On the day of the move, Fred Miles worked half a day at his downtown job with Georgia Power, then rode the streetcar to meet his family in Buckhead. The family brought their possessions, including chickens, in a wagon pulled by a mule. They also brought their cow Betsy and her calf who walked behind the wagon. Betsy “had no time to chew her cud and meditate that day” as the family continued down Roswell Road.

Roswell Road was once a forty-foot-wide concrete road known as Roosevelt Boulevard between 1925 and 1927. The road was named for President Theodore Roosevelt, whose mother’s childhood home was Bulloch Hall in Roswell. Roosevelt returned home by way of the Roswell Railroad in 1905. You can read more about Roosevelt’s visit here.

Lisa Lane in Dunwoody was named for two sisters in the Kirby family-Lisa and Lane. I received confirmation of this story from Lane, except her name is spelled Laine.   Laine Kirby Wood and her family grew up in a nineteenth century farmhouse on what is now Lisa Lane. 

John Ripley Forbes set up nature and science centers in over 30 states and 200 communities across the United States. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell and Dunwoody Nature Center. He is responsible for the John Ripley Forbes Big Trees Forest Preserve on Roswell Road next door to North Fulton Service Center in Sandy Springs.

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.”

When Marissa Howard, Programs and Membership Coordinator at DeKalb History Center, sent this photograph to me, I thought perhaps it was a group of school safety patrol students. The group of students in the front have a sign that reads Morgan Falls, a former school in Sandy Springs I have written about before. The photograph is part of the Guy Hayes Collection in the DeKalb History Center archives.

I wondered if the groups of children may have been preparing to leave on the annual safety patrol trip by train to Washington, D. C. and in some years New York City also. I participated in the safety patrol at DeKalb County’s Pleasantdale Elementary School back in 1969 and 1970 but didn’t know the origins of the program or when it started. I also did not recall that it was associated with AAA, the American Automobile Association.

If you look closely, you will also see the name of two other Fulton County Schools at that time-Center Hill and Lakewood Heights Schools of Atlanta.  Several of the students are wearing badges and a few have on their safety patrol sash with the badge attached. There are quite a few suitcases.

I first researched Glenridge Hall when I wrote about a 2011 Dunwoody Nature Center “Monarchs and Margueritas” fundraiser event. The article was for the Dunwoody Crier newspaper.

The historic home was designed by Samuel Inman Cooper for Thomas K. Glenn. He began his career as a clerk in Atlanta in 1887, later becoming executive secretary to Joel Hurt during the development of the Atlanta Electric Streetcar Company.  That company eventually evolved into Georgia Power. 

The Ashford in Ashford Dunwoody came from the W. T. Ashford family, who owned the home and land that is now part of Peachtree Golf Club as well as land extending across Peachtree Road.  The Ashfords operated a nursery business on this land.  The Ashford home was inherited by Mary Ashford who married Cobb Caldwell and led to another street name, Caldwell Road. The first owner of the home was Samuel House and Windsor Parkway was once known as House Road.  

Every now and then I open a book that once belonged to my mom and discover that she placed a note or a newspaper article inside. That was something she did whenever she read an article in the newspaper that related to one of her books. I love to find these hidden treasures.

I still purchase paper books occasionally, but I also have many books on my Kindle. How can I place a relevant newspaper article inside a Kindle book?

I opened mom’s copy of “Every Child Should Have a Chance” (1971), by Leila Daughtry-Denmark, M. D. and found a newspaper clipping. Mom spoke often of Dr. Denmark.

On the property of Life Center Ministries is a historic home that originally belonged to the Ware family.  You can best see the small home by pulling into the church parking lot.  The property was purchased by publisher Norman Berg in 1938 to use for hunting.  He was the Southeast representative for MacMillan Publishers.  He later sold all but five acres, remodeled the barn, and made that his home.  He used the old Ware home as a guest house, letting authors stay there when a quiet place in the country would help them with their writing. 

This history leads to the old stone church at the corner of Mount Vernon Highway and Glenridge Drive. First Baptist Church of Sandy Springs across the road is also part of the history. The church began in Dunwoody and sat in the area where Caldwell Banker Real Estate, KinderCare and New Hop Cemetery are located today along Chamblee Dunwoody Road.

The 1924 home of Elon and Lizzie Jordon sat on Spalding Drive just west of where Georgia 400 is today. When traveling on Spalding Drive from Roberts Drive towards Roswell Road the home was on the right side of the road. Larry Jordon, grandson of Elon and Lizzie shared this history several years ago.

In the early part of the twentieth century, there was a school at the intersection of Jett Ferry Road and Spalding Drive. It sat up on a hill and was known as Chestnut Ridge School. This Chestnut school is spelled with a “t”, unlike Chesnut Elementary on North Peachtree Road.

The story of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta-Scottish Rite begins in 1915. According to Franklin Garrett’s “Atlanta and Environs,” the Scottish Rite Masons were the founders of Scottish Rite Hospital in 1915. The initial name was Scottish Rite Convalescent Home for Crippled Children. They started the hospital to serve the needs of families who could not pay. Two cottages on East Lake Drive were the first home of the hospital.