Adair Park

There are few places in America similar in style as the dwellings in the whole of Adair Park. They speak of an era when their residents were the heart of Atlanta's middle class. They recall too, the grand days of the city's most powerful real estate dynasty.  Adair Park was established by George W. Adair in 1892. It's initial development served the middle class of that era. George Washington Adair, who at the age of 22 became a conductor on the Georgia Railroad.  Adair began to build capital and by 1861 had enough funds to help found The Southern Confederacy, a local newspaper of the Civil War era. For the last two years of the Civil War, Adair was a colonel and aid-de-camp to his friend General Nathan Bedford Forrest. When the war was over, Adair opened a grocery business and then a real estate office. From a terminal in the West End development, which Adair named after a district in London. He established a line of mule drawn streetcars to run the district that is today called Midtown. It was from the latter experience that Adair came up with the idea of developing residences along streetcar lines. Adair amassed a fortune in real estate in the 20' the firm reached it's zenith, when the company achieved annual billings of !15 million.

The neighborhood has experienced some trying times but within the last few years with the influx of urban pioneers, Adair Park is undergoing a positive transformation. For individuals seeking first time home ownership or persons choosing to move back into the city, Adair Park offers the convenience of two large parks with basketball and tennis courts, baseball fields, and playgrounds (new play equipment installed 2001-2002. We also have two smaller parks located in the neighborhood. On Dr. Martin Luther King Day 2002, our organization partnered with Georgia Power to erect a fence and landscape the Bonnie Brae park thus creating a toddler park. Our future plans are to make the Bonnie Brae Park handicapped accessible. The Adair Park was placed on the National Historic Registry in 2001.

There are a number of large homes in the area that can be categorized as fixer-uppers to occupant ready and the prices are affordable.

The Adair Park Charter School's Charter was granted in 2001 and we are scheduled to open fall of 2002.

We are located near the south side of Downtown Atlanta with a development area of almost 310 acres. The northern section of Adair Park was developed for industrial use. The Candler-Smith Warehouse now consist of small businesses and lofts. There is a new townhouse development consisting of 50 units planned for summer of 2002.

The boundaries of the neighborhood are generally defined by railroads on the south, west, and north and by Metropolitan Parkway on the east. Adair Park is linked to downtown Atlanta via I-20 and to points north and south by Metropolitan Parkway. East-West traffic crosses the neighborhood on University Ave. and Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. These streets link the community with job and commercial services in the West End Community and with educational and recreational services to the north and east. Adair Park's location along the southern edge of downtown Atlanta affords the residents favorable access to jobs, governmental, and cultural services within the city.

We are within 1-1/2 miles to Interstate I-75-85, 166, and I-20. The West End Mall is within walking distance as well as other cultural centers such as the Wren's Nest. The Atlanta University Center which consist of : Spelman, Morehouse, Clark-Atlanta University, Morris Brown, ITC, and Morehouse School of Medicine are within a five minute drive. Please visit and take advantage of the great opportunities for home-ownership in this resurging community Some Information provided by http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/atlanta/adair.

Ansley Park

One of Atlanta’s tony neighborhoods, Ansley Park is steeped in history, grand dames and tree lined streets.  It is located between Midtown Atlanta and Buckhead, yet off the beaten path. Ansley Park remains green and quiet, an oasis of an in-town residential neighborhood, surrounded by the concrete and steel confines of growing Atlanta. Ansley Park is the first residential neighborhood bordering Peachtree Street when heading north from downtown Atlanta. It is bounded on the south by Fourteenth Street's hotels and apartment buildings. On its eastside, Piedmont Park's 150 acres and the Atlanta Botanical Garden are its neighbors. Sherwood Forest, a neatly planned residential community of 1950s ranch-style dwellings, lies to the north.

Just east of Peachtree Street, with its towering office buildings and bustling Arts Center, Ansley Park provides a refuge of winding streets, verdant parks and islands, and an eclectic collection of homes ranging from modest bungalows to gracious mansions. Varied architectural styles, as well as the established trees and gardens, add to Ansley Park's visual charm. Some of the more imposing structures are acknowledged copies of European dwellings Italian villas and English country houses-that struck the fancies of those well-traveled Atlantans "who commissioned skilled architects to design their dream houses.

Other Ansley Park homes that are smaller in scale, from Craftsman-style bungalows to utilitarian duplexes, help to keep the neighborhood's feet solidly on the ground. A few dramatically contemporary homes demonstrate Ansley Park's dynamic nature. Even the names of the streets reflect this variety: a few numbered streets intertwine among those with designations that are characteristically Atlantan, such as Inman and Peachtree Circles, and those that are European in lineage, such as Lafayette Drive, Westminster, and The Prado. The latter three were among the winning entries in Edwin P. Ansley's .1904 contest to name the streets of his new real estate development, which he originally named Peachtree Garden.

Edwin P. Ansley would be proud of how his ambitious project has survived and flourished. Ansley Park has matured from a treeless suburb in its early years, to its fashionable heyday in the 1920s, through the hard times and housing crunch of World War II when many fine homes were transformed into rooming houses. The neighborhood began a resurgence in the 1960s and now it stands steadfast as a vital residential neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Much of the credit for the fact that the neighborhood has retained its single-family residential character is due to the efforts of the Ansley Park Civic Association, whose roots extend back to the Ansley Park Civic Club established in the early years of the suburb. It was revived as an active organization in the early 1360s.

Over the years, the Ansley Park Civic Association has endeavored to fight commercial intrusion, to maintain the parks and traffic islands so important to enhancing the beauty of the neighborhood, and to nourish the very special sense of community that makes Ansley Park a unique entity within Atlanta.

Crucial to the neighborhood's cohesiveness is its network of communication. The Ansley Park Civic Association publishes a quarterly newsletter, The Parkside, and other flyers which are distributed through a network of volunteers. These publications promote the many activities of the Civic Association: the Spring Fling, the Fall Barbecue, a Halloween party for children, caroling at Christmas, the Garden Club's annual Easter Egg Hunt and more. There's a delightful anachronism to many of these old, "small-town" activities taking place in the center of a large, modern city a remembrance of neighborhoods past that secures contemporary Ansley Park in the hearts of its residents.

Early Ansley Park residents joked about how visiting friends lost their way among the winding streets that meander through the area. In 1980, the Civic Association sponsored a contest for a neighborhood slogan and long time resident Caroline Bethea won with her entry "Lose Yourself in Ansley Park." Now the Civic Association sells T-shirts printed with the slogan, which has come to express a special sense of pride that the residents feel for their neighborhood. We invite you to do just that. Lose yourself in Ansley Park, as you follow the pages of this book and learn about our neighborhood's past, walk or ride through our streets, study our homes and buildings, and meet our friends and neighbors. Long-time Ansley Park residents, recent arrivals, and casual visitors to the neighborhood all have something in common: at some point we encountered Ansley Park for the first time and discovered its uniqueness. Each of us is tempted to think that Ansley Park began when we first arrived-that we invented it. But discovering Ansley Park for the first time is like discovering America: both were already here. Looking back through its history, the land of Ansley Park has been:
 

Today, Ansley Park residents enjoy a spirited neighborhood of restored and well-maintained homes near the center of metropolitan Atlanta. And, just as beautiful gardens are not planted fully bloomed, Ansley Park did not become the prime residential neighborhood it is today overnight. Rather, the Ansley Park of today is built on the accumulated contributions of many individuals and groups over three or four generations. All of us, new and old to Ansley Park, owe a debt to those came before us. George Washington Collier, who was the owner of the undeveloped woods of Land Lot 105. He cherished the land that was to become Ansley Park. Those who have a similar affinity are Copier's spiritual descendants.

Edwin P. Ansley, who had the vision to develop Collier's land into a fine residential neighborhood, the fortitude not to deviate from his original plan, and the wisdom to work with those who had the ability to help him accomplish his goals. Solon Zachery Ruff, the civil engineer who was responsible for laying out Ansley Park. He took an ordinary engineering task and created a work of art-taking best advantage of the rolling topography of Collier's land and designing a harmonious plan of streets, parks, and building lots.

The residents of Ansley Park who comprised the Boards of the Ansley Park Civic Association: the officers, committee chairs, and members who gave their time and talents to provide leadership over the years, including the early combative boards-combative of necessity to defend Ansley Park-and later boards that defended when defense was needed and also provided neighborhood improvement, social activity, and the sense of community that make Ansley Park unique. The residents of Ansley Park who took the risk to buy and improve homes when it was not fashion- able to do so-when many of their friends were moving out to the suburbs. The residents of Ansley Park who have attended City Hall zoning hearings over the years. The residents of Ansley Park who have contributed to the neighborhood's beautification-both those who have contributed time, effort, and know-how to plant and weed the parks and islands and those who have contributed financial support to the Ansley Park Beautification Foundation. The residents of Ansley Park who have helped secure the neighborhood, by participating in the Neighborhood Watch and joining the Ansley Park Security Co-op. The residents of Ansley Park who over the years have contributed to the profusion of other projects and activities that imbue Ansley Park with its delightful "small town" quality: our newsletter The Parkside, the Tour of Homes, the Pall Barbecue, the Christmas Tree sale, the Garden Club's Easter Egg Hunt, the Spring Fling, the neighborhood socials. The residents of Ansley Park who, over the years, saw something that needed to be done and did it.

Ansley Park today not only survives as an in-town neighborhood, it thrives and blooms radiantly. It does so because of careful nurturing by people past and present who worked to make Ansley Park special. Information provided by Some Information provided by http://www.ansleypark.org/.

Avondale Estates

Avondale Estates is the only documented example in the southeastern United States of an early twentieth century planned new community. The Avondale Estates Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in December of 1986 and is considered to be of national importance. This level of significance is attributed to the planning efforts behind the development of Avondale Estates, as well as to the architectural and landscape components present in the district.

Located approximately seven miles east of downtown Atlanta, Avondale Estates occupies lands that until the early 1920s consisted of a small community known as Ingleside and several large farms. Around the turn-of-the-century, Ingleside, founded in 1893 by J. H. Dabney, was considered to be a picturesque retreat and one of Atlanta's most attractive suburban residential areas. In 1895 The Atlanta Journal characterized the community as the "liveliest village of the Piedmont heights" and a "little town of lively residences with all the comforts and conveniences which create an ideal home, away from the busy marts of trade." Ingleside also had the advantage of being located on three major transportation routes: the Atlanta Street Railway/Stone Mountain Trolley Line, the Georgia Railroad and the Atlanta-to-Augusta highway.

In January of 1924, Atlanta businessman George F.Willis purchased 1,000 acres in DeKalb County, including nearly all of what was then Ingleside as well as a 400-acre dairy farmed owned by Judge John S. Candler. Willis' intention was to develop the property into a model suburb with extensive residential, commercial and recreational components. Soon after acquiring the property, Willis set out on a tour of successful suburbs in the eastern and Midwestern United States in order to begin developing ideas for the site he termed "the most attractive community site in the southern states." Assisting Willis in creating Avondale Estates were two prominent professionals, Atlanta engineer O. F. Kaufman and Philadelphia landscape architect Robert Cridland. By January of 1926 considerable progress had been made including construction of the community's streets as well as the commercial buildings, approximately fifty houses, and a park with pool, poolhouse, tennis courts and playground equipment. Many of the earliest houses were prominent two-story dwellings located in the northern section of the residential area; most of the later homes are smaller and only one-and-a-half stories in height. A lake was created by 1928 and a boathouse/clubhouse was under construction in that year. Before the Depression slowed the development of Avondale Estates, another seventy-five residences were completed.

During the 1930s housing construction in Avondale Estates was slow; and when the Second World War began, development stopped altogether. By that time, approximately one third of Willis' vision for the community had been built. After the war the remainder of Avondale Estates was completed in accordance with the primary ideals Willis had set out for the community. Avondale Estates incorporated in January of 1928, and thus became rare among suburban developments by having its own municipal government. Since that time, community leaders, as well as private residents, have seen to it that the community is well maintained. Some Information provided by http://avondaleestates.org.

Boulevard Heights

Coming Soon!

Brookhaven

On the northern edge of Buckhead, Brookhaven developed as Atlanta's first country club neighborhood. It begins just north of the intersection of Peachtree Road and Peachtree-Dunwoody Road. Its boundaries generally are Peachtree Road on the east, Peachtree-Dunwoody on the west and south and Windsor Parkway on the north.

Now sometimes referred to as West Brookhaven, it is an enclave of large, elegant Tudor, Colonial, Georgian and English cottage homes in a lush landscape of broad, winding streets, densely wooded hollows and gently rolling hills with the Capital City Country Club as its heart.

In what was once Creek Indian land, the area's first white settler was Harris Goodwin, a South Carolinian who homesteaded a tract on both sides of what is now Peachtree Road in the early 1830s. Harris Goodwin later brought his father, Solomon, to the area. The Goodwin home and a small graveyard in which they are buried survive at 3931 Peachtree Road near the intersection of Dresden Drive.

The original log cabin on the Echota Indian Trail was expanded in the 1830s and 1840s into the present home. In 1864, it was a landmark for Federal troops closing in on Atlanta during the Civil War. Goodwin descendants still own the property. The home is the oldest extant house in DeKalb County. It is open to the public from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the third Sunday of every month, and a family member is usually there to serve as a guide.

In 1910, 150 acres on the west side of Peachtree was bought by the Mechanical and Manufacturers Club for a golf club to be called Brookhaven. The course, which encircles a large lake and is surrounded by woods, was laid out by course architect Herbert Barker. The original clubhouse was replaced in the 1920s by the present French Provincial structure of mellow stone. Shortly after opening in 1911, the club became part of the downtown Capital City Club and became known as the Capital City Country Club.

In the 1980s, the area was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as the "first planned golf club community in Georgia."

Public schools (see Buckhead education) include some of Atlanta's best: Sarah Smith Elementary, Sutton Middle School and North Atlanta High School.

Peachtree and Peachtree-Dunwoody roads provide easy access, as does the Brookhaven MARTA rail station. Lenox Square Square and Phipps Plaza offer luxurious shopping less than a mile away. Some Information provided by http://www.buckhead.org/brookhaven

Brookwood Hills

Buckhead's only completely enclaved neighborhood, Brookwood Hills enjoys the kind of privacy most urban residents only dream about. The community of 370 homes set on 40 gently rolling acres stretches back from the east side of Peachtree Road from I-85 to Brighton Road at Piedmont Hospital.

Large Mediterranean, Georgian, Colonial and Tudor homes line streets shaded by towering oaks 100 years old. Lush ivy on walls and in beds keeps the area green even in winter. Lots tend to be small, often less than one-half acre, with homes set near the street, but the landscaping is lush and gardens are carefully maintained. Sidewalks and absence of traffic encourage walkers, joggers, bicyclists and impromptu street games.

The earliest history of the area is commemorated on a granite marker (see History - Creek Indians) at the intersection of Peachtree Road and Palisades Road. This monument marks the spot where two major Creek Indian trails intersected, the Echota Trail and the Peachtree Trail.

The neighborhood lies in an area where fighting was heavy during the Civil War's 1864 Battle of Peachtree Creek, which began near the present-day intersection of Peachtree and Brighton roads. The area was forests and fields then, stretching along unpaved Peachtree Road between Atlanta and Buckhead.

In the late 1880s, prominent Atlanta hotel owner Joseph Thompson and his wife built a country estate near what is now the Peachtree Road-I-85 interchange. They called it "Brookwood," and today's neighborhood echoes that name.

Soon after the turn of the century, other rich Atlantans began building homes north of the city. In 1912, developers B.F. Burdette and E.F. Chambless began the subdivision that is now Brookwood Hills. Development was interrupted by World War I, but took off in the post-war boom.

The final development also included land from the estate of Andrew Jackson Collier. The homestead of the Collier family, one of Atlanta's oldest, stood near the southwest corner of Peachtree and Collier roads.

Some of Atlanta's most prominent architects designed homes in Brookwood Hills, according to the Atlanta Urban Design Commission. Among them: Neel Reid, Burge and Stevens, Ivy and Crook, Alger and Vinour, Pringle and Smith, and H.W. Nicholes. (Neel Reid's work also can be seen at the nearby Brookwood AMTRAK station. In 1999, all that remained of a once-elegant row of Brookwood shops, also designed by Reid, was torn down for construction of Brookwood Place, a development of 111 condominiums, 26 townhomes and new retail shops.) The oldest section of the neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places in the 1970s and was designated an Atlanta Conservation District in 1994.

In 1939, the Brookwood Hills Community Club was formed. It includes a six-acre park with swimming pool, clubhouse and tennis courts.

Brookwood Hills has easy access via Peachtree to both Midtown and Buckhead. It is conveniently close to shopping and restaurants along Peachtree Road, medical facilities around Piedmont Hospital and AMTRAK rail service at Brookwood Station.

The 1939 map at right shows South Buckhead and Brookwood Hills before construction of Atlanta's freeways. The huge Brookwood interchange, where the Downtown Connector now splits into Interstates 75 and 85 took a big bite out of this area, including homes designed by famed architect Neel Reid. The dark north-south street is Peachtree Road. Some information provided by http://www.buckhead.org/brookwood-hills

Buckhead

Home to some of Atlanta’s most stunning mansions and considered the city’s entertainment and shopping hub, Buckhead has something for everyone. The restaurants offer some of the Southeast’s finest dining and the nightlife is unmatched. Elegant hotels welcome visitors who come to peruse the fantastic galleries and boutiques. Luxurious condominums pamper urbanites while Buckhead’s rambling estates, nestled beneath a canopy of trees, enfold the well-to-do.If you want nightlife, action, and history packaged into one convenient bundle, Buckhead is for you.  It features Atlanta’s hippest restaurants and watering holes and is where trendsetters measure Atlanta’s pulse.

Buckhead contains some of Atlanta's most magnificent residential architecture and a growing collection of grand and imaginative commercial buildings.A driving tour of neighborhoods such as Tuxedo Park and Peachtree Heights West provides a virtual who's who of famed Georgia 20th century architects.

They include: Hentz, Reid and Adler, Hal Fitzgerald Hentz, Rudolph Sartorius Adler, Neel Reid, Philip Trammel Shutze, Lewis Edmund "Buck" Crook Jr, Ernest Ivey, James Means, Walter T. Downing, Pringle & Smith, Cooper & Cooper, Aymar Embury II, James Owen Southwell, Will Griffin, James Shepherd, Charles Earl Frazier, and Daniel Herman Bodin

Buckhead has a reputation as Atlanta's most affluent and elegant district. But its name preserves the legacy of its frontier beginnings, when hunting in the virgin forests was the main local enterprise.As a community, Buckhead traces its origin to Henry Irby's general store and tavern, which was founded in 1837, according to an Irby descendant. It was located at what is now the northwest corner of West Paces Ferry Road and Roswell Road. Irby's tavern became the stopping place for travelers rich and poor in the thinly populated wilderness and the community that grew up around it was known as Irbyville. He maintained it until well after the Civil War. Irby, who died in 1879, is buried in the Sardis Methodist Church cemetery on Power's Ferry Road near its intersection with Roswell Road. It was Irby, according to his descendant, who killed a large deer and mounted the "buck head" where travelers could see it.

Why this display made such an impression on people who came across it is hard to say. Some sources describe it as a sort of joke, a way of poking fun at European noblemen who displayed hunting trophies on their walls. At any rate, the name Buckhead proved durable, and a campaign in the late 19th century to rename the area Northside Park was unsuccessful.

In the late 19th century and much of the 20th century, Buckhead was still lightly populated, but it was no longer a wilderness. It had become a posh suburb of Atlanta, where wealthy people lived serenely on lush, well-tended estates. One of these estates, the country home of the Ottley family, became the site of Lenox Square mall in 1959. The building of Lenox Square was an important moment in the history of Atlanta, and the mall itself is the modern equivalent of Irby's tavern, a social and commercial hub for Buckhead.

The history of the 74 acres along Peachtree Road on which Lenox Square now stands is a good illustration of the whole area's eventful past. The first white owner was Mary Gromet, who apparently received the property in the 1820s, in one of the land lotteries that distributed newly seized Indian land. The land in the early lotteries often went to widows and orphans of war veterans, and Gromet may have been one of these.

A later owner was a farmer named John Simpkins, who grew cotton and corn on the property. Simpkins, who lived from 1816 to 1912, was one of those Georgians who witnessed an amazing transformation in their lifetimes. He grew up on the kind of frontier celebrated by James Fenimore Cooper, but he lived to see the age of automobiles, airplanes, telephones and recorded music.

Simpkins' farm appears to have missed the ravages of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's Union troops, who burned Atlanta and sacked much of Georgia during the Civil War. Even under Sherman's "total war" concept, not every piece of land was a target. Georgia was simply too big. The Southern Railway did not come through until 1873, so there was no military objective in the area. During the clearing of land for Lenox Square, a large boulder was found with the name "Colonel McCormack" carved on it. A search of Civil War rolls yielded no clue as to who this person was, and his name was not associated with the history of the area. It is possible that the name referred to Robert McCormick (1880-1955), a newspaper editor and publisher in Chicago from the early years of the 20th century until the 1950s. He was an eccentric and controversial figure who seemed to relish public feuds with politicians. He was known nationwide simply as "Colonel McCormick," after his World War I rank. But if the unknown carver was referring to him, the spelling was wrong and the meaning was a mystery. John Ottley, an Atlanta banker and sportsman, bought the Simpkins property around the turn of the century. He intended to use it as a country home in the summer and as a place to stable and train his horses. At that time, the estate could be reached by the Southern Railroad line, which ran -- as it does now -- along the back of the property. Otherwise, a long trip by horse and buggy was required.

The years between 1900 and 1929 have been described as the "golden age of Atlanta society." The social calendar of Atlanta's elite included football season, debutante season, Christmas receptions and a full week of grand opera. John Ottley, president of Atlanta's First National Bank, was one of the great hosts of the era. Like his neighbors, he frequently threw lavish balls in his home. Unlike many of them, he preferred to summer at his Buckhead estate, rather than at such favorite Southern spots as Asheville, N.C., or St. Simons Island off the Georgia coast. The "Air Line Belle." The Ottleys and their numerous guests later recalled with affection the old Southern Railroad local, the "Air Line Belle," which stopped at the family's own station. Ottley's daughter, who later became Mrs. George W. McCarty, remembered walking as a little girl to the back of their property and out the back gate to catch the train to school.The train came from Toccoa in northeast Georgia, stopping at many way stations. It arrived in Atlanta at 8:10 a.m., and left the city on its way back to Toccoa at 5:00 p.m. Just before World War I, with private automobiles now in wide use, the Ottleys moved permanently to their Buckhead estate. They helped set a trend for construction of fashionable homes on the north side of Atlanta.

'Joyeuse.' The original farm house became a kitchen area, and onto it they built a 12-room, deep-verandahed mansion with a porte-cochere on one side. Mrs. Ottley named the estate "Joyeuse." It was not the biggest home in Atlanta, nor was it architecturally the most beautiful, but many remembered it as one of the most welcoming. The large reception hall was quiet formal. The living room included massive, handsome furniture. There was a paneled library, and a big dining room was dominated by a portrait of John Ottley in fox hunting "pinks," the traditional scarlet hunt riding habit. The family was known for Sunday night "suppers," to which as many as 20 guests might be invited. One long-time Atlantan recalled his first meeting with John Ottley at his banking office: "I was ushered into his inner office and found him happily playing with a setter puppy, which he was in the midst of buying."

Just as Ottley's interest in dogs and horses found its way into his downtown office, so his banking business echoed in his country stable, which housed show horses that won him hundreds of medals and trophies. The stable's box stalls were made of old tellers' cages, and a long dog run was constructed from similar bank fixtures. The stable also served as a museum where Ottley housed his a collection of early Atlanta memorabilia, such as the old Atlanta portable jail, later exhibited at the Cyclorama.

After World War I, more and more homes for the wealthy were built on the north side. In October 1929, the stock market crash ended Atlanta's "golden age" -- and affected the Ottleys in an even more startling way. John Ottley became the victim of Atlanta's first ransom kidnapping. Franklin Garrett, Atlanta's most famous historian, recalls it this way: Early on July 6, 1933, Ottley was coming out of the Joyeuse driveway in his car when a man flagged him down and asked for a ride into town. The man looked familiar, so Ottley consented. Immediately a pistol was shoved into the banker's ribs, and a younger accomplice appeared to take the wheel. With the banker in the back seat, the kidnappers drove out Peachtree Road as far as Suwanee, where they turned onto a back road, stopped, blindfolded Ottley and led him to an isolated spot on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, where they bound and gagged him. The older of the two abductors announced he would go back to Atlanta, deliver a ransom note and collect $40,000. Ottley realized that the younger man, actually only a 17-year-old farm boy named Pryor Bowen, did not really want to commit a crime. Ottley soon persuaded Bowen to release him, and they began walking back to town. A passing truck gave them a ride to a telephone. Meanwhile, a threatening note had been delivered to the caretaker at Joyeuse and turned over to police. The older kidnapper disappeared, but he later was caught in San Antonio, Texas. He was an ex-convict named William Randolph Delinsky. Delinsky was returned to Atlanta, where he confessed and absolved Bowen of responsibility for the crime. Delinsky was sentenced to 21 to 28 years in prison. Bowen, although Ottley did not want to press charges, was sentenced to a year on a chain gang.

Thirty-two years later, Lenox Square itself was the scene of Atlanta's most famous kidnapping. Mary Shotwell Little, a young newlywed, was last seen at the mall on a balmy night in October 1965. When she was reported missing the next day, her car was found in the mall parking lot with bloodstains inside. The case made headlines for weeks, especially when police learned that Little was seen alive in North Carolina a day after her disappearance, apparently suffering from a head injury and traveling with someone who presumably was her abductor. Despite this tantalizing clue, the disappearance of Little has not been solved as of this writing (1995). But bogus confessions and other discredited "breaks" in the case have continued to make news every few years.

When World War II came, the riding ring at Joyeuse was turned into a victory garden. Ottley died in 1945. The land was bought by a real estate company, and Joyeuse was divided into apartments. From 1947 to 1953 most of the downstairs was leased for a private kindergarten and nursery school, and the children of many of those who had partied at Joyeuse went to school there and picnicked on the granite ridge along the back of the property. On May 22, 1956, the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation purchased the land, and Ed Noble chose it as the site for a shopping center. Joyeuse was demolished and the "big stone hill" where Creek Indians had ground their corn and generations of privileged Atlantans had picnicked and played was dynamited.

Clearing for Lenox Square began in July 1957 and grading the following December. On June 28, 1958, Lenox Square was completed. Anchored by two department stores that were joined by a landscaped mall and plaza and flanked by more than 50 other stores, it was the largest shopping center in the South. Lenox Road, which used to be level with the property, is now above it. The Marriott Hotel stands on the site of the old stable, riding ring and World War II victory garden.

'Not only are many existing houses in Old Buckhead -- ZIP code 30305 -- selling for multimillion-dollar figures, but also a mere million-dollar resale has ceased to be remarkable in a day when Craftsman bungalows fetch 50 times their original price. ... Upper-end buyers ... are re-embracing living in town.' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Some Information provided by www.buckhead.org

Cabbagetown

Coming Soon!

Candler Park

Coming Soon!

Capitol View

Prior to European colonization, the Atlanta area was the boundry line between the Cherokee and the Creek Nations. Europeans, sometime accompanied by slaves, moved into the area in the 1820s.

Before 1910, the residential area now known as Capitoll View was little more than a farm and pasture owned primarily by A.P. Stewart, "Uncle John" Shannon and the Deckner family. There were no paved streets, no electric lights and no sewage system.

In 1858, the 12 charter members of Capitol View Baptist Church (then located on Beatie Avenue) went to church by lantern light. Between 1910 and 1914, the community began growing, largely due to the addition of a Masonic Temple and pharmacy to the area. By 1913, utilities were installed and Capitol View was annexed in the City of Atlanta.

Fast forward to the year 2002, and you will find Capitol View a thriving inner-city neighborhood a mere 2.5 miles from downtown Atlanta. Its central location is only minutes away from Atlanta hot spots like Midtown, Buckhead, and Six Flags. Capitol view is filled with a housing stock of Country Victorian and Craftsman Bungalow style homes that are rapidly being renovated. First time home buyers are flocking to this area to find their dream home. Renovated homes are still available in this area priced below $200,000, which is becoming a real find in most intown Atlanta neighborhoods today. Capitol View is quickly becoming a THE in-town neighborhood to call home.

Capitol View is located just south of Turner Field, on the west side of the expressway. Exit at University Avenue (Exit #244) Go west at the bottom of the ramp. At Metropolitan, turn left (south). Turn right at the next intersection onto Dill Avenue. Some Information provided by http://www.capitolview.org/

Cascade Heights

Up-and-coming families and singles have turned the Cascade Road area southwest of town into a booming housing market. Buyers enjoy the area's convenience to downtown, the airport and shopping malls at Greenbriar and Cumberland.

The gateway to Cascade is the historic West End neighborhood, just minutes from downtown and I-20. This Victorian neighborhood of cottages, bungalows and two-story houses features a commercial district along Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard, several large churches and a few historic sites, including the Wren's Nest, the home of writer Joel Chandler Harris. From West End, Cascade Road meanders through neighborhoods from the 1950s and 1960s. Many of these older houses sit on spacious lots beside wide streets. New communities, carved out of lots once occupied by the older properties or vacant land, are more typical of today's building styles, with smaller lots but grander houses.

Cascade Road crosses I-285 and winds its way to the Fulton County line, where the Fulton industrial district is a prime location for businesses and warehouses.

Castleberry Hill

Coming Soon!

College Park

Historic College Park is Georgia's fourth largest urban Historic District. There are 606 acres and 853 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior. This totally planned community was originally established in 1890 as the city of Manchester. When Cox College moved to Manchester from LaGrange, Georgia in 1895, the town was renamed College Park. For many years College Park provided an academic community for Cox College and Southern Military Institute. Cox College closed in 1923, but Southern Military Institute, which was later known as Georgia Military Academy and now as Woodward Academy, remains to this day. Woodward Academy is the largest private preparatory school in the contiguous 48 states, and boasts graduates that include corporate CEO's and United States Congressmen.

Historic College Park is a beautiful place with many fine homes of varying architecture, and some of the best city services anywhere. The face of the local population is changing and the City of College Park is changing with us to provide the best services possible.

The enormous variety of architectural styles dating from 1880-1946 make the district a virtual museum of architectural history. There are sixteen prevalent styles in the area that include Queen Anne Revival, Craftsman, Spanish Revival, Greek Revival, and English Tudor. Many of these beautiful homes have been lovingly restored. Linear parks done in the Frederick Law Olmstead tradition are prevalent and 43 miles of sidewalks link residential areas with shops and government offices. Neighborhood Revitalization is a top priority for our community. The city has hired a firm to study our downtown and make recommendations for revitalization. An architectural firm and citizen groups are also meeting regularly to better serve the area's newer structures like the 30 area hotels, the convention center which hosts 650,000 visitors a year as well as the numerous businesses in the airport area.

The residents are primarily professionals from sectors of the economy such as law, medicine, the arts, academia, the airlines, and high technology. Younger professionals are moving in to share this beautiful neighborhood with families who have lived here for many years. This eclectic mix presents new challenges, and our city is responding well.

Historic College Park also boasts many neighborhood amenities. There are well maintained parks with tennis courts and picnic areas, a pool, running track, library and a nine hole public golf course. Sidewalks provide easy access to most areas of the community. Some Information provided by http://www.hcpna.org/