The DeLong family once owned one hundred fifty-five acres in the Dunwoody community along what is now Spalding Drive. Today this land is part of Sandy Springs in Fulton County, but when the DeLongs lived there it was part of Milton County.

In the 1920s through 1940s, there were several summer homes in the Dunwoody and Sandy Springs area. These were homes, often with many acres and referred to as farms, of wealthy Atlanta families. This blog post will share history of three of these properties.

Dr. William Alfred Mendenhall is remembered fondly by folks that grew up in Chamblee, Doraville, and Dunwoody in the 1940’s and 1950’s. He had an office and small hospital, known as Chamblee Hospital, where Chamblee Dunwoody Road met Peachtree Road, just across from the railroad tracks.

Read my Past Tense column in the Dunwoody Crier newspaper titled Camp Gordon, Football and the Spanish Flu by following this link, Past Tense article. Here are some additional photographs from the time of World War I, Camp Gordon, Spanish flu and even some football.

According to history at dekalblibrary.org, the bookmobile first came about around 1940 as part of Roosevelt’s Work Progress Administration (WPA). Maud Burrus put books in the back of her car and visited readers in small towns and farms throughout the county. Louise Trotti followed in Maud Burrus footsteps and became the first supervisor of bookmobile services.

They always had a big garden and lots of fresh green beans, sweet potatoes, and corn every summer. Sometimes we helped pick vegetables from the garden. At dinner time, which is also known as lunch, or supper time, which some people call dinner, my cousins and I would devour multiple ears of corn.

The historic home at the intersection of Chamblee Dunwoody Road and Mount Vernon Road is known as the Cheek/Spruill Farmhouse, however another family lived there between the Cheek and Spruill owners and that was the Church family.

Last week I added another history book to my collection. It is a book of Chamblee history written by Vivian Price Saffold, which I found on ebay.com. The book is titled “Past Memories, Present Progress, Future Dreams, A History of the Community and the City of Chamblee.”

Originating at the post office in Dunwoody, the route went north on Chamblee Dunwoody Road, Pitts Road and Roswell Road as far north as John Sullivan’s store (today Northridge Road). From there it went south to the Morgan Falls power plant, to Sandy Springs, to the area of Chastain Park, continuing on Roswell Road to the area known as Poletown; then back in a northerly direction on Mount Vernon Road to complete the circle back to the beginning. With the possible exception of Roswell Road, none of these roads had names at the time.