In 1838, Henry Irby purchased 202 1/2 acres surrounding the present intersection of Peachtree, Roswell, and West Paces Ferry roads from Daniel Johnson for $650.

[2] The name "Buckhead" comes from a story that Irby killed a large buck deer and placed the head in a prominent location.

[7] Buckhead remained dominated by country estates until after World War I, when many of Atlanta's wealthy began building mansions among the area's rolling hills.

[8] Predominantly black neighborhoods within Buckhead included Johnsontown, Piney Grove, Savagetown, and Macedonia Park.

[6] In 1930, Henry Aaron Alexander built one of the largest homes on Peachtree Road, a 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m2) house with 33 rooms and 13 bathrooms.

[citation needed] When Lenox Square opened in 1959, it was one of the first malls in the country, and the largest shopping center in the Southeastern U.S. Office development soon followed with the construction of Tower Place in 1974.

"[citation needed] Following the events of the Ray Lewis murder case in Buckhead on the night of the 2000 Super Bowl (held in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome), as well as a series of murders involving the Black Mafia Family, residents sought to ameliorate crime by taking measures to reduce the community's nightlife and re-establish a more residential character.

[11] The Buckhead Coalition's president and former Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell, along with councilwoman Mary Norwood were instrumental in persuading the Atlanta City Council to pass a local ordinance to close bars at 2:30 AM rather than 4 AM, and liquor licenses were made more difficult to obtain.

[13] In 2008, a newsletter[14] by the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation began circulating that proposed the secession of Buckhead into its own city after more than 50 years as part of Atlanta.

[15][16] In Atlanta's Police Zone 2, which includes Buckhead, Lenox Park, Piedmont Heights, and West Midtown, murder was up 63% in 2021 compared to the previous year, going from 8 cases to 13.

[17] Buckhead, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Atlanta, would deprive the city of upwards of 40% of its tax revenue if it seceded.

The bill prompted a response from governor Brian Kemp on the legality and workability of incorporating Buckhead as a city, but was ultimately rejected 33-23.

Buckhead is bordered by Cumberland and Vinings in Cobb County to the northwest, the city of Sandy Springs to the north, Brookhaven and North Druid Hills in DeKalb County to the east, Midtown Atlanta to the south, and West Midtown to the west.

[29] The Robb Report magazine has consistently ranked Buckhead one of the nation's "10 Top Affluent Communities" due to "the most beautiful mansions, best shopping, and finest restaurants in the Southeastern United States".

[35][36] At the heart of Buckhead around the intersections of Lenox, Peachtree and Piedmont Roads, is a shopping district with more than 1,500 retail units where shoppers spend more than $3 billion a year.

[47] While much of west and north Buckhead is preserved as single-family homes in forested settings, the Peachtree Road corridor has become a major focus of high-rise construction.

Many luxury high-rise apartment buildings have been built recently, including the 26-story Post Alexander High Rise in 2014 and the 26-story SkyHouse Buckhead in 2014.

Its "Leadership Speaker Series", which showcases an agenda of executive officers from prestigious, well-known companies is also hosted at their Buckhead Center.

This facility houses the university's executive MBA program and Terry Third Thursday, a lecture series featuring business leaders.

In the early 1990s, after a bitter fight against GDOT by residents, Buckhead was split in two by Georgia 400, a tolled extension of a freeway connecting I-285 to I-85.

However, MARTA's Red Line extension was put in the highway's median, providing additional mass transit to Buckhead and Sandy Springs.