Newspaper Page Text
Holly Roberson
From left, Bobby Wolf, Chris Sanders and Bob Schneider in front of one of the neighborhood's
landscaped areas.
Garden Hills: ‘People are involved in this neighborhood’
By Holly Roberson
Nicole Ott moved from Austria to
Garden Hills a year ago with her husband and
son. They chose the Buckhead neighborhood
sandwiched between Peachtree and Piedmont
roads because of the tree-lined streets,
walking trails and general genteel ambiance of
this historic place.
On a recent sundrenched morning, she
and her dog trainer, Karen Smalley, of Doggie
Du Good, worked with the family dogs, Amy
and Daisy, in a field next to the neighborhood
pool.
“People are just so nice,” Ott said as she
corralled Daisy back to working on “sit.”
It’s a sentiment shared by many in this
quiet, affluent Atlanta enclave. Garden Hills
is a mix of early 20th century homes dating
back to the 1920s, four parks, landscaped
traffic islands and a neighborhood pool/
recreation center - all close to shopping,
restaurants, schools and churches.
There is a lot going on behind the scenes
in Garden Hills, said Carl Sanders, who’s not
related to the former governor of the same
name. Sanders, a strategic consultant, is the
former president of the civic association.
The group wants to improve the
sidewalks, put stone paths in the parks, do
more landscaping and improve lighting
and security. But in the last four years, its
work has been all about the pool. The 750-
home community last year completed an
$800,000 project to rehab the pool house and
surrounding area.
According to a study by the Pool and
Park Association, the Garden Hills pool
attracts more than 500 patrons daily from
May through September. The pool generated
$357,200 in revenue in 2012.
The original pool house was built in 1979,
according to the study. In 2011, pipes burst
in the men’s bathroom and put the Pool and
Park Association on the path to rebuilding the
house.
The pool house and the pool are an
important part of the neighborhood’s identity.
Every year, teenagers from the neighborhood
start their first summer jobs working there.
They are affectionately known as the “pool
rats” by the neighborhood.
The pool, however, is not the only
attraction.
Squeals of laughter and running
toddlers filled the pool’s playground on
a recent morning. At a picnic table sat a
group of women watching the children
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intently. Not residents, they said. Just
nannies doing their jobs.
As she pushed her 2-month-old son in a
swing at the playground, Jennifer Rogers said
she and her husband were looking for a house
in Garden Hills because of the close proximity
to all the private schools.
Atlanta International School is located
in the Garden Hills neighborhood. It is
an IB World School serving students in
kindergarten through 12th grade. Other
Buckhead private schools include Christ the
King, Pace Academy, Westminister, Peachtree
Presbyterian Preschool and Atlanta Girls’
School.
Garden Hills was developed beginning
in 1925 by Phillips Campbell McDuffie, a
prominent Atlanta lawyer. He formed the
Garden Hills Corp. and advertised the area
as “Beautiful Garden Hills.” The development
was planned in three phases.
Today, the Garden Hills neighborhood
comprises single-family homes plus some
multi-family units on the streets near
commercial and institutional properties.
There is vacant commercial land around
the neighborhood, but the civic association
has a good working relationship with the
owners, said Bob Schneider, a software
consultant, and member of the civic
association.
The nearby Garden Hills Cinema closed
in 2006. There was talk of resurrecting it,
but that ended in December 2013 when
a fire gutted the Atlanta Bike shop and
caused significant water and smoke damage
to the other businesses in the Peachtree
Road strip.
On March 16, the wrecking ball arrived
to begin demolition. The only thing that
remains at the corner of Peachtree and
Rumson is the part of the strip that houses
La Fonda and Fellini’s restaurants.
Schneider said his group is in contact with
the owners about what might go there.
In addition to the Garden Hills Civic
Association, the Garden Hills Garden Club
is a service organization which maintains
several community green spaces in the
neighborhood.
The Garden Hills Neighborhood
Foundation is a nonprofit that raises money
to fund the Heart of Garden Hills project,
which has long-term goals of establishing a
signature look for the area near the pool.
“People are involved in this
neighborhood,” Sanders said. “I feel at home
before I even reach my house.” OS
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June 2015 | INtOWIl 7