Buckhead Heritage Society NEWSLETTER 2010 Board Members Dear Friends, As the oppressive summer months slip thankfully away, we at Buckhead Heritage are W. Wright Mitchell looking forward to fall. Cooler weather, football and changing leaves are just around President the corner. So is our inaugural fundraiser, Party in the Pasture, which is scheduled for Tamara A. Bazzle October 23, 2010. But before we turn our sights to fall, I want to briefly reflect on Vice President some of our recent achievements. Robert F. Helget The biggest news of 2010 at Buckhead Heritage was the hiring of our new Executive Treasurer Director, Erica Danylchak. With a Master of Heritage Preservation degree from Charles W. Wright Georgia State University and work experience at the Atlanta History Center, Erica Secretary possesses all of the credentials necessary to make an excellent Executive Director. But it is her boundless enthusiasm for Buckhead Heritage’s mission and her willingness to Ivan Allen, IV take on any task that has impressed our Board of Directors most. Beckie Amos In her short eight months on the job, Erica has already presided over a sold out Civil Claudia Barnes War lecture at Bobby Jones Golf Course and a sold out lecture on Buckhead Barbara Bazzel architecture at The Cathedral of St. Philip. Erica has also been serving as a Boyd Coons preservation resource to the community through our Landowner Technical Assistance Program. Recently, she spearheaded the preparation of a National Register Henry Howell nomination for Sardis United Methodist Church. She is also working on an interesting Sam Massell project with the Cherokee Garden Library to identify and document any remaining James Ottley work of legendary landscape architect, William Monroe, Sr. You will find an article by John Snodgrass Erica on this project in the Newsletter. On the preservation front, Buckhead Heritage continues to fight against the proposed Jill Toth removal of Mt. Olive Cemetery at Frankie Allen Park. To this end, Buckhead Heritage _____________ filed a lawsuit against the developer who bought the cemetery property. Although his Erica Danylchak Application for a Burial Disturbance Permit was denied by the Atlanta City Council, he Executive Director has appealed this ruling to the Fulton County Superior Court in hopes of having the City Council’s decision overturned. While the City defends this lawsuit, Buckhead Heritage presses forward with its own lawsuit against the developer. Buckhead Heritage’s Oral History Project continues to flourish under the direction of Mission: Board Member Chad Wright. You can view clips of some of the interviews on our own Buckhead Heritage YouTube channel! Our interns, Angelica Dion, Steve Bare and Mera Cardenas have strives to sustain the done a great job for us and we are indebted to Founding Member Deirdre Finan for quality of life in helping us get our archives in order! Buckhead by So, as you can see, we have been pretty busy lately. And things only promise to get identifying, busier with planning for Party in the Pasture well underway. This casual event will be preserving, and held at the family meadow of Board Member Ivan Allen IV off Northside Drive. It will promoting its historic feature barbecue from One Star Ranch, Bluegrass music, history themed resources. demonstrations and kid friendly activities. You will be receiving an invitation in the coming weeks and we hope to see you there! As always, please feel free to contact us at any time should you have questions about Buckhead Heritage or Buckhead history in general. After all, without the support of you, our members, none of this would be possible. Thank you! Wright Mitchell President Events Battles for Buckhead Phoenix Flies Tour of Lecture. From left to Harmony Grove Cemetery right: Bob Helget Treasurer; Tamara March 6, 2010 Bazzle Vice President; Buckhead Heritage hosted a tour Robert Jenkins Guest Speaker; Jill Toth of Harmony Grove Cemetery in Board Member; Chad partnership with the Atlanta Wright Secretary. Preservation Center's Phoenix Photograph courtesy of Kim Link Flies program — a citywide Photography. celebration of living landmarks. Wright Mitchell, Buckhead Heritage Society President, Battles for Buckhead Lecture amidst the haze of gunfire. He also guided approximately 40 visitors May 14, 2010 provided insight into the daily through the restored site and Buckhead Heritage hosted Civil lives of soldiers during the conflict. shared stories of the early War historian and author Robert Buckhead Heritage expresses its Buckhead settlers now resting Jenkins for a return speaking gratitude once again to the Vawter there. Harmony Grove was engagement following last year’s Group, Atlanta Fine Homes founded in 1870 and is one of sold-out lecture on the Battle of Sotheby’s International Realty for Buckhead’s few remaining Peach Tree Creek. This year, sponsoring this event. landmarks that hearken back to Jenkins regaled another sold-out Buckhead’s origins as a rural crowd with details of the Battles of Buckhead’s Architectural farming community. Moore’s Mill, Nancy Creek, and Inheritance: Beyond Reid, Peach Tree Creek. The lecture and Shutze, and Crook preceding reception were held at August 19, 2010 the Bobby Jones Golf Club, which Buckhead Heritage hosted Wright stands on ground where the Battle Marshall, President of Revival of Peach Tree Creek took place. Construction, for a lecture Buckhead Heritage again thanks exploring the rich architectural the Vawter Group, Atlanta Fine legacy left to us by significant, yet Homes Sotheby’s International surprisingly unfamiliar, Atlanta Realty for generously sponsoring architects of the early twentieth this event. century. Marshall highlighted the work of Pringle & Smith, Frazier & Civil War Living History Bodin, Tucker & Howell, and Demonstration Mayre, Alger & Vinour. Buckhead May 15, 2010 Heritage sincerely thanks On the morning following his Guardsman for sponsoring this lecture, Robert Jenkins conducted program. a living history demonstration at Tanyard Creek Park, the site of For updated event information, Tour of Harmony Grove Cemetery. fierce combat during the Battle of Photograph courtesy of Tim Small. Peach Tree Creek. During his please visit our website at: presentation, Jenkins vividly www.buckheadheritage.com/events described the atmosphere of battle 2 Harmony Grove Cemetery Update on Mt. Olive Cemetery Buckhead Heritage intiated a comprehensive restoration of Harmony Grove Cemetery in 2006 and since that time has been For the last year, Buckhead Heritage amassing deed records, obituaries, and historical newspaper accounts has been vigorously opposing the that tell the stories of the evolution of the property and the people application filed by developer interred there. This year, Buckhead Heritage completed processing its Brandon Marshall to remove the Harmony Grove Cemetery Archive to facilitate access to a weath of graves at the African American Mt. information by staff and future researchers. Olive Cemetery on Pharr Road. Buckhead Heritage is extremely grateful to the descendents and Buckhead Heritage Board Members families who have and staff have testified repeatedly to shared personal the historical and cultural stories with us about significance of the cemetery during those who rest in meetings of the Atlanta Urban Harmony Grove Design Commission (AUDC) and Cemetery. This past committee meetings of the Atlanta spring, Brenda Poss City Council. contacted us and In December 2009, the AUDC voted shared accounts of to recommend that the Atlanta City Charlotte Krause, who Council deny the application for the is the most recently cemetery’s removal. The Atlanta City documented burial in Council subsequently opposed the cemetery. Ms. Poss Marshall’s request by a vote of 11 to 1 is married to a relative of Charlotte Krause. on March 15, 2010. On March 31st We now know that Charlotte was a spunky, headstrong woman Marshall filed a complaint in the who was born in 1892 in Lessing, Germany, the daughter of August Superior Court of Fulton County and Martha Krause. Charlotte had four siblings—Margaret (Hanye), seeking declaratory relief and Gertrude (Poss-Kent), Richard, and Corwin. She once had a serious judicial review of the City Council's suitor, but never married. During her youth, she was quite decision. No further action has been adventurous. She joined her brother Corwin on his ranch in Colorado taken at this time. and worked there as a secretary. During the 1930s, she applied to work as a secretary on an Indian reservation, but was informed at the time Elon Osby Lawsuit that it would have been “inadvisable to take a lady to a Navajo In September 2009, as Brandon Reservation.” Marshall’s application was being Charlotte lived the last half of her life in a two bedroom house on reviewed by the City of Atlanta, a Virginia Place in Buckhead. It had no heating, no inside toilet or lawsuit was filed in Fulton County running water, and no electricity. Her family describes Charlotte as Superior Court against the developer quirky. She lived to be 89 years old and attributed her longevity to on behalf of Elon Butts Osby, whose eating plenty of shredded wheat and to not eating meat. She had ancestors are buried in Mt. Olive always distrusted banks. After she passed away, her family found her Cemetery. The lawsuit argues that life’s savings, over $10,000, stashed in old plastic bread bags and in Mt. Olive Cemetery is a public the cups of bras that were used throughout the drafty house as cemetery and therefore cannot be insulation. Charlotte was buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery in 1982. disturbed under Georgia law. Ms. To request access to the Harmony Grove Cemetery Archive, Osby is being represented by please call 404-467-9447. Buckhead Heritage Society President Wright Mitchell. The Osby v. Buckhead Heritage sincerely thanks Deirdre Finan for Marshall hearing has not yet taken dedicating her time and expertise to processing the Harmony Grove place.