The city of Brookhaven added to their greenspace and park property in January of 2024 when they purchased 3086, 3068 and 3064 Osborne Road. When I first wrote about 3086 Osborne Road in Brookhaven over a year ago, the former home of the Morrison Farms nursery, the properties were under contract with a different buyer. When that contract fell through, the city made the decision to buy the acreage, bringing total greenspace up to 106.83 acres.
Read moreNew photos from Lulah Hills, the former North DeKalb Mall
This week I’m posting some new photographs of the North DeKalb Mall area, which is on its way to becoming Lulah Hills. I wrote about the changes in North DeKalb Mall along with some Rich’s history back in May of 2021.
You can read updates on the changes taking place on the property here. Although I am nostalgic about Rich’s and North DeKalb Mall, I’m looking forward to seeing the development of Lulah Hills.
Read moreEarly Boy Scout history, Atlanta and Dunwoody
Carlton Renfroe and Jeff Porter grew up in Dunwoody in the 1940’s and they both shared their memories of being part of a Boy Scout troop which met at the Dunwoody Grammar School, located where the Dunwoody Library is today. The troop was started in 1946 by Reverend Reynold Greene of Dunwoody Methodist Church.
Read moreTime to talk peaches
The August 13, 1962 Atlanta Constitution featured a story about dried peaches, “Home Dried Fruit Wakes Memory.” You need some dry, sunny weather to dry peaches. Apparently peaches don’t handle a rain shower well. The instructions read, “To dry peaches, you simply wash the peaches, cut in about 1/8 inch slices, lay on a piece of tin and place in the hot sun. Bring in at night and put in a cool, dry place and return to sun the next day. The peaches should be dry. If not, place in a very low oven and stir occasionally until completely dry.”
Read moreWright family dairy in Brookhaven
At one point, there were one hundred fifty dairies in DeKalb County. The 1939 map (which I have shared in previous blog posts) in the book A Century in North DeKalb: The Story of the First Baptist Church of Chamblee 1875-1975 shows thirty-three dairies in the North DeKalb area including the Wright Dairy.
Read moreWWII Lawson General Hospital discoveries lead to more questions
I have returned to the subject of Lawson General Hospital again and again. It is intriguing to me that during WWII this hospital was located in Chamblee, adjacent to Naval Air Station Atlanta. Also, the people involved were sometimes from Atlanta, Chamblee or other nearby towns, but most of the people who worked, trained, or were treated at Lawson General Hospital were there for a brief time. They went home or to another hospital after being treated or they received their orders and left to serve their country using the skills received as part of the MDTS, Medical Department Training School.
Read moreCassidy-Lamb House off Happy Hollow Road
When 92-year-old Sally O’Keefe Gurley Batson joined us for the tour, she was able to provide additional history. Mrs. Batson and her sister Clara O’Keeffe Black are granddaughters of the original owner, Clara Belle McMullen Cherry Cassidy. They often visited their grandmother’s home as children along with their mother Willie Belle Cherry O’Keefe.
Read moreKatherine Strong Rudeseal, Home Demonstration Agent and Avondale teacher
When Ethel Warren Spruill married Stephen Spruill in 1933 and moved to Dunwoody, she became a member of the Dunwoody Home Demonstration Club. At the time, Katherine Strong Rudeseal was the Home Demonstration Agent for DeKalb County. (“Story of Dunwoody,” by Elizabeth L. Davis and Ethel W. Spruill)
Home Demonstration Agents traveled around their assigned county demonstrating methods of preserving food, such as canning or freezing. They sometimes shared other skills including sewing. Many counties in Georgia had agents, but not all.
Read moreJean Fallon and the 1996 Olympics
When Ethel Warren Spruill married Stephen Spruill in 1933 and moved to Dunwoody, she became a member of the Dunwoody Home Demonstration Club. At the time, Katherine Strong Rudeseal was the Home Demonstration Agent for DeKalb County. (“Story of Dunwoody,” by Elizabeth L. Davis and Ethel W. Spruill)
Home Demonstration Agents traveled around their assigned county demonstrating methods of preserving food, such as canning or freezing. They sometimes shared other skills including sewing. Many counties in Georgia had agents, but not all.
Read more1996 Atlanta Olympic Torch passes through Dunwoody
In the fall of 1995, newspapers across the country announced three ways to become one of 10,000 torch bearers in the 1996 Olympic Torch Relay, which was sponsored by Coca-Cola. 5,500 community heroes would be selected by United Way chapters.
The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and the U.S. Olympic committee selected 2,000 present and former Olympians and other VIPs to complete the list of torch bearers. According to olympics.com the total number of torchbearers for the 1996 games reached 800 in Greece and 12,467 in the US.
Read moreWWII soldier Richard R. Smith and Thanksgiving 1944 at Lawson General Hospital
Richard R. Smith, Sr. U. S. Army. This portrait of Smith was taken in Bournemouth, England in 1944.
It is always an honor to learn the story of a soldier who spent time at Lawson General Hospital in Chamblee, Georgia during World War II. Stories of soldiers who were injured and of men who did medical training at Lawson have been shared with me and I will continue to share those stories through pasttensega.com.
This history comes from Doug Smith, whose father Richard Rouse Smith, Sr., was wounded in France during July of 1944 and spent the last part of 1944 at Lawson General Hospital in Chamblee, Georgia.
Read moreIrvindale Dairy
Irvindale Way, which runs off Broad Street in Chamblee is named for Irvindale Dairy. P. E. Hyde started Irvindale Dairy in 1918. This was a time of tremendous growth for Chamblee with thousands of soldiers and employees at World War I Camp Gordon. The dairy was in the area along Broad Street and Irvindale Way near today’s Chamblee post office.
Read moreKresge's Five and Dime
According to the October 1958 Atlanta Constitution, the first Kresge in the Atlanta area was at Broadview Plaza, where Piedmont Road and Morosgo Drive met. The Broadview Plaza store had 14 checkout stations and a lunch counter. When I think of Broadview Plaza, I think of the Great Southeast Music Hall in the 1970s, but that is a subject for another time.
The article indicates two additional Kresge’s were under construction nearby. One of those would have been the Lenox Square store, which I recall shopping at as a child with my parents. Kresge’s and Lenox Square Shopping Center both opened in 1959. Lenox became an enclosed mall in 1972.
Read moreCountry Squire Farm was at 1225 Meadow Lane, Dunwoody
If you look up 1225 Meadow Lane Road in Dunwoody on Google maps, you end up in the middle of the road between Walton Ashford Apartments Homes and Target near Perimeter Mall. This is where Country Squire Farm was located, the home of Arthur King Adams and Marie Butler Adams.
Read moreBaxter Maddox and Mildred Clark Maddox of Happy Hollow
The Cassidy-Lamb Home at 2579 W. Fontainebleau Court was built around 1930 by Clara Cassidy as a summer home. Cassidy purchased 140 acres of land south of Spalding Drive and arranged for a log cabin to be constructed. In 1942, gasoline rationing made it difficult for Clara Cassidy to travel back and forth between Atlanta and her summer home. She sold the home to Baxter Maddox, Vice President and Trust Officer of First National Bank.
Read moreHammond School of Sandy Springs
Hammond School was located at 300 Johnson Ferry Road, where Mt. Vernon Towers is today, at the intersection of Johnson Ferry and Mt. Vernon Roads.
The earliest school on record in the community was established in 1851 on Sandy Springs Methodist Church property. Records show that a one-room school across the road from the church burned in 1897. (“Sandy Springs Past Tense,” Lois Coogle)
Following the fire, the community worked together to build a two-story school at 300 Johnson Ferry Road. It may have been known locally as Hammond School but is first referenced by that name in the Fulton County School records in 1904. (Fulton County Schools Archives, Hapeville, GA)
Read moreTelephone Party Lines
If you have seen the 1959 film Pillow Talk, you will remember how Jan, played by Doris Day, kept trying to use the phone only to find that Brad, played by Rock Hudson, was constantly on their party line. A party line consists of multiple telephone subscribers connected to the same land line.
Read moreLost Corner Preserve and the Miles Family
On the day of the move, Fred Miles worked half a day at his downtown job with Georgia Power, then rode the streetcar to meet his family in Buckhead. The family brought their possessions, including chickens, in a wagon pulled by a mule. They also brought their cow Betsy and her calf who walked behind the wagon. Betsy “had no time to chew her cud and meditate that day” as the family continued down Roswell Road.
Read moreWPA, Works Progress Administration projects
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a government program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 to help the country during the Great Depression by providing jobs. It was part of a group of policies, programs and projects known as the New Deal. Many public works projects were part of the program, as well as projects in the arts. Over 8.5 million people participated in the WPA.
Read moreMcGaughey home was Serviceman's Shelter
Carroll and Effie McGaughey announced a house-warming party at their new summer home on Spruill Road in Dunwoody in 1939. The Dec. 30, 1939, Atlanta Constitution Society Events column included the announcement, using the alternate spelling of Spruell Road. The gathering was also in honor of their debutante daughter, Mary McGaughey. The couple would later make the Dunwoody home their primary home.
Carroll McGaughey was an electrical engineer and owner of McGaughey Electrical Company. Effie McGaughey operated an antique shop called Backdoor Studios out of their Atlanta home on Lombardy Way. The McGaughey’s had two sons, Carroll Jr. and Carrick, in addition to their daughter Mary.
When the United States entered World War II and Lawson General Hospital opened in nearby Chamblee, Effie McGaughey began thinking of ways to help recovering soldiers. The McGaugheys turned their home from a social gathering spot to a place for relaxation and recreation for injured soldiers, the Serviceman’s Shelter.
Ethel Spruill and Elizabeth Davis describe the McGaughey place in their book The Story of Dunwoody. “Using a rustic building on the McGaughey property and colorful festive lanterns, church groups, community clubs, and Atlanta groups took turns at entertaining the boys and furnishing food and dance partners.”
This 1945 photo of patients from Lawson General Hospital at the McGaughey home appears in The Story of Dunwoody, by Elizabeth L. Davis and Ethel W. Spruill.
By 1944 a group of Atlanta women including Effie McGaughey had organized a committee to plan parties for convalescing soldiers at various homes around Atlanta. An article in the July 12, 1944 issue of The Atlanta Constitution titled Many Parties are Planned for Convalescent Officers describes the upcoming schedule of parties. The following Friday evening a barbeque supper would be held at the home of Carroll and Effie McGaughey. The guests would be entertained with swimming, music by the Tech band, and a movie shown on an outdoor screen.
The schedule for the next two weeks includes parties on Habersham Road and another on Tuxedo Road in Atlanta, followed by a gathering at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ryburn Clay on their Chattahoochee River country place known as Lazy River Farm. The Clay summer estate was on what is now Clay Drive off Spalding Drive.
The McGaugheys place was for the enjoyment of all recovering soldiers. One soldier from Lawson General Hospital who lost the use of his legs often got a ride to their home courtesy of the Red Cross. Upon arrival, he would enjoy swimming in the pool.
The Serviceman’s Shelter and use of the McGaughey’s swimming pool continued into 1946. In August of that year they hosted veterans of both World War I and World War II, arranged by Veterans Hospital Number 48 in Brookhaven and financed by the Elks Club. (The Atlanta Constitution, August 16, 1946, Veterans Feted by Elks Group)
Effie McGaughey also helped during World War II by donating a movable kitchen in 1942. The kitchen was operated by the Atlanta Red Cross Canteen Corps and was able to serve two thousand meals and forty thousand cups of hot coffee per day.