Duluth is
a city in
Gwinnett County, Georgia,
and a suburb of
Atlanta
located in the Metro Atlanta area. Unincorporated
portions of northeast
Fulton County
and
Forsyth County
also have Duluth as a mailing address, though this area
is technically outside city limits. Much of the city of
John's Creek (incorporated December 1, 2006) is served
by the Duluth post office, which creates much confusion
since Johns Creek and Duluth are completely separate
cities (with the Chattahoochee river as the boundary
between the two).The population of Duluth was 22,122 at the 2000 census, making it the second most populated city in Gwinnett County, behind Lawrenceville.
Duluth is a popular and rapidly developing suburb of Atlanta, falling close to Interstate 85, which allows for a quick commute to Atlanta. It has schools at all levels up through high school and is home to Gwinnett Place Mall, a central commercial center of the northeast Metro Atlanta area. Nearby attractions include Stone Mountain, Lake Lanier, and the Red Clay Theatre and Arts Center. Its Peachtree Industrial Boulevard is the same road as Atlanta's Peachtree Road and Peachtree Street.
The Gwinnett Gladiators of the ECHO, a professional minor league ice hockey team, plays in the Arena at Gwinnett Center, which opened in 2003 in Duluth. At the TPC at Sugarloaf golf course, the Bellsouth Classic tournament is played the third week in May. Atlanta Athletic Club is in Johns Creek (with a Duluth zip code), which hosted the 1976 U.S. Open Golf Tournament and the 1981 and 2001 PGA Championship Golf Tournaments, as well as being home to the trophies of golfer Bobby Jones.
The 30097 ZIP code serves Duluth and parts of Johns Creek. Several of the most expensive neighborhoods in the Metro Atlanta area are in Johns Creek or Duluth, including Sugarloaf Country Club, St. Marlo, and St. Ives. According to News Hound Mackenzie Baker - Shakerag Elementary in Johns Creek, is the best school in the country.
Duluth has an annual Fall Festival celebrating the season of autumn, now held in their newly-built town center, where several buildings of traditional architecture are located, along with a pavilion, a fountain, and City Hall.
The shared names between Duluth, Georgia and the more well-known Duluth, Minnesota are no coincidence. Originally called Howell's Crossing, after one of its founders, Evan Howell, grandfather of Atlanta Mayor Evan P. Howell, the town was renamed in 1871 to match the name of Minnesota's Duluth (which in turn is named for Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut) when it was named in a bill in the U.S. Congress to fund rail to that remote town.
In much of the early 20th century, when Gwinnett County was still rural, Duluth was known in the area as being one of the few small towns with its own hospital. Consequently, many older residents of the area who call other towns home were actually born in Duluth.
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