Before the Atlanta BeltLine transformed the city's landscape and breweries dotted the streets, the Old Fourth Ward was already a neighborhood that shaped Atlanta's identity. This June, the 14th Annual Old Fourth Ward Arts Festival will take place at Historic Fourth Ward Park, offering free admission and a celebration of the area's deep cultural roots. The festival, scheduled for June 20–21, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, will feature curated artist booths, live DJs, food, and a children's area. Dogs are welcome.
The Old Fourth Ward is perhaps best known as the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but its contributions to Black education run even deeper. Morris Brown College, founded in 1881, established its original location in the neighborhood. Dr. Kevin E. James, President of Morris Brown College, noted, "Morris Brown College was established on January 5, 1881, by the Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Atlanta, Georgia—born in the heart of the Old Fourth Ward, at the storied intersection of Boulevard and Houston Streets. From that founding moment, we stood apart: the only institution of higher learning in Georgia founded by, completely funded by, and created exclusively for African Americans." As the college marks its 145th year with projected enrollment growth of 20 percent, its legacy remains intertwined with the neighborhood's identity.
The neighborhood also gave Atlanta its most iconic street name. In the late 1860s, a local physician named natural springs east of town "Ponce de León Springs," inspiring the avenue that now connects the area. Historic Fourth Ward Park sits near those springs, its two-acre lake anchoring the same water table that drew Victorian-era Atlantans. After the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917, the neighborhood reimagined itself around the Ponce de León Ballpark and an amusement complex, attracting Sears, Roebuck & Company to build its Southern Regional Distribution Center on Ponce de León Avenue—now Ponce City Market.
The phrase "Old Fourth Ward" technically didn't exist until 1937, when Georgia legislators restructured Atlanta's ward system, and residents informally adopted the name. Even after the ward system was abolished in 1954, the neighborhood kept its identity, making it one of the few Atlanta communities to outlast the governmental structure that created it. Public art has long been a hallmark of the area, from Living Walls murals to Sol LeWitt's permanent installation 54 Columns. Artists like HENSE, whose large-scale abstract works have attracted clients from Apple to the High Museum, began their public-art careers on O4W's walls.
The Old Fourth Ward Arts Festival embodies this spirit of creativity and community. For more information, visit www.oldfourthwardparkartsfestival.com.
