Blandtown was named for the Black family, born in slavery, who bought the land shortly after the Civil War and held it for decades.
Felix Bland and his sister Cherry Osborn eventually sold the land in 1916 and 1918 to R.A. Sims and the Blandtown Christian Church.
It also held that Felix Bland lost the land in the 1870s for not paying taxes, and developer Bob Booth acquired title and began building residences.
When the railroad reached the area, industries opened nearby including a mill, a fertilizer factory and a stockyard.
The last remaining resident of Blandtown was Joseph Bibbs who lived all his life at the corner of English and Culpepper Street and died in 2004 at age 85.
He recalled that in his youth the neighborhood was filled with the smell of the abattoir and fertilizer plant at the north end of English Street.
Following Mr. Bibbs' death, all the houses and most of the trees on Fairmont, Culpepper and English Streets were demolished, leaving only the studio of Atlanta artist Gregor Turk (www.gregorturk.com) on English Street and a woodworking studio (www.johnleewoodshop.com) that was built in 2001 on the old Willis homesite.