Bowen Choice Neighborhood

Bowen Homes Resident Storytelling Project

How to Participate in this Forum

If you are a former Bowen Homes resident, please share a special story with us! These could include historical or important events, places you would spend time with friends and family, stories about notable individuals who lived in Bowen Homes, and anything else you remember about the community! Some example questions you could answer are:

• What would you say was a strength of Bowen Homes?
• Is there something about Bowen Homes you would like to see the future development celebrate or preserve?
• Are there any facts about Bowen Homes you would like to share, or misconceptions you would like corrected?
• What was it like at Bowen Homes when you lived there?

Oral Storytelling

Do you prefer to talk with someone about your experiences? We will be running an oral storytelling project in Spring 2022. Please email us at bowenchoiceneighborhood@atlantahousing.org to sign-up. 

You can also attend our in-person January Community Workshop to sign-up! We will contact you with some scheduling options then record our conversations by video, to assemble a Bowen Homes Storytelling collection. 

What We've Heard So Far

At our October Return to Community event, we spoke with many former residents who told us about their experiences at Bowen Homes. Some frequent themes, shown in the map below, were:

• Chivers Street is where people gathered the most often, with Walden Street being the secondary location for gathering.
• The street names are really important to keep in the future redevelopment.
• The building orientation with the courtyards made gathering with neighbors easy.
• The 1980 daycare explosion is important to honor and memorialized in the redevelopment.
• Residents loved the firefighters at Fire Station #38.