Parkwood was one of the last subdivisions developed in Historic Druid Hills. The first post in this series explored how Parkwood’s landscape developed between c. 1920 and 1960. The research presented in that introduction shows that there were three periods of historic development inside Parkwood: 1927-1939; 1940-1947; and 1948-1952.

Houses built in the earliest phase were executed in the period revival and bungalow styles popular at the time; homes built in the middle phase bridged the revival styles and included early ranch houses; and, the homes built in 1948 and afterwards were almost exclusively ranch houses. This post explores the history of one of the earliest ranch houses constructed in Parkwood during the middle phase, in 1946.

198 East Parkwood Road

1948 Parkwood plat showing the location of 198 East Parkwood Road. Click for a larger image.

Alonzo M. Atkinson (1910-1989) was a 35-year-old manager at the Fulton Metal Bed Manufacturing Company when he paid Asa G. Candler, Inc., $4,250 for a lot at the corner of East Parkwood and Upland roads. Atkinson, and his wife Florence (1913-2006), bought the property on February 11, 1946.  Within a year, the couple became the first family living on East Parkwood Road.

The Atkinsons bought their property less than a year after World War II ended. The postwar construction boom was just getting started and the nation was still recovering from wartime rationing and shortages. The home Alonzo and Florence Atkinson built was a one-story L-plan (half-courtyard) ranch house. Unlike all of the other ranch houses in Parkwood, which were constructed after 1947 with granite foundations and with red brick, the Atkinson’s house was constructed on a concrete block foundation with concrete blocks walls.

Atkinson-Gordon home, view to the east from East Parkwood Road. Photo by David Rotenstein, July 2011.

According to Lisa Gordon, who along with her husband Scott bought the Atkinson house in 1990, the Atkinsons wanted a brick house. “She said that her husband had very much wanted the house to be brick,” Gordon said, recalling a conversation with Florence Atkinson. “What she said was that brick was still not available postwar. It was still not available and that what she said was they had always intended to come back in and brick it after the fact, like once brick became available.”

The Atkinson-Gordon house. Adapted from Bing Maps.

The 0.55-acre lot where the Atkinsons built the house actually is one full lot plus half of an adjoining lot. Between 1940 and 1950, Asa G. Candler, Inc sold less than half a dozen similar lot combinations. Scott Gordon recalls a conversation he had with Florence Atkinson about the lot:

In their mind they wanted to add to the prestige by buying a lot and a half. She was very disappointed that other neighbors didn’t follow that model of buying a lot and a half to kind of “go estate.”

1946 plat prepared for Alonzo M. Atkinson. Courtesy of Lisa and Scott Gordon.

The larger lots would have brought the Parkwood subdivision closer to the large lots first laid out in the 1905 Druid Hills plan. Lisa Gordon added to her husband’s recollection of the discussions with Florence Atkinson:

I think she thought of this as being kind of like Druid Hills-ish, with the big yards and the big front yards, you know. And even like on the warranty deed, like when she pointed out the fact that there was a minimum price for the houses and everything. She was really proud of that.

Set back from East Parkwood Road 50 feet, the house conformed to the covenants contained in the deed from the Candler company to the Atkinsons. In addition to the setback requirements, the Atkinsons were required to build a house costing no less than $7,500. Porches could extend 20 feet from the house’s front plane. Because the Atkinson property was a corner lot, the deed included a sketch map illustrating the lot’s buildable limits.

Sketch map appended to the 1946 deed from Asa G. Candler, Inc., to the Atkinsons. DeKalb County land records.

The Gordons said that they once had architectural drawings prepared for the Atkinsons but they were unable to locate them prior to the completion of this post. The house the Atkinsons built includes a rectangular main block with a garage (rear entry) added on the south side and an ell projecting towards the rear (east). The principal façade in the main block faces west, onto East Parkwood Road. It includes a fixed picture window flanked by 6/6 double-hung sash vinyl replacement windows and a front door set in surround that draws from Colonial Revival vocabulary. The windows have concrete sills and beneath the two double-hung windows on the front façade there are ornamental recessed panels.

Atkinson-Gordon home porch and front facade. Photo by David Rotenstein, July 2011.

Atkinson-Gordon home porch and front facade. Photo by David Rotenstein, July 2011.

According to recent research by the Georgia Historic Preservation Division, this house may be classified as a half-courtyard ranch house. Its materials, design, and construction date make it one of the earliest postwar ranch houses built in Georgia. Scott Gordon describes the house as “a ranch on steroids.” The open front living  room and dining room with the kitchen, bedrooms, and bathrooms tucked in the rear and connected by a long hallway is a characteristic ranch arrangement. “Have you seen the hallway yet,” Scott Gordon asked during an interview in the dining room. “It’s a bowling alley.”

In addition to the plan, fenestration, and other architectural details that firmly place the building into the ranch category, other elements also set the home apart from earlier period revivals. According to Scott Gordon, the entire house had sheetrock walls, not plaster and lathe. Both bathrooms had built-in shower stalls and the kitchen was fully “modern” for its time.  “The other thing she [Florence Atkinson] talked about more than anything was her kitchen,” Lisa Gordon recalled.

One of the house’s most interesting character-defining features is its chimney. Visible above the gable roof as a tapered, parged stack, the inside dominates the living room’s north wall. The Gordons were told that Alonzo Atkinson “was so upset that he couldn’t get brick” for the fireplace. “He went out and got as many rocks as he could find to do that fireplace, which we consider to be early Vermont ski lodge.”

Atkinson-Gordon home chimney. Photo by David Rotenstein, July 2011.

The Atkinsons were married in 1935. Alonzo was born in Atlanta in 1910. His father, William J. Atkinson Sr., worked at the Fulton Metal Bed Manufacturing Company. The family was living on Pullman Street in Atlanta when Alonzo was born. In 1935, Alonzo married another Atlantan: Florence Burford. Florence was the daughter of a coal company executive.

Alonzo apparently went to work for the company where his father had been employed. Florence, however, attended Agnes Scott College and she earned an undergraduate degree from Shorter College and a master’s degree from Emory University. According to one obituary, she taught in DeKalb County schools.

The Atkinsons lived at 198 East Parkwood until Alonzo’s death in 1989. Shortly after he died, the house was sold to Lisa and Scott Gordon, two Environmental Protection Agency scientists. According to the Gordons, Florence Atkinson had difficulty letting go of the house she and her husband built and in which they raised their family. “She had a lot of pride tied up in the house,” said Lisa Gordon.

Original deed from Asa G. Candler, Inc. to the Atkinsons given to the Gordons by Florence Atkinson.

The Gordons recalled the conversations they had with Florence Atkinson as they settled into the new home. They recounted talking about the landscape, the architecture, and the development of the Parkwood subdivision. According to Lisa Gordon, Florence Atkinson was particularly taken by the fact that their home was one of the earliest in Parkwood:

The houses at the top of Parkwood Lane – There was those houses that had that first go around. But then, the houses that came in the forties. There was definitely like much – Florence really seemed to want ownership of the fact that hers was one of the first. I think there was lots of like jockeying for position of everyone, people claiming that theirs was the first.

As the first house built after the Second World War and the subdivision’s first ranch house, the Atkinson-Gordon home appears to be an outstanding historic resource. Despite some alterations, including replacement windows and the enclosure of a rear porch, the property retains much of its integrity with an interesting story that is legible in its exterior features and which is enhanced by the surviving documentary record.

This post focused on the history of one house built during Parkwood’s middle phase of development. The next posts will look at other houses, earlier and later, that characterize Parkwood. The final posts in this series will examine the various layers of historic preservation designation and regulation in Parkwood.

Beyond the Page

More information on DeKalb County’s ranch houses is available at the Georgia Historic Preservation Division’s Website. The DeKalb History Center Website also has information on ranch houses and other postwar housing in the county.

Thanks are due to Lisa and Scott Gordon for taking the time to answer questions about their house and for allowing me to photograph the property and the documents in their possession.

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