The sandy spring for which the city of Sandy Springs is named is located on land between the office building on Bluestone Drive, the Entertainment Lawn, and the Williams Payne House on Sandy Springs Circle. The property is also bordered by Sandy Springs Place and Hilderbrand Drive. A natural spring comes up through sand, protected by a cover and an overhead shelter. Carol Thompson told me five springs converge at this spot.

If you lived in Dunwoody in 1970, you might have noticed a two story home which stood at the corner of Mount Vernon Road and Chamblee Dunwoody Road, about where Panera Bread is today. The home was built in 1886 by Joberry Cheek. He cut the pine trees, sawed them at his own sawmill and built the home. The ceilings were twelve feet high and 7/8 inches thick.

The home stood out in the 1960s and 1970s because it had fallen into disrepair. Some people thought noone lived there, but Lizzie Cheek Newhard did. Joberry Cheek was her father.

One year after the tornado, Lemonade Days had its beginnings. Dunwoody Homeowners Association and Dunwoody Preservation Trust began a campaign called “Replant the Dunwoody Forest.” The campaign was led by Joyce Amacher and had a goal of planting 20,000 trees to replace all the ones uprooted or snapped in two. (Story of Dunwoody; Ethel W. Spruill, Elizabeth L. Davis, Joyce Amacher, Lynne Byrd)

In 1994, the fate of the home and 2.5 acres were uncertain after the owner, Florence Warnock Spruill, passed away. Her husband Carey Spruill had died in 1983. The couple’s sons, Hugh and Edwin, inherited the property and were interested in saving the home. They worked along with Dunwoody Preservation Trust to come up with a solution.

Carl T. Hudgins completed a report on the history of Native American trails in DeKalb County on January 22, 1951 which is among the archives at DeKalb History Center in Decatur, Georgia. He begins his paper by explaining the problems of telling the history, calling it “fragmentary, obtainable a little here and a little there.” The written history of the trails came from people who lived long after the Native Americans were forcibly removed and long after the first white settlers had died.

As a person who is always curious about “what was there before”, when Hickory House closed and the news came out that another bank would be built there, I decided to see what I could find out. Most folks wouldn’t remember the time before the Old Hickory House restaurant, but I went to someone who would remember, Ken Anderson. Anderson grew up in Dunwoody on the old Carpenter and Anderson farm at the intersection of Tilly Mill Road and Mount Vernon Road.

A list of men from Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, and Chamblee who were drafted for World War I in 1917 was among the documents found in a box of Dunwoody postal records. The box of historic documents was donated for preservation by the granddaughter of Sentell Spruill. Spruill was postmaster of Dunwoody, Georgia from 1949 until 1969 and his home sat where Dunwoody Baptist Church is now located at the corner of Mount Vernon Road and Ashford Dunwoody Road.

This history came to my attention from Richard Adams, who shared his memories of working at Atlanta Paper Company and in particular, for Arthur L. Harris. The story includes an everyday item that we purchase at the grocery store and the history behind how it evolved, but it also involves WWII and art in Atlanta.

A small country store once sat at Jett Ferry Road and Mount Vernon Road. Later, the country store included a gas station, with the typical Coca-Cola sign painted on one side. It was built and run by Joe Kelly. Next owners of the store were Georgia Carpenter Anderson and husband Offalee Anderson. Georgia grew up at her family’s home just down Mount Vernon Road, built by her father, Cicero Carpenter.