Home History of Northcrest

History of Northcrest

The text below is some of the information from a presentation I provided to those interested in the history of Northcrest from 2016.01.25, based on information I had gathered and via interviews with long-time residents and one of the builders, Howard Hardrath. This has been revised and added to on 2024.12.10:

What We Heard

I had heard many stories about the builders - named Paul Edwards (the "P" in P&H) and Howard Hardrath (the "H" in P&H) over the years but it was all anecdotal.

From original homeowners I learned that they were a dynamic pair of gentlemen who somehow came from the car business ("they were these car salesman...") and that they started out by building homes over near Chamblee in Drew Valley and Northwoods.

I had also heard that Paul was quite the good looking guy who would often charm the wives (never hurts in sales I guess) of couples buying in the neighborhood. I had also heard that there might have been a third partner in the very beginning but no one I talked to remembered his name. I was given some materials gathered by Chuck Hunt and his wife Elsa, like an alternate version of the neighborhood brochure and a few old published newsletters from the 80’s, but that was about all that was known or that people could remember.

NorthcrestModern.com

I first created NorthcrestModern.com in 2004 as a way of documenting the neighborhood while I searched for information regarding the builders.

  • Renderings on Topic Pages were drawn by me using photo references (with the exception of those renderings captured from the brochures)
  • Almost all the photography, descriptions and content were written by me or Cindi
  • Cindi gets a call-out on the home page because she pays the domain hosting and bandwidth fees to maintain the website.
  • I started the blog in 2007 and "Northcrest Modern" Facebook Group in 2009

Northcrest in the News

NorthcrestModern brought a new awareness to the neighborhood:

Northcrest Tidbits

Neighbors and others contacted me about Northcrest

  • 2005.02.06 Heard that David Latimer’s father saw MCM design in San Francisco and that’s how the floorplan for his house came about.
  • 2005.02.15 Heard some interesting info from David McCowen about how some of the builders may still live in the neighborhood over by the apartments (this turned out to be Bud Hardrath, Howard's brother who managed most of the build-out of Northcrest East and was still living on Lynnray Ln).
  • 2005.02.21 Heard from Chuck Hunt who provided some materials to scan and save (he was the previous President of the Neighborhood Association)
  • 2005.03.12 Was given the phone number of the original owners of 3424 Northlake Tr – seems they have films of the house being built! They still live in Tucker.
  • 2005.04.07 Contacted by Chris Bowen who gave me info on THE and the early history of Northcrest. Also provided a plat map his dad used to track donations for the pool (see below).
  • 2005.05.25 Contacted by Lora Riley who had a 1964 AJC article on her A-Frame on Northlake Trail.

Northcrest Pool Map

Map used by Chris Bowen’s father to track the contributions from Northcrest neighbors to build the pool.

Northcrest Historic District

Around 2006 I started looking at what it would take for use to get some Historic designation, this was spurred on by the very successful DOCOMOMO tour (and our involvement in the group). The oldest homes in Northcrest were built in 1959 so my thought was that in 2009 we may be eligible (50 years being a target figure, not necessarily the right one). Through my research there was both a fairly hefty fee involved and the form was VERY comprehensive and would take a lot of work to fill out so I demurred and decided it was a dream that would be better taken up by someone who had more time.

In the meanwhile there continued to be a lot of interest, both in Northcrest and in Georgia architecture. 

Northcrest Factoids

  • Former US President of the Paul Revere and the Raiders Fan Club lived in Northcrest (Jo Campbell)
  • Mike Mills’ (of REM) parents owned 3663 Summitridge Drive
  • Members of Atlanta Rhythm Section lived in the Checkmate Apartments (now called Azalea Ridge) - specifically Dean “OX” Daughtry.
  • Frank Vego of Vego Ford owned the first house on the right from the main entry sign – he customized the build with all the Asian motif.
  • The original Sales Office was an A-Frame temporary building across the street from the Vego’s house. It was later moved to a dealership on Buford Hwy.
  • Some of the land was owned by the Embry family to raise dairy cattle. There was also a pig farm along the ridge paralleling Northcrest Rd between Thornewood and Northcrest Rds.

Since I did the Presentation

  • Site updates can be found on the What's New page
  • Updates to new News articles and features can be found on the Northcrest Press page.

 

All other content, including images and editorial, is Copyright © 2004-2024 John Eaton and/or contributors unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton.

Share this:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Copyright 2004-2024 John Eaton. Powered by Blogger.
Some images and media clips are used without permission but should be covered under fair-use copyright laws or made available under public domain.
Powered by Blogger.