Page 16 - DeKalb Bicentennial Flipbook

Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital (left) was founded in
1915. The “Old Buck” steam locomotive (right) carried
passengers and freight between Roswell and Chamblee
from 1881 to 1921.

ENTER I NG THE
CENTENNIAL ERA

The Civil War was a decade earlier, and in areas where battles and fires occurred, residents rebuilt factories and mills,
railroads, bridges, and homes. Atlanta was growing and becoming the rail hub for the Southern states. Coca-Cola
bubbled into glasses on pharmacy countertops and electric street cars were installed in 1889, helping to populate the first
suburbs of Atlanta. The communities of Doraville, Clarkston, Tucker, and Chamblee come into view in DeKalb County.

cottdale Mills, founded by George Washington The DeKalb County Police Department was enacted
Scott, opened in 1901 and became a premier cotton by the Georgia General Assembly in 1914, formalizing
manufacturer until its closure in 1982. Over the the safety and security of residents and the laws of early
S decades, the millworkers had housing, a school America prior to Prohibition.
was constructed and a cemetery, establishing a community The Medical Department at Emory University
for generations. was founded in 1915, revolutionizing medicine for area
Atlanta’s elite black colleges were founded just after the residents. The Emory University Medical Unit served as
Civil War. Despite disenfranchisement and the oppressive the base hospital for Camp Gordon in Chamblee, one of the
Jim Crow laws in the 1910s, prosperous economic classes larger U.S. Army training areas for World War I.
emerged. Agnes Scott College in Decatur was established in China Grove Missionary First Baptist Church formed
1889 to educate women for the betterment of their families
and the elevation of their region. in 1921 and is the backbone of Lynwood Park, the oldest
The DeKalb County School District was established in Black neighborhood in DeKalb. While DeKalb saw
1873 when residents raised $4,200 to build and finance the tremendous growth and industrialization, it is an era to
remember that more than two dozen segregation-related
schools. Two hundred years later, the district is Georgia’s
third largest school system and a leader in STE(A)M laws were passed in Georgia between 1865 and 1958. These
curriculum, serving more than 93,000 students. laws essentially kept the fabric of slavery in place, with a
As manufacturing and agricultural industries flourished convict leasing system and no voting rights for Black people
with the growing population, the Decatur Board of Trade (or women) despite the 13th Amendment that abolished
formed in 1911, what is known today as DeKalb Chamber slavery and involuntary servitude. The next era would see
of Commerce. the birth of the American Civil Rights Movement.

14 Sp i rit o f D eK alb – B i centen n ial 1822-2022