Explore the Rich History of Historic Bagley Park

In the late 1800s Macedonia Park was a black community of about 400 families. In 1921, John Sheffield Owens, a white banker developer, built a subdivision designated for African Americans, presumably with the help of a local named William Bagley who lived in the area before and after the development. The houses were modest along the 27-acre tract, lots were narrow and some backed up to a creek, many of the families that had been living along the adjacent Old Decatur road in the 1920 census relocated to Macedonia Park along Bagley road.

From 1920 to 1940 the area continued to be home to a large number of African-Americans, many of whom worked locally as domestic help in the form of maids, laundresses, chauffeurs, and yardmen. There were also a number of gardeners for the local golf clubs, caddies, brick masons, pin boys who worked at the local bowling alley, in-home nurses, shoe shiners, truck drivers for the ice company, and garbage collectors, fertilizer plant staff, and cotton mill workers.