Hammond School of Sandy Springs

Hammond School was located at 300 Johnson Ferry Road, where Mt. Vernon Towers is today, at the intersection of Johnson Ferry and Mt. Vernon Roads.

The earliest school on record in the community was established in 1851 on Sandy Springs Methodist Church property. Records show that a one-room school across the road from the church burned in 1897. (“Sandy Springs Past Tense,” Lois Coogle)

Following the fire, the community worked together to build a two-story school at 300 Johnson Ferry Road. It may have been known locally as Hammond School but is first referenced by that name in the Fulton County School records in 1904. (Fulton County Schools Archives, Hapeville, GA)

Hammond Drive and Hammond School are believed to be named for Nathaniel J. Hammond, Fulton County lawyer, educator, and Congressman. (“Images of America: Sandy Springs,” by Kimberly M. Brigance and Morris V. Moore)

Fulton County Board of Education records lists the 1904 teachers of Hammond as Susan Hines, W. M. Suttles, and Hattie March.

Teachers at Hammond taught high school classes to older students from 1905 until 1915. After 1915, students went to Fulton High School in downtown Atlanta for high school and by 1930 they went to North Fulton High School in Buckhead. Sandy Springs High School was built in 1958.

1908 Hammond Elementary School in Sandy Springs

Members of the local Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization, helped add a room to the school in 1920. They provided framing and labor in exchange for the use of an upstairs room for their meetings.  

Four women represented Sandy Springs at the 1930 Fulton County school board meeting to request a new school building. The new school was built in 1932. It was designed by Robert and Company architects and cost around $20,000.

Some of the teachers who worked multiple years at Hammond School include Mae Burgess, Katherine Patterson, and Principal J. P. McCleskey. Edith Roberts, daughter of Roswell Railroad engineer Isaac Roberts, taught at Hammond from 1928 to 1932. Teacher Betty Tiller was part of an early Sandy Springs family.

Hammond School in 1933, from the Fulton County School archives.

Annie Houze Cook worked at Cross Roads School and Hammond School before being asked to retire. She then founded the Annie Houze Cook Kindergarten at Providence Baptist Church.

The number of teachers at Hammond increased significantly through the years. In 1941, there were five teachers, a principal and assistant principal. In 1957, 25 people, including teachers and administrative staff, worked at Hammond.

On January 22, 1959, a devastating fire destroyed much of the school. The Atlanta Constitution reported on the fire the following day with the headline, “$275,000 blaze wrecks school in Sandy Springs.” The older classrooms and auditorium were destroyed, but a 1954 addition to the school survived the fire.

Chris Curth lived with his parents and sisters two doors away from Hammond Elementary on Hunting Creek Drive. The children were students of Hammond in 1959 and watched much of their school burn.

A new building was completed in 1960, but in 1975 when a middle school program began, Hammond closed. In February of 1979, bids were received for “sale of surplus school property” and the school and property were sold.  

Most of the history in this article was found in the Fulton County Schools Archives, located in Hapeville, Georgia.

Lost Corner Preserve and the Miles Family

Last Monday was April 1, April Fools Day, and I played a joke on myself. I thought I posted this article, but didn’t hit that final button. So here it is, a few days late!

The home and property known today as Lost Corner Preserve, at the corner of Dalrymple Road and Brandon Mill Road in Sandy Springs, was previously owned by the Miles family. Margaret (Peggy) Miles shared the story of her family’s move to Sandy Springs and life on the property in “The Story of Dunwoody,” by Ethel W. Spruill and Elizabeth L. Davis.

Nancy Hill Miles and Fred Harrison Miles were feeling crowded in their neighborhood near Atlanta and wanted to move to the country. They purchased a farm from the McMurtrey family in north Fulton County in Sandy Springs.

Nancy and Fred, along with seven-year-old Edward and five-year-old Alice (called Totsey), moved in April of 1915. Fred Miles, Jr. was born in 1916, Peggy in 1922, and Henry in 1929.

On the day of the move, Fred Miles worked half a day at his downtown job with Georgia Power, then rode the streetcar to meet his family in Buckhead. The family brought their possessions, including chickens, in a wagon pulled by a mule. They also brought their cow Betsy and her calf who walked behind the wagon. Betsy “had no time to chew her cud and meditate that day” as the family continued down Roswell Road.

When they arrived at their farm, they found a log home consisting of one large room, two lean-tos and a chimney made of red mud and sticks. By fall of 1915, a new home had been built on top of the old foundation.

The home of Nancy and Fred Miles, which they called Lost Corner, is now Lost Corner Preserve in Sandy Springs.

One of their neighbors was the Mayfield family, who lived east on Dalrymple Road. They were descendants of John Dalrymple. Janice Self and her son James also lived on part of the old Dalrymple farm.

Another neighbor was Granny Mack McMurtrey and her granddaughter, part of the family that originally owned the Miles property. Granny Mack remembered the Creek and Cherokee living along the Chattahoochee River and across the creek behind the Dalrymple Place.

Fred Miles and Hugh Spalding brought electricity to the farm with a line from the power plant at Morgan Falls. Spalding also ran a line to his summer home on the river.

The children walked three miles through the woods to Morgan Falls School along Roswell Road. Camp meeting services at Sandy Springs Methodist Church were attended by the family. Later they became members of Dunwoody Methodist Church. They were instrumental in the organization of Sunday School programs at Dunwoody Methodist and Edward Miles hand crafted furniture for the chapel.

The farm became known as Lost Corner because people who came from the city seldom found it on their first try.

The last family member to lived there was Peggy Miles. She lived in the home up until her death in 2008. She had already made plans for the home and property to be preserved and today Lost Corner Preserve is a Sandy Springs Park. The home place sits among nature trails and a community garden. The support of Friends of Lost Corner provides funding, community engagement, programming, and volunteers.

As Nancy Miles grew older, Peggy recalled that her mother would remind her each year, “when the whippoorwill calls and the oak leaves are the size of a squirrel’s ear, it’s time to plant the corn and pay the taxes.”

McGaughey home was Serviceman's Shelter

Carroll and Effie McGaughey announced a house-warming party at their new summer home on Spruill Road in Dunwoody in 1939. The Dec. 30, 1939, Atlanta Constitution Society Events column included the announcement, using the alternate spelling of Spruell Road. The gathering was also in honor of their debutante daughter, Mary McGaughey. The couple would later make the Dunwoody home their primary home.

Carroll McGaughey was an electrical engineer and owner of McGaughey Electrical Company.  Effie McGaughey operated an antique shop called Backdoor Studios out of their Atlanta home on Lombardy Way.  The McGaughey’s had two sons, Carroll Jr. and Carrick, in addition to their daughter Mary.

When the United States entered World War II and Lawson General Hospital opened in nearby Chamblee, Effie McGaughey began thinking of ways to help recovering soldiers.  The McGaugheys turned their home from a social gathering spot to a place for relaxation and recreation for injured soldiers, the Serviceman’s Shelter.

Ethel Spruill and Elizabeth Davis describe the McGaughey place in their book The Story of Dunwoody. “Using a rustic building on the McGaughey property and colorful festive lanterns, church groups, community clubs, and Atlanta groups took turns at entertaining the boys and furnishing food and dance partners.” 

This 1945 photo of patients from Lawson General Hospital at the McGaughey home appears in The Story of Dunwoody, by Elizabeth L. Davis and Ethel W. Spruill.

By 1944 a group of Atlanta women including Effie McGaughey had organized a committee to plan parties for convalescing soldiers at various homes around Atlanta.  An article in the July 12, 1944 issue of The Atlanta Constitution titled Many Parties are Planned for Convalescent Officers describes the upcoming schedule of parties.  The following Friday evening a barbeque supper would be held at the home of Carroll and Effie McGaughey.  The guests would be entertained with swimming, music by the Tech band, and a movie shown on an outdoor screen. 

The schedule for the next two weeks includes parties on Habersham Road and another on Tuxedo Road in Atlanta, followed by a gathering at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ryburn Clay on their Chattahoochee River country place known as Lazy River Farm.  The Clay summer estate was on what is now Clay Drive off Spalding Drive.

The McGaugheys place was for the enjoyment of all recovering soldiers.  One soldier from Lawson General Hospital who lost the use of his legs often got a ride to their home courtesy of the Red Cross.  Upon arrival, he would enjoy swimming in the pool. 

The Serviceman’s Shelter and use of the McGaughey’s swimming pool continued into 1946.  In August of that year they hosted veterans of both World War I and World War II, arranged by Veterans Hospital Number 48 in Brookhaven and financed by the Elks Club. (The Atlanta Constitution, August 16, 1946, Veterans Feted by Elks Group)

Effie McGaughey also helped during World War II by donating a movable kitchen in 1942.  The kitchen was operated by the Atlanta Red Cross Canteen Corps and was able to serve two thousand meals and forty thousand cups of hot coffee per day.