Before humans there was nature. See the forest
outside the Fernbank
Science Center to get a sense of how the
watershed looked before human settlement and
development.
6000-2000 B.C. Archaic Period. Soapstone bowls
found at camp sites--the nearest to our watershed
found at the confluence of North Fork and South
Fork Peachtree Creek on Piedmont Rd. south of
Lindbergh. [Map]
2000 B.C. - 500 A. D. Woodland Period. Native
Americans build stone wall on Stone Mountain.
500 a. D. - 1500 A. D. Mississippian Period.
More permanent villages appear at mouths of
creeks in DeKalb county.
1550-1840 A. D. "Historic" (European)
Period. Europeans infringe on native culture.
DeKalb serves as hunting grounds of Creek and
Cherokee nations.
1790 Alexander McGillivray, European-Indian
chief of the Creek Nation, meets on Stone Mountain
with subordinate chiefs who were to accompany
him to New York to discuss a treaty with the
federal government.
1800's Native Americans begin to adopt and
adapt European culture.
1802. U.S. agrees with Georgia to remove Creeks
and Cherokees from North Georgia in exchange
for cession from Georgia of Alabama and Mississippi
lands plus $1,250,000.
1813 George Gilmer leads state militia against
Creeks at Standing Peachtree settlement where
Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee.
1820 James Mc. Montgomery establishes first
European settlement in DeKalb County (before
it was split) at site of Creek Nation's Standing
Peachtree settlement.
1830. Gold is discovered on Cherokee land
in North Georgia.
1830. Indian Removal Act authorized
the president (Andrew Jackson) to grant Indian
tribes unsettled western prairie land in exchange
for their desirable territories within state
borders (especially in the Southeast), from
which the tribes would be removed."Indian Removal
Act" Encyclopędia
Britannica Online. [Accessed 14 June 2000].
1835-1840. Trail of Tears. "The
Treaty of New Echota, signed by a small minority
of the Cherokee, ceded to the U.S. all their
land east of the Mississippi River for $5,000,000.
The overwhelming majority of Cherokees repudiated
the treaty and took their case to the Supreme
Court of the United States. The court rendered
a decision favourable to the Indians, declaring
that Georgia had no jurisdiction over the Cherokees
and no claim to their lands. Georgia officials
ignored the court's decision, and Pres. Andrew
Jackson refused to enforce it. As a result,
the Cherokees were evicted under the Indian
Removal Act of 1830 by 7,000 troops commanded
by Gen. Winfield Scott. Some 15,000 Cherokees
were first gathered into camps while their homes
were plundered and burned by local residents.
Then the Indians were sent west in groups of
about 1,000, most on foot. The eviction and
forced march, which came to be known as the
Trail of Tears, took place during the fall and
winter of 1838-39 and was badly mismanaged.
Inadequate food supplies led to terrible suffering,
especially after frigid weather arrived. About
4,000 Cherokees died on the 116-day journey,
many because the escorting troops refused to
slow or stop so that the ill and exhausted could
recover. " "Cherokee" Encyclopędia
Britannica Online. [Accessed 14 June 2000].
1833 Creation in Athens of Georgia Railroad
Company. Railroad opened in 1845 and ran from
Marietta to Atlanta (then called Terminus) and
Decatur. [Collections
of the DeKalb Historical Society, pp. 38-39.
Ramsey 1984, p.2]
1840 Second census records 8456 whites, 2004
slaves and 2 free persons of color.
1843 Marthasville, later called Atlanta (1847),
incorporated.
1850 Third census records 14,398 residents including
2994 slaves and 32 free persons of color.
1853 Fulton County carved out of DeKalb county.
1857 Hannah Moor Female Academy incorporated
in Decatur, later renamed Agnes Scott (1890).
1860 Fourth census (now excluding Fulton county
area) records 6318 residents, including 464 slaves.
1861 First four DeKalb Confederate army companies
leave for battle.
Includes Superior St., Michigan St., Seneca
St., Huron St., Champlain St., Erie Ave.,
Geneva St., Lucerne St., and Parkside Circle.
Owner/Developer: Robert H. Paris. [Walter McCurdy, 6/2/2000.]
It was originally called Clairemont Park
and centered on "Closeburn Park"
an open space fed by natural springs ("Lake
Seneca") and saved from development
by the neighborhood in 1994. It was renamed
"Gladys Waddell Park" at the request
of a major benefactor who donated in her
name.
Originally developed around 1947. One
of the early residents was Billy Carter,
brother of the former President. He lived
on Webster. Rents at that time were $35
a month. [Walter McCurdy, 6/2/2000.]
Streets: Heritage Two, Heritage Square,
Heritage Pl., Heritage Heights, Heritage
Hills, Heritage Bluff.
Owner/Developer: Summers Development Co.
1989-1990 Emory Commons shopping center
1993-1994 New Brittany
La Vista Rd.
Owner/Developer: First Alliance Church
1996 Vizcaya Town Homes
Street: La Vista Rd.
1997-1998 Post Briarcliff Apartment Homes
Street: La Vista Rd.
Date unknown
Cameron Pointe Apartment Homes
Street: Summit Pointe Way
Carlyle Lake Apartment Homes
Clairmont Rd.
Highland Lake Apartment Homes
Clairmont Rd.
Willow Park Condos
Location: Willow Lane and Church Street
2000 Highland Lake Phase II. Julian
Le Craw & Co., Inc. at Clairmont and Mason
Mill
196 Apartments.
2000 Jolly Development, Inc. at Clairmont/N.
Druid Hills
The Name "Glen
Creek" [Walter
McCurdy, DeKalb Historian, in an interview 6/2/2000.]
The name "Glen" derives from the name
of a 19th century landowner in the area, John
T. Glenn, whose name is also attached to the Glenwood
Estates subdivision, Glenwood School, and Glenlake
Park all of which are sometimes spelled with the
double nn. His house is indicated on an 1879
map of Decatur.
The creek also went by the name of "Hunter's
Branch," named after a confederate Colonel
Hunter who owned property in the area in the 1870's.
Points of Interest
in the Watershed
Chapman Powell's "Medicine
House" cabin. The cabin
which now sits at Stone Mountain Park may
be the oldest building in DeKalb County. It
was originally built near 1218 Clairmont Road
[Map]
by Dr.
Chapman Powell (1798-1870), who owned most
of the land in the Candler Lake and South Fork
Peachtree Creek area at the time. It later became
part of the Walter Candler estate, acquired
by Emory University in 1915. Dr. Powell was
reputed to have treated Cherokee Indians with
as much respect as the white settlers. His son
would ride across the Chattahoochee to trade
gold for roots and herbs. The character Scarlett
in Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind
was reportedly based on Chapman Powell's daughter,
Amanda Katherine Powell Houston. [History
of DeKalb County, pp. 151-155.]
The plan of the cemetery has remained
the same since its beginning. The pond was
constructed in the 1940's from a natural
wetlands area. [Walter McCurdy, 6/2/2000.]
Freeman Bridge. Map.
Remains of the first paved bridge in DeKalb
county can be found at the entry way to the
Decatur Square condominiums across the creek
from the Glenn Lake park pool. It was built
in 1909 and marks the original path of Old Lawrenceville
Highway, now Church Street. [Walter McCurdy, 6/2/2000.]
The city of Decatur bought the land from
Tom Anderson in 1950.
Tom Anderson had acquired the land from
Colonel Hunter in the 1890's. Colonel Hunter
had acquired the land in 1872. In the area
of the Glenn Lake pool, Col. Hunter had
operated his peach brandy brewery, his principal
means of income after the Civil War.
The pool was originally constructed around
1922 and was called Uncle Tom's pool, after
Tom Anderson.
The name Glenn Lake Park was derived from
the names of the two bordering neighborhoods,
Glenwood and Great Lakes. Walter McCurdy
recalls that the name was proposed by his
father.
In 1992 the city of Decatur, in consultation
with the Glennwood Estates Neighborhood
Association, initiated a renovation of the
pool and facilities at a cost of $3.5 million.
Houston Mill House. Site of Major Washington
Jackson Houston's mill (1876) which also served
frequently as an entertainment center for the
local community. Houston cleaned it up and converted
it into a dance hall in May of each year; the
mill pond served as a neighborhood swimming
hole. It was converted by Houston into Dekalb
county's first hydro-electric plant in 1900
when he formed the Decatur Light, Power and
Water Company. The Houston Mill House, built
on the site in 1922, is serving as a "hospitality
and entertainment center" for Emory University.
Washington Houston was son-in-law of Dr. Chapman
Powell and lived on the site of Powell's cabin
on Clairmont Rd. DeKalb's first electric light
burned there. At Christmas the Houston daughters
would walk to the courthouse on the Square in
Decatur to see the lighting of the holiday tree.
They left their horses at home so they wouldn't
be frightened by the annual fireworks.[History
of DeKalb County, pp. 417-418.]
Lullwater Estate. [Map]
These grounds are technically open only to members
of the Emory community. It is accessible on
foot from Clifton Road and by dirt path from
Williams Lane north of the Facilities Maintenance
facility. Candler Lake is home to a heron, kingfisher,
geese, and ducks. The Lullwater House on the
property is the home of the Emory University
president (currently William
M. Chace), originally built for the Walter
T. Candler family in 1926 of stone quarried
on the property (formerly owned by Dr. Chapman
Powell).
Mason Mill Park: [Map]
Named after Ezekiel Mason's mill which was located
on Burnt Fork creek at what is now the base
of Mason Mill Road on the east side of Clairmont
Road. Until recent developments erased the traces,
one could still see tracks of the mill race
built by slaves; it ran from the mill to Clairmont
Lake. [Walter McCurdy, 6/2/2000.] See
description on the Burnt
Fork Watershed website.
Ponce de Leon Court. J. L. Womack built
a house on this street in the 1920's to remind
him of the tropics and he planted, among other
things, bananas and palm trees. The bananas
have died out. Palm trees, reputedly the northernmost
examples, persist. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
2/23/95.]
Primitive Baptist
Churchat Hardman's. [Map]
A Baptist church was established here on the
old Shallowford Trail (Clairmont Road) in 1825
on land donated by Naman Hardman. Stones marking
the site of the cemetery are all that remain.
[Walter McCurdy, 6/2/2000.]
W. D. Thomson Park: [Map]
Mason Mill Rd. and Mason Woods Dr.
The school was built in 1932 with WPA money.
[Walter McCurdy, 6/2/2000.]
The city constructed it on the site of tennis
courts on Erie Place to accommodate overflow
from Glennwood Elementary School and the Ponce
de Leon School (located on the site of the present
post office).
Emory
University . Chartered in 1915 but derived
from the Georgia Methodist Conference Manual Labor
School of 1834 sited in Oxford. In 1916 Candler
School of Theology and the Law school move into
the first two academic buildings completed on
the Druid Hills campus.
Location: Northwest corner of Clairmont
Rd./ N. Decatur Rd. intersection. [Map]
North Decatur Plaza:
Location: Northeast corner of Clairmont
Rd./ N. Decatur Rd. intersection. [Map]
Emory Commons
Location: Southeast corner of Clairmont
Rd./N. Decatur Rd. intersection. [Map]
Constructed 1989-1990 on 73,000 square
feet by Selig Enterprises. The 5.5 acre
complex replaced 40 year old stores which
had occupied separate buildings. The new
anchor store was A&P (replaced by Publix
in 2000); other businesses included Treasury
Drugs, Evans Restaurant, Blockbuster, Wolf
Camera. The adjacent site of 1.7 acres was
also developed, replacing the Western Sizzlin
Restaurant with the Emory Clinic.
Clairmont Road. Formerly Shallowford Trail
and Webster Street, it follows part of a Native-American
trail leading to a shallow crossing of the Chattahoochee.
[Collections
of the DeKalb Historical Society, p. 12.]
Ponce de Leon. Designed in Druid Hills by
Frederick Law Olmsted.
Church Street, formerly Old Lawrenceville
Highway.