Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Annie Houze Cook Kindergarten of Sandy Springs

Beginning in 1923, Annie Houze Cook taught first grade at Hammond Elementary School in Sandy Springs and continued until Fulton County said she had to retire in 1948. When she retired, she immediately announced the opening of her kindergarten. Classes were held at what was then known as Providence Baptist Church.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Lois Bannister Hires Architect Francis Palmer Smith

Aside from his own work, Smith taught some of the most well-known architects of the South in the early twentieth century, including Phillip Shutze, Preston Stevens, Flippen Burge, Ed Ivey and Lewis Crook, Jr. Philip Shutze’s work includes the Swan House and Glenn Memorial Church, Burge and Stevens designed the Capital City Country Club in Brookhaven, Ivey and Crooke designed Lullwater House at Emory University and First Baptist Church of Decatur. These are just examples of each of their extensive work.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Cheek Mill Tragedy of 1920

Wednesday November 21, 1920, the day before Thanksgiving, was a sad day for the community of Dunwoody, Georgia. A boiler explosion caused the death of three Dunwoody men that day. The boiler was located at the Cheek mills on the southeast corner of the Mount Vernon Road and Chamblee Dunwoody intersection. In the small farming community, everyone was affected by the loss.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

WAVES, SPARS and the Parrott Lounge of Atlanta during WW2

In early 1943, 500 WAVES were brought to Atlanta, first training downtown and staying at the Biltmore Hotel while barracks were built to house them at Naval Air Station Atlanta. The station was not physically located in Atlanta, but in Chamblee, Georgia. It was on land that is now DeKalb Peachtree Airport. (Atlanta Constitution, January 31, 1943, “WAVES Begin Trainer School Tomorrow with Class of 500”)

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Milo Burglund is actually Nils Berglund: 325th Infantry at Norcross Rifle Range 1917

The new search resulted in his World War I draft registration card, completed under the name of Nils Edwin Burton Berglund. He worked as a pattern maker at a shoe factory. A quick search of shoe factories in Brockton, Massachusetts around the time of WWI shows that the town was known for its shoe manufacturing companies. He was born May 15, 1896. This was slightly off from my usual guess of 1895 for the birth year of WWI soldiers.

Then I hit the jackpot on newspapers.com! I came across the small piece below about Berglund written in April of 1919. Note how the spelling of his name is once again an issue.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Roswell Railroad 1881 to 1921

Prior to the Civil War, the owners of the Roswell Manufacturing Company determined that a railroad to carry goods produced in their mills to Atlanta would be great for business. Grading work began to prepare for tracks, but that work was halted with the onset of the war.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

1976 Dunwoody Fourth of July Parade Grand Marshal

The bicentennial year of 1976 was the occasion of the first Fourth of July parade in Dunwoody. The parade was held on Saturday, July 3. The Honorary Grand Marshal that year was 88-year-old Effie Spruill Carpenter.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Women Link Instrument Trainers at WWII Naval Air Station Atlanta

I came across an Atlanta Constitution article from 1942 that announced women working as Link flight trainer instructors, teaching pilots blind flying using the Link trainer machine. The instructors also taught women who were part of the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), who in turn were sent across the country to be instructors.

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