Clear Creek (Atlanta)

Clear Creek is a stream in northeast Atlanta that serves as a tributary to Peachtree Creek and is part of the Chattahoochee River watershed. It has two main branches: one originating east of the high ground along Boulevard and another to the west, originating on the northeast side of downtown Atlanta.

The eastern branch of Clear Creek begins in several springs and streams located in what are now Inman Park and the Old Fourth Ward. Flowing northward, the creek is joined by additional springs and branches, including Angier Springs near the end of Belgrade Avenue and the Ponce de Leon Springs. The latter, "discovered" during railroad construction in the 1860s, inspired the name of the adjacent park and avenue.

The western branch of Clear Creek originated in the northeast quadrant of downtown Atlanta, between Decatur and Peachtree Streets. It flowed through the lowlands east of Piedmont Avenue, where the Atlanta Civic Center was constructed in the mid-1960s.

In the fall of 1864, the Union Army camped along this branch of the creek, and for several decades, it was referred to as Shermantown Branch. Flowing in a northeasterly meander through the eastern side of the Midtown neighborhood, it eventually joined the eastern branch of the creek near the site of the present-day Midtown High School stadium.

From there, the creek flows in a northerly direction, joined by several smaller tributaries. One of these tributaries originates from at least two springs—one near the Federal Reserve and another northeast of the intersection of Eighth and Juniper Streets. The water from these springs combines to form a branch that was dammed in 1894 to create Clara Meer in Piedmont Park. Today, six springs are located in the restored wetlands below the dam.

A somewhat larger branch drains Orme Park, a significant portion of the northwest side of Virginia-Highland, and the southwest side of Morningside. Known in the 19th century as Stillhouse Branch, it merges with Clear Creek a few hundred feet west of the dead end of Dutch Valley Road.

Another smaller branch drains most of Ansley Park, emptying into Clear Creek within the Ansley Golf Club's course east of Montgomery Ferry Road. Additionally, a branch from Sherwood Forest flows into Clear Creek just east of the Interstate 85 bridge.

In the mid-nineteenth century, a grist mill was located just downstream from where the BeltLine crosses the creek at the northern end of Piedmont Park. Known as Jones Mill, it was a landmark on maps from the Civil War but is often referred to as Walker's Mill, after a later owner.

For decades in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the creek was used as a sewer and polluted by industrial waste. The western branch was completely buried by the 1930s, and much of the eastern branch was buried by 1950. North of Tenth Street, the creek emerges on the east side of Piedmont Park and flows northwards, part of the way flowing through stretches of concrete channel in both Piedmont Park and the Ansley Golf Course.