Morgan Falls School was part of an area of Sandy Springs along what is now Roswell Road, which became home to many families during and after the construction of Morgan Falls dam on the Chattahoochee River.
Morgan Falls School 1908
Next time you are driving down Roswell Road near Fulton County North Service Center, picture a schoolhouse sitting just north, across the road near Morgan Falls Road. The second and third school buildings would be built where the service center is located.
The 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.”
An April 6, 1907 Atlanta Journal article reports Morgan Falls School is in the extreme northern section of the county, near the Bull Sluice electric Power Plant.
Morgan Falls Road was known as Bull Sluice Road at the time, leading to the Chattahoochee River. The Bull Sluice spur of the Roswell Railroad was operating, bringing supplies for construction of the dam.
In 1932, Atlanta attorney and chairman of the state board of regents Hughes Spalding donated land on the east side of Roswell Road for the second Morgan Falls School to be built.
Richard Adams, born in 1933 along what is now Dunwoody Club Drive, attended this second version of Morgan Falls School. He remembers James Pitts drove the school bus. Pitts Road is named for the Pitts family.
In the February 10, 1935 edition of The Atlanta Journal various activities of the school are reported. The younger students have made a flower garden in their sand table. The sixth grade history students had recently gone to the Buckhead Theatre to see Cleopatra. “A study of Roman history had prepared them to enjoy the picture thoroughly,” reported the Journal. Forrest Delong and Joyce Eison are mentioned for their perfect academic records, while Walter Eison, Virginia Woodall, Lucille Johnson, Martha Lee Haney, Louise Barnett, and Ophelia Adkins are recognized for their spelling skills.
Many students who attended Morgan Falls School through the years were from families where the father worked at Morgan Falls Electric Plant. In 1939, Ann Sitton and Lucile Johnson participated in a flag day celebration at the school. Their families lived on Bull Sluice Road and their fathers worked at the nearby electric plant. (Atlanta Constitution, June 20, 1939)
According to the 1940 census, twelve families lived on Bull Sluice Road or nearby on Roswell Road with a family member who worked at Morgan Falls.
The principal of the school during these years was Lucile Wing Hockenhull. She devoted twenty-seven years as teacher and principal at the school. Her parents were George and Eliza Wing.
The third Morgan Falls School was a two-story building constructed around 1952. The school burned down in January of 1971. In 1973, Fulton County commissioners asked the county school board to donate the 4.5 acres for a “new satellite courthouse” in North Fulton. (Atlanta Constitution, May 31, 1973)
The name Morgan comes from S. Morgan Smith, inventor of the S water turbine and the individual who found the site along the Chattahoochee River in 1897 and started Atlanta Water and Electric Power Company.