Sandy Springs Camp Meeting

Sandy Springs Methodist Church camp meeting was held on church property, conveniently near the spring for which the community is named. The first Sandy Springs Methodist Church building was a log cabin constructed on five acres donated by Wilson Spruill sometime between 1849 and 1851.

Civil War maps, drawn by Union soldiers, show the location of the Methodist campground, indicating the tradition began pre-Civil War. (“Images of America: Sandy Springs,” by Kimberly M. Brigance and Morris V. Moore)

Each year following the last work on the crops before harvest time, better known as laying by time, families would gather at the campground for five to ten days of religious meetings, singing, food, and socializing. They stayed in small structures called tents, which were log cabins or shacks with sawdust floors.

To prepare for camp meeting, the family gathered food, bedding and cooking utensils. Women sewed new clothes for the family so they could look their best for the event, which was the summer vacation of a farming family. People also brought their musical instruments to entertain friends between sermons.

Sandy Springs camp meeting in 1912 ended on August 11th after almost a week of daily sermons.  “The tents were filled with hundreds of worshipers from the surrounding territory, and the final service was marked by short sermons by four prominent divines,” announced the newspapers. (August 12, 1912, Atlanta Journal, “Sandy Springs camp meeting has closed”)

This photo of the Sandy Springs Methodist campground gives a small view of the tents or small cabins that were located at the campground. The photo is from “Images of America: Sandy Springs,” by Kimberly M. Brigance and Morris V. Moore. The young women in the photo are Clara, Ella, Flavela and Evelyn Owens.

The preachers who attended camp meeting were provided room and board. A large tent that could hold ten men was located on the camp property where a water tower was later built. (“Sandy Springs Past Tense,” by Lois Coogle)

The 1927 camp meeting was advertised in the Atlanta Journal newspaper. The location was Sandy Springs, 12 miles north of Atlanta on Roswell Road. The advertisement included the names of guest preachers and the directors that year for camp meeting. Directors include President Lon Burdette, Secretary Aldine Chambers, J. A. Mabry, John Copeland, M. P. Powers, J. E. Butler, and J. N. Reed. (Atlanta Journal, August 21, 1927, Sunday services to draw throngs to Sandy Springs”)

Fire destroyed the camp tents and arbor in 1931. A larger more modern arbor was built and used until 1959 when it was removed. The tents were not rebuilt.

Young people often looked forward to camp meeting as a time for courting. One Sandy Springs camp meeting romance was that of Buck Casey and Lizzie Burdette, who married at camp meeting on August 21, 1898, at 3 p.m. The parents of the young woman objected, but the couple planned to meet and marry at camp meeting and “Rev. Whitfield was on hand and quickly tied the matrimonial knot.” This news bulletin was reported in an August 22, 1898 Atlanta Journal article titled “A Runaway Marriage.”

Sandy Springs sandlot baseball

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The Morgan Falls Athletic Complex is on 27.26 acres at 450 Morgan Falls Place in Sandy Springs off Roswell Road. The complex includes t-ball and baseball fields, a football field, concession stand, picnic pavilion, and a playground.

The park was first planned by Fulton County in 1967. Two parks were planned for the southern part of Fulton County in Palmetto and near Fairburn, and two parks in Sandy Springs, Hammond and Morgan Falls. (Atlanta Constitution, March 30, 1967, “Four Parks Planned by Fulton”)

Baseball games were popular in Sandy Springs long before Morgan Falls Athletic Complex existed. The community had a sandlot team, sometimes referred to as the “Sandy Springs nine” in the Atlanta newspapers.

According to “Images of America Sandy Springs,” by Kimberly M. Brigance and Morris V. Moore many games were played at an unofficial ballpark between Boyleston Drive, Hammond Drive, Mount Vernon Highway and Roswell Road.

Baseball had begun by 1934 in Sandy Springs, because an outdoor meeting and wiener roast was held in August of that year to plan and raise money for uniforms. (Atlanta Constitution, August 8, 1934)

This 1940s Sandy Springs baseball team includes, front row, left to right, Bill Sewell, Carl Jameson, Al Holbrook, George Coleman and Hubert Nix. On the back row, left to right, Charles Sewell, Billy Hair, Doyle Mabry, Richard Coleman and Richard Johnson. This team played on a ball field between Roswell Road, Boyleston Road, Mt. Vernon Highway, and Hammond Drive. (Photo is from “Images of America: Sandy Springs,” by Kimberly M. Brigance and Morris V. Moore on behalf of Heritage Sandy Springs.)

When the Regenstein family moved to ten acres on Mount Vernon Highway in 1946, Robert Regenstein became an umpire at the baseball field. When his efforts to bring city of Atlanta water to Sandy Springs were successful in 1950, the community held a Fourth of July celebration, which included square dancing and baseball.

When Robert and Jean’s daughter Barbara was born, employees of Regenstein’s store bought a baby sized baseball uniform for her. The couple took Barbara to the Sandy Springs field in the uniform.

Scheduled league games for August 1, 1948, included Sandy Springs at Roswell and Alpharetta at Austell as part of the North Atlanta League; Dunwoody at Smyrna, State League; Irvindale Dairy vs. Tucker at Piedmont Park and Norcross at Duluth in the County League. 

The Atlanta papers regularly reported on the various sandlot team results and the special achievements of the players. Bill Hardigree of Sandy Springs was the fielding star of a game against the Federal Pen (Penitentiary) team. Sandy Springs won seven to four and Hardigree got six of those seven runs. (Atlanta Constitution, “Hardigree Leads Sandy Springs,” Sept. 17, 1951)

John Davis moved to Sandy Springs with his family in 1962 at the age of ten. Little League baseball had recently become popular in the community. Davis recalled, “By the 1960s, baseball in Sandy Springs had taken on a life of its own and had become part of the town’s spirit, even if there was no official place to play it.” Local businesses and organizations sponsored teams, buying sports equipment and uniforms including Arlington Cemetery, the Optimist Club, Swofford Shoes, Northside Pharmacy, and Bondurant Sporting Goods. (Sandy Springs Gazette 2018, “Root, Root, Root for the Home Team”)

Davis played on a team sponsored by Arlington Cemetery. He remembered the team marching down Roswell Road as part of a parade. The league played on fields at Mount Vernon Baptist Church and St. John United Methodist Church and at local elementary school fields.

According to the Oct. 1, 1948 Atlanta Constitution, the Sandy Springs baseball team of 1947 won the Fulton County sandlot baseball team title. They were honored with a banquet held by the East Point Elks Club.

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McGaughey home was Serviceman's Shelter

Carroll and Effie McGaughey announced a house-warming party at their new summer home on Spruill Road in Dunwoody in 1939. The Dec. 30, 1939, Atlanta Constitution Society Events column included the announcement, using the alternate spelling of Spruell Road. The gathering was also in honor of their debutante daughter, Mary McGaughey. The couple would later make the Dunwoody home their primary home.

Carroll McGaughey was an electrical engineer and owner of McGaughey Electrical Company.  Effie McGaughey operated an antique shop called Backdoor Studios out of their Atlanta home on Lombardy Way.  The McGaughey’s had two sons, Carroll Jr. and Carrick, in addition to their daughter Mary.

When the United States entered World War II and Lawson General Hospital opened in nearby Chamblee, Effie McGaughey began thinking of ways to help recovering soldiers.  The McGaugheys turned their home from a social gathering spot to a place for relaxation and recreation for injured soldiers, the Serviceman’s Shelter.

Ethel Spruill and Elizabeth Davis describe the McGaughey place in their book The Story of Dunwoody. “Using a rustic building on the McGaughey property and colorful festive lanterns, church groups, community clubs, and Atlanta groups took turns at entertaining the boys and furnishing food and dance partners.” 

This 1945 photo of patients from Lawson General Hospital at the McGaughey home appears in The Story of Dunwoody, by Elizabeth L. Davis and Ethel W. Spruill.

By 1944 a group of Atlanta women including Effie McGaughey had organized a committee to plan parties for convalescing soldiers at various homes around Atlanta.  An article in the July 12, 1944 issue of The Atlanta Constitution titled Many Parties are Planned for Convalescent Officers describes the upcoming schedule of parties.  The following Friday evening a barbeque supper would be held at the home of Carroll and Effie McGaughey.  The guests would be entertained with swimming, music by the Tech band, and a movie shown on an outdoor screen. 

The schedule for the next two weeks includes parties on Habersham Road and another on Tuxedo Road in Atlanta, followed by a gathering at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ryburn Clay on their Chattahoochee River country place known as Lazy River Farm.  The Clay summer estate was on what is now Clay Drive off Spalding Drive.

The McGaugheys place was for the enjoyment of all recovering soldiers.  One soldier from Lawson General Hospital who lost the use of his legs often got a ride to their home courtesy of the Red Cross.  Upon arrival, he would enjoy swimming in the pool. 

The Serviceman’s Shelter and use of the McGaughey’s swimming pool continued into 1946.  In August of that year they hosted veterans of both World War I and World War II, arranged by Veterans Hospital Number 48 in Brookhaven and financed by the Elks Club. (The Atlanta Constitution, August 16, 1946, Veterans Feted by Elks Group)

Effie McGaughey also helped during World War II by donating a movable kitchen in 1942.  The kitchen was operated by the Atlanta Red Cross Canteen Corps and was able to serve two thousand meals and forty thousand cups of hot coffee per day.