Northlake Mall of 1971 and today

New posts each Monday.

Georgia’s Governor Jimmy Carter was invited to preside over the ribbon cutting ceremony of Northlake Mall when it opened in 1971. The newest mall for the Atlanta area was located near I-285 where Lavista Road, Henderson Mill Road and Briarcliff Road meet. Governor Carter designated it Northlake Mall Week in Georgia. Designating a special week for a mall is an indication of how important malls were at the time. (Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 6, 1971)

The Atlanta Constitution reported that the mall was a joint venture of Frank Carter, Ewell Pope of Atlanta, Trammel Crow of Dallas, Texas and Monumental Properties of Baltimore, Maryland. Frank Carter said plans for the mall had been evolving over several years following the success of Greenbriar Shopping Center.

Northlake was built on over 80 acres and included 100 merchants and over 1,000,000 square feet of space. That made it the largest mall in the metro area. The original anchor stores were Davison’s, Sears, and J. C. Penny’s.

A list of 1971 merchants included J. P. Allen, Baskin Robbins, Brooks Fashions, Butler Shoes, El Chico Restaurant, Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour, Florsheim Shoes, Hot Pants of Northlake Mall, The Limited, Merry Go Round, Muse’s, Record Bar, Spencer Gifts, Wicks N Sticks, Zachry and many more.

Beyond the mall was office space, which all together included 225 acres and a 17-acre lake.

Once Northlake Mall opened, it was the closest mall for my family. Looking over the list above brings back many memories. I remember having dinner at El Chico with my family and enjoying birthday parties at Farrell’s Ice Cream.

Who could forget the Merry Go Round clothing store in the era of bell bottoms and other 1970 styles? Hot Pants of Northlake! I don’t remember that one, but also fitting (no pun intended) for the time. Every mall had a record store, so of course Northlake had a Record Bar. Andrew of New York hair salon also was in the early mall.

The Atlanta Constitution October 6, 1971 issue, opening day for the mall, featured pages and pages of advertising and articles about the big stores and specialty shops of the mall. There were details about how to get to the mall from all directions using the “Perimeter Expressway” and articles about the plentiful parking.

Early malls had places to eat but not food courts. That phenomenon came along later.

Emory Healthcare offices at Northlake Mall, photo by Valerie Biggerstaff 2023

Back side of Northlake Mall, formerly part of Sears, today Emory Healthcare. Photo by Valerie Biggerstaff, 2023.

Like other malls around Atlanta, across Georgia and across the U.S., Northlake mall has evolved with the times. Stores have come and gone and many malls have a great deal of empty space. However, some of Northlake’s empty space is now occupied by Emory Healthcare.

An article in the October 2021 Atlanta Journal Constitution told of plans to convert much of the closed shop space to office space. The mall was 50 years old in 2021. New owners ATR Corinth Partners had purchased the mall in 2016.

Representative Bill Mitchell was there along with other state, county and city officials. He said he used to come to the mall frequently but had not visited in years.

Emory was happy with the location of Northlake, close to I-285 and Marta. This is another example of the evolution of malls in the Atlanta area. Malls are being repurposed for the needs of today, obviously a much changed world since 1971.

Nancy Hanks, Airline Belle & Man o’ War

While researching the Nancy Hanks train which went from Savannah to Atlanta between 1947 and 1971, plus briefly in 1893, I discovered the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society at www.cofga.com.

They have some great photographs on their website and in their newsletters. The photo below appeared in their Jan.-March 2021 newsletter.

This 1957 photograph of a Nancy Hanks billboard at the intersection of Abercorn Street and East 40th Street in Savannah is shared with permission from the collection of the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society.

To read my full article on the Nancy Hanks, Airline Belle and Man O war trains go to the website of Appen Media and the Dunwoody Crier and search any of these engine names.

You can also find other local history articles by searching under Past Tense on the Appen Media website.

Sandy Springs Cross Roads school in 1917

Monday, January 16, 2023 Having computer issues today. The issue is my computer will not power on. Therefore, this week’s blog post will be delayed!

New local history stories each Monday.

An article written in the August 5, 1917 issue of the Atlanta Constitution praises the efforts of Cross Roads School in Sandy Springs and the recent Farmer’s Institute which was held in that community. The article is titled “Club Kids Are Doing Their Bit for World Democracy.”

The Cross Roads Girls Canning Club and the Boys Pig and Corn clubs of Sandy Springs were present at the event. It is noted that farming and keeping up food production will help the war effort. The United States has entered World War I just four months earlier.

According to Lois Coogle’s book “ Sandy Springs Past Tense,” Cross Roads School was located just southwest of the Cross Roads Primitive Baptist Church. The location is where today Mount Vernon Highway, Dupree Road and Old Powers Ferry Road come together. The school began as a brush arbor school in the 1880s and later was a one room school house. By 1910, it was a two room school.

Teacher Annie Houze Cook was at the 1917 event. Cook gives her all the credit to the work of the children, saying she only guided and encouraged them. However, author Nell Freeman proclaims, “But all the children and everybody else in those parts proclaim emphatically that Mrs. Cook is more modest than exact, and you feel sure that they are right in this.”

The Cross Roads Girl’s Canning Club had seven members. They wore pink and blue uniforms with white aprons. The girls started out with okra, corn, and tomatoes, cooked it on an oil stove and poured it into large jars. The jars were sealed with wax and rubber. It seems a rather dangerous process for young children.

The president of the group was student Myrtice Lay, who is described as a first-class farmer. She won first prize for general gardening at the Southeastern Fair in 1916.

The boys of the school exhibited the pigs they had raised. Two Duroc-Jersey pigs were shown by Knox and Pink Barrow of Dunwoody. The four month old pigs weighed 130 and 135 pounds. Pink’s father tells how the boys treat their pigs like family.

T. G. Chastain and assistant Carl Wallace were the students who started the club and kept it going.

In her book, Lois Coogle also mentions Lillie Hyman in the summer of 1914, working for superintendent of schools Edwin C. Merry, and visiting schools such as Cross Roads to make sure all the most up-to-date canning methods were being taught.

Annie Houze Cook went on to teach for many years at Hammond School in Sandy Springs and later she began her own kindergarten program at the Providence Baptist Church in Sandy Springs.

Another teacher of Cross Roads School was Ida Williams who later taught at the R. J. Guinn School.

Captain Peter Carey and the WWI Norcross Rifle Range

New posts each Monday.

I recently came across an article about WWI Norcross Rifle Range that mentions Captain Peter Carey. I was fortunate to communicate with Carey’s son Chris in 2018. Chris Carey shared several documents and photographs of his father.

The August 20, 1918, Atlanta Constitution article I stumbled on is titled, “Rifle Range Men Doing Great Work at Camp Gordon” with the subtitle, “Operate 300-Acre Farm and Help to Feed Gordon in Addition to Supplying Own Messes.” It describes how the soldiers at Norcross rifle range are constructing a farm of between 250 and 300 acres and supporting themselves in fresh food.

They are growing vegetables in addition to their training under the leadership of Captain Peter Carey who is described as “one of the most efficient and hardworking officers at Gordon.”

The Norcross Rifle Range was constructed in 1917 near the U. S. Army’s World War I encampment Camp Gordon, located in Chamblee, Georgia.  There were two rifle ranges near Atlanta, one in Norcross and another in Marietta.

Captain Peter Thaddeus Carey was commander of the Norcross Rifle Range from November of 1917 through January of 1919.  His job was to prepare recruits for rifle duty in combat companies.  Most of the recruits had no military experience.

Captain Peter Carey demonstrates his shooting skills at Norcross Rifle Range, 1918.

Peter Carey had already fought in the Spanish-American War, was a bugler for the New Jersey National Guard, and rose through the Army ranks as sergeant, commissary sergeant, 1st sergeant, 1st Lieutenant, and Captain through 1910.   

In 1917, when men across the United States were called to register for service, he reported to Officers Training at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia.  That same year, he was recommissioned and reported to Camp Gordon as a Captain in the 82nd Division, then to Norcross Rifle Range in March of 1918. 

Captain Carey of Norcross Rifle Range was set to become a Major in October of 1918, but his commission did not come through before the war ended on November 11th.  He received glowing recommendations from his superiors but took his discharge in January of 1919 and moved to California to pursue new opportunities.

In November of 1937, Captain Carey married Mary Catherine Terhune of Burley, Idaho.  She was a graduate of Lake Erie Women’s College and the University of Idaho.  She taught school in Edinburg, Texas and then in San Francisco, where the couple met. Their son Chris was born in 1946.  Peter Carey died just four years later.

Chris Carey shared this story passed down by his mom as told by Peter Carey. “When he (Captain Carey) was training the American Expeditionary Forces destined to join General Pershing’s command in Europe, one of his recruits was Alvin York, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery.  He had substantial skill as a dead-eyed squirrel shooter but lacked any vestige of discipline requisite to becoming a skillful soldier.  This he quickly set in order, since York was already a natural-born sharpshooter and expert rifleman from his years in Tennessee’s hill region.”

According to “Atlanta’s Camp Gordon,” by James Knettel, “the (Norcross Rifle) range pits were approximately seven miles northeast of Camp Gordon and occupied 700 acres. The federal, state and DeKalb County governments joined together to pay for paving the road to the range pits.” The land that was once Norcross Rifle Range is today the location of Sheffield Forest neighborhood, located off Norcross-Tucker Road. 

In addition to starting a vegetable garden, I know the soldiers picked peaches somewhere nearby, because it is documented in the photographs below. Since the war ended soon after the August 1918 article, I wonder what became of their farming efforts.

Captain Carey is identified in this peach picking photograph as number 17.

Norcross Rifle Range recruits after a peach picking expedition.

Christmas memories include The Twist

In this post, I recall some of my own personal holiday memories. Return to pasttensega.com for new posts about local history each Monday.

When I think back on Christmas when I grew up in neighborhoods near Atlanta; along N. Druid Hills Road, Chamblee Tucker Road, and Briarcliff Road; a few memories stand out.

My father was in The Optimist Club and we always got our tree from the lot where he worked a couple of nights each year. Selling Christmas trees was a fundraiser for several organizations back then. I remember the Christmas tree lot being at Chamblee Plaza on Peachtree Boulevard (formerly Peachtree Industrial Blvd.).

Another memory was the big, extended family Christmas party that was held each year on Christmas Eve. That was especially fun for me, because I got to spend time with cousins I didn’t see often. Some years that was the only time I saw them.

The party was held in the basement of a great aunt and uncle’s home, packed with people of all ages. Of course, as a child you enter a room full of relatives you don’t see often and get lots of hugs and and a few face pinches!

Everyone, adults and children, had one gift because we drew names. Santa Claus would often make an appearance during the evening.

Dinner was always pot luck with everyone bringing their specialty dishes or desserts. There were tables filled with casseroles and congealed salads, fried chicken and ham, delicious cakes and pies. My favorite-my grandmother’s sweet potato pie. She always made two!

Some time during the evening, after the greetings, a large meal, and presents, some of the family would play Christmas songs on the piano and organ. There were some talented musicians in my family, including one of my great aunts and my grandfather. Both of them could play by ear, sitting down and playing just by knowing the melody and the chords that went along with that melody. I was jealous of this ability, especially since I took piano lessons for twelve years of my life, needed music in front of me to play, and still missed a note here and there.

Those of us who gathered to listen to the music also sang Christmas carols and other songs being played.

Another memory from this same holiday gathering in the early 1960s is of a room full of people doing the Twist as Chubby Checker was played on the radio. I remember a line of cousins, aunts, uncles, my mom and myself all doing this same dance. In 1960, Chubby Checker released the single The Twist, which had previously been recorded and released by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. Then in 1961, Checker released Let’s Twist Again. That is the one I recall best and the song I believe was playing that Christmas Eve.

And of course I remember (but not very clearly) riding the Pink Pig, but I have written about that in previous posts.

Santa always wrapped presents that were left under our family Christmas tree. One thing puzzled me. Why were they wrapped in the same wrapping paper as the paper my mom and dad used?

Tuggle Dairy of DeKalb County

New posts every Monday morning.

In an Atlanta Constitution article from November 11, 1940, “Tuggle Dairy is a Showplace on Briarcliff Road,” this DeKalb County dairy is described as one of the most modern in the county. The dairy was run by C. C. Tuggle and his two sons, A. C. Tuggle and R. W. Tuggle. DeKalb County had many dairies during this time period.

C. C. Tuggle began in the business when he was a boy, following in his father’s footsteps. The one-hundred-acre dairy farm had an address of 3200 Briarcliff Road.

The dairy had 150 cows in 1940, mostly Jerseys according to the article. A new and modern pasteurizing and bottling plant had recently been built. The volume of milk product each day was about 300 gallons. Milk was sent to restaurants, homes and hotels across Atlanta.

An advertisement on the same page as the article describes the product as “Grade A Natural Raw and Pasteurized MILK, rich in vitamins and food value, especially good for babies, delivered at your door. C. C. Tuggle Dairy, 3200 Briarcliff Road, N. E. Atlanta, phone number VD 1952.”

The dairy also manufactured its own ice in a recently built plant. Readers of the article are invited to visit. “If you are careful about the milk you use-and you ought to be-drop out along Briarcliff Road some day and inspect this new and unusually sanitary dairy. Mr. Tuggle or his courteous sons would be glad to welcome you and show you through an ideally clean and sanitary dairy.”

In 1953, another article about C. C. Tuggle Dairy Farm appears in the Atlanta Constitution. Just a few days before Christmas, a story titled “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year from C. C. Tuggle.” The dairy is run by A. C. Tuggle and R. W. Tuggle by 1953.

Once again, the modern methods and equipment of the dairy are lauded. “Hundreds of families, markets, institutions and hotels in Atlanta and vicinity are served by the C. C. Tuggle Dairy fleet of modern trucks.” Visitors are welcome to Tuggle Dairy to watch the handling of milk, pasteurizing, bottling, washing and sterilizing bottles.

The 1953 article refers to an address of 2370 Briarcliff Road, which today is near where Briarcliff Road meets Sheridan Road. The earlier article address is along Briarcliff just north of Clairmont Road. The distance between these two locations is almost two miles.

Were these two separate locations, were there two dairies named Tuggle or is this just a matter of addresses changing over the years? These are questions I don’t have the answer to yet. If you know more about Tuggle Dairy, please write me at pasttensega@gmail.com.