Before Brookhaven became a city in 2012, there were several articles in the Dunwoody Crier about the people who were working towards that goal. That is when I discovered the history of how Brookhaven was previously known, for a while at least, as North Atlanta.
Between 1924 and 1963, the city of Brookhaven was a municipality known as North Atlanta. An 1872 Act for Judicial Incorporation, passed by the Georgia General Assembly, paved the way for Brookhaven to become the village of North Atlanta. The act outlined the manner in which towns and villages in Georgia could incorporate. The act was repealed in 1939.
North Atlanta was bordered by the city of Atlanta to the south and the city of Chamblee to the north, with a total area of seven square miles. In 1924, the total population for the area was less than one hundred people, but by 1964 increased to over 13,350.
There were elected officials, but they received no salaries. The income for the village was primarily from business licenses and a two percent insurance premium tax. In the last three years of North Atlanta, $5,000 was received from the state for road improvements. The primary expenses for North Atlanta were street lighting, Brookhaven Public Library and traffic improvement.
Representatives of North Atlanta applied for a post office beginning in 1954, but Atlanta Journal notices indicate that post office was denied. The North Atlanta post office application, on file in the National Archives, shows the location was planned for the Oglethorpe railroad station.
The archives of North Atlanta from 1957 to 1962, including their meeting minutes, are held at Oglethorpe University’s Philip Weltner Library. Below are two examples of what was happening at those meetings.
At the October 1957 meeting, the Marist Society of Georgia has applied to build on a new site for Marist College in North Atlanta. This would become the campus on Ashford Dunwoody Road.
The August 1958 meeting is led by Mayor Bill Haas and is held at the Ashford Park Clubhouse, where most of the meetings took place. An announcement is made-North Atlanta signs have been made and paid for, they just need to be installed.
In 1963, the Mayor and City Council realized that the changes in the area over the years meant that the old charter of 1924 was no longer working. The people of Brookhaven voted on whether to retain their old charter, seek a new charter, or become part of unincorporated DeKalb County. The majority of voters chose becoming part of DeKalb County. The village of North Atlanta was officially abolished on February 2, 1965.
A document titled “North Atlanta 1965: A Report by the Mayor and City Council,” was prepared to give the history and status of North Atlanta. The report concludes that the people of Brookhaven should form a North Atlanta Association to represent the community. One of the first objectives recommended for review was to explore the possibility of annexing to Chamblee or the city of Atlanta, or “eventually reincorporating.”
An article by Richard Atkinson in the May 2, 1983 Atlanta Journal titled, “The Long Lost City of North Atlanta GA,” tells the same history I have shared above. Atkinson says, “My hometown’s odd beginning matched its end.” The 3/1/1964 meeting minutes include, “city attorney Higdon said that the state legislature’s bill to abolish the village of North Atlanta has been sign by Governor Sanders…February 2, 1965 was the city’s last day. Archives of city were give to Oglethorpe University.”