Long before Skyline Park, Nine Mile Station or even the Sears building, Atlantans were already coming to this corner of the city to play.

When we were first working on The Roof at Ponce City Market, we quickly learned that putting an amusement park on top of an old Sears building wasn't quite as random as it might seem.

In fact, we were bringing entertainment back to a place where Atlantans had been coming to have fun for more than a century.

And that history ended up influencing more of The Roof than most people probably realize, including the name for our full-service restaurant, Nine Mile Station.

Before There Was Ponce City Market

Long before there was a Sears building here, there was the Ponce de Leon Springs.

Beginning in the 1860s, Atlantans came to the springs for rest and recreation. By 1874, a horse-drawn street railway was bringing visitors to the area, and in the 1890s the Nine-Mile Circle streetcar line made it even easier to get here.

Think about that for a minute.

More than 125 years ago, people were getting on public transportation in Atlanta and coming to this very part of the city to get away, have some fun and spend time together.

Description of The Nine Mile Circle Street Car Route to Ponce de Leon Springs

Street Car Route on the Nine Mile Circle

Atlanta Had an Amusement Park Here Long Before Skyline Park

In 1903, the springs and surrounding gardens were transformed into Ponce de Leon amusement park.

It became one of Atlanta's most popular attractions and was even nicknamed the “Coney Island of Atlanta.” There were rides, entertainment and crowds of Atlantans coming to Ponce de Leon Avenue looking for something to do.

When we learned this history while developing The Roof, it gave the idea of Skyline Park an entirely different meaning, and now more than a century later, people once again travel to Ponce de Leon Avenue to play games, ride attractions and spend an afternoon together, this time, ten stories in the air.

Illustration of Ponce de Leon Springs Amusement Park 1881

And Across the Street, Atlanta Played Baseball

The history around the building gets even better.

In 1907, a lake across Ponce de Leon Avenue from the amusement park was drained and filled to create Ponce de Leon Ballpark, home of the Atlanta Crackers.

The Atlanta Crackers played there for decades, and the Atlanta Black Crackers also called the ballpark home when the white Crackers were on the road.

And then there's the tree. A giant magnolia stood in deep center field, inside the field of play. t's one of those Atlanta stories that sounds too good to be true, but this one isn't.

Babe Ruth hit a home run into that magnolia during a barnstorming visit with the New York Yankees. According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, Ruth and Atlanta Braves great Eddie Mathews are the only two players known to have hit home-run balls into the tree.

The ballpark is long gone, now replaced by a Home Depot and Whole Foods shopping center, but the magnolia is still there.

Magnolia Tree is still behind the Home Depot shopping center.

Then Sears Came Along

The Ponce de Leon amusement park closed in the early 1920s. In 1925, Sears, Roebuck & Co. purchased 16 acres along Ponce de Leon Avenue to build what would become its massive Atlanta retail store and Southeastern distribution center.

That building would eventually become City Hall East.

And decades later, City Hall East would become Ponce City Market.

That's the building Kelvin and I walked into all those years later when we were trying to figure out what in the world we were going to do with 80,000 square feet of rooftop. Knowing what had existed here before us made the opportunity feel different. There was already a story. Our job was to figure out how to add another chapter to it.

So, Why Did We Call It Nine Mile Station?

This is probably one of the questions we've been asked most over the years.

When it came time to name the restaurant we were building alongside Skyline Park, we wanted the name to feel connected to the history of the area, rather than something that could have been dropped onto any rooftop in any city.

We kept coming back to the history of the Nine-Mile Circle streetcar line that once brought Atlantans to Ponce de Leon Springs.

And that's where Nine Mile Station came from.

Three months after opening Skyline Park, we opened Nine Mile Station in October 2016.

Suddenly The Roof had two very different experiences: an amusement park built as a modern nod to the property's entertainment history and a rooftop restaurant whose name quietly pointed back to the way Atlantans had traveled here more than a century earlier.

Friends and Family Opening Party October 2016

Some Things Change. Some Things Don't.

I love this history because it puts what we're doing today into perspective.

Ponce City Market feels incredibly modern. The BeltLine runs alongside it. The old Sears building is filled with restaurants, shops, offices and apartments. Hundreds of thousands of people come through the property.

But the basic idea behind this place isn't really new.

For generations, Atlantans have been coming to this corner of Ponce de Leon Avenue to eat, play, be entertained and spend time together.

They came by horse-drawn railway. Then streetcar. They went to the springs. They rode amusement rides. They watched baseball across the street.

Then Sears built one of the city's most recognizable buildings here.

And today, people come through those same doors, ride the elevator to the top and discover Skyline Park, Nine Mile Station and The Roof at Ponce City Market.

We're just the latest chapter in a story Atlanta has been writing here for more than 150 years.

From Ponce de Leon Springs and Atlanta's early amusement park to the trolley line that inspired the name Nine Mile Station.