The Burdett family played an important role in the early history of Sandy Springs. One member of that family was Benjamin Franklin Burdett, born in 1861, who married Jenny Reed of Cobb County in 1885. He was a land owner, real estate developer and architect in Sandy Springs and Atlanta.  In 1910, he started the Burdett Realty Company and set up office in the Candler Building downtown. 

Benjamin Franklin Burdett built a Colonial style, two story, red brick home in 1900 on the land where Mount Vernon Presbyterian School and Church are located today. The home had eleven rooms, four porches on the ground level, two porches on the second level, and white columns across the front.  The bricks for the home were made on the property.  

He traveled to work from Sandy Springs to Atlanta in his Hanson Six automobile.  This was during the time that horse drawn carriages and wagons were more typical, so folks came from all around to see his car.   The Hanson Six was manufactured in Atlanta, beginning about 1917, but the company was only in business until 1925.   

The Burdett Realty Company developed the Brookwood Hills subdivision in Atlanta in 1912.  It was the first neighborhood development in Atlanta that included a swimming pool and park. 

Arthur Burdett, born in 1889, was one of eight children born to Ben and Jenny Burdett.   His June 5, 1917 World War I registration card indicates that he was currently living on Ponce de Leon Road with his wife Sadie. After the war, Arthur became a salesman for the Hanson Motor Company.  A Hanson automobile is on display at the Atlanta History Center.  

Cousin Frank Burdett, not quite nineteen when he registered for service, was assigned to the Students Army Training Corp at Oglethorpe University.  Officers at Camp Gordon, located just adjacent to Oglethorpe University, administered the training program. After the war was over, Frank married Nannie Lou Nance at his Uncle William Burdett’s home on Mount Paran Road.  Frank Burdett lost his arm to a cotton gin injury after the war.   

Stephen Burdett started the Burdett Grocery Store in 1920 at the intersection of what is now Mount Vernon Highway and Roswell Road. Later, his nephew Frank Burdett began running the store (the same Frank Burdett who trained for WWI) Frank Burdett also served as postmaster of Sandy Springs for a while when the post office was located inside Burdett’s Store. He also drove a Fulton county school bus. The original wood frame store burned and was replaced with a brick store in 1939. (Images of America: Sandy Springs, by Kimberly M. Brigance and Morris V. Moore)

During the time the post office was located in Burdett’s Store and continuing until 1941, the post office and area went by the name Burdal, a combination of Burdett and Dalrymple-another prominent family. Before Burdal, the community was known as Oak Grove and following 1941 it became known as Sandy Springs.

The Burdett Mansion was sold to the Winecoff family in 1916 and Benjamin Burdett and his family moved into a home at West Peachtree and 11th Street.  In 1953, the house and 7 ½ acres was sold for $30,000 to the Presbyterian Church.  The first meetings of the new church were held down the road at Hammond Elementary School.  On Easter Sunday, 1954, services were held in the mansion’s front two rooms.  However, the home was not adequate for the church for long and a new building was started in 1955.   

Other sources cited include: Sandy Springs Gazette issues from 2017 and 2018, including history from an interview with Marty Burdett and Irene Burdett Maddox recorded in 1999 by Heritage Sandy Springs.