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    Buckhead
    Buckhead
    Buckhead
    Ebook184 pages35 minutes

    Buckhead

    By Susan Kessler Barnard

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    About this ebook

    Buckhead, a community four miles from downtown Atlanta, began approximately 6,000 years ago when the Paleo-Indians lived along the Chattahoochee River. By the mid-1700s, the Muscogee (Creek) Indians lived there in the village of Standing Peach Tree. They ceded a major portion of their land to Georgia in 1821, and from that cession came Atlanta and Buckhead. Settlers arrived and operated river ferries, mills, and farms. When Henry Irby opened a tavern in 1838 and hung a buck s head either over the door or on a yard post the area became known as Buck s Head. After the Civil War, black neighborhoods, schools, and potteries were established. Around the turn of the century, some Atlanta residents bought land in Buckhead, built cottages, and operated small farms. The streetcar was extended to Buckhead in 1907, and friends followed friends to the community. Images of America: Buckhead is an album of this once quiet rural community before it was annexed to the City of Atlanta in 1952.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateMay 25, 2009
    ISBN9781439622728
    Buckhead
    Author

    Susan Kessler Barnard

    Susan Kessler Barnard�s photographs came from private collections and from the archives at the Atlanta History Center, Georgia Archives, and the Bremen Museum. She is also the author of Buckhead: A Place for All Time.

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      Book preview

      Buckhead - Susan Kessler Barnard

      Woodruff.

      INTRODUCTION

      Today’s Buckhead is made up of single-family homes, high- and low-rise condos, apartments, houses of worship, towering office buildings, multiple shopping centers, museums, galleries, hospitals, and parks.

      This thriving community, only 4 miles from downtown Atlanta, had very humble beginnings. The first residents were the Paleo-Indians who lived and hunted in the virgin forest along the Chattahoochee River approximately 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. By the mid-1700s, the Muscogee (Creek) Indians inhabited the area in the village of Standing Peach Tree. During the War of 1812 and the Creek Indian War of 1813–1814, they witnessed the disruption of their village life. In the spring of 1814, federal troops led by Lt. George Rockingham Gilmer (a future governor) came into the area and built Fort Peachtree. On a nearby creek, James McConnell Montgomery and his men instituted a boatbuilding project.

      The Creek Indians were forced to cede a major portion of their land to the State of Georgia in the 1821 Treaty of Indian Springs. Part of this land later became Atlanta and Buckhead.

      When the Native Americans left, white settlers arrived and developed a new community. They built houses, established ferries across the Chattahoochee River, and operated gristmills, sawmills, farms, and a tavern. In 1838, when someone shot a buck and placed it either over Henry Irby’s doorway or on a pole in his yard, the area became known as Buck’s Head. Thus a community’s name was born.

      In 1864, Buckhead stood in the path of the Civil War, as Union troops skirmished throughout her forests and bivouacked before fighting in the Battle of Peachtree Creek (in Buckhead) and the Battle of Atlanta.

      Following the war, Buckhead’s population increased, and pottery factories were added to the commerce of the area. Free schools were established in the 1870s.

      Buckhead was home to several black neighborhoods, where residents built homes, churches, and stores. Some had the support of their former masters, for whom they continued to work.

      Around the beginning of the 20th century, some of Atlanta’s wealthy citizens bought large tracts of land in Buckhead, developed small farms, and built cottages. When the streetcar reached the community in 1907, Buckhead became their permanent residency, and their friends followed.

      The Buckhead community felt the effects of World War I, the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Depression, and World War II. The annexation of Buckhead into the city of Atlanta in 1952 changed the community forever. No longer would it be a quiet, sleepy, rural community. Fortunately, the street names continue to remind us of those early settlers.

      One

      THE LAND BEFORE BUCK’S HEAD AND STANDING PEACH TREE THE ARCHAIC PERIOD–1821

      In 1971, an archaeological survey was done of the Standing Peachtree area along the Chattahoochee River at Peachtree Creek. It dated its finds to a Native American inhabitancy in the Mississippian Period (500 AD–1200). In 1993 and 1994, Glenn Armstrong, David Chase, David Smith, and the author, all members of the Greater Atlanta Archaeological Society, launched a dig in an attempt find remains of early American Indian cultures. A hearth of granite was unearthed, and pieces of plain, sand-tempered potsherds and quartz flakes were found nearby. These were dated to the Archaic Period (8000 BC–6000 BC). Also found was a small projectile point that suggested a Woodland Period (1000 BC–500 AD) inhabitation. It is reasonable to say that the earliest residents of Buckhead were the Paleo-Indians of the Archaic Period. (Courtesy of author.)

      From left to right, Glenn Armstrong, David Chase, and the author sift through dirt during the archaeological dig at Standing Peachtree. (Courtesy of David Smith.)

      Because of hostilities between the Muscogee (Creek) Indians and Georgia settlers during the War of 1812 and the Creek Indian War of 1813–1814, forts were built along Georgia’s frontier. In March 1814, Lt. George Rockingham Gilmer and his men arrived at Standing Peach Tree and built Fort Peachtree. James McConnell Montgomery’s boatmen built boats for a river supply line to the Georgia Militia 150 miles south at Fort Mitchell. (Courtesy of author.)

      This 1818 map shows what later became Buckhead and other communities. Note the western boundary at the Chattahoochee River and Standing Peach Tree. To the northeast, and misplaced, is Rock Mountain, known today as Stone Mountain. Farther northeast is Hog Mountain, the site of Fort Daniel. The road from Fort Daniel to Standing Peach Tree was called Peach Tree Road and is the oldest road in Atlanta. (Courtesy of the Atlanta History Center.)

      Two

      THE BUCK STOPPED HERE 1821–1865

      After the Muscogee (Creek) Indians ceded this portion of their land in 1821, James McConnell Montgomery returned to Standing Peach Tree. He built this plantation-style home for his wife, Nancy, and their 13 children. An entrepreneur, he was a ferryman, a census taker, and a land assessor. He served as DeKalb County clerk of the court of ordinary, a Poor School commissioner, and a Standing Peach Tree Post Office postmaster. (Courtesy of Troy Anderson.)

      In the early 1830s, James McC. Montgomery established a ferry across the Chattahoochee River that served for 40 years

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