The original red barn is seen here on the left and the guest house on the right. These buildings were demolished and replaced with houses.
Frank Smith kept greenhouses at the farm, part of his nursery business in Atlanta, Georgia.
To celebrate the sesquicentennial of Donaldson-Bannister Farm, this website will share the story of each family that has lived there through the years. So far, the history includes the Donaldson, Pattillo/Bannister, Roberts and Ogden families. Now it is time to remember the years that the Smith family lived at the farm. Look for the story of the Chesnut family and their time at the farm in a future post.
Frank and Hortense Smith, along with their children Frank, Jr. and Bonnie moved into the 1870 home at the corner of Vermack Road and Chamblee Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody in 1956. Bonnie Smith Nichols has returned to the home and property in recent years to share her memories of the family’s time there. She shared some wonderful photographs of the years 1956 to 1974, as well as older photographs given to her by the Pattillo family (previous owner).
The style of the original home was Plantation Plain, but it was remodeled in the 1930’s by Lois Bannister, changing the style to Greek Revival. Mrs. Bannister installed a boxwood garden, complete with a decorative brick wall, fountain, brick paths, peonies, and boxwoods. The home went by the name Boxwood Farms for many years.
The garden was enjoyed by the Smith family, along with muscadine vines along an arbor and a large pear tree next to the boxwood garden. The boxwood garden was later replaced with a pool. Today, new flowers have been planted next to the historic brick wall and an area of grass covers the former pool.
The property included twenty-six acres when the Smiths lived there, extending through the adjoining neighborhood and past the location of Vermack Swim and Tennis Club. Today, the home and cemetery are on 2.8 acres. Bonnie recalls that Lois Bannister had the pool built into the creek. Bonnie, her brother Frank, Jr. and her parents all enjoyed swimming in the chilly water. Vermack Road was a narrow, dirt road and there was an old rock quarry near the creek.
Bonnie’s father, Frank Smith, owned and operated a nursery business in Atlanta. When they lived in Dunwoody, the business was located on Roswell Road, where Pike Nursery is today. They kept the growing operation at the home on Chamblee Dunwoody Road, including six 150-foot greenhouses and one outdoor greenhouse.
When Bonnie lived at the farm, the chickens and pigs lived just behind the area where the wash house is located. Homes now cover the area which was once home to the chickens, pigs, an old red barn and a guest house.
Bonnie attended Dunwoody Elementary School on Chamblee Dunwoody Road. She remembers that the school bus driver was Fletcher Donaldson, who lived down the road. Other nearby families included the Womacks, Goldens, Mannings and Gillespies.
As Bonnie walked the property, she recalled an old cast iron pot that sat out near the wash house in a fire ring. The buildings past the guest house were used as a tool shed and woodshed. The small building with wooden stairs now known as the commissary was sometimes used as an incubator for the farm animals and other times set up as a place to play with the family train set.
In addition to the chickens and pigs, the family kept horses, cows, turkeys, guineas, and rheas on the farm. In the barn was a milking room, stalls for the horses, and a work room for her dad to use his table saw. Around the barn were pastures, a turkey yard, and a riding ring.
Bonnie recalls that one day her mother decided to take a sledgehammer to a kitchen wall. It began when Mrs. Smith began thinking about the fireplace in the bedroom just above the kitchen and how that kitchen wall was warm when there was a fire above. She decided there must be a fireplace behind the wall and began pounding away with the sledgehammer successfully revealing a kitchen fireplace in the end. The kitchen has been rearranged and remodeled since the Smiths lived there.
Hortense Smith was leader of the Dunwoody Girls Scouts for Bonnie and her friends. On one occasion, the Girl Scouts were going to camp out on the property, when rain forced them to move inside. They slept in a loft area in the barn.
Thank you to Bonnie Smith Nichols for returning to the farm and sharing her memories. She has also shared memories and photographs with her former classmates at the Dunwoody School.