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In 1837 the Western & Atlantic Railroad extended its tracks from Tennessee to Georgia and named the end of the line Terminus. The town was situated at a major crossroads where the Chattahoochee River and former Cherokee and Creek Indian trails converged and became an important transportation center. In 1843 the name Terminus was changed to Marthasville in honor of the daughter of fomer Governor Lumpkin. In 1845 it was changed to Atlanta, a derivation of the name of the railroad that gave birth to the city's commercial activitiy.
By 1862 Atlanta had a population of more than 9,000. Besides being the area's largest, busiest city, it was a major military post and supply hub for the Confederate army. Starting in May 1864 Sherman's troops besieged Atlanta. After the mayor surrendered the City in September and the citizens were evacuated, Atlanta was burned to the ground. At the war's conclusion, Atlanta began her rise from the ashes.
Atlanta had only one automobile in 1900; by 1910 there were 1,500. By 1907, a trolley car line had arrived in Buckhead. By 1911, less than 50 years after the Battle of Peachtree Creek, Peachtree Battle Avenue and West Wesley Road connected Peachtree Street with Northside Drive. In 1917, the year America entered World War I, a major military training center, Camp Gordon, was hurriedly build near Chamblee. In October 1917, trolley service was extended north from Buckhead along Peachtree Road to serve the booming camp. The trolleys operated on 20-minute schedules. This extension of public transportation, together with the increase in private automobiles, encouraged the development of suburbs along Peachtree Road after World War I.
The years between the two world wars were boom times for Atlanta and its suburbs. Returning servicemen and their families were eager for homes. In 1900, Atlanta's population was 89,872. In 1910, it was 154,839. By 1920, it had grown to 200,616, and by 1930, to 270,035.
The 1920s saw intensive nationwide advertising of Atlanta's climate, labor supply and natural resources. From 1926 to 1929, Atlanta attracted 760 new businesses, employing more than 20,000 people and paying more than $34 million in annual wages. The city was coming into its own as a distribution center and "branch office" town. Downtown residential areas were being swallowed by commerce. Block by block, the old houses fell to make way for new commercial buildings. Residential development moved out in all directions.
1907:
Ansley Park was developed
to the north.
1911: Tuxedo Park was developed along West Paces Ferry Road.
1927: Peachtree Battle Alliance development began.
Over the course of 1926 and 1927, Eugene V. Haynes, a well-known jeweler turned real estate developer, began developing Peachtree Battle Alliance, a section of high class homes along, and contiguous to, Peachtree Battle Avenue between Woodward Way and Northside Drive. Mr. Haynes reserved the section of land on Manor Ridge Drive between Alton Road and Montview Drive for the Haynes Family. On December 1, 1929 Mr. Haynes offered approximately 200 lots for sale with prices ranging from $1,750 to $4,000. The advertising brochure for the new community stated:
A prominent hill in Peachtree Battle Alliance was the headquarters of Benjamin Harrison (during the Civil War), afterward President of the United States. On this very spot he was made a brigadier general, here, too, he fell wounded.
The first homes, many on large double lots, were constructed north of Peachtree Battle. The south side of the neighborhood was developed during the 1930’s through the 1940’s. Infill building in the early 1990’s claimed the few remaining lots.
Interesting to note in the original sales contract between Mr. Haynes and the buyer there were provisions stating: "No hogs and not more than one cow shall be kept on the lot herein conveyed."
At the end of 1927 Isaac Ragsdale, then Mayor of Atlanta and a personal friend of Mr. Haynes, brought an important sewage issue to the attention of the Atlanta City Council. Mr. Ragsdale reported the need for moving the Peachtree Creek sewage system to a more remote location as it was no longer remote and “quite offensive.” At the time, the sewage plant was located just south of Peachtree Creek and east of Northside Drive on what is now Bobby Jones Golf Course. Thanks to Mr. Haynes’ political connections, the sewage plant was moved to its current location at Bolton Road in the 1930s.
Over the years, Peachtree Battle Alliance homes have been featured in regional and national media including Southern Living, Southern Accents, and Architectural Digest. In 1987 the neighborhood was described in Atlanta’s Lasting Landmarks as:
A small subdivision of elegant 1920s and 1930s period houses, patterned after the styles and landscaping of the adjourning Peachtree Heights Park, developed two decades earlier. Unlike other subdivisions in the area which feature a more picturesque, curvilinear street layout, Peachtree Battle Alliance utilizes an irregular gridiron pattern. Gentle curves worked into the streets at strategic points and the area’s undulating topography soften the uniform effect usually associated with such a grid arrangement. Period houses are set back on long and narrow lots, which tend to be informally landscaped. One distinguishing characteristic of Peachtree Battle Alliance is the street trees; planted in rows, the trees neatly line every street in the district.
In 1992, The Atlanta Journal – Constitution featured Peachtree Battle Alliance in the “Homefinder” section on Sunday, March 1. Some of the neighborhood’s attractive features included a commute time to downtown Atlanta of 15 minutes, proximity to cultural and entertainment centers, shopping and restaurants, and sidewalks providing easy access to the Peachtree Battle Shopping Center. At the time, the median home price was $333,000. Since 2000, homes in Peachtree Battle Alliance have sold at prices ranging from the high $300,000s to just under $3 million. The average home has four bedrooms, 3.5 baths, and is nestled on a heavily wooded lot of just under 1/2 acre. Renovations abound as residents improve Peachtree Battle Alliance homes to meet the requirements of in-town living in the 21st century.
Click
on Map of Haynes Manor to enlarge. Granite Monument History by Judy Tindel The granite monument without a bronze plaque on
the grounds of E. Rivers School located under the magnolias bordering Peachtree Road, has puzzled passers by. The mystery
of its origin is finally solved. Here is a partial text of the April 30, 1931 article from the Atlanta Constitution titled
"Tablet, Relating Origin of Name 'Peachtree,' Is Presented to County by D.A.R. Chapter":
"Unveiled in impressive ceremonies, a bronze tablet mounted on granite and inscribed with the historical account of the origin of 'Peachtree' as a name for Atlanta's principal thoroughfare, was presented to Fulton county Wednesday afternoon by the Atlanta Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. The ceremonies took place on the grounds of the E. Rivers school, where the marker is located, at the junction of Peachtree and Peachtree Battle avenue...Jere A. Wells, superintendent of Fulton county schools, formally accepted the marker on behalf of the school system and also-in the absence of Walter C. Hendrix, who was unable to take part in the program-on behalf of Fulton county...Full text of the inscription on the marker follows: "Peachtree road and Peachtree creek took their names from the Indian place called 'The Standing Peach Tree,' located near where the creek flows into the Chattahoochee river on ground long disputed between Cherokee and Creek Indians. Disturbances created there during the Revolutionary War caused the governor of Georgia to send a secret emissary to that place before August 1, 1782. During the War of 1812, Lieutenant George R. Gilmer, later governor of Georgia, erected and occupied a fort on Standing Peachtree bluff. Between 1830 and 1840 Standing Peachtree became a noted frontier crossing place, trading point, stage coach stop and postoffice. There Johnston's forces crossed July 9, 1864, and began the defense of Atlanta in the War Between the States." The Lodge
by Judy Tindel The Lodge, the small structure at Peachtree Battle and Peachtree Road, designed as the neighborhood real estate office of E. Rivers Realty Co., was represented in its current location on the earliest plans for Peachtree Heights Park, developed by E.A. Stevens & Co., FS Tainter, Engineers of Hoboken, N.J., and Carrere & Hastings, Architects, New York. The selection of these society architects at the height of their popularity and fame was evidence of the aspirations of the local syndicate for Peachtree Heights Park. John Merven Carrere (1858-1911) and Thomas Hastings (1860-1929) received their training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the 1880’s and apprenticed together at the New York firm of McKim, Mead and White before starting their own firm in 1885. Their first big commission was for Henry Morrison Flagler, the railroad and Standard Oil tycoon who hired them to create two hotels and churches in St. Augustine as well as his personal mansion Whitehall on Palm Beach. In 1897, they won the commission for the New York Public Library and went on to design other important works such as the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater housing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the House and Senate Office Buildings, country houses for land barons of the Gilded Era including the 1906 Goodyear mansion at the Jekyll Island Club, and monuments including the Sidney Lanier monument commissioned for Piedmont Park in 1914. Their body of work totaled over 600 buildings. ➢ A 1929 document from Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library of Columbia University titled “List of Work from Spring of 1910 to Date: Carrere and Hastings, Architects”, developed by Edward Steese (a member of the firm), references Job number 254 titled “Atlanta, Ga. Development scheme (Peach Tree Hgts). ➢ The January 10, 1913 “American Architect” includes pictures of the “Lodge, Peachtree Heights Park, Atlanta, GA., Messrs. Carrere & Hastings, Architects” (Vol. CIV, Plate 1968) and “Entrance Detail and Floor Plan” for the Lodge. ➢ The 1976 Columbia University dissertation by Curtis Channing Blake titled “The Architecture of Carrere and Hastings” includes an Index of Buildings assembled from various primary sources and lists “Peachtree Heights Develop-Atlanta, Ga., 1911” (p. 405). ➢ A recent two-volume study titled Carrere & Hastings Architects (Mark Alan Hewitt, Kate Lemos, William Morrison, Charles D. Warren; Acanthus Press, New York, 2006) lists “1911 Lodge and street plan for Peachtree Heights Development Co., Atlanta, Georgia” (page 281). The presence of a Carrere & Hastings structure in Buckhead is a treasure to be studied, preserved and protected. The street arrangement surrounding the Lodge, though subject to current traffic studies, is an aspect of the building design, as Carrere and Hastings were known for making the site an integral part of the composition of their buildings. “…[T]hey proposed landscapes and cityscapes as extended architectural compositions that integrated buildings, plants, monuments, and streets into ensembles…” (Carrere & Hastings Architects; Mark Alan Hewitt, Kate Lemos, William Morrison, Charles D. Warren; Acanthus Press, New York, 2006) In 1910-11, Peachtree Battle Avenue was but a 50 foot dirt road. The Lodge, sitting on a lone median island, provided the effect of a gatehouse at the entrance to the community. Early news articles described the concept of the Lodge as “an interesting and a desirable resting place, a visiting point where Atlantans and their friends will at all times be welcome “ (Atlanta Constitution, April 30, 1911). “…”The Lodge”, the company’s office building at Peachtree road and Battle avenue, which will ultimately become the property of the residents of this park, furnishing them an attractive entrance once within which they may feel they are already at home, though their residences may still be a quarter to half mile away.” (Atlanta Constitution, May 21, 1911) Original Carrere & Hastings designs for the garden suburb called for creation of a great Parkway Lake in the area of Habersham Road. It was not until around 1915 that the concept of a double parkway with median green space was proposed, a plan that not executed and paved until the mid 1920’s. CITY OF ATLANTA RECORDS UPDATED: WOODWARD WAY PARK IS SIBLEY PARK
Prompted by a call from Marion Hill of Woodward Way, PBA Parks Committee Chair Judy Tindel contacted Tom Cullen of the City of Atlanta concerning the name of the Atlanta City park known as Woodward Way Park at the corner of Woodward Way and Habersham Road. Mrs. Hill stated that the parcel should be called Sibley Park. After researching the matter, Mr. Cullen found a record of the November 19, 1984 meeting at which the Atlanta City Council adopted the following: AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF ATLANTA TO CHANGE THE NAMES OF TWO PARCELS OF LAND KNOWN AS HABERSHAM PARK AND ONE PARCEL OF LAND KNOWN AS WOODWARD WAY PARK TO SIBLEY PARK IN HONOR OF JOHN A. SIBLEY. 11/05/84, REFERRED TO HUMAN RESOURCES COMMITTEE. SECOND READING ADOPTED Mr. Cullen confirmed that the name of Woodward Way Park had never been changed to Sibley Park in City records. Diane Harnell Cohen, Atlanta Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, stated in an email: “…if it hasn’t been changed on our inventory then based on the resolution it should be …thanks for looking this up! DHC “ Thanks to Marion Hill for clarifying the record! SIBLEY PARK HISTORY The three parcels of land called Sibley Park, were designated as public green space on the first plat of Peachtree Heights Park designed by New York architects Carrere and Hastings in 1910-11. Identified as “parkway”, the parcels contained the stream-side setting of a tributary of Peachtree Creek as it meandered through forest reservations and under West Wesley Road and Habersham Road before making its way to the Creek. Records at the Kenan Research Center of the Atlanta History Center tell a later story of the parks. On February 1, 1928, Eretus Rivers, President of the Peachtree Heights Park Company deeded the three parcels to Fulton County for the sum of ten dollars. “The within described parcels of land are conveyed to said party of the second part for PARK PURPOSES and are to be perpetually maintained by it as such. Should any or all of the said tracts be abandoned or used for any purpose other than as Parks then the properties are to revert to the grantor, its successors or assigns.”(Fulton County Minutes of the Commissioners of Roads and Revenues, Vol. R, pages 46-47). In 1937, the Peachtree Garden Club developed plans to improve what were described as “ two vacant lots at the northeast and southeast corners of Wesley Avenue and Habersham Road”. The intention was to preserve and enhance the natural beauty of the land with shrubbery, nature trails, birdbaths, lights, and park benches to provide the area with two “greatly needed” new parks. (Atlanta History Center, Garden Club Scrapbooks) Today, Sibley Park is suffering impacts from sewer work as mature trees are removed to permit work on the sewer lines. The park would benefit from the quality oversight and attention provided by earlier residents of the community. Starting in March, ValleyCrest, the landscape maintenance company under contract with the Peachtree Battle Alliance, will add the borders of Sibley Park to its weekly maintenance schedule. Several area residents have expressed recent interest in cleaning up the litter and restoring neglected areas of the park. WOODWARD WAY PARCEL RESTORATION The neglected condition of the Woodward Way parcel of Sibley Park has become a concern to surrounding neighbors. The City recently posted a no-dumping sign at the site. Under the leadership of Woodward Way resident Betsy Glenn, the PBA Parks Committee has collaborated with a number of agencies and professionals to gather information and opinions about the best way to improve the site. On-site consultations have taken place with representatives of the City Parks Department, Park Pride, Trees Atlanta, recommended specialty contractors, and interested neighbors. Plans have been discussed with the PBA Litter Committee regarding cleaning up the site with volunteer assistance. Professional estimates have been received for removing fallen tree stumps and logs, addressing the removal and control of exotic invasive vegetation, and planning for long term landscaping and maintenance of the site. On March 6, a letter was distributed on an informal basis to Alliance neighbors who live near the park on Woodward Way and Habersham Road with the purpose of sharing ideas and requesting feedback on whether or not neighbors support the ideas presented for cleaning up the park. In addition, the goal of raising $4,350 in March to start the removal of exotic vegetation was presented. The Peachtree Battle Neighborhood Improvement Inc., a 501©3 charitable organization for neighborhood projects, voted to support the plan to clean up Woodward Way Park, now known as Sibley Park, encouraged donations for this purpose, and agreed to accept checks to support the project. As the Battle Cry goes to press, the community is discussing options and goals for the site. Ideas and suggestions would be welcomed. Contact landscaping@peachtreebattlealliance.org |
