A school bell travels from Roswell to Dunwoody

November 4, 2024 Valerie Biggerstaff

The story about the large bell that sits in front of the Spruill Center for the Arts today begins with a trip from Roswell. The bell was purchased near Roswell and brought to Dunwoody by horse and buggy. Who the bell was purchased from is not included in the story.

The earliest records of a Dunwoody School are from the late 1800s. The school was a one room wooden building. Zachariah Eidson donated land at the present site of the Dunwoody Library and Spruill Center for the Arts for the purpose of a school.

Later, the one-room school was replaced with a larger painted wooden school, then a brick building. Eventually, a modern building was built adjacent to the old school. The older part burned in the 1960’s, an event that some Dunwoody residents still remember well.

The bell at Dunwoody School was not only rung to announce the beginning and end of the school day, it was also rung to warn the people of Dunwoody of a fire or other emergency.

During World War II, the bell rang to celebrate when one of the grades at the Dunwoody School had one hundred percent participation for their thrift stamp books.

This photo of teacher Nettie Austin and her first grade students, shows them preparing to ring the school bell. The photo appears in the history book Ethel Spruill and Elizabeth Davis wrote, “The Story of Dunwoody.”

The bell today is held in a brick display structure and a white wooden historic site sign was placed nearby in 2011.

Jane Autry, a descendent of the pioneer Carpenter family, shared her memories of the bell from the 1940’s. She remembered that the bell was in the attic of the school, with a rope that hung down in the hallway. When every student in a grade filled out their World War II stamp book, the class would gather in the hallway for a celebration which included ringing the bell. It would sometimes take two or three students to pull the rope and ring the heavy bell if it was a younger grade. Principal Elizabeth Davis believed the ceremony of ringing the bell encouraged the children to fill their stamp books.

Mrs. Autry returned to Dunwoody Elementary from 1960 until 1973, when she worked as school secretary. During this time, the new home for the bell was built.

Other sources cited include: “The Story of Dunwoody: 1821-2001” by Elizabeth L. Davis, Ethel W. Spruill, Joyce Amacher, and Lynne Byrd.

Country Squire Farm was at 1225 Meadow Lane, Dunwoody

April 29, 2024 Valerie Biggerstaff

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.

Early Georgia teacher schools

June 13, 2023 Valerie Biggerstaff

I was sorting through some old family documents this week and came across a few diplomas of the women in my family including one for the Georgia Normal School in Milledgeville, Georgia. Which brings up the question-why did they call them “normal”? Normal Schools were established in Georgia towards the end of the 19th century to prepare teachers to teach elementary aged students. It was usually a two-year program and the term normal referred to establishing clear standards or “norms” for public schools.

Martin family farm became location of Dunwoody High School

February 27, 2023 Valerie Biggerstaff

Ken Anderson, a wonderful source for Dunwoody history, told me several years ago that the land where Dunwoody High School is located was once home to the Martin farm. He remembered they lived on the land in the 1940s and 1950s, but they owned that land at least as early as the 1920s.

Wilma Paris recalls Dunwoody's Chesnut Elementary 1969-1989

July 14, 2022 Valerie Biggerstaff

In 2011, I had the pleasure of speaking with Wilma Paris about her career as a Chesnut Elementary teacher. I had recently written about the school and stated the age as fifty years. Wilma Paris called the Dunwoody Crier newspaper to let them know that was incorrect. She was there for the first day of classes at Chesnut was December 10, 1969, as a first grade teacher and remembered the day well. At that point, the school was 42 years old and 2019 marked the 50th anniversary.

Early Days of Dunwoody School

May 16, 2022 Valerie Biggerstaff

The first Dunwoody School sat along Chamblee Dunwoody Road where the Dunwoody Library and Spruill Center for the Arts are located today. The land for the first school in Dunwoody was donated by Zachariah Eidson. The earliest school dates to the 1890s and was a plain wood building. The next school, built in the 1920s was a painted white building with a front porch and a small bell tower. Then, in the 1930s a brick building was constructed.

Tilly School

March 10, 2022 Valerie Biggerstaff

The Tilly School once sat about where the Crossroads Church of Dunwoody is located, at the intersection of Peeler Road and Tilly Mill Road. Prior to Crossroads, this was the location of North Peachtree Baptist Church.

The Tilly School, Tilly Mill, and Tilly Mill Road were named for the pioneer Tilly family that owned the land and had a home, farm and mill in the stretch between Peeler Road and North Peachtree Road. The family operated a cotton gin, sawmill and gristmill on their Dunwoody land.

A 2008 reunion of Dunwoody School students

October 4, 2021 Valerie Biggerstaff

On May 31, 2008, I was honored to be invited to a reunion of people who attended Dunwoody School between 1928 and 1955. Carlton Renfroe, Jeff Porter, and Margaret Henderson Jenkins planned the reunion. Looking back on this opportunity, I wish I had an audio or video recording of the event. However, I was new to the group and wanted to get to know them first, so I listened and took note