A couple of years ago Dunwoody was given the temporary nickname of Bankwoody. It was during a time when branch banks were constantly being built and old bank buildings remained but under new names. This has slowed down recently, but the community still has many banks. As usual, I like to think of what used to be in these locations and often wish the old landmarks could return.

Mr. W. T. Donaldson was born in Dunwoody on July 1, 1921. He was born in the family home on North Shallowford Road across from where Emory Hospital was later located, with Dunwoody’s Dr. Puckett attending. W. T. Donaldson’s parents were Mattie Azilee Eison Donaldson and James W. Donaldso

On May 31, 2008, I was honored to be invited to a reunion of people who attended Dunwoody School between 1928 and 1955. Carlton Renfroe, Jeff Porter, and Margaret Henderson Jenkins planned the reunion. Looking back on this opportunity, I wish I had an audio or video recording of the event. However, I was new to the group and wanted to get to know them first, so I listened and took note

Daniel McBride, who parachuted from a C-47 in 1944 was among the veterans who returned to Normandy to commemorate the momentous day in 2019. A few months before the trip, I spoke with Mr. McBride, who was living in New Mexico.

In November of 2018, I had the honor of meeting ninety-two year old World War II veteran George Grant. Richard Adams, born along what is now Dunwoody Club Drive in 1933, introduced me to his friend George Grant of Hollywood, Georgia. Grant shared his experiences in Italy during the final months of the war. Mr. Grant died January 30, 2020 at the age of 93.

Fred Donaldson remembers that after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he and other young men gathered at a small local store called Nash’s in Dunwoody,, Georgia to talk about the tragic event. In June of 1942, he enlisted and began a journey that would take him across the United States and across the world.

World War II veteran and Dachau liberator Hilbert Margol shared his experiences with me in February of 2021. It was an honor to meet Hilbert Margol, World War II veteran who has lived in Dunwoody since 1984, thanks to a Zoom call arranged by Jan Slimming and the Churchill Society-Atlanta Chapter. He shared with the group the story of how he and his brother came to be at Dachau on April 29, 1945-liberation day.

Harts Mill Road is named for Dr. C. C. Hart-physician, landowner, and mill owner. The road runs between Chamblee Dunwoody Road and Ashford Dunwoody Road. A section of Harts Mill Road serves as the line between the two cities of Chamblee and Brookhaven. The same road was previously called Sexton Road, named for the Sexton family.

Update: Katherine Geffcken was recently interviewed by Victoria Lemos on her December 3, 2021 podcast, Archive Atlanta. The summer home in Dunwoody which I write about below is briefly mentioned and it is nice to hear Ms. Geffcken talk about growing up in Atlanta and her experience at Girls High School, Agnes Scott College, and Bryn Mawr College.

A home on West Peachtree Road and a summer cottage off Spalding Drive may sound strange today, but it was not unusual in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The historic house at 8059 Kenstone Court was just such a cottage and there were several others in the area along Chamblee Dunwoody Road and Spalding Drive.

Katherine Geffcken, one of Dr. William and Elizabeth Geffcken’s daughters, shared her memories of the home and area when she visited her former home.

Several major events occurred in the U. S. in the year 1969. That was the year of the Apollo 11 moon landing and walk. It was also the year of Woodstock and the first Boeing 747 flight. Richard Nixon was President and the Vietnam War continued.

Atlanta was changing quite a bit in the year 1969.

Many families came to Georgia at that time from South Carolina and other states in search of land. Stephen and Elizabeth Martin and their children were one of those families. The Stephen Martin Cemetery in Dunwoody is named for this early pioneer who traveled from South Carolina to Dunwoody around 1830. The cemetery is located between Hammond Drive and I-285, behind a shopping center. Dunwoody Preservation Trust has been caring for the cemetery for several years, including keeping the grass cut and maintaining a kiosk with information and a guest log book.

Beginning in 1923, Annie Houze Cook taught first grade at Hammond Elementary School in Sandy Springs and continued until Fulton County said she had to retire in 1948. When she retired, she immediately announced the opening of her kindergarten. Classes were held at what was then known as Providence Baptist Church.

Aside from his own work, Smith taught some of the most well-known architects of the South in the early twentieth century, including Phillip Shutze, Preston Stevens, Flippen Burge, Ed Ivey and Lewis Crook, Jr. Philip Shutze’s work includes the Swan House and Glenn Memorial Church, Burge and Stevens designed the Capital City Country Club in Brookhaven, Ivey and Crooke designed Lullwater House at Emory University and First Baptist Church of Decatur. These are just examples of each of their extensive work.

Wednesday November 21, 1920, the day before Thanksgiving, was a sad day for the community of Dunwoody, Georgia. A boiler explosion caused the death of three Dunwoody men that day. The boiler was located at the Cheek mills on the southeast corner of the Mount Vernon Road and Chamblee Dunwoody intersection. In the small farming community, everyone was affected by the loss.

In early 1943, 500 WAVES were brought to Atlanta, first training downtown and staying at the Biltmore Hotel while barracks were built to house them at Naval Air Station Atlanta. The station was not physically located in Atlanta, but in Chamblee, Georgia. It was on land that is now DeKalb Peachtree Airport. (Atlanta Constitution, January 31, 1943, “WAVES Begin Trainer School Tomorrow with Class of 500”)

The new search resulted in his World War I draft registration card, completed under the name of Nils Edwin Burton Berglund. He worked as a pattern maker at a shoe factory. A quick search of shoe factories in Brockton, Massachusetts around the time of WWI shows that the town was known for its shoe manufacturing companies. He was born May 15, 1896. This was slightly off from my usual guess of 1895 for the birth year of WWI soldiers.

Then I hit the jackpot on newspapers.com! I came across the small piece below about Berglund written in April of 1919. Note how the spelling of his name is once again an issue.

Prior to the Civil War, the owners of the Roswell Manufacturing Company determined that a railroad to carry goods produced in their mills to Atlanta would be great for business. Grading work began to prepare for tracks, but that work was halted with the onset of the war.

The bicentennial year of 1976 was the occasion of the first Fourth of July parade in Dunwoody. The parade was held on Saturday, July 3. The Honorary Grand Marshal that year was 88-year-old Effie Spruill Carpenter.

I came across an Atlanta Constitution article from 1942 that announced women working as Link flight trainer instructors, teaching pilots blind flying using the Link trainer machine. The instructors also taught women who were part of the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), who in turn were sent across the country to be instructors.

3600 Black recuits were sent to Camp Gordon for training. Camp Gordon was a World War I encampment built in early 1917 on land that now includes DeKalb-Peachtree Airport located in Chamblee, Georgia.