History

The Peachtree Heights West subdivision was sited near the community known as Buckhead, and the property included a lengthy frontage along (then rural) Peachtree Road. Development of the suburb began in 1910 with the construction of Habersham Road. Housing construction began soon thereafter. By the 1930s, about 75% of the lots were built, many of them with houses and gardens designed by architects and landscape architects. While the Peachtree Road boundary has lost its single-family neighborhood identity over the last 40 years; the interior of the neighborhood has retained much of its original historic character and was listed on National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

Much of the unique character of Peachtree Heights West can be traced to its design lineage. It is a 20th century suburb designed by Carrere and Hastings, the only known suburb planned by this illustrious architectural firm, and it includes some of the finest early 20th century residential architecture by the best architects practicing in Atlanta at the time —including Neel Reid, Philip Shutze, Pringle and Smith, and Tucker and Howell. Some of America 's finest landscape architects also were at work in Peachtree Heights including Robert Cridland and Ellen Shipman; sadly, little of their work remains. However, work by less well-known local landscape architect William Pauley is well represented, mostly intact, and generally well maintained.

Today, the suburb is characterized by an enormous consistency of is architectural and landscape architectural treatment. The feeling is very much as if design guidelines had been in place when, in fact, none existed beyond the simplest of covenants. Much of the original platting of lots was ignored as multiple lots were joined into larger estates.

Peachtree Heights West also shows the result of careful site design. The planners exhibited great restraint in the land plan, respecting stream buffers and preserving tree stands with a specified building limit line and areas of reservation. The divided roadway of Peachtree Battle Avenue bears the distinctive influence of Druid Hills, the Olmsted suburb across town.