Buckhead (GA) (Images of America)
Title: Writer compiling pictorial history of BuckheadAuthor: H.M. CauleyPublisher: Journal-ConstitutionDate: 12/27/2008Susan Kessler Barnard didn’t set out to be a historian, but curiosity got the better of her.“I wasn’t always taken with history,” admits the 71-year-old Atlanta native. “In school, it was taught by dates and places, not people. It didn’t come alive to me until the 1970s, when I started traveling. And since I didn’t know about where I was going, I started studying.”Though she was a trained surgical assistant, Barnard’s volunteer efforts as an Atlanta History Center docent landed her a job in its library.“I learned how to do research, what information the center had — basically, where all the bodies were buried,” she said with a laugh. “It always amazed me how many people would come in from out of state or out of the country and ask, ‘What is Buckhead?’ I thought, ‘Therein lies a book.’ “In her work at the History Center, Barnard ran across names such as Collier, Montgomery and Pace — names she knew from driving around the neighborhood. She realized no one had recorded the story of the community that these families built. So she took on the task of writing, “Buckhead: A Place for All Time,” first published in 1996.She recently revised that book with new information and photos.“I interviewed 125 people for the first book that was a genealogy of the people who settled in this area,” she said. “I knew there had to be descendants of all the street names — the Moores, the Howells, the DeFoors, the Irbys — so I started calling people. I found the families so forthcoming about giving me wonderful old photographs that, when I finished, I thought about doing something else on Buckhead.”Barnard got the chance to follow up her book when representatives from a publishing firm contacted Buckhead Coalition president Sam Massell to find someone to work on a pictorial history of the area. Massell suggested Barnard, and the result is “Images of America: Buckhead,” that will debut next spring. Barnard describes the work as the visual companion to her first book, which puts faces and images with the names she mentioned before.For the pictorial project, Barnard amassed more than 190 photos, some from founding families and some that she took herself of the area’s old homes, buildings and cemeteries. One of the most surprising structures she uncovered in her research was the Rosserville School, now part of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church off Moores Mill Road.“I only discovered it by doing research,” said Barnard. “St. Anne’s bought the property and renovated it and turned it into part of their church, but they had pictures of the way it looked originally.”Barnard’s own roots to the Buckhead community are deep. Her family moved from Midtown and built a house on a lot off Habersham Road in 1949, when the area was unincorporated county. She attended the then-Northside High, where she recalls children of wealthy families learning alongside children from outlying farms. After Barnard married, she lived on Mount Paran Road, and today she lives in a condominium on Peachtree Road.“Once I found Buckhead, I never left it,” she said. “It really is a charming place.”<br /><br />Title: Writer compiling pictorial history of BuckheadAuthor: H.M. CauleyPublisher: Journal-ConstitutionDate: 12/27/2008Susan Kessler Barnard didnÂ’t set out to be a historian, but curiosity got the better of her.Â“I wasnÂ’t always taken with history,Â” admits the 71-year-old Atlanta native. Â“In school, it was taught by dates and places, not peo --Journal-Constitution