<P> In 1842, the planned terminus location was moved, four blocks southeast (2 - 3 blocks southeast of Five Points), to what would become State Square, on Wall Street between Central Avenue and Pryor Street . (33 ° 45.141 ′ N 84 ° 23.317 ′ W ﻿ / ﻿ 33.752350 ° N 84.388617 ° W ﻿ / 33.752350; - 84.388617 ﻿ (Zero milepost marker)). It is at this location that the zero milepost can now be found, adjacent to the southern entrance of Underground Atlanta . As the settlement grew, it became known as "Terminus," literally meaning "end of the line". By 1842, the settlement at Terminus had six buildings and 30 residents . </P> <P> Meanwhile, settlement began at what would become the Buckhead section of Atlanta, several miles north of today's downtown . In 1838, Henry Irby started a tavern and grocery at what would become the intersection of Paces Ferry and Roswell Roads . </P> <P> In 1842, when a two - story brick depot was built, the locals asked that the settlement of Terminus be called Lumpkin, after Governor Wilson Lumpkin . Gov. Lumpkin asked them to name it after his young daughter instead, and Terminus became Marthasville . In 1845, the chief engineer of the Georgia Railroad, (J. Edgar Thomson) suggested that Marthasville be renamed "Atlantica - Pacifica", which was quickly shortened to "Atlanta ." The residents approved, apparently undaunted by the fact that not a single train had yet visited . The town of Atlanta was incorporated in 1847 . </P> <P> The first Georgia Railroad freight and passenger trains from Augusta (to the east of Atlanta), arrived in September 1845 and in that year the first hotel, the Atlanta Hotel, was opened . </P>

What was atlanta named before the civil war