The community that became College Park was founded as Atlantic City in 1890 as a depot on the Atlanta and West Point Railroad.

[9] The history of College Park has been closely linked with what is now known as Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport—airport development having spurred several radical changes to the landscape of the municipality over the course of the 20th century.

[10] In 1966, a study funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development suggested that the introduction and expansion of jet aircraft travel would place the airport and surrounding communities, including College Park, into conflict; ultimately, the study concluded that "the only effective way to control the use of land is to own it," suggesting that the airport would have to acquire the properties it would be in conflict with in order to expand.

[11] In the 1970s and 1980s, large swaths of property in College Park were purchased using information detailed in The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Noise Land Reuse Plan, which allowed the airport to apply for federal funding to purchase property deemed to be in so-called "noise land.

"[12][13] The 1985 Chuck Norris film Invasion U.S.A. was notoriously filmed in these abandoned portions of College Park; houses owned by the City of Atlanta and the FAA were allowed to be blown up to simulate bazooka attacks, a decision that has faced modern day criticism due to the fact that nearby properties were still in the process of being purchased.

It is the only convention center in the country that also houses a SkyTrain with direct rail access to an international airport.

[13] Between the 1980s and the early 2000s, as part of continued execution of the FAA noise abatement program, the City of Atlanta and the FAA purchased roughly 320 acres of property (containing residential structures, churches, and some small commercial buildings) immediately adjacent to the west side of downtown College Park, resulting in a multitude of properties sitting abandoned for decades.

[17] The totality of these eventually abandoned properties purchased from the 1970s through the 2000s have been described as a major player in shaping a negative public image of the city, second only to the perception of crime in the area.

[18] Although the Atlanta hip hop music scene in the 1980s and 1990s was largely credited to artists from nearby suburban Decatur, College Park and the adjacent city of East Point have been strongly associated with artists and record producers from "SWATS" ("Southwest Atlanta, Too Strong"), who have substantially contributed to the evolution of the southern hip hop genre over the course of the 2000s.

[19] While the controversial process of gentrification started in the larger Atlanta Metropolitan Area in the 1970s, it was only in the latter 2010s that redevelopment substantially spread to College Park proper.

[20] In 2016, the College Park government embarked on a 20-year development plan which included goals "to expand its economic base while keeping its small town historic characteristics," and to "make use of its available land to attract new employers and residential opportunities.

The city government has suggested that this was due to the combined effects of airport expansion and the difficult nature of having housing constructed in areas previously considered to be "high noise.

As of the 2016 American Community Survey, 35.7% of College Park residents are estimated to live in poverty which partly contributed to the crime problem.

[69] Four council members are elected on a nonpartisan basis for 4 year terms, and each represents one of the four wards that make up the city.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) provides rail and bus service in College Park.

College Park Station—serviced by the Gold Line and Red Line—is the third busiest station in the MARTA rail system, with a weekday average of 9,023 entries.