“Scream in the Dark” and other vintage Halloween events
In 1973, the abandoned Veterans Hospital #48 in Brookhaven was the setting for a haunted house. The Peachtree and Osborne Road location became home to a veterans hospital in 1919, and before that it was Cheston King Sanitarium.
Horses and Mules arrive at World War I Camp Gordon
By September of 1917, plans were announced for a Remount Station, near Johnson Ferry Road and north of Peachtree Road on one hundred and fifty acres. Today this is the location of a Lowe’s home improvement store. Prior to Lowe’s, the property was the location of a Frito-Lay plant.
Native Americans serve during World War I and at Camp Gordon
In May of 1918, twenty-five men from the Creek Nation were transferred from Camp Travis, Texas to Camp Gordon, a World War I encampment in Chamblee, Georgia.
Jewish soldiers at Chamblee's World War I Camp Gordon
A building constructed for Jewish soldiers at World War I Camp Gordon in Chamblee was completed October 1, 1918. It was known as the Little White House and was sponsored by the Jewish Welfare Board.
Country Squire Farm was at 1225 Meadow Lane, Dunwoody
If you look up 1225 Meadow Lane Road in Dunwoody on Google maps, you end up in the middle of the road between Walton Ashford Apartments Homes and Target near Perimeter Mall. This is where Country Squire Farm was located, the home of Arthur King Adams and Marie Butler Adams.
Soldiers inducted at Lexington, GA destined for Camp Gordon
I 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.
How Atlanta Celebrated the end of WWI
“Germans Sign Armistice, World War Comes to End.” This was the Atlanta Constitution headline on November 11, 1918 and the good news was celebrated all over Atlanta and in the surrounding communities.
Teachers led school children in patriotic songs and then dismissed them early. Boys from Tech High School marched through town as they celebrated and cheered. Atlanta city offices were ordered closed by Mayor Asa Candler. Students of the Southern Shorthand and Business School on Whitehall Street in downtown Atlanta gathered in the street and sang “America.”
Florence Barnard Boykin, the "mother of Camp Gordon"
World War I training camp Camp Gordon was established in 1917 in Chamblee, Georgia. Boykin recruited women volunteers to welcome soldiers to the YMCA Hostess House and make them feel at home. She also organized entertainment activities each week for the soldiers, sometimes up to 25 activities in a week. Her volunteers were part of the Woman’s Division of the Young Man’s Christian Association and the Overseas Canteen Service.