In & Around College Park Senior Amenities in College Park Camp Truitt Senior Center College Park Young-at-Heart Club College Park Women’s Club College Park Historical Society Everything old is new again at Princeton CourtCentered within the rejuvenated S. R. Young school campus in College Park, the fashionable senior residences of Princeton Court are an inventive departure from the norm. The original neo-classical elementary school building has undergone a unique conversion, now housing fourteen fully renovated, spacious apartment homes, each with its own character and personality. The original school structure was built in 1926 and dedicated in December of that same year as College Park High Park. A short time later, in January of 1927, students filled its halls (high school classes had been previously held at Cox College). The school proudly held its first graduation in May of 1927, then its second, and last, in May of 1928. College Park High School students were moved to Richardson High and the school became an elementary facility the following school year. It was renamed S. R. Young, honoring Samuel Rollo Young, a former chairman of the College Park Board of Education. The school architect was William J. J. Chase, who also designed the DeKalb County Courthouse, the Beaux Arts, Classical Revival centerpiece of Decatur’s town square. The north wing was added in 1953 and the south wing in 1955.
Other historical tidbits:On Sunday, June 15, 1890, the Constitution announced that another Atlanta suburban town had been chartered — and named Manchester. It further states that the new town “..lies most beautifully for the purpose of being transformed into a smiling, prosperous town.” The new town was incorporated on October 5, 1891 as the fourteenth district of Fulton County. In 1888 there were five homes in Manchester, two of which still stand in College Park. In 1892, Mr. W. L. Stanton built the Southern Baptist College for Girls, the second oldest female college in the US and one of the largest educational institutions in the South at that time. Paralleling it on the lower end of town was the Southern Military Academy, now known as Woodward Academy. Because of the fine international reputation of Cox College, the community of College Park envisioned their town as an educational hinge in the south. Included in their vision was a boys’ preparatory military boarding school -- a school that they had heard John Charles Woodward speak of so often. Believing in Woodward’s vision, leaders of College Park sold the abandoned Southern Military Academy’s building and its 16 acres to Colonel Woodward in the spring of 1900. The price? A non-interest bearing loan of $1,500 to be repaid “when possible.” After GMA was established in 1900, the building was renamed Founder’s Hall. Colonel John Charles Woodward, founder of Georgia Military Academy, devoted his vision, talent and skill to build what we know today as Woodward Academy. In the year 1900, 34 year-old Woodward took his long-standing dream -- a dream to provide an education for boys that could be compared in quality and scope to leading schools in America and Europe -- and turned it into his destiny. That year, John Charles Woodward, along with teacher Oscar Palmour, opened the doors to the first 30 students of Georgia Military Academy in College Park. For financial reasons, ownership of Southern Baptist College for Girls was transferred to W. S. Cox, President of Southern Female College in LaGrange. Mr. Cox moved the LaGrange operations to Manchester in 1895 and renamed the combined schools Southern Female College, and later Cox College. (link to photo “Cox.jpg) As stated in the Southern Female College’s 1902 catalogue, college expenses totaled $207 for room and board (including laundry, electric lights and steam heat), tuition for all college courses, incidental and library fees. The town’s first public school house was built on East Virginia Avenue, with Miss Mattie Kate Christian as principal. When the schools became part of the Fulton County School System, there were four schools, George F. Longino School, Benjamin F. Neely School, Samuel Rollo Young School (originally built as College Park High School) and Alonzo Richardson High School. Mrs. Roper, sister of US Senator General Gordon, was awarded a choice lot for renaming Manchester. Eight thousand possible names were submitted in the naming contest. The winning one, College Park, was made official on January 29, 1896. To give the town a more academic flair, avenues running east and west were named Mercer, Cambridge, Yale, Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia. Streets running north and south were named for famous people (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lee, Napoleon, etc.) and for outstanding men of the city at that time (Walker, Hawthorne, McCrory, Blalock, Hemphill, Sloan, etc.). College Park claims credit for the first outdoors electrically lighted Christmas tree in the Atlanta area (move over Rich’s!)...and maybe the first of its kind in the US (1926). Mr. J. R. Wiley, Sr., City Light and Water Superintendent, hand dipped plain light bulbs in red, green and blue paint to add color to his 30 to 40-foot trees. He first national spelling bee CO-champion was from College Park (1950). Colquitt “Corky” Dean of College Park and Diana Reynard, of Cleveland, Ohio, spelled to a tie. Starting at 7:30am, the contest was finally deemed the first-ever tie at 3:30pm. The pronouncer ran out of words, after three supplemental lists were used...plus he was about to lose his voice! In 1935, three neon signs, erected at various entrances to College Park, welcomed newcomers (“Welcome to College Park”) and alerted them of the speed limit (“Twenty-five miles”). These signs were a first I Georgia and quickly became the model for other towns and cities. On Oct. 11, 1927 Charles Lindbergh landed at Candler Field in the "Spirit of St. Louis" |
Close to Atlanta-proper as well as 
Senior Adult Activity Center 
