This is one spot in Atlanta with alot of potential. Within five years it could be similar to East Carson Street in Pittsburg. The road itself was developed by Joel Hurt to shave a half mile off the distance between Decatur and Atlanta by stitching together Line St and Foster St. To do this he had to buy up right-of-way between Ivy (now Peachtree Center Ave) and Calhoun (now Piedmont). Previously stagecoaches, then trains, had followed Decatur road that has a long, gentle curve to the south. The new road had the benifits of being a two mile straight shot from Five Points (at the time "the only street in the city upon which one can stand and see the distance of over a mile and a half") and bypassing the saloons and red-light district along that part of Decatur Road.
Hurt developed one of the first electric street car lines (The Atlanta & Edgewood Street Railroad Co) in the country along the road which connected the city to its first suburb, Inman Park. The first of the yellow Lewis & Fowler (Brooklyn, NY) trolley cars ran from downtown at Pryor/Edgewood to the neighborhood on Thursday 22 August 1889. So there has been heavy, regular traffic along Edgewood for more than 100 years. There are lots of one and two story commercial buildings and alot of new buildings are going up -- most with first floor retail.
If you're heading east on Marietta St., take a quick jog to the left before you get to Peachtree St. After crossing Peachtree, you're on the south side of Woodruff Park and get one of the nicest vistas in the city: lots of people in the park with a backdrop of the Oliver building, the Flatiron, Candler, Equitable and Winecrofft buildings. The next intersection features the venerable Hurt Building with City Grill on the first floor, then to Hurt Plaza with the fountain now working. You pass some other interesting structures then pass under the downtown connector.
Just on the other side, a new fire station (opened early 2002) and, mostly on the southside, are many nice old buildings and a few new loft structures being built till you get to the respectable four corners at Boulevard where the old Danneman's grocery stands ready to be leased.
Keep going and you pass more lofts and get to the yummy breakfast spot, Thumb's Up Diner, which moved here from Decatur in 2001. Across the street, where there used to be a huge cinder-block used furniture place, ground has been cleared for a three story loft structure with retail on the first floor for Edgwood & Randolf.
Then past the tracks you can see the studios at Krog, then to the old trolley barn, then the recently re-opened restaurant, The Patio, and ending at the Inman Park MARTA station at Hurt and DeKalb Ave.
NOTE: This is from 2003. Before Edgewood grew up!