In the 1979 nomination form to establish the Underground Atlanta Historic District for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, the cited area is bounded by the modern-day Alabama Street, Central Avenue, Peachtree Street (formerly Whitehall), and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive; a handwritten note extends it to a four-block area bounded by Wall St SW (on the northeast), Central Ave SW (on the southeast), Martin Luther King Jr. Dr SW (on the southwest) and Peachtree St (on the northwest).

[5][6] Down in Atlanta GA Underneath the viaduct every day Drinking corn and hollerin' hoo-ray Pianos playin' till the break of day Given that this occurred during Prohibition, and the fact that these "basements" were relatively obscured from the city above, some of the basements became sites for speakeasys and juke joints, with music and illegal drinking a common occurrence.

One of the first mentions of the area is in the opening lines of Bessie Smith's 1927 song "Preachin' The Blues" which documents its importance as an entertainment district.

For the next forty years, as Atlanta continued to grow at street level, the 12-acre (49,000 m2) underground area was effectively abandoned and forgotten, though frequented by the homeless.

[7] In the 1960s, the original storefronts were rediscovered and many architectural features from a century earlier had survived intact including decorative brickwork, granite archways, ornate marble, cast-iron pilasters, hand-carved wooden posts, and gas street lamps.

Underground Atlanta, Inc. was incorporated May 2, 1967, and began acquiring options to lease buildings under Central Ave, Pryor, Whitehall, Hunter, Alabama, and Wall Street viaducts.

[7] On April 8, 1969, "Underground Atlanta" officially opened with new restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and music venues installed in the old individual storefronts.

When neighboring DeKalb County relaxed their restrictions on alcohol consumption in the early 1970s, new bars sprouted up in other parts of the city, generating competition.

In 1975, The New York Times noted that winter traffic to the complex was sparse and threatened the continued existence of the district; Underground Atlanta Inc. offered 26,000 shares of stock to the city of Atlanta, and proposed to fence off the district, converting the public streets into public parkland and offering a 25-cent admission charge.

In 1982, newly elected mayor Andrew Young vowed to reopen Underground as part of his plan to resuscitate downtown Atlanta, starting with authorizing a $400,000 study conducted by American Cities Corporation (a subsidiary of The Rouse Company, who had redeveloped and operated other "festival shopping" projects around the United States such as Faneuil Hall in Boston, Harborplace in Baltimore, and Bayside Marketplace in Miami); the resulting study advocated a complete redevelopment of Underground and the five blocks surrounding it.

However, the development was put on hold in December 1985 when the Georgia Supreme Court ruled the proposal, which included a municipal bond issue, first required approval by Fulton County citizens.

[16][11] Its 140 tenants included the retail outlets Sam Goody and Olivia Newton-John's Koala Blue boutique, as well as a reopened Dante's Down the Hatch in the Kenny's Alley section.

[18] Although the historic buildings and architecture remained a major draw, some critics felt that the now-sanitized district had lost its original charm and lively atmosphere; Jeff Kunerth wrote the new Underground was "a new heart [of Atlanta] with the soul of Disney World's Main Street" in the Orlando Sentinel.

[22][23] But on April 30, 1992, in the wake of the Rodney King trial verdict, the area was severely damaged by protesters and gangs, leading to the imposition of a curfew.

Underground Atlanta was host to retail stores, restaurants, and several nightclubs and bars in Kenny's Alley and street battle dancing in the late 1990s.

[32] WRS was better known for developing suburban strip malls, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Bill Torpy was skeptical about their prospects, calling them "an odd fit for the job".

[34] On November 28, 2020, Underground Atlanta was sold to Shaneel Lalani, the CEO of Norcross-based Billionaires Funding Group (BFG), a private investment firm.

[35] Lalani assembled a team of experts to suggest new directions for renovating the site; recommendations included mixed-use development with multifamily residences, expanded retail and dining options, and reopening outdoor spaces.