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Dr. Luther C. Fischer purchased the 110.5 acre William Wallace property along Nancy Creek on Chamblee Dunwoody Road in 1926. He bought an additional 15 acres from Henry Carver. From 1926 until 1937, Fischer planned and oversaw the building and planting of his gardens which he and wife Lucy Hurt Fischer called Flowerland. There was no landscape architect. Luther and Lucy worked alongside their team of gardeners. Luther Fischer’s primary goal for the gardens was the enjoyment of his wife, especially when she later became ill.
The home was designed by Atlanta architect Phillip Shutze. On Sunday afternoons in the spring and summer, area residents would line up in their automobiles to view the gardens. Chamblee Dunwoody Road would sometimes be blocked in either direction for a half mile.
Following Lucy’s death, Luther Fischer set aside funds for the gardens to continue to be maintained. In 1944, due to a shortage of labor and plants during World War II, the gardens were closed.
In 1945, Fischer sold the house and gardens to John W. and Frania Lee. John Lee died in 1951, but Frania continued to live there until 1959. Mrs. Lee then sold close to 50 acres to the Atlanta Diocese of the Catholic Church for $10. The home became D’Youville Academy, a convent and school for girls. The name D’Youville came from the founder of the Sisters of Charity or Gray Nuns of Montreal, Marie Marguerite d’Youville.
A 1961 advertisement for D’Youville Academy describes it as “A Girl’s Country Day School, 4146 Chamblee Dunwoody Road, Chamblee, a private day school for girls.” It is also described as a college preparatory school.
Young women attend an outdoor mass at D’Youville Academy in 1962. Photograph is from Tom Reilly.
The March 27, 1968 Atlanta Constitution announced that D’Youville Academy would close in 1969 at the end of the school year. The reason cited for the closure was a shortage of religious personnel to work at the school. Mother Jane Frances of the Mother Home in Yardley, Pennsylvania made the final decision. The Archdiocese of Atlanta owned the 25 acres the school was on and they also owned additional adjacent acreage. Reverend Burtenshaw was spokesman for the archdiocese. D’Youville Academy closed in 1969 and Marist became a coed school.
In 1977, the part of the property which included Fischer Mansion was sold to Atlanta Unity Church. The church used the mansion for church services, Sunday School, offices, and a bookstore. The part of the property that included the gardens was subdivided and sold to a developer for the construction of D’Youville Condominiums.
An article in the Atlanta Constitution about D’Youville Condominiums on Chamblee Dunwoody Road describes the development as 145 condominums priced between $45,000 and $50,000 on 47 acres of the former Flowerland property. The developer was Cousins Properties. (Atlanta Constitution, May 27, 1973, “Townhouses Rising at Flowerland”)
Fischer Mansion was in danger of being demolished in 2005, but still stands today as part of a condominium development known as The Preserve at Fischer Mansion by Stafford Properties. The home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.