Poncey-Highland

A compact intown neighborhood between the BeltLine and Freedom Park, with the Plaza Theatre, Hotel Clermont, and the Carter Center close at hand.

What living in Poncey-Highland feels like

Poncey-Highland takes its name from the intersection of Ponce de Leon Avenue and North Highland Avenue. The city adopted the name in the 1970s, when Atlanta set up its Neighborhood Planning Unit system. It is a small intown district: about 241 acres, or 0.37 square miles, and roughly two miles east of Downtown.

The neighborhood is bounded by Ponce de Leon Avenue on the north, Moreland Avenue on the east, Freedom Parkway on the south, and the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail on the west. Virginia-Highland sits across Ponce to the north, Old Fourth Ward across the BeltLine to the west, Inman Park across Freedom Parkway to the south, and Druid Hills and Candler Park across Moreland to the east. The Little Five Points commercial area sits on the shared border of Poncey-Highland, Inman Park, and Candler Park.

Daily life mixes quieter residential streets with the busier Ponce corridor. Landmarks on that corridor include the Art Deco Plaza Theatre, which opened in 1939 in Briarcliff Plaza and still operates as an independent cinema, and the Majestic Diner in the same plaza. Hotel Clermont stands at 789 Ponce de Leon Avenue; the Clermont Lounge has occupied its basement since the 1960s, and the hotel reopened in 2018 after a full renovation. A few blocks south, Manuel’s Tavern has been a neighborhood gathering place on North Highland Avenue since 1956. On the Freedom Parkway side, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, at 441 John Lewis Freedom Parkway, and The Carter Center sit inside the neighborhood, surrounded by grounds and by Freedom Park.

Ponce City Market is not inside Poncey-Highland. It stands immediately west, in Old Fourth Ward, just across the BeltLine Eastside Trail, and is a short walk from the neighborhood’s western edge. Freedom Park, with PATH Foundation trails, is the main greenspace and connects toward the BeltLine near the Carter Center.

Getting around

There is no MARTA rail station inside Poncey-Highland. The closest stations are Inman Park/Reynoldstown on the Blue and Green lines and North Avenue on the Red and Gold lines, each about a mile or more away depending on where you start. MARTA buses run along Ponce de Leon Avenue. Route 102 (North Avenue / Little Five Points) serves the Ponce corridor and Ponce City Market and connects to North Avenue and Edgewood-Candler Park stations.

The BeltLine Eastside Trail along the western edge is the most useful car-free connection: south toward Ponce City Market and the Krog Street area, and north toward Piedmont Park. Freedom Park’s trails also make walking and biking toward Little Five Points and Inman Park practical. Street parking along Ponce can be tight, especially on weekends.

Before choosing any Atlanta neighborhood, test the trips you will make repeatedly: work, school, groceries, airport runs, evening plans and weekend destinations. Atlanta traffic is real, but choosing the right home base can reduce how often you have to fight it.

Food, coffee and everyday life

Most everyday errands and nights out concentrate on Ponce de Leon Avenue and North Highland Avenue: the diner, the hotel, the tavern, the theater, and the shops around them. For a larger food hall and retail trip, Ponce City Market is a short walk west across the BeltLine. The best way to understand the neighborhood is to walk those two corridors, then cut over to Freedom Park or the Eastside Trail and see how quickly the feel changes from commercial Ponce to residential side streets.

Who tends to like Poncey-Highland?

Poncey-Highland can make sense for people who want intown walkability and direct BeltLine access without living on the busiest blocks of Old Fourth Ward. It suits renters and homeowners in a mix of apartments and older houses, and anyone who will use buses, bikes, and the BeltLine more than a rail station at the door. The tradeoffs are real: no MARTA rail inside the neighborhood, nightlife and traffic on the Ponce edge, and limited street parking.

Explore nearby Atlanta neighborhoods

Atlanta neighborhoods make more sense in context. Compare Poncey-Highland with adjacent guides to Virginia-Highland, Old Fourth Ward, Inman Park, and Little Five Points in our Atlanta neighborhoods library, then use our Living Here guides for broader moving and daily-life questions.