Brookwood Hills (Atlanta, GA) Neighborhood Sign

Brookwood Hills is a

historic History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

located in intown

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, United States, north of Midtown and south-southwest of

Buckhead Buckhead is the uptown commercial and residential district of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, comprising approximately the northernmost fifth of the city. Buckhead is the third largest business district within the Atlanta city limits, behind Downt ...

. Home to about 1000 people, it was founded in the early 1920s by Benjamin Franklin Burdett and his son, Arthur. The site of the neighborhood is located where some of the bloodiest battles of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

took place during the Atlanta Campaign.

Location

Brookwood Hills is located near the heart of Atlanta, only a few miles away from the

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

s of its major

business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

s. It is connected by three entrances to Peachtree Road, and has no other outlet. Brookwood Hills is bordered roughly by Peachtree on the west,

Interstate 85 Interstate 85 (I-85) is a major Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States. Its southern terminus is at an interchange with I-65 in Montgomery, Alabama; its northern terminus is an interchange with I-95 in Petersburg, Virginia, n ...

on the south, the

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...

and MARTA tracks (just south of

Peachtree Creek Peachtree Creek is a major stream in Atlanta. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 15, 2011 almost due west into the Chattahoochee River just south of Vi ...

) to the north, and Clear Creek to the east. The Brookwood neighborhood, for which Brookwood Hills was named, is located immediately southwest of the southern tip of Brookwood Hills. This is in turn immediately north of the major

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

interchange called the "Brookwood split", which joins

I-75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from St ...

to the northwest and I-85 to the northeast into the

Downtown Connector In Downtown Atlanta, the Downtown Connector or 75/85 (pronounced "seventy-five eighty-five") is the concurrent section of Interstate 75 and Interstate 85 through the core of the city. Beginning at the I-85/ Langford Parkway interchange, ...

to the south. Because of the recent rapid

growth Growth may refer to: Biology * Auxology, the study of all aspects of human physical growth * Bacterial growth * Cell growth * Growth hormone, a peptide hormone that stimulates growth * Human development (biology) * Plant growth * Secondary growth ...

metro Atlanta Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ...

developer Developer may refer to: Computers * Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications * Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games * Web d ...

s have made constant attempts to build whatever they can near, or inside the neighborhood. Examples of these are: *Building a MARTA station inside of the neighborhood. (stopped) *An

industrial park An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...

on the other side of Clear Creek. *Extending W. Peachtree into and through the neighborhood. (stopped) *

Highrise A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdictio ...

apartments in residents' backyards.(mostly stopped) Because of these pressures of being a big-city

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

, the Brookwood Hills Community Club (BWHCC) was created. (This is the reason so many of the above projects were halted). The BWHCC also owns the

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

and

pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rocky po ...

in the center of Brookwood Hills.

History and development

Brookwood Hills was the creation of the Burdett family. Benjamin first created the neighborhood on the Battlefield of Peachtree Creek owned by himself and local Thomas Collier. The streets were built in accordance to the hilly

terrain Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...

, instead of

grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Common usage * Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road * Grid reference, used to define a location on a map Arts, entertainment, and media * News g ...

form, as was popular at the time. Mr. Burdett planted

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

sapling In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s during Brookwood Hills' founding, which now stand tall and are the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

quality of the neighborhood. The area developed by Benjamin and Arthur Burdett is now registered as the Brookwood Hills Historic District. In November 2011 the City of Atlanta began a project to repair damaged sidewalks and curbs in front of approximately 50 homes in the neighborhood.Jeremiah McWilliams, "Atlanta to fix sidewalks in Brookwood Hills neighborhood", ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'', October 20, 2011
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Brookwood Hills Community Club

The hub of the community is the Brookwood Hills Community Club, which includes a park, pool, two

pavilions In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

, tennis courts, and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

goals. Many neighborhood sponsored events like the

Fourth of July Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...

parade and the annual

Easter egg hunt An egg hunt is an Eastertide game during which decorated eggs or Easter eggs are hidden for children to find. Real hard-boiled eggs, which are typically dyed or painted, artificial eggs made of plastic filled with chocolate or candies, or foil- ...

take place here.

Brookwood Hills Bullfrogs

The Brookwood Hills pool hosts its own swim team. Their mascot is a bullfrog. This team competes in the Atlanta Swim Association summer league. They start practices in late April, and compete through the end of June or beginning of July. Every year, they compete at Georgia Tech for ASA championships. In 2013, Brookwood Hills won the entire meet.

Notable current and past residents

Vern Yip Vern Yip (born June 27, 1968, in Hong Kong) is an American interior designer based in Atlanta, Georgia. He periodically appeared on TLC's ''Trading Spaces'' through its fourth season, and was known for frequently including silk, candles and flo ...

Kathryn Stockett Kathryn Stockett is an American novelist. She is known for her 2009 debut novel, '' The Help'', which is about African-American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 1960s. Career Stockett worked in magazine publ ...

Robert Shaw (conductor) Robert Lawson Shaw (30 April 191625 January 1999) was an American conductor most famous for his work with his namesake Chorale, with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. He was known for drawing publ ...

Ed Helms Edward Parker Helms (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor and comedian. From 2002 to 2006, he was a correspondent on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''. He played paper salesman Andy Bernard in the NBC sitcom ''The Offic ...

* Patrik Stefan

Schools

Public

Brookwood Hills is covered by

Atlanta Public Schools Atlanta Public Schools (APS) is a school district based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is run by the Atlanta Board of Education with superintendent Dr. Lisa Herring. The system has an active enrollment of 54,956 students, attending a t ...

, and is in the school attendance district of: *E. Rivers Elementary School *Sutton Middle School *

North Atlanta High School North Atlanta High School is a comprehensive public high school of approximately 1,800 students in the Paces neighborhood of the Buckhead community of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The school is a part of Atlanta Public Schools (APS). Th ...

Private

Popular

private school Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

s in the area include: *

Woodward Academy Woodward Academy (also known as Woodward or WA) is an independent, co-educational college-preparatory school for pre-kindergarten to 12th grade on two campuses located in College Park and Johns Creek, Georgia, United States, within the Atlanta ...

The Westminster Schools The Westminster Schools is a Kindergarten –12 private school in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, founded in 1951. History Westminster originated in 1951 as a reorganization of Atlanta's North Avenue Presbyterian School (NAPS), a girls' school ...

The Lovett School The Lovett School is a coeducational, kindergarten through twelfth grade independent school located in north Atlanta, Georgia, United States. History In September 1926, Eva Edwards Lovett, an innovative educator who emphasized the development o ...

Pace Academy Pace Academy is a K–12 college preparatory private school, located at 966 West Paces Ferry Road in the Buckhead area of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Pace has approximately 1,115 students. History Pace Academy was founded in Atlanta in ...

*Christ the King Catholic School * The Galloway School * Holy Innocents' Episcopal School * Marist School *

Atlanta International School Atlanta International School (AIS) is a private elementary, middle and high school in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. An International Baccalaureate school, it was opened in 1985. Faculty, parents and students at Atlanta International School ...

External links

Brookwood Hills Community ClubSwim League Website

Atlanta, Georgia, a National Park Service ''Discover Our Shared Heritage'' Travel Itinerary

References

BWHCC website
*''Brooknotes'' Newsletter
City of Atlanta Website
{{Historic Districts in Metro Atlanta Neighborhoods in Atlanta Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) Neoclassical architecture in Georgia (U.S. state) Bungalow architecture in Georgia (U.S. state) National Register of Historic Places in Atlanta