Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Sandy Springs DeWald’s Alley and the memories of Shirley Peters Pruitt

Residents of DeWald’s Alley rented from Clyde and Susie DeWald, who lived nearby on Spruill Road, later known as Meadow Lane Road. Susie DeWald would go door to door collecting rent each month. The houses of DeWald’s Alley had outhouses, no electricity, and well water. Pumps were eventually installed.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Atlanta flocks to Flowerland

In 1932, he sold the dairy farm and bought 138 acres in Chamblee. He and wife Lucy Hurt Fischer built a home with elaborate gardens, calling it Flowerland. The home was designed by Phillip Trammel Shutze.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

George Adolphus, Sandy Springs postmaster

Finally in 1930, Adolphus began his career as a Methodist minister while living on Crew Street. But in 1934, he made the move to the country, bought a five-acre farm in Burdal and became postmaster.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

1938, Fulton County school teachers who marry can keep their job

According to an article in the Sunday American Newspaper (the Sunday edition of the Atlanta Georgian), Oct. 3, 1937, titled “Married teacher opinion divided,” in the Fulton County School System, women teachers who married would lose their jobs.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Before Murphey Candler Park

In the early 1950s, the Kiwanis Club of North DeKalb spearheaded a project to provide North DeKalb County with a park. The 165-acre property was donated by M. A. and Cora Quinn Long and Fred B. Wilson for the construction of a park in 1953.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Moonshine stories

When Ralph Glaze was a boy growing up along Winters Chapel and Peeler Road, he remembers the rumor of moonshine production between Happy Hollow and Winters Chapel Road along what is now Dunwoody Club Drive. Adults used to say, “don’t go down there,” sometimes using the story of a monster to keep children away.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

I-285 completed 1969, part of GA 400 opens in 1971

7.4 miles of I-285 on the east side of Atlanta opened in 1968. The entire 64 mile circumferential highway was completed October 15, 1969, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Lydia T. Douglas, Civil Rights and the Atlanta Student Movement 1960

Douglas recalls that Lonnie King conceived the Atlanta Student Movement in 1960. King (no relation to Martin Luther King, Jr.) brought students together to form the Committee on the Appeal for Human Rights. His plan was to desegregate all public accommodations in the city of Atlanta.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

History of Doraville Library

The land for the first Doraville library was donated by Dr. J. E. Flowers and E. S. Grant. The $18,488 cost was covered by DeKalb County bond funds in 1953. Three thousand books were loaned from the Decatur DeKalb Regional Library. There were plans to raise money for a permanent book collection.

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Tuggle airfield in Decatur

Manget tells some history of Camp Gordon and Naval Air Station Atlanta as well as aviation history for DeKalb County. He explains that at one time DeKalb County had three airports, Gunn Airfield, DeKalb Peachtree, and Stone Mountain

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

The shopping experience of 1965, Briarcliff Village

A grand opening ceremony was held at the new Briarcliff Village on Thursday, March 25, 1965. A full page ad in the March 24, 1965 Atlanta Journal announced the new shopping center with details about the 26 stores and services. The ad describes Briarcliff Village as “set amid an intimate courtyard.”

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Valerie Biggerstaff Valerie Biggerstaff

Dr. Jack Schreeder and Dee Schreeder of Chamblee

Dr. Schreeder served during World War II in the Mediterranean and European theaters and was awarded the Bronze Star and French War Cross. After the war, he attended Emory University Medical School. He did his residency at Grady Memorial Hospital and Lawson General Hospital in Chamblee. Then he joined Dr. W. A. Mendenhall’s office and small hospital in Chamblee.

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