Chris Billingsley sends in this great photo from DHS’ 1956 yearbook looking down Clairemont Ave near the intersection with Ponce de Leon.  He notes…

Someone turned in a 1956 Decatur High yearbook recently. I really liked this view of Clairemont at Ponce. The Colonial Store is gone (I think it opened as a Pigley Wigley in the 1920s), replaced by an office building in the 1990s(?). Next to Colonial Store, separated by a small parking lot, is the Miss Georgia ice creme store. What a great place to spend a nickel on a delicious ice creme cone in the early 1960s. Both gone now but the Ga Power and Miller’s Bookstore buildings are still there. Nice awnings, don’t you think?

Thanks to Ms. Laura Nolan, DHS master librarian (and along with Ms. Susan Riley, mom to all DHS students) who scanned the photos.

Amy sends along this press release from Georgia’s SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office)…

Ponce de Leon Court Historic District Listed in the National Register of Historic Places

ATLANTA (November 21, 2011) – The Ponce de Leon Court Historic District, located a few blocks east of the downtown Decatur square in DeKalb County, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 2, 2011. The city of Decatur and the property owners sponsored the nomination and a consultant prepared the nomination materials.

The Ponce de Leon Court Historic District is a single street that was developed in the 1920s by John L. Womack (1887-1956). His wife’s name (Margaret H. Womack) is listed on the subdivision plat, reportedly to insulate family assets from his various business ventures. The Womacks purchased the first tract in 1921, where they built their house at the end of the street. Subsequent tracts were purchased in 1922 and 1924. Subdivision plats for the street date from 1924, 1925, and 1926. John Womack was a small business owner, builder, developer, salesman, and amateur horticulturalist. Also known as “J.L.,” Womack owned the Fulton Lime and Cement Company in Atlanta, one of several businesses he managed.

Ponce de Leon Court is a short residential street containing 26 lots terminating in a cul-de-sac. The original development plan included this cul-de-sac as a way to direct traffic around a circular planter. Lots are deep and narrow, except for the developer’s property at the end of the street, which contains a large two-story house built in 1921 by John and Margaret Womack. This house was converted into apartments in 1958. Most lots have modest single-family, one-story homes dating from the 1920s, but there are also a few duplexes and three small apartment buildings in the district. The street maintains a unified character through similar setbacks, subtropical vegetation, sidewalks with planter strips on both sides, and houses that are generally the same scale. A few surviving palm trees and bamboo also distinguish this street from others in the area. House types include bungalows and side-gabled cottages. Stylistic influences are primarily Craftsman and Colonial Revival. Some houses have enclosed front porches, but overall the district has a high degree of integrity. The district also includes three buildings at the beginning of the street, facing East Ponce de Leon Avenue, a major east-west street through Decatur. One of these is a 1922 two-story brick apartment building with classical features typical of many built in the Atlanta area at that time.

Udog sent in these two excellent photographs that he took at the corner of Ponce and Church back in 1982.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a better pic of the Hotel Candler!  First off, I’m not sure I ever realized how large it was.

Jon at The Midtown Archive sends along this most excellent pic of Decatur Square from 1961, which shows the actual “square” around the old Courthouse, and the generally more grid-like nature of the rest of the city’s layout prior to the great RENEWAL of the late 60s and 70s.

This is actually the first time I’ve seen a photo of the buildings that once sat along West Courthouse Square (where the Birds From Hell building now stands) and of the commercial buildings that were taken out by the new DeKalb Courthouse.

From what I can tell, this photo is shot looking in a northwesterly direction.

This StoryCorps interview caught my attention on WABE this morning: Beth Jordan and her mom, Joy Cooley, reminiscing about Beth’s growing-up years in Decatur in the 1960s and 1970s — “misadventures and close calls, while growing up in a neighborhood full of kids.”

They talk about going to the swimming pool every day (“the neat thing was being able to walk from our house to the swimming pool and crossing the railroad tracks, and playing on the trestle”), metal swing sets (“which were probably covered in lead paint”), no sunscreen (“didn’t need it!”), playing street hockey at night after dinner and going into the sewers to retrieve the ball, no seat belts.

You can hear the interview here.