Buckhead - Atlanta, Georgia - History

Fort Peachtree, 2630 Ridgewood Road, (404) 609-7103, replica of part of the first non-Indian settlement in Atlanta, built by City of Atlanta Bureau of Water near the Atlanta Waterworks pumping station as part of the bicentennial celebration.

Admission is free; reservations required. Open Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Public transportation via MARTA bus 44. Nearby is a rustic stone picnic shelter with a beamed roof, fireplace, granite benches and access to toilets.

This low bluff overlooking the Chattahoochee River at its confluence with Peachtree Creek takes the imagination far back into Atlanta's history. A major Creek Indian settlement, Standing Peachtree, lined the banks of the river here and ran up Peachtree Creek as far back as its junction with Nancy Creek. The river was the frontier between the Creek and Cherokee Indian nations and Standing Peachtree was a major contact point for both Indians and white traders.

It's the site from which Peachtree Street/Road takes its name, though some believe instead of a peach tree a commanding pine, or "pitch" tree, stood at the site and was the origin of the name.

This village was the terminus of the Creeks' Peachtree Trail, which ran along the top of the Chattahoochee ridge from near Toccoa, Ga., to what is now Buckhead, where it divided, one branch continuing by way of what is now Pace's Ferry and Moore's Mill roads to Standing Peachtree, the other branch running southward from Buckhead across Peachtree Creek to strike the Sandtown Trail at Five Points in what is now downtown Atlanta. A granite marker on Peachtree Road at Palisades Road marks where these trails branched.

As white settlement spread westward from coastal Georgia, Standing Peachtree became a more important site to whites. During the War of 1812, the state of Georgia built a series of forts to control the Creeks, who were allied with the British against the United States. These outposts included Fort Peachtree at Standing Peachtree and Fort Daniel at Hog Mountain in what is now Gwinnett County. A road was built along the old Indian trails to connect the two and was known as Peachtree Road.

Click here to read historical marker.

The crude fort, erected by First Lt. George Rockingham Gilmer (who later was governor or Georgia 1829-31 and 1837-39), was raised in 1814. It was described as "two large hew'd logg block houses, six dwelling houses, one fram'd store house, one bridge . . . and five boats" which cost the government "not less than five thousand dollars."

A member of Gilmer's command, Sgt. James McConnell Montgomery, wrote that the site "on a commanding eminence" provided a "romantic" view of the river. Montgomery later returned to live there, became postmaster of Standing Peachtree and established Montgomery's Ferry near the fort site. He is remembered today in the name of Montgomery Ferry Road.