everything old is new again: History of Druid Hills

This page contains a hodge podge of history from various sources - all cited within - of our lovely 'hood.

This page last updated June 25, 2011.

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A History of Druid Hills Community By Gail King
For the Druid Hills Civic Association

The gently rolling countryside is dotted with white dogwoods and redbuds in bloom.

Mountain laurel promises to blossom along the creeks and streams and the sweet smell of banana shrub hangs about in the warm spring air.

The virgin hardwood forests, filled with oaks, beech, sycamores, poplars, hickory, hollies, and sourwood are beginning to show signs of new life.

     The time is 1800. The place is an area that is home to the Middle Creek Indians, a place that 100 years later would be known as “Druid Hills.”

     The Indians were forced away when the white settlers came. Their wigwams were replaced with log cabins, and their moccasin-worn paths became roads for horse-pulled wagons. In 1821 this land was ceded to the Georgia government by the Indians. It was surveyed into land lots of 202 ½ acres, and by lottery, Georgia citizens could draw for these land lots. In 1825 Nancy Cosby drew the first land lot from this area. It was bought in 1851 for $910 and sold in 1863 to John Gerdine Johnson for $5,925. Johnson eventually acquired most of the land bordered by streets now known as Ponce de Leon, Briarcliff, North Decatur, and Lullwater. Once they were old Indian paths. After Johnson’s death, his widow and son sold all the land, except ten acres around the homeplace (still on Oakdale Road) to Joel Hurt’s Kirkwood Land Company in 1890 for $63,000.

     Hurt had founded the East Atlanta Land Company which had designed Inman Park in 1887. In 1890 he chartered the Kirkwood Land Company and began to acquire tracts of land that would later become Druid Hills. He bought land from the Paden family (Druid Hills Golf Club area), the Harrison family (Fernbank area), and several others until, by 1893, he had assembled over 1,400 acres for his dream of a suburban park-like residential area.

     In this same year, 189,0 Hurt invited Frederick Law Olmsted to visit the Druid Hills site and discuss the possibility of designing the property. Olmsted was interested in designing a major residential suburb in the South that would be the “ideal residential park” which would provide “healthful living in a country setting, yet not far from the city,” and he felt this site would be ideal.

     Letters filed in the Library of Congress indicate Frederick Law Olmsted and the Olmsted Brothers completed preliminary plans in 1892 for the development of the 1482 acres of Druid Hills. Olmsted Sr. made numerous trips to Atlanta between 1890 and 1894 to talk with Joel Hurt about these designs. In 1893 Olmsted submitted a preliminary general plan for Druid Hills including roads, lakes and building sites. Perhaps the most important feature of the plan was the gently curving Ponce de Leon with its graceful string of parks. Adjacent to the Ponce de Leon Boulevard he included a trolley line.

     Olmsted believed that in order to have the ideal suburb, it was essential to have “good roads and walks, sewer, water and gas pipes, and sufficiently cheap, rapid, comfortable transportation to the center of the city.” Streets and roads should follow the natural contours of the land to help create the “natural and informal setting.” His designs were in tune with nature. Residential streets were landscaped on both sides like parkways, and front yards of the spacious lots were landscaped in a natural manner that flowed down into the street-side landscaping, so as to create the feeling of a continuous park. He believed homes should be built into the sites, rather than on them, and that the size of the sites should be large enough to provide privacy and relaxation but not isolation from neighbors. Of tremendous importance were the covenant restrictions included in his plans, to protect Druid Hills from future commercial development and to uphold the high standards proposed for this suburban residential work.   Olmsted and his sons continued to work on these designs for Druid Hills, but the depression in 1893 forced Joel Hurt to temporarily abandon his project of 18 years.

     In 1895, Olmsted Sr. retired, and his sons took over the firm. In 1896 The Atlanta Constitution printed an East Atlanta Land Company real estate map which showed Olmsted’s detailed plans for Druid Hills. In 1903 Olmsted died and young John Olmsted, who had made a trip to Druid Hills the year before, continued developing the 1893 plans. Hurt had begun to rally financially and began working with young Olmsted to implement the 1893 plans, and letters between John C. Olmsted and Hurt indicate that these plans continued to be the basis of their work. Hurt continued to collect hundreds of thousands of plants for his nursery on Williams Mill Road (now Briarcliff) that was constantly providing plant material for the new subdivision. He had imported boxcar loads of plants from England, France, Greece, Japan and China. (Olmsted Sr. added numerous shrubs and trees from the nursery at the Biltmore House in Asheville.) More than 300,000 shrubs and trees from this nursery were planted in the parks along Ponce de Leon and on the residential sites.

     In 1903, the name “Druid Hills” was actually given to this new development by the Olmsted firm, and many of the streets were named there.
     In 1905 the Golf Club was planned.
     In 1907 the Kirkwood Land Company began developing Druid Hills. Ponce de Leon was graded, its string of parks landscaped and building lots in the western section of Druid Hills laid out.

     May 19, 1908, The Atlanta Journal reported “Joel Hurt property, Druid Hills, sold for $500,000, the largest sale ever recorded here,” to the Druid Hills Company.
     Asa G. Chandler, Coca Cola millionaire, Forrest and George Adair, Realtors, and Preston Arkwright, Ga. Railway and Power executive, major stockholders, can be credited with the development of Ponce de Leon and the residential area of Druid Hills as envisioned by Joel Hurt and designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.
     In June, a charter for the “Druid Hills” Corporation was granted by DeKalb Superior Court. Included in the charter were the following restrictive covenants (written by the Olmsted firm in 1893):

40 year covenant period.
Minimum lot size requirement of ¼ acre.
Minimum house cost.
Restriction for single family residences with no lot subdivision.
Barring and elimination of nuisances.
A building limit or set back lines from street.
Restriction against manufacture or commerce.

     With these restrictive covenants, the Druid Hills Company promised to carry out the plans of Hurt and Olmsted in spirit and design.
     In 1912 the Druid Hills Golf Club was formed.
     The trolley line was built adjacent to Ponce de Leon in 1913, ending at Clifton Road.
     Between 1908 and 1935 the Druid Hills Company made a showplace of Olmsted’s trademarks: residential areas laid out in park-like settings, wide scenic parkways, smaller roadways following the gently rolling contours of the land and a profusion of native and exotic plantings. Druid Hills became the home of many of Atlanta’s wealthy leaders.
     The first home was built in 1909, at the northeast corner of Briarcliff and Ponce, a huge brick structure on four and a half acres, by John S. Candler, brother of Asa G. Candler.
     In 1915 Asa Candler gave Emory 75 acres and $500,000 to begin development.

     In 1917, a bridge was built over Ponce at Lullwater, making it easier to get to Decatur during periods of heavy rain.
     Magnificent homes, designed by leading architects of the time Philip Shutze, Neel Reid and Walter Downing, were being built on large land lots, using the finest materials and craftsmen available.
     Asa Candler, Jr., built an impressive home on 42 acres on Briarcliff, now the Alcohol and Drug Addiction Center. It included a golf course, two swimming pools (one open to the public for 25 a person), and a private zoo, which was home to six elephants (among them, one pair named Coca and Cola and another pair named Refreshing and Delicious), a Bengal tiger, four lions, a black leopard, a gorilla and numerous baboons.
     Some neighbors charged in a law suit that they “lived in fear” of the odiferous and hazardous collection.

In a case that went to the Georgia Supreme Court, one woman on Briarcliff sued Candler and was awarded $25,000, after she opened her car door to find a baboon sitting in the driver’s seat, where upon the baboon filched her purse and in the struggle the woman fell and broke her leg!

     After a succession of hair-raising events, Candler gave most of the animals to the Grant Park Zoo.

     WALTER CANDLER, third son of Asa G. Candler, built Lullwater Farms on 185 acres on Clifton Road. It boasted a 25 acre lake, tennis courts, swimming pool, stables, hunting lodge and a half-mile private race tract.   Candler sold Lullwater Farms to Emory in 1958. The manor house became home to Emory’s President and 20 acres became an outdoor biology lab for Emory. A large portion was sold to the federal government where the VA Hospital now stands.

     In 1924, the Emory Village had its beginnings with the building of a service station. The area north of North Decatur Road and west of Emory, Lullwater Subdivision, was developed on land lots of 75 to 100 feet.

   In the Spring of 1933, Mae West was in court in Atlanta fighting for permission to show her latest film, “She Done Him Wrong,” at the Paramount, but way out Ponce de Leon Atlantans by the thousands were flocking to Druid Hills to see the flowering dogwoods on the grounds of the splendid estates.

     Olmsted, the man who created Central Park in New York, had created a garden paradise in Atlanta that had become the place to live.

     Emory University had expanded by 15 acres thanks to another gift from Candler.

     AT THIS TIME, late 30’s and early 40’s, Druid Hills had its own water system (piped from a spring near what is now DeKalb Tennis Center), school district (Emory had set up a school for children of faculty and staff that became Druid Hills School) and fire hall and police station (located near the Kroger Store in the Village). After World War II all these services became part of the DeKalb County system.

(3/29/84 DeKalb News/Era)

History of Oakdale Road, and Vilenah Lane

Our sweet neighbor Margaret was kind enough to loan us her copy of a book she'd told us about that's no longer in print, written by one of the first residents of Oakdale Road (our main road here in the 'hood). Since we're the only side street, we're included too :) The author of the book, Ms. Antoinette Johnson Matthews was the daughter of Daniel Johnson who named our street after his wife, and settled the Druid Hills area in the late 1800s. The book lists each house on the streets included, as well as all the occupants and residents up to 1971.

An excerpt from the book on how our little street came to be:

The ten acres originally reserved for the Johnson family while the rest of Oakdale was developed into lots holding fine estates, was later made into a small subdivision in 1938, with our road being named Vilenah Lane, in memory of the wife of Daniel Johnson. The continuation of the road when it turns and runs parallel with Oakdale is called Dan Johnson. Thus, there is living memorial to those two who lived on this property for so many years.

The area now Vilenah Lane originally was the location of the barn, pasture and woodhouse. there were actually two barns, connected by the wagon and carriage shed. One was for horses, with side addition for the mules. Above was a large hay-loft, and below were feed and harness rooms. Beyond the wagon room was a tool room and wheat crib. On the side of the cow barn was a corn crib, plow sheds and shed room known as the calf barn. A brook ran through the pasture which served the more than a hundred cows that furnished ilk for a greater part of Atlanta. The milk wagons left before dawn in order that the milk was delivered before it was soured by the sun. Many of the customers were never billed for the milk, this being the way Dan Johnson had of welfare work. Every day a ten gallon can of milk was left at the "homes for the Friendless" (forerunner of Hill Side Cottages) which was then on Highland Avenue. Butter and buttermilk were also given in quantities. In the horse barn were two saddle horses, two buggy horses and several wagon horses. Mules were usually used for plowing. The pasture has long been made into building lots and this stream covered by a culvert. The barns were torn down when Vilenah was surveyed. There had been fields of wheat, corn and sorghum cane, for forage. The garden space was below the barns, between the big house and the little house. The woodhouse, not only was used for cords of fire and stove wood, but for storage of hickory nuts, walnuts and barrels of apples for winter use. To the left of the big house was the smoke house and the chicken houses. The pig pens were below these. The "wash place," where clothes were boiled in an iron pot, and washed through many tubs of water, was just beyond the well in the back yard. The clothes-lines were strung between the house and the smoke house. Behind the house was what was called the "dairy house" where the milk was chilled and bottled for delivery. Stone from this building was used in construction of several of the homes in this area. Another home was partially constructed from sills and rafters of the barns. Oakdale was cut through the place where the smokehouse and chicken houses stood.

Our home was built int his area in 1947. There's a photo in the book of our house, taken in the late 60s (the book was published in 1971). It sure hasn't changed much! ;)

The Earliest Settlers of Atlanta

It just so happens the author of the book I mentioned above post is literally a product of the marriage of two of the famous settlers of Atlanta, the Johnsons and the Medlocks.

Check out this great excerpt from a genealogy site, written by Ms. Matthews:

The John Williams Medlock plantation in Atlanta was on what later became Ponce de Leon Ave. and reached as far as the present site of Sears - Roebuck. Their old home was on what is now Boulevard at the intersection of St. Charles Ave. The family burying ground was near the corner of St. Charles. There those who died were buried, but when Atlanta began to make streets and building lots of the land, the graves were later moved to Decatur cemetery.

The famous Ponce de Leon springs was on the Medlock property, and it was very popular for friends to gather there on frequent occasions "to take the waters". Many would drive from Gwinnett to see their old neighbors and friends, and to enjoy the spring.

During the War Between the States all five of the sons of John Williams Medlock and four sons - in - law served in the Confederate Army. Thomas died as a result of the war. William Parks was wounded in both hands, the bullet remaining in his left hand until his death.

Written for Volume II of The History of Gwinnett County from information found in the Federal censuses, county records, cemetery and Bible records, and reminiscences of Medlock descendants, by a granddaughter of William Parks Medlock, Antoinette Medlock Johnson (Mrs. Wm. Collins Matthews).

Here are some great photos I found of W. Vilenah Medlock Johnson, our road's namesake, and her mother -