The Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac Assembly Plant in Doraville was built on a former cow pasture. The site was initially 386 acres, but some of those acres were later sold for a housing development, Chevrolet parts warehouse, and other industrial development and highway and access road construction.

The groundbreaking took place in 1945 and in 1947 the first automobiles were produced and shipped from the plant. The assembly plant would later become the General Motors Assembly Plant. It was 980,000 square feet, eventually expanding to about 1.5 million square feet. By 1948, there were 1,363 employees. (“History of Doraville GM Plant”, DeKalb History Center archives)  

Every now and then I open a book that once belonged to my mom and discover that she placed a note or a newspaper article inside. That was something she did whenever she read an article in the newspaper that related to one of her books. I love to find these hidden treasures.

I still purchase paper books occasionally, but I also have many books on my Kindle. How can I place a relevant newspaper article inside a Kindle book?

I opened mom’s copy of “Every Child Should Have a Chance” (1971), by Leila Daughtry-Denmark, M. D. and found a newspaper clipping. Mom spoke often of Dr. Denmark.

World War I ended on November 11, 1918, but Camp Gordon, a military training camp built in Chamblee, continued for almost three years. Today, much of that land is home to DeKalb Peachtree Airport.

In June of 1919, Camp Gordon was designated a permanent cantonment. The Atlanta Constitution announced, “Thousands of soldiers who were discharged have again re-enlisted in the army in order to continue in the work they like best.” This was good news for Chamblee and Atlanta, as Camp Gordon brought people and therefore additional business and money to the area.

In 2022 I had the opportunity to speak directly with some of the firefighters who were at the Doraville Triangle fire in 1972. Lieutenant J. D. Boozer took a great deal of time to share his personal recollections and explain anything that I didn’t understand, and there was a lot that needed further explanation for me.

Lt. Boozer was working at DeKalb County fire station #1 in 1972 when the Doraville Triangle Refinery fire took place and had been with the department for ten years. He arrived on the first day of the fire and stayed through until the end of the fire, three days later.

The explosion shook nearby homes, including that of Hoss Warbington. He could see the flames from his home one mile from the fire. Some people experienced being knocked out of their beds from the explosion.

In 2022, I researched the Triangle Refinery fire in Doraville. The fire began with an overfilled storage tank. Vapors from the overfilled tank reached nearby homes on Doral Circle and ignited a pilot light at one of the homes causing an explosion. The explosion then set three storage tanks on fire. (Atlanta Constitution, April 7, 1972, “Killer gasoline fire rages into 2nd day”)

In Vivian Price Saffold’s 1983 book, “A History of the Community and the City of Chamblee,” which celebrated 75 years of the city, there is a 1904 photo of children at Wylie School. The school was located near what is now Embry Hills. The children’s ages are described as from six years old to “as old as the teacher would keep them.”

Yolande Gwin was a popular reporter and columnist for the Atlanta Constitution and Atlanta Journal newspapers. She often wrote for the society pages, but also covered other stories and wrote advice columns. She started out writing for the Atlanta Georgian newspaper in 1927, then for the Atlanta Constitution from 1934 until 1961. It was interesting to me to discover that she lived in Brookhaven for many years.

Ken Anderson, a wonderful source for Dunwoody history, told me several years ago that the land where Dunwoody High School is located was once home to the Martin farm. He remembered they lived on the land in the 1940s and 1950s, but they owned that land at least as early as the 1920s.