

Peachtree Street, Peachtree Road and West Peachtree Street are three different roads in Atlanta, and you'll find all three on Atlanta magazine's ranking.

West Peachtree Street runs parallel to Peachtree Street.

If you head north, Peachtree Industrial Boulevard splits off from Peachtree Road in Brookhaven and extends for miles beyond I-285.

Peachtree Parkway is at the far edge of the name's range, and it turns into Medlock Bridge Road near the Chattahoochee.

Same name, new road.