Recent research for Buckhead.com surfaced an amusing advertisement; a c.1910-11 Historical Plat of Buckhead neighborhood Peachtree Heights West at the time called “Peachtree Hills Park.” Prepared by the E. Rivers Realty Company and revised in 1915, this document outlines approximately 400 houses developed on land purchased from the Wesley Gray Collier estate in 1910.
This historic advertisement offers fun insights into what potential residents would have prioritized when shopping for a home in the early 1900s, including a promise of fresh air free from the smoke and smog of the city, flaming arc street lamps which lit the streets to be “as brilliant, almost as day,” no city taxes, and an improved trolley service which would transport business men and women to the center of the city in “only 24 minutes”!
The land was developed by an early Buckhead real estate agent and developer named Eretus Rivers whose small white sales office still sits in the grassy median where Peachtree Battle Avenue meets Peachtree Road, facing E Rivers Elementary school. If this advertisement is any indication Mr. Rivers must have been quite the showman.
These days Peachtree Heights West has grown to approximately 550 homes within its borders and is one of the finest in Buckhead….but it still takes 24 minutes to get downtown!
