The Ashby Heights community was envisioned by entrepreneur Heman Perry, whose financial empire included Standard Life Insurance, one of the nation´s first Black-owned legal reserve life insurance companies, and Citizen´s Trust Bank, Atlanta second Black-owned bank. Perry began acquiring property in the area before World War I. Following the great fire of 1917, he built and sold houses to displaced African Americans. Perry´s acquisitions included land later purchased by the Atlanta Board of Education for Booker T. Washington High School. By 1919, Perry´s dream of a proud, middle-class Black community had become a reality that stretched from Washington Place to Fair Street. The Atlanta Independent, an African American newspaper, held a contest to name the new development: Ashby Heights.