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Streetview of Garden Hills Historic
District
National Register photograph by Yen Tang
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The Garden Hills Historic District is an early 20th-century planned
residential neighborhood located five miles north of the central
business district of Atlanta. The roots of this planned community
came from the growing use of private automobiles after WWI, allowing
citizens to live further away from where they worked. In addition
to single-family residences, the district also includes apartment
buildings, a church, a historic commercial area, two schools and
businesses that lead to a fairly self-contained community.
The original plan for the neighborhood was developed by the Garden
Hills Company, a real estate firm founded in 1925 by Philip C. McDuffie,
a lawyer and real estate entrepreneur. A natural ravine divides
the original plat from a similar development created at the same
time as the original Garden Hills section. Slated to be called the
Beverly Hills Subdivision, this development merged with Garden Hills.
It includes land used for two of the neighborhood's institutional
landmarks: North Fulton High School and Garden Hills Elementary
School. By 1926, the area of development had been expanded considerably
and consisted of three sections stretching from Peachtree Road to
Piedmont Road. These three sections, which comprise the historic
district, are the original Peachtree Road section, a centrally located
Country Club section, and the Brentwood section.
Garden Hills has consistently been a stable, upper-income residential
neighborhood of single-family homes with a mix of compatibly scaled
apartments. Houses within the interior of the district are typically
set back approximately 20 feet on lot sizes of 70 by 80 feet. Corner
lots are somewhat larger. The houses are one- or two-story brick
veneer or frame dwellings. The predominant architectural styles
include Tudor and Colonial Revival styles. Most are of a very high
degree of craftsmanship, reflecting the upper-middle income families
for whom the original development was intended.
Garden Hills Historic District is located in NE Atlanta, and
is roughly bounded by Delmont, Brentwood, and N. Hills drs., Piedmont,
E. Wesley and Peachtree rds. The houses in the district are private
residences and are not open to the public.
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