The first hospital in Atlanta was St. Joseph’s, but the story of Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital begins in Dublin, Ireland. In 1831, Catherine McAuley began the Sisters of Mercy order, with the goal of helping the poor and the sick. She started twelve Mercy foundations in Ireland and two in England.

Lenox Square shopping center opened on August 3, 1959 with a ceremony at 9:45 a.m. The Atlanta Constitution covered the grand opening that day. Vice president of Lenox Square Inc. Chess Lagomarsino called the newly constructed shopping center “the biggest in the south.”

The Tilly School once sat about where the Crossroads Church of Dunwoody is located, at the intersection of Peeler Road and Tilly Mill Road. Prior to Crossroads, this was the location of North Peachtree Baptist Church.

The Tilly School, Tilly Mill, and Tilly Mill Road were named for the pioneer Tilly family that owned the land and had a home, farm and mill in the stretch between Peeler Road and North Peachtree Road. The family operated a cotton gin, sawmill and gristmill on their Dunwoody land.

World War I training camp Camp Gordon was established in 1917 in Chamblee, Georgia. Boykin recruited women volunteers to welcome soldiers to the YMCA Hostess House and make them feel at home. She also organized entertainment activities each week for the soldiers, sometimes up to 25 activities in a week. Her volunteers were part of the Woman’s Division of the Young Man’s Christian Association and the Overseas Canteen Service.

The Navy chose the Chamblee site for a Naval Aviation Reserve Base and issued contracts for three million dollars in construction. Fifty permanent buildings, two hangars and three runways were planned. The base was commissioned by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox on March 22, 1941. The large buildings were designed by Robert & Co. and constructed by Mion Construction Co. over three and a half years.

R. L. Mathis started the dairy back in 1917. According to his obituary in the April 13, 1992 Atlanta Constitution, he started with five cows and a horse and buggy. In a March 13,1980 Atlanta Constitution article, “Country Fresh-Raw Milk and Rosebud,” Mathis told of visiting his uncles’ dairy when he was about 13 or 14 and not loving the work. However, when his father died a few years later Mathis went into the dairy business out of necessity.

The oldest home in Dunwoody is in Sellars Farms Subdivision. Originally it would have been on what is now Roberts Drive, but today the address is 5660 Glenrich Drive in Dunwoody. There is a historical marker which identifies the house as the Larkin-Martin home, circa 1840.

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.