Atlanta Peach

About the Peach

Atlanta is symbolized by the peach, representing Georgia's identity as the Peach State and the city's role as its capital. The peach has long been associated with Georgia's agricultural heritage and warm southern climate, making it an enduring symbol of Atlanta's regional identity and the state's rich agricultural traditions.

Georgia's peach industry took hold after the Civil War, when growers such as Raphael Moses of Columbus shipped fruit north in the 1870s, and the state later adopted the nickname "Peach State" and made the peach its official fruit in 1995. Atlanta absorbed that identity through its street names: Peachtree Street and dozens of variations run through the city, although historians note the name probably came from a Creek settlement called Standing Pitch Tree, a pine, rather than from any peach orchard. The link is therefore partly accidental. Today peaches appear in city branding, the Peachtree Road Race held each Fourth of July since 1970, and the Peach Drop on New Year's Eve, begun in 1989.