I’ve had this subject on my mind for a while because I went to Camp Chattahoochee, only one time and in the 1960s. The location of Camp Chattahoochee is now the Chattahoochee Nature Center on Willeo Road in Roswell.
A search of Atlanta newspapers doesn’t reveal much about the camp, but an ad appears in the 1965 Atlanta Constitution. Camp Chattahoochee is described as a camp for boys and Camp Greenbriar for girls both in Roswell Georgia. The have both day and boarding camp and the director is Horace Holden. I don’t recall the name Camp Greenbriar from my experience.
Read moreThe first record of Morgan Falls School is January 1907, when the Atlanta Constitution reported Morgan Falls as one of two new schools opening in Fulton County. The other was on Stewart Avenue.
Morgan Falls Dam was constructed to help supply electricity to the area. The same Atlanta Constitution articles states, “The county was aided in the construction of the Morgan Falls school by the company of that name with its secretary and treasurer, Forrest Adair, very instrumental in the work.”
Read moreAs I mentioned in my August 28 blog post, I was a member of the safety patrols at Pleasantdale Elementary School during the 1969-1970 school year and went on their annual trip. We went by train to Washington, D. C. and then on to New York City. It was a lot of fun, not only visiting those cities which I had never been to, but spending so much time with school friends away from the usual school setting.
Read moreThis week a new exhibit opens at DeKalb History Center, located on the first floor of the Historic DeKalb Courthouse. The exhibit is called “Home: The United Methodist Children’s Home” and tells the history through photographs, text and audio. The exhibit will be open Monday through Fridays from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, Saturdays 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.
Decatur-based photographer Beate Sass took the photographs and conducted interviews for the exhibit, combining the two into a manuscript. Moira Bucciarelli assisted with interviews. Past residents, employees and volunteers of the UMCH were interviewed and recorded.
Read moreWhen Marissa Howard, Programs and Membership Coordinator at DeKalb History Center, sent this photograph to me, I thought perhaps it was a group of school safety patrol students. The group of students in the front have a sign that reads Morgan Falls, a former school in Sandy Springs I have written about before. The photograph is part of the Guy Hayes Collection in the DeKalb History Center archives.
I wondered if the groups of children may have been preparing to leave on the annual safety patrol trip by train to Washington, D. C. and in some years New York City also. I participated in the safety patrol at DeKalb County’s Pleasantdale Elementary School back in 1969 and 1970 but didn’t know the origins of the program or when it started. I also did not recall that it was associated with AAA, the American Automobile Association.
If you look closely, you will also see the name of two other Fulton County Schools at that time-Center Hill and Lakewood Heights Schools of Atlanta. Several of the students are wearing badges and a few have on their safety patrol sash with the badge attached. There are quite a few suitcases.
Read moreTime zones did not become official across the United States until the Standard Time Zone Act of 1918. The line between Eastern and Central time zones divided Georgia, with approximately one-third of the state falling in the Central time zone. This caused confusion for Georgia railroads and Georgia businesses.
Read moreBetween 1924 and 1963, the city of Brookhaven was a municipality known as North Atlanta. An 1872 Act for Judicial Incorporation, passed by the Georgia General Assembly, paved the way for Brookhaven to become the village of North Atlanta. The act outlined the manner in which towns and villages in Georgia could incorporate. The act was repealed in 1939.
North Atlanta was bordered by the city of Atlanta to the south and the city of Chamblee to the north, with a total area of seven square miles. In 1924, the total population for the area was less than one hundred people, but by 1964 increased to over 13,350.
Read moreWalking around the park, our tour guide pointed out stone features that were originally built as part of the Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895. The Exposition lasted 100 days, included 6,000 exhibits and hosted 800,000 visitors.
Read moreWoodie Malone was Mayor of Chamblee for thirty-two years, from 1948 until the year he died- 1980. He was born in Union, Louisiana in 1916. Malone was working as a barber and living at the Alamo Hotel in Pampa, Texas, according to the 1940 census records.
Read moreAdvertisements for land in the Atlanta Constitution both in 1920 and 1946 list land on Balloon Road and Dunwoody Road, both described as being off Peachtree Dunwoody Road. In 1920, all local roads were dirt. Roads began to be paved in the 1930s as part of the Works Progress Administration.
A piece of the Balloon Road remains today. It is called Old Balloon Road, located to the east of the complex that includes Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital and the surrounding office buildings. It is no longer directly connected with Peachtree Dunwoody Road but does lead to Johnson Ferry Road.
Read moreAdvertisements for land in the Atlanta Constitution both in 1920 and 1946 list land on Balloon Road and Dunwoody Road, both described as being off Peachtree Dunwoody Road. In 1920, all local roads were dirt. Roads began to be paved in the 1930s as part of the Works Progress Administration.
A piece of the Balloon Road remains today. It is called Old Balloon Road, located to the east of the complex that includes Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital and the surrounding office buildings. It is no longer directly connected with Peachtree Dunwoody Road but does lead to Johnson Ferry Road.
Read moreThanks to a reader of pasttensega.com, I can now share the journey of Abraham (Abe) Koppel during World War II. Koppel wrote down a narrative of his experiences when his granddaughter was working on a school project. The family also shared a photograph of Koppel and the X-ray section he trained with at Lawson General Hospital, along with an image of the back of the photograph with messages from several men.
Read moreIn 1944, the land that is now DeKalb Peachtree Airport in Chamblee was home to Naval Air Station Atlanta. Men came from all over the U. S. to train at Naval Air Station Atlanta beginning in 1941 and women began to arrive in 1942 to work as link instrument trainers.
Lawson General Hospital sat adjacent to Naval Air Station Atlanta, where the IRS and CDC Chamblee offices are located today. The hospital opened in April of 1941.
Read moreI first researched Glenridge Hall when I wrote about a 2011 Dunwoody Nature Center “Monarchs and Margueritas” fundraiser event. The article was for the Dunwoody Crier newspaper.
The historic home was designed by Samuel Inman Cooper for Thomas K. Glenn. He began his career as a clerk in Atlanta in 1887, later becoming executive secretary to Joel Hurt during the development of the Atlanta Electric Streetcar Company. That company eventually evolved into Georgia Power.
Read moreCephas Sentell Spruill was born in 1909 in Dunwoody to James Cephas Spruill and Alice Abernathy Spruill. He married Emma Moore of Henry County, Georgia. After World War II broke out, Spruill served as a Marine from 1944 until the end of the war. In 1949, he became postmaster of Dunwoody and remained in that job until 1968.
Read moreI was sorting through some old family documents this week and came across a few diplomas of the women in my family including one for the Georgia Normal School in Milledgeville, Georgia. Which brings up the question-why did they call them “normal”? Normal Schools were established in Georgia towards the end of the 19th century to prepare teachers to teach elementary aged students. It was usually a two-year program and the term normal referred to establishing clear standards or “norms” for public schools.
Read moreI 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.
Read moreThe development will be called Lulah Hills, a name which was originally planned for a neighborhood north of Decatur decades ago. Decaturish.com says the name originally came from landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
Read moreAccording to documents in the DeKalb History Center archives, Pearidge refers to an area of Tucker between Lawrenceville Highway and North Druid Hills Road, Burnt Creek and north to the railroad. Several farms were in the area, including the 250-acre R. F. Sams Truck Farm and the Honea dairy farm on Montreal Road.
Read moreThe Ashford in Ashford Dunwoody came from the W. T. Ashford family, who owned the home and land that is now part of Peachtree Golf Club as well as land extending across Peachtree Road. The Ashfords operated a nursery business on this land. The Ashford home was inherited by Mary Ashford who married Cobb Caldwell and led to another street name, Caldwell Road. The first owner of the home was Samuel House and Windsor Parkway was once known as House Road.
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