Georgia Natural Wonder #254 - Lullwater Preserve - DeKalb County (Part 4)

[Top Row Dawg]

Georgia Natural Wonder #254 - Lullwater Preserve

The South Fork of Peachtree Creek flows by my friend Pete's house off Idlewood Road in Tucker, near it's dead end into East Ponce De Leon. It flows down by recently demolished North Dekalb Mall. We talked about this Creek with our last post on the Decatur Water Works. The next two Georgia Naturals Wonders center around this Creek. Nearly all today's images are from my adventure with my daughter.



Some of the best urban hikes in Atlanta are hidden treasures that locals hope you don’t discover.  Lullwater Preserve near Emory University is one of those elusive finds, a secret 154-acre oasis nestled between bustling buildings and parking decks of the Emory campus, boasting beautiful trees, acres of green space, and a lake.


TRD lived in the far away high rise back in the 1980's.

My scrolling TRD Nugget today is a play on words with Lullwater becoming Jethro Tullwater.



It’s also a haven for kids with a 210 ft long suspension bridge, mini water falls to behold, and much to explore. Parking is difficult. The main entrance for the park is located at 1463 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329. The gate off Clifton Road is blocked for cars. I read several Web Sites that said don’t go into the main entrance!



Here are two other options.

Hahn Woods Entrance.  Head to 866 Houston Mill Road. Pull off opposite of the Mill on the downstream side of South Peachtree Creek. It's right at the Houston Mill up stream. It is a gravel circle and is free, but the gates close at dusk. It is Emory property according to the signage.  This is the main entrance to Hahn Woods Park. Don't try to cross street cause traffic moves quick and there is a downhill curve coming from the Emory direction.  Hike toward Creek and go upstream on the trail under the Houston Mill Road toward the Lullwater Preserve.


Under the bridge.

Then you see the Houston Mill.


This what it's supposed to look like, water flowing over it.


South Fork Peachtree Creek usually has more water flow.


This was Sunday with my hiking daughter Meagan.

  
There were these post right off Houston Mill Road at the Houston Mill.


Old bridge Houston Mill Road. Dam was dry. South Peachtree Creek was down.

You will hike a trail along the Yerkes fence line for about 10 minutes or so. This trail will lead you under the suspension bridge.

 
Nice level hike. Old growth forest.


Big ole Trees.


Under the suspension bridge.

Only a few hundred yards from the bridge you find to the mill ruins on the far side of the creek, the “waterfall” and a sand play area … all nestled below and behind the Lullwater house!



Another parking option is the deck of the VA Medical Center on Clairmont Road. There is a trail just a few yards from the parking and the trail leads to ruins to the right and the suspension bridge to the left up hill. You will be upstream on South Peachtree Creek on this hike and the Candler Lake is on your left with the creek on the right.



Both of the entrances above lead to dirt trails. However, they link up to a wide paved trail that circles beautiful Candler Lake. It’s an easy place to push a stroller, or ride a bike or go for a run. It’s pretty flat too, a nice option for young, inexperienced bike riders.

Lullwater Park History

The land now known as Lullwater Preserve was originally inhabited by a tribe belonging to the Muscogee Native American Nation.  The arrival of these early humans dates back 12,000 years, with physical evidence of the reign of these tribes in the Atlanta area dating back to at least 1500 AD. In fact, South Fork Peachtree Creek is an archeological hotspot for Creek Muscogee artifacts.  The Creek Muscogee tribes were the first sustainable users of the land, disturbing the environment as little as possible to allow for nature to flourish.



During European colonization, the Native American tribes living in and around the greater Atlanta area were consistently in contact with incoming settlers.  Relations between the Native American tribes and the European settlers ranged from hostile with violent attacks to take over land to relatively peaceful with an established relationship of trade and co-existence.  The tribes were highly susceptible to European diseases, though, leading to a very rapid population decline that brought together the Muskogee-speaking tribes to form one nation.  After gaining independence in the late 18th century, the United States began looking for ways to expand the country to accommodate for their own population expansion.  In 1821, the land forming Lullwater was appropriated from the Muscogee Nation, and the members of these tribes were forcefully relocated to present-day Oklahoma, leaving the land in the hands of the government.



For close to 100 years, the Lullwater land was exchanged through many hands, becoming altered little by little by each new owner until it was purchased by the Candler family in 1925. Walter Turner Candler, son of Coca-Cola mogul Asa Candler, purchased 230 acres of the land and called it Lullwater Farms. The stones that make up his Tudor-style mansion—which cost $200,000 to build at the time—were quarried from the Lullwater grounds. 



As a nature enthusiast, Walter Candler worked to keep over half of the land as a pristine forest dominated mainly by white oaks and poplars though there were healthy populations of pines, sweet gums, hickories, and—Candler’s favorite—beeches as well.  The other half of the land was converted into pasture and lawn for the raising of cattle, chickens, hogs, and race horses. 


Geese.

Candler was a highly successful businessman. He founded Lullwater Farm, where he raised top Standardbreds, including the famed Duke of Lullwater 


Candler and Duke of Lullwater at (VA Center) track.

and one of the greatest stallions of all, Abbedale. 


Abbedale.

Many top trainers were associated with Candler, such as Fred Egan, John Simpson and Delvin Miller. Candler not only bred horses, he also gave his time to the sport's organizations. He was a member of the Grand Circuit Stewards, The Hambletonian Society, a trustee of The Hall of Fame of the Trotter, now known as the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame, and the Kentucky Trotting Horse Breeders Association of Lexington. Walter T. Candler died in 1967. A practice track for his horses was built on what is now the Veterans Administration Medical Center.


Vintage image of Lullwater Mill and bridge that use to go across.

Candler Lake was originally created around 1925 as well. Eleven and a half acres of land were dredged, and South Fork Peachtree Creek was dammed to allow for water to fill the cleared depression. The dam also served as a hydroelectric generating station to power the buildings on the Candler property. The remnants of this dam are still very much present by the northern stretch of Candler Lake. As we discussed above.



In the decades following World War II, Emory University began its ever-steady growth and expansion. In the early 1950s, Emory’s main campus was restricted to a useful 250-acres. With the threat of “land strangulation” looming, the University looked to Alumnus Walter T. Candler’s 185-acre Lullwater Estate as an investment in the University’s future. The purchase of Lullwater in 1958 increased Emory University’s useful campus to 450-acres.



Candler’s mansion became the official residency of Emory University’s presidents beginning with President Stanford S. Atwood in 1963.



You know, back when I lived near here, you were not suppose to go up to the Lullwater House.


My daughter and I walked right on up.



 
My images and some Internet images from Emory.





Original plans for the acquisition of Lullwater included the creation of a biology research station in 1961, the remains of which can be seen on the south-eastern shore of the Biology Research Pond. Unbeknownst to the Emory administration, Lullwater also became a popular dumping ground for nuclear and chemical waste in the 1970s, which has since been cleared from the land. In 1962, a 26 acre plan for the Yerkes National Primate Research Center was created that would be partially situated within the Lullwater property line, reducing the size of the pristine forest. That Yerkes fence we talked about earlier.


Found this little side area behind mansion.


Daughter took this panoramic.

The land was further reduced when approximately 26 acres of Lullwater were sold to the United States Government for the development of the Decatur Veterans Administration Medical Center. That's VA Hospital where the Horse Track was, and the Parking lot for the 2nd access trail.


Walked all over.

During the 1970s, the Emory Student Government Association and other community groups began expressing concern over potential ruin of the remaining natural land if measures were not taken.  They suggested banning vehicles from entering the premises and gaining the cooperation of the owners of adjacent lands to keep from polluting South Fork Peachtree Creek as well as the streams that flowed directly into Candler Lake.  Candler Lake was redredged in 1986, and the sediment spoils were placed behind an uphill, artificial dam.  When the dam breached, sending the sediment down the hillside and back into the lake, it became apparent that more restrictive measures needed to be taken to protect the land of Lullwater.



The Murdy-Carter Report was created, delineating forested lands that ought to be protected for their ecological value as well as lands that could be developed without compromising the integrity of the pristine forests found within Emory University’s property lines.  The forests of Lullwater were determined to fall within the category of lands needing preservation measures.  Also around this time was the establishment of the University Senate Committee on the Environment (COE), which became an important voice on behalf of the environment.  Still in operation today, the COE takes an objective look at proposed development projects and works to minimize the projects’ impacts on the environment.  As the struggle for developable land continued, more and more activist groups arose, opposing the development of Lullwater.  Along with the COE, these groups played a key role in shutting down the proposal to build a road through Lullwater in 1999.

Starvine Way

Starvine Way was proposed to connect Clairmont Campus, a residential campus for Emory’s upperclassmen, to the main campus of the university.  Concerns over the impacts of this project on the forests of Lullwater led to the COE and over a thousand students, staff, and faculty members to fight on behalf of the environment.  The compromised result was to build the road along the periphery of Lullwater to avoid damaging the old growth forest and fragmenting the land.

 

Following this debate, President William M. Chace hired surveyors and planners to determine the actual property line of Lullwater and began working with the outside community to determine not just the ecological value of the land, but also its benefits for the surrounding community.  Once this information was collected, President Chace requested that the Board of Trustees designate Lullwater as a preserve, and on February 1, 2000, he announced the creation of the Lullwater Management Task Force to act on behalf of Lullwater for further development proposals and to begin working on restoring Lullwater to its original state through reforestation and landscaping projects.


We walked down the big hill behind the estate on way back to the Lullwater Mill. Daughter went off trail to get this image of pool behind Lullwater House.

Suspension Bridge

The last major development project was the construction of the Sahale suspension bridge in 2008 which also connected the Emory campus to the VA Medical Center.


We found the bridge on the left walking down from Lullwater House. Onyx not happy about suspension bridge. Other dogs showed her the way.

In addition to the formation of the Lullwater Management Task Force, the Lullwater Comprehensive Management Plan was also created from the Starvine Way debate to create a balance between preserving the environment and allowing for continued human use.  


It was still a drag for Onyx. I ventured out.

Lullwater Preserve is now home to nearly 200 documented species of animals and countless species of trees and ground vegetation.  Lullwater Preserve is part of a contiguous mass of forested land that extends from Clairmont Road to the Wesley Woods Geriatric Center.  



This large tract of forest has allowed for the re-establishment of large mammals, such as the white tailed deer, as well the introduction of other large species, such as the coyote.  

 
Upstream and Downstream.

Though there are still concerns over non-native and invasive species control and reduction, the establishment of the Task Force and Management Plan has led the way in recovery efforts and environmental awareness on campus.

TRD Scrolling Nugget Two Jethro Tullwater.......



Atlanta Trails

Run or walk the scenic trails at Lullwater Park, following the banks of a serene lake and crossing a span bridge to explore the ruins of a 1920s powerhouse.


Now we are on the other side of the Creek, to explore the old Power House.

Lullwater Preserve offers many scenic walking and running trail loops nestled within Emory University’s North Decatur campus near Atlanta. The Lullwater Trail passes the Lullwater House mansion, skirts Candler Lake and crosses a span bridge to explore mill beside a tumbling spillway waterfall in a beautiful, wildlife-rich forest.



Lullwater’s many acres offer an immediate escape from the city, its towering old growth trees creating a seemingly impenetrable barrier to the gorgeous landscape within. Owls dive through the tree canopy, their intense gaze on the forest floor causing nearby squirrels to freeze their frolic. Fish pause in the shade of overhanging limbs in the Lullwater Pond. And reptiles bask in the sun-dappled forest accessible via the park’s meandering trails.


Explore the remains of an old octagonal powerhouse at Lullwater Park

One of the park’s highlights is the private residence of Lullwater House, a 1926 Tudor mansion built with stone quarried on-site for Walter Candler, a son of Coca-Cola’s founder. The Tudor estate overlooks Candler Lake’s smooth surface, home to waterfowl and fish basking in its shallows’ sunlight. Candler Lake is dammed on its northernmost end, creating a spillway for a powerhouse that once provided electricity for the Lullwater House estate.



A wood and steel span bridge crosses downstream from the waterfall, offering access to the powerhouse’s stone ruins.



The former powerhouse tower is octagonal in shape, climbing two stories of stacked stone. It stands open to the sky above, ivy climbing skyward across its stone walls.


Daughter made a panoramic.

Lullwater Park’s limited access creates a feeling of solitude and privacy. It’s the perfect location for an on-campus escape into nature, a run or fitness walk, or a read beneath a shady tree on the banks of Candler Lake.

Reviews

We had a great hike this morning at Lullwater Park. Here's the best part: it's only 14 minutes from our house.



Daughter added some images she took, or I took on her phone.


Proof TRD was there. Always my best side.

The gate off Clifton Road is blocked for cars, so we parked at Hahn Park off Houston Mill and walked in. It has the added advantage that you walk by the ruins of the actual mill and by the suspension pedestrian bridge over South Peachtree Creek.


Rocky hike back down stream to Houston Mill on this side of South Peachtree Creek.

Lullwater itself is beautiful. Very friendly fellow hikers. We made one circuit around the lake and headed back to where we started.


Woah Nelly, boulders.

Technically you are supposed to have an Emory University if card to hike, but apparently no one has ever been stopped by Emory security.


And the trees!

The Emory website indicates that the park and preserve are “for community members to enjoy.” We visit here today as members of the DeKalb County or Atlanta Community. By the looks of the people we encountered we were not the only ones taking a liberal view of the term “community.”


Back at Houston Mill.

And be careful on the trail from Houston Mill to Lullwater: there's loads of poison ivy on both sides of the trail.


Back looking down from bridge on to Houston Mill. Gal on left was about to take off top for photo shoot, till my daughter said something.

Take a snack and water. Lullwater has no facilities. But it is super well maintained by Emory.

TRD Addendum

OK we came down path (top left on map) under suspension bridge to power house and dam on other side of Creek. Then we went up near side of lake and up to house. We came back down the back hill to cross the suspension bridge and hike right to visit the tower next to the waterfall. There you are on the other side of the Creek from the paved trails of the Lull Water Park. It is too steep to go up that back hill to the estate, so do that last coming down hill to cross the bridge. We hiked back that side of Creek to complete the forest loop back to Houston Mill Road.



DeKalb County (Part 4)

We continue to explore the National Register of Historic Places listings in DeKalb County, Georgia.

Druid Hills Historic District (Atlanta, Georgia)

Druid Hills Historic District is a historic neighborhood in Druid Hills and Atlanta in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.



Description

The district was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and later by his sons, the Olmsted Brothers. Druid Hills was Atlanta's second major suburb, after Inman Park, and as one of Olmsted's major works, had a significant influence on future suburban development.The natural terrain in Druid Hills is that of the gently rolling Piedmont countryside with its low height & arid dates. The-suburban streets are set into this landscape; their alignment and grade follow to a large degree the natural contours of the land.



These streets range from broadly curving, divided avenues through long, meandering roads to short, narrow, sharply curving lanes. All the streets are landscaped on either side like parkways. Carefully aligned curbs, smooth lawns, shrubs, and trees border the streets throughout the suburb. In some cases, the streets actually border park space or contain it in medians, and here, streetscape and landscape merge completely.



Front yards are generally landscaped with lawns, shrubs, flowers, and trees in a "natural" manner that, along with the street sides, creates the appearance of a large public park. Back yards are well removed from the streets and public view, and in many cases have resorted to a natural condition. Houses date from the late 1890s through the 1930s and range from mansions to
bungalows.



Olmsted's 1893 plan for developer Joel Hurt's Kirkwood Land Company was organized around Ponce de Leon Avenue, a broad parkway on either side of a series of parks. By 1893, Olmsted had prepared a preliminary plan for the new suburb.



Olmsted's plan called for a broad, curving, divided major avenue (Ponce de Leon), with a succession of public parks in the median, bordered by large estates. Secondary streets, narrower in width and also gently curving in alignment, ran northward, more or less perpendicular to the major divided avenue, and were bordered by smaller, long and narrow lots. Olmsted's plan also
called for two artificial lakes and additional park land around them. This was to be Olmsted's most prestigious Southern work, his first significant work in Atlanta, and one of the last major works of his career. It embodied the general principles of suburban development set forth in Olmsted's first suburb of Riverside, to which he steadfastly adhered throughout his career.



Work did not begin until 1905, and in 1908 the development company was sold to Asa Candler, president of the Coca Cola Company and future mayor of Atlanta, who built a mansion at 1428 Ponce de Leon Avenue. Completed in 1936, the development features large mansions on either side of the central parkway overlooking the parks, designed by such architects as Henry Hornbostel, Neel Reid, Walter T. Downing and Arthur Neal Robinson.Several of these architects have more than one example of their work represented in the suburb; Nee! Reid, for example,
designed at least six houses of differing styles in addition to his own Georgian Revival home (1914).



The area includes all or parts of Ponce de Leon Avenue, North Decatur Road, the Byway, Springdale Road, Oakdale Road, Lullwater Road and Lullwater Parkway, Clifton and East Clifton Roads, Ridgewood Road, Oxford Road, Harvard Road, Cornell Road, Emory Road, Fairview Road, East Lake Road, and Ridgecrest Road.



The Druid Hills Historic District was listed on the NRHP April 11, 1979. It incorporates the earlier Druid Hills Parks and Parkways Historic District that was listed on the National Register October 25, 1975.Druid Hills is the finest example of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century comprehensive suburban planning and development in the Atlanta metropolitan area, and one of the finest turn-of-the-century suburbs in the southeastern United States.



As the second major metropolitan Atlanta suburb, it had a profound effect on the direction of future suburban development. In addition to its architecture, landscaping, and planning, Druid Hills is significant as the home of many of Atlanta's citizens who were prominent in early-twentieth-century political, financial, commercial, professional, academic, and cultural affairs.



It strengthened the move toward suburban residency and away from downtown residency. Along with Inman Park, Joel Hurt's earlier suburb, it shifted the course of suburban residential development from the south to the east and northeast. The establishment of the Ponce de Leon corridor connecting eventually to Peachtree Road bolstered the suburban development of north Atlanta. It set an example to be emulated in such developing areas as Ansley Park, the West Paces Ferry Road neighborhood, Brookwood Hills, and, on a more modest scale, Morningside.



Two generations of the Candler family lived in Druid Hills, as did many executives of the Coca-Cola Company, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Atlanta, and the Trust Company of Georgia. Candler's land grant and endowment of Emory University, located immediately northeast of Druid Hills, not only insured the future of this educational institution, but more or less
guaranteed a body of academic and professional people seeking homes in nearby Druid Hills.


There is the Driving Miss Daisy House off Lullwater Dr. and the Druid Hills Country Club, home of the Dogwood Amateur.



Other Druid Hills residents, generally not as well known as Candler, also contributed to the history of the city. Guy Wool ford, who lived on Springdale Road, founded Retail Credit Company; William D. Thompson was dean of the Emory University Law School; Charles F. Stone was president of Atlantic Steel; John Ray Patillo was president of the Patillo Lumber Company; William Brownlee was president of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Atlanta; Simon Selig was president of the Selig Disinfectant Company. Other noted residents of Druid Hills include George and Forrest Adair, Monie Alien Ferst, Adolf Montag, Sigmund Montag, Samuel Candler Dobbs, O.F. Stone, Dr. S. Cofer, Charles B. Shelton, and many others too numerous to mention. It is interesting to note that several of Atlanta's foremost architects, including Walter T. Downing, Robert Pringle, Neel Reid, and Arthur Neal Robinson, chose Druid Hills as the area in which they built their homes.


Neel Reid Homes Druid Hills.

It should also be noted that significant examples of the work of Neel Reid, an early 20th century Atlanta architect, is found in the Druid Hills area. Noted on the sketch map is the architects own house built in a Neo-Georgian style (1914); the Oscar Strauss tudor-style house (1917); the Walter Rich House (1913) and the Jasper Draper House (1915).


Walter Rich House (Owner of Rich's department Store). Neel Reid's personal house off Fairview.


Frank Adair home and 1308 Fairview, the home of Bobby Jones' lawyer.


A Neel Reid home at 850 Oakdale Road. Its original owner was Sigmund Montag, proprietor of the National Pencil Company, where Leo Frank was employed.



East Atlanta Historic District

What is now Flat Shoals Avenue was a major trade route for the Native Americans. It was called Sandtown Trail and connected the coastal area near Savannah with the Chattahoochee River. The Sandtown Trail crossed the Peachtree Trail at what later became Five Points in downtown Atlanta.



Small farms and large plantations grew and the area’s many creeks were dammed to mill grain and lumber. The old Indian trail became know as the Flat Shoals Road, because it served the farms past the flat shoals on the South River near Panola Mountain. Terry’s Mill Pond was a large 30-acre lake that skirted present-day East Atlanta (in the I-20 right-of-way/Sugar Creek flood plain).



Atlanta became a major supply hub of the southern war effort and consequently a major target of the northern war effort. Lemuel P. Grant designed the city’s fortifications to protect his plantation on the east side of the city in what is now Grant Park. Because they placed the Confederate lines there, General McPherson place his Union forces on the high ground about a mile to the east in what is today East Atlanta. The Union troops were encamped along what is now Clifton Road at I-20 and a front line was dug in along Flat Shoals Road in what is now the East Atlanta Village.


Hwy. 23 is Moreland Avenue, the DeKalb County Line. As you can see, a significant part of the main Battle for Atlanta was in DeKalb County (Right side of 23).

A Union cannon was placed in a pivotal position at Glenwood and Flat Shoals Road to protect the flank of the front line as well as return fire to Grant’s defense. The Confederate forces were able to attack from behind, however. Because of that, the Battle of Atlanta, which culminated the Atlanta Campaign and sealed the fate of the Confederacy, was fought in the East Atlanta behind the Union lines. Over 4,000 men lost their lives on this day, many in bloody hand to hand combat, on one hot, afternoon in July 22 1864. Today many historic markers dot the neighborhood including two upturned cannons at the spots where Confederate General Walker and Union General McPherson were killed. 


Walker.


McPherson. Highest ranking US officer ever killed in battle.


Postcards through the years.


I plan to tangent in a future post just on the Battle of Atlanta where the first shots that day were on the DeKalb County (East Side) of Moreland Avenue, Leggett's Hill, (See Map above).

After the Civil War, East Atlanta recovered quickly becoming a developing unincorporated town – a suburb of Atlanta. Moreland Avenue was little more than a dirt path along the county line, while Flat shoals and Glenwood Avenues were the major highways that brought the farmers and their goods to town. The Marbut and Minor Mercantile Store was established at the crossroads of these two thoroughfares to effectively capture this trade before it reached downtown Atlanta.



By 1909, East Atlanta had been annexed as a neighborhood of the City of Atlanta. After 1915, in a series of votes, the residents chose to be annexed into the city limits of Atlanta in order to gain access to fire protection and public education. A side benefit was water and sewer service, which enables the residents to enjoy indoor plumbing.


Edgewood/Kirkwood is in Atlanta. Candler Park/Lake Clair is in Atlanta. A little bump of Morning Side/Lenox Park is in Atlanta.


East Atlanta is below I-20.

This is the actual Atlanta City limits in DeKalb County.

Twenty years after the first blockbusting integration in East Atlanta, the neighborhood remained integrated with a 60% black and 40% white/other racial mix. Property values had become depressed during the panic of transition, however, and slumlords allowed many houses to deteriorate. This made real estate values much lower than other areas of town. The neighborhood’s appearance and reputation suffered. The name “East Atlanta” almost disappeared as a neighborhood reference by 1980. In the 1980's over 60% of the shops in the East Atlanta Village were boarded up or used to store old tires.


Neighborhoods today have cleaned up well with gentrification, fixer upper, and resale.



Today East Atlanta Village is a spot along Flat Shoals Road south of I-20 amd Moreland Ave. Exit where I have taken my daughters too a few times. If live music and booze is your thing, you’ll feel right at home in East Atlanta Village. 



Home to some of Atlanta’s most-talked-about music venues, you’re likely to find anything from a top regional act to a surprise show from a national headliner – tucked into a club that holds just a couple hundred people. 



Walk around EAV and pick your poison at one – or a few – of the many hot spots. 



A few words could sum up East Atlanta Village well: locally-owned shops, farmers market, music, and bars! 



Along Flat Shoals and Glenwood avenues, you’ll find a melting pot of restaurants, pubs, bookshops, artisan cupcake bakeries, bars, bike shops, clothing stores and more.

 
East Atlanta Sign and Marbut and Minor Mercantile Store today.

Emory Grove Historic District

Emory Grove is a small area of bungalow style homes built in 1939 and the 1940s in Druid Hills, Georgia near Emory University. The Emory Grove Historic District, located between Emory University and the city of Decatur, Georgia, is a 90-acre historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.



The district has 200 contributing buildings, 4 contributing sites and one other contributing structure. It includes work by architects and/or builders Ivey and Crook and Robert and Company in Colonial Revival and Late Gothic Revival architectural styles.



A significant date in its history is 1938. It includes single dwellings, a school, a religious structure, and a church school, and it was listed for its architecture.


Emory Grove includes two substantial community landmark buildings, Druid Hills High School and Emory Presbyterian Church. 



The historic district is significant in the area of architecture for its intact collection of residential and community landmark buildings constructed from 1928 to 1948.



The Emory Grove Historic District is significant in the area of landscape architecture and community planning and development because its plan, developed in two phases from 1939 to 1946, features many design elements that are characteristic of neighboring University Park-Emory Highlands-Emory Estates Historic District and Druid Hills, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and the Olmsted Brothers. The roads were laid out with broad curves and landscaped traffic islands, which indicate the influence of the Druid Hills plan.


Emory Grove consists of Princeton Way, Westminster Way, and Edinburgh Terrace, and some houses along N. Decatur Road.

OK, this is crazy, my 4th straight DeKalb County Georgia Natural Wonder and I am still on the National Register of Historic Places listings (22 of 59). I got to Emory and it seemed huge. So I end today's post with a search for a theme for my GNW Gals. We covered Druid Hills and our Wonder today was pretty much in Druid Hills. So today's GNW Gals are Druid women.


Dress up Druid's vs. TRD's all natural Druid daughter.