Advertisements for land in the Atlanta Constitution both in 1920 and 1946 list land on Balloon Road and Dunwoody Road, both described as being off Peachtree Dunwoody Road. In 1920, all local roads were dirt. Roads began to be paved in the 1930s as part of the Works Progress Administration.
A piece of the Balloon Road remains today. It is called Old Balloon Road, located to the east of the complex that includes Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital and the surrounding office buildings. It is no longer directly connected with Peachtree Dunwoody Road but does lead to Johnson Ferry Road.
Read moreThanks to a reader of pasttensega.com, I can now share the journey of Abraham (Abe) Koppel during World War II. Koppel wrote down a narrative of his experiences when his granddaughter was working on a school project. The family also shared a photograph of Koppel and the X-ray section he trained with at Lawson General Hospital, along with an image of the back of the photograph with messages from several men.
Read moreIn 1944, the land that is now DeKalb Peachtree Airport in Chamblee was home to Naval Air Station Atlanta. Men came from all over the U. S. to train at Naval Air Station Atlanta beginning in 1941 and women began to arrive in 1942 to work as link instrument trainers.
Lawson General Hospital sat adjacent to Naval Air Station Atlanta, where the IRS and CDC Chamblee offices are located today. The hospital opened in April of 1941.
Read moreI first researched Glenridge Hall when I wrote about a 2011 Dunwoody Nature Center “Monarchs and Margueritas” fundraiser event. The article was for the Dunwoody Crier newspaper.
The historic home was designed by Samuel Inman Cooper for Thomas K. Glenn. He began his career as a clerk in Atlanta in 1887, later becoming executive secretary to Joel Hurt during the development of the Atlanta Electric Streetcar Company. That company eventually evolved into Georgia Power.
Read moreCephas Sentell Spruill was born in 1909 in Dunwoody to James Cephas Spruill and Alice Abernathy Spruill. He married Emma Moore of Henry County, Georgia. After World War II broke out, Spruill served as a Marine from 1944 until the end of the war. In 1949, he became postmaster of Dunwoody and remained in that job until 1968.
Read moreI was sorting through some old family documents this week and came across a few diplomas of the women in my family including one for the Georgia Normal School in Milledgeville, Georgia. Which brings up the question-why did they call them “normal”? Normal Schools were established in Georgia towards the end of the 19th century to prepare teachers to teach elementary aged students. It was usually a two-year program and the term normal referred to establishing clear standards or “norms” for public schools.
Read moreI was recently told that Ed Labon of Woodville, Greene County, Georgia, a Black soldier who reported to Camp Gordon in 1917, is buried at Wilson Cemetery in Penfield, Georgia. He died April 13, 1940. Like many Black recruits, Labon was in the 157th Depot Brigade during World War I.
Read moreThe development will be called Lulah Hills, a name which was originally planned for a neighborhood north of Decatur decades ago. Decaturish.com says the name originally came from landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
Read moreAccording to documents in the DeKalb History Center archives, Pearidge refers to an area of Tucker between Lawrenceville Highway and North Druid Hills Road, Burnt Creek and north to the railroad. Several farms were in the area, including the 250-acre R. F. Sams Truck Farm and the Honea dairy farm on Montreal Road.
Read moreThe Ashford in Ashford Dunwoody came from the W. T. Ashford family, who owned the home and land that is now part of Peachtree Golf Club as well as land extending across Peachtree Road. The Ashfords operated a nursery business on this land. The Ashford home was inherited by Mary Ashford who married Cobb Caldwell and led to another street name, Caldwell Road. The first owner of the home was Samuel House and Windsor Parkway was once known as House Road.
Read moreRecently, while visiting Atlanta History Center, I noticed a plaque for the Frank A. Smith Memorial Garden. The plaque states “The Azalea Chapter, American Rhodendendron Society at the Atlanta Historical Society, designed by C. Gordon Tyrrell, AHRHS. Developed under the direction of Ben W. Sims, Chairman, Azalea Chapter Garden Committee, 1987.” Frank Smith died in 1985.
Read moreThere is a small, old home on Chamblee Dunwoody Road that was once one of three railroad section houses in Dunwoody. In 1994, two were demolished. It happened very suddenly and without warning. The houses were part of the Roswell Railroad line that ran from Roswell, through Dunwoody, to Chamblee from 1881 until 1921. They were built as housing for men who worked on the railroad line.
Read moreThe 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)
Read moreEvery 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.
Read moreWorld 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.
Read moreIn 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.
Read moreThe 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.
Read moreIn 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”)
Read moreIn 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.”
Read moreYolande 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.
Read more