If you have a subject you would like to see researched and written about on Past Tense GA, write me at pasttensega.com.
In 2011, I had the pleasure of speaking with Wilma Paris about her career as a Chesnut Elementary teacher. I had recently written about the school and stated the age as fifty years. Wilma Paris called the Dunwoody Crier newspaper to let them know that was incorrect. She was there for the first day of classes at Chesnut was December 10, 1969, as a first grade teacher and remembered the day well. At that point, the school was 42 years old and 2019 marked the 50th anniversary.
Mrs. Paris taught at Chesnut Elementary for twenty years, from 1969 until 1989. She primarily taught first grade, but occasionally taught second grade. She remembered using the “Dick and Jane” series of books to help the children learn to read.
The principal of the school when it first opened was Dr. C. E. Watson. Chesnut is named for the pioneer Chesnut family and the family members who served over the years on school boards and with the PTA.
David Chesnut, descendant of the Chesnut family, wife Linda and daughter Caroline lived nearby at what is now known as Donaldson-Bannister Farm from 1975 until 2005.
Mrs. Paris and other teachers spent the beginning of the 1969 school year travelling between Hightower Elementary and Shallowford Elementary until Chesnut School was ready. DeKalb County and Dunwoody were experiencing tremendous growth and many homes were being built. Directly across the road from Chesnut Elementary School in the Dunwoody North Subdivision, new families were moving in rapidly.
Just down North Peachtree Road was the new Peachtree High School, which is now Peachtree Charter Middle School. There were no middle schools in DeKalb County at that time. Elementary school was grade one through seven and high school included grade eight through twelve.
Dunwoody was much less developed in 1969 and still showed signs of being a farming town. The occasional grazing cow could still be seen in Dunwoody. At the intersection of Chamblee Dunwoody Road and Mount Vernon Road, a mule drawn plow was a common sight. Perimeter Mall was in the planning stages, and would open in 1971. I-285 was completed in October of 1969, but was only four lanes. New subdivisions were springing up everywhere and with them the need for new schools, such as Chesnut Elementary School.