Few people can claim to live in the same neighborhood yet alone in the same house as they did at birth. Meet Nancy Floyd!
Cora Seneca, Nancy’s grandmother, was the second owner of the family’s home on Pinetree Drive (now Pine Tree Drive) which she purchased in December 1942 — the earnest money check was for $462.50. Nancy’s parents, Hugh and Virginia Marshall, lived with Virginia’s mother, Cora, in the Pinetree Drive house until Nancy was 3 and her brother, Hugh, was 4. Nancy’s picture with her brother climbing the front steps is shown below. The family lived in the house a second time 4 years later, until her father, an architect, designed and built their new home on Old Ivy Road to make room for two additional children.
At the end of 1967, Nancy met Jim Floyd, who had just moved from Texas, at the LeMans Apartments. They married at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in July 1969 and purchased the Pine Tree Drive house from Nancy’s grandmother six months later. At that time, they were among the youngest couples in the neighborhood. Their sons, Christopher (1971) and Michael (1974) were born soon afterwards. Christopher died in 2001 and the Floyds donated statues at the Rumson / Pine Tree / Bolling roundabout in his memory. Coming full circle, Michael Floyd and his wife Ashley purchased a home on Pine Tree Drive in 2006. Nancy said that she and Jim are so blessed to live just a block from their three grandchildren, Lily, Hugh and Jessica. Nancy, her sons and two of her three grandchildren attended Garden Hills Elementary, and Nancy and her sons graduated from North Fulton High School which is now the site of the Atlanta International School.
The neighborhood has changed considerably since 1944. In front of Nancy and Jim’s house was a concrete post emblazoned with “coach stop” which was where Atlanta City Bus 24 used to stop. As a child, Nancy remembers playing with her brother, Hugh, using the scrap lumber from the new houses being constructed on Sharondale Drive.
The neighborhood contained several grocers and pharmacies. Multiple movie theaters and bowling alleys were adjacent to the neighborhood, and many auto dealerships were located on Peachtree and Piedmont Roads. Prior to the opening of Lenox Square Mall around 1959, most people went to downtown Atlanta to purchase clothes at Rich’s or Davison’s (now both Macy’s). Once Lenox Square Mall was built – originally an open-air mall – most clothes and food shopping shifted there.
The neighborhood started becoming more social in the 1970s. For a number of years, there was an annual pig roast held in Sunnybrook Park where the guys stayed up most of the night cooking pigs on spits and sipping a few beers. The Garden Club was restarted in 1970, and the first ice cream social was held on Atwood between Pine Tree and Brentwood in 1971 or 1972. The men cranked out homemade ice cream, and the women brought baked goods to sell.
Garden Hills has continuously been a neighborhood that has attracted families. The Floyds may not have started that tradition, but they are certainly at the forefront of keeping it alive.
Lisa Gunther
Rumson Rd