Roosevelt Boulevard

Between 1925 and 1927, Roswell Road was known as Roosevelt Boulevard. The road was named for President Theodore Roosevelt, whose mother’s childhood home was Bulloch Hall in Roswell. Roosevelt returned home with great fanfare in 1905, riding the Roswell Railroad from Chamblee to Roswell. He died January 6, 1919.

Mrs. William Lawson Peel, president of the Atlanta City Beautiful Club, wrote an editorial for the August 18, 1921, Atlanta Constitution pushing for the new Roosevelt Boulevard. A meeting later that month was planned for property owners and interested parties to attend. Colonel George Hope, Arthur Burdett, and Harry Stearns arranged the meeting.

Concrete paving of the road began by September of 1921. It was estimated 2,000 trees would be needed to make the road into an attractive 16-mile boulevard leading from Buckhead to Bulloch Hall in Roswell. Roswell was in Cobb County at the time, so the county’s cooperation was needed. (Atlanta Constitution, Sept. 7, 1921, “Wider Roswell Road in planned”)

In December of 1921, a meeting of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners was held to vote on the road improvement and name change. The board voted unanimously in favor. Many residents and property owners along Roswell Road were present for the meeting. The article claims, “Plans to make Roosevelt Boulevard one of the finest thoroughfares will be started immediately.” Mrs. Peel announced that she had secured trees to be planted every 50 to 75 feet along the road. (Atlanta Constitution, Dec. 8, 1921, “Road named for Roosevelt”)

I’m curious if those trees were ever planted.

A new concrete bridge costing $175,000 was constructed across the Chattahoochee River leading to Roswell. Roosevelt Boulevard and the new bridge were dedicated on July 18, 1925. The Atlanta Constitution reported, “6,000 Georgians attend dedication of Roswell bridge and formal opening of Roosevelt Boulevard to public.” The bridge was christened with river water by Margaret Carpenter, daughter of the Cobb County Road commissioner. A wreath was placed on the bridge in memory of J. D. Wing, by his daughter Virginia Wing.

Jim Perkins, who wrote about local history for the Dunwoody Crier newspaper before me, discovered the story of Roosevelt Boulevard in 1999. He found an entry in the August 3, 1927, minutes of the Fulton County Road and Revenue Commission indicating a proposition to change the name back to Roswell Road had been advertised for four weeks without objections. Therefore, the road once again became Roswell Road.

By the 1940s, complaints about the condition of the concrete road begin to appear and repaving was completed by 1953.