Thanks to an interview with L. C. Orr in 2014, I was able to learn the history of the land where Peachtree Charter Middle School is located on North Peachtree Road. Mr. Orr shared his memories of living in a two story farmhouse on the land between 1943 and 1948.
Orr attended Doraville Elementary School, located on Tilly Mill Road near Flowers Road, which later became a driver’s education facility. He graduated from Chamblee High School in 1945. Chamblee was the only high school in the area at the time. L. C. Orr and two of his classmates decided to enlist after graduation. Orr joined the Merchant Marines and was in Japan in 1946 and 1947 as part of the Army of Occupation.
When the Orr family lived in the farmhouse on North Peachtree Road there were three homes on the property. All of the homes were owned by two brothers named Horton. The Orrs rented their home from the Hortons. The other two homes were occupied by tenant farmers, one located across the road from where Chesnut Elementary School is today and another south of where Peachtree Charter Middle School is located today.
The farmhouse was a sturdy two-story house with four fireplaces, plastered walls, three bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs. There was a kitchen, living room and dining room on the main floor. As was still common in a country farmhouse in those days, there was no electricity and no plumbing. The other buildings on the property included an outhouse, barn, smoke house, garage, well and wood shed.
L. C. Orr married Barbara Wrigley in 1948. In the early years of their marriage they lived in Atlanta at 4th Street and Myrtle Street. Later they moved to the family home on Eidson Road. Orr helped his father build the home in 1957, located on property previously owned by the Eidson family. Eidson Road is located off Andover Drive, between Tilly Mill Road and Peeler Road and near North Peachtree Baptist Church.
During this same time, the old Tilly home place was still located near the corner of Tilly Mill Road and North Peachtree Road. At the time Mr. Orr lived on North Peachtree, it was an unpaved road that came to an end at Tilly Mill Road.
Between 1951 and 1954, the Mitchell family lived in this same farm house on North Peachtree Road. The development of Dunwoody North subdivision began in 1963 and Peachtree High School opened in 1968. This was about the time that development took off throughout Dunwoody, including this area of North Peachtree Road, formerly known as Rural Route, RFP1, Doraville, Georgia.
L. C. Orr passed away in February of 2015 and was laid to rest at the North Atlanta Memorial Park.