History

Garden Hills was developed beginning in 1925 by Phillips Campbell McDuffie, a prominent Atlanta lawyer, who formed the Garden Hills Corp. and advertised the area as “Beautiful Garden Hills.” He envisioned a country club community with a pool and community center at its heart.

The development was planned in three phases. The earliest homes were built in the Peachtree Section, which included Rumson Road, Rumson Way and Bolling Road. The Country Club Section, which included the pool and community center, stretched from the pool east on East Wesley, Brentwood and Pinetree to North Hills Drive. The Brentwood Section included all the streets from North Hills Drive to Piedmont Road. Most of the homes in these three sections were built in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s.

The boundaries of Garden Hills expanded beyond the McDuffie plan over the years to include two other large tracts.

In the 1930s Lookout Place was extended south to connect street traffic between Garden Hills and Peachtree View, the first subdivision in Buckhead, featuring homes on Peachtree Avenue, Delmont, Lookout, and Grandview. Subsequently, these homes were incorporated into Garden Hills, and are fondly referred to today as the north forty.

After the Second World War, developers added new streets south of East Wesley between Alexander Park and the railroad track. These homes on Birchwood, Elwood, Arlene, Springdale, Parkdale and Sharondale, date from the fifties and sixties. When MARTA proposed taking some of these homes for right-of-way in the 1970s, homeowners banded together to oppose the plan. They prevailed in saving the homes, as the rail line was built on Southern Railroad right-of-way. As a result of that joint effort, these homes became officially part of the Garden Hills community, and are known as the south forty.