Convict leasing and chain gangs are part of the history of the Southeast, Georgia, and also Sandy Springs. Until 1933, there was a convict labor camp and rock quarry at the intersection of Roswell Road and Hammond Drive where Whole Foods is today. The camp and quarry extended across the area between Hammond Drive and Cliftwood Road on the west side of Roswell Road. The rock quarry included the land behind SunTrust Bank, where there is a sharp drop off going down towards Sandy Springs Circle.

John and Mary Donaldson Copeland owned the dairy in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Their home sat where Lidl and CVS are today in the triangle formed by Mount Vernon Road, Jett Ferry Road, and Dunwoody Club Drive. Dunwoody Club Drive was a dirt road known as Old Lawrenceville Road at that time.

Over on the other side of what is now Dunwoody Club Drive was the dairy operation. This is the location of the Orchard Park Shopping Center and Kroger today.

I’ve been in the area of North DeKalb Mall several times recently and decided to take a couple of photos of what was once Rich’s, the anchor store of the mall, and a place that I visited often from it’s beginnings through the 1990’s. These photos were taken in April of 2021.

By the Fall of 1917, soldiers were getting settled into their new life at Camp Gordon, a World War I encampment located where DeKalb-Peachtree Airport is today. They had left their families and friends and come to live and train at this camp, which just a few months earlier had not existed.

Lowery was responsible for launching the careers of Ray Stevens, Sonny James, Jerry Reed, Mac Davis, Joe South, Atlanta Rhythm Section, the Tams, Tommy Roe, Bertie Higgins, and Billy Joe Royal.

In Pat Conroy’s “My Reading Life,” he talks about his favorite books and the time in his life that he discovered them. Some of those books come from his association with Norman Berg. He tells the story of Norman Berg inviting him to stay at the cottage on his property, which Berg called Sellanraa.

Cecil Ramsey went to Georgia Tech and worked as a construction engineer. He planned and supervised the construction of his Dunwoody home. The floors were walnut with wood pegs. A lake was dug out on the property and other children would come over to swim. Carlton Renfroe and Keller Henderson Barron grew up nearby and both recall swimming at the Ramsey lake.

According to the story shared by William C. Wardlaw IV, born in 1938 and known as B., his grandfather won a large parcel of land and a shack that stood on that land as the winnings from a poker game in the 1920’s. The long driveway leading to the home began on Mount Vernon Road.

Dr. P. J. Moore, Jr. celebrated his 101st birthday March of this year.

In addition to being a surgeon, Dr. Moore helped soldiers in treatment at WWII Lawson General Hospital see that golf was a sport they could participate in after their recovery.