Five Green Spaces on Cascade: Where our Roots Breathe Still

Cascade is more than asphalt and winding curves. It’s a living corridor of stories — a place where we come to lay burdens down, let laughter echo through old oaks, and remind ourselves that rest, too, is resistance. In this stretch of Southwest Atlanta, you can feel the hush of history with every step on the trail, every tee swung, every headstone read aloud like an old family name.

Walk with me. Let’s linger a while in five green spaces that hold the heartbeat of Cascade.

🌳 John A. White Golf Course: For the Love of the Game — And Each Other

Since 1929, John A. White has been a neighborhood constant — a nine-hole haven tucked away where Cascade bends and the canopy opens up just so. Maybe you’ve seen the kids at First Tee Atlanta, shoulders square, eyes bright with possibility. Maybe you’ve watched an elder line up their putt, sharing tips and stories in the same breath.

It’s not just golf here — it’s a quiet ritual of togetherness. Each swing is a small promise that our children deserve fair shots, fresh air, and fairways that welcome every face. The grass is cut, the trees stand watch, and the game goes on — rooted in our community, belonging to us, the people.

⛳ Alfred “Tup” Holmes Golf Course: A Quiet Freedom Under the Pines

Drive a little further and you’ll find Alfred “Tup” Holmes Golf Course — 18 holes laid across gentle hills and stubborn history. This isn’t just any course; it’s sacred ground for what it represents. Alfred “Tup” Holmes, alongside his father and brother, sued Atlanta to break the color line on the city’s public golf greens — and won.

Every golfer who tees up here, whether they know it or not, honors that fight for access, for dignity. You can almost hear the echo of that victory under the whispering pines — that freedom doesn’t always come in loud parades. Sometimes, it shows up in the simple right to play where your ancestors were once told, not you.

💧 Cascade Springs Nature Preserve: The Water Still Speaks

And then there’s the crown jewel — Cascade Springs Nature Preserve. If you’ve never paused there, you’re missing the hush that only running water can teach. This land has always been a sanctuary — Muscogee land, Civil War battleground, then threatened by pavement and pipes before neighbors stepped in and said, no more.

Today, the springs flow the way our dreams do — soft but determined, carving paths through stone. Children skip across footbridges, elders walk daily and sometimes rest on benches under dappled light. Some come to birdwatch; others come to let the city noise drain off their shoulders for a while. Everyone leaves with a bit more ease in their chest.

It reminds us that we’re caretakers, not conquerors — and that nature, like people, can heal when we defend its right to breathe.

🌿 Greenwood Cemetery: Where We Tend Memory Like a Garden

A little off Cascade, Greenwood Cemetery hums with a different kind of green — the green of ivy climbing old stones, the green of stories still whispered among the oaks. Here lie some of Atlanta’s earliest Black residents, families who labored, worshipped, dreamed, and left their names for us to speak aloud.

Wandering these paths, you see how a community refuses to forget. Each grave is a lesson: our people rest but are never gone. Greenwood is not just a place for sorrow — it’s a garden for remembrance. A place to say, thank you, and we remember, and we’re still here.

🎶 The Lionel Hampton Trail: A Song Through the Trees

If you ever feel like taking a gentle walk where history hums along with the birds, the Lionel Hampton Trail is waiting for you. Winding through old growth forest and quiet neighborhoods, this trail reminds us that music and land can hold a name long after a man is gone.

At one time, Lionel Hampton — the legendary jazz vibraphonist and bandleader — owned much of the land that still bears his name today. Instead of fading into pavement, these woods and pathways keep a little of his spirit alive. It’s like a melody you can stroll to: kids on bikes, neighbors jogging, families pausing to watch sunlight dance through the canopy.

Sometimes the loudest legacy is simply a place that lets us move our bodies freely — surrounded by green, guided by a name we’re proud to say out loud.

🌱 A Final Word: This Land is in Our Care

Five green spaces, each one a testament: we've long known how to claim, protect, and tend what we hold dear. In every swing of a club, every hush of water, every name etched in granite, you can feel it — that Cascade’s story isn’t just history. It’s present. It’s alive.

So next time you drive down Cascade Road, crack your window. Let the breeze carry the scent of old pines and fresh cut grass. Smile at the knowledge that you’re part of a place that refuses to forget who we are, or who we’re becoming.

These green spaces are ours to enjoy — and we keep them so they can keep us.