963 Plymouth Road NE

1931: Ivey & Crook

With the onslaught of the Great Depression, residential subdivision development in Atlanta “had slowed to a walk,” with the exception of the Land Lot Three Realty Company’s Lenox Park, “located north of Rock Springs Road between Morningside and Druid Hills.” Led by B. Mifflin Hood and Herbert Kaiser, the Land Lot Three Realty Company marketed Lenox Park as “the smartest and most distinctive community for popular priced homes in Atlanta.” The company hired Ivey & Crook to develop the neighborhood and build three model homes, including the Chateau at 963 Plymouth Road.

A July 1931 advertisement in the Constitution invited readers to “[v]isit the ‘Chateau’ [t]oday”:

Follow Morningside drive or Highland avenue to Rock Springs road, turn into beautiful Lenox Park at Sussex road and around the first left corner on a lovely large 80×300-foot lot you’ll see this artistic two-story true French design, white painted brick home. Note its smart tile roof and landscaped wooded lot. Enter and inspect its most practical floor plan. It has four large bedrooms. The plumbing and heating equipment, lighting fixtures and interior trim are such as are usually found in only the finest homes. It was designed and supervised by Ivey & Crook, architects, and was built by the owner-managers of Lenox Park to conform to their rigid building restrictions in this distinctive development. Here is a handsome home in a gorgeous setting and a real value at $18,500. No trades, but liberal terms offered a responsible purchaser.

Oran Everett Burton purchased the Chateau from the Land Lot Three Realty Company in February 1933. An Indiana native and retired Swift Fertilizer Company employee, Burton lived at the Chateau for a mere two years before his death in January 1935. The 1940 U.S. federal census found Burton’s widow, son, and a lodger living at the home. The widow, Luna Wynn (Taylor) Burton, sold the home in April 1940 for $12,500 to Dr. Thomas Lee Tidmore, an Emory University-educated physician and head of anesthesiology at Piedmont Hospital.

Later residents of the Chateau included James E. Webb, a municipal judge who helped found Atlanta’s Victory Home and denied Martin Luther King, Jr. bail in October 1960 after a sit-in at Rich’s Department Store.

Select Bibliography

Atlanta Constitution. “Lenox Park.” August 11, 1929.

———. “Visit the ‘Chateau’ Today.” July 26, 1931.

———. “Two Exhibit Houses Sold in Lenox Park” February 5, 1933.

———. “O. E. Burton Dies Here After Brief Illness.” January 29, 1935.

———. “Building and Real Estate News.” April 21, 1940.

Garrett, Franklin M. Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events, 1880s–1930s. Vol. 2 of Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events. Athens, GA: Univ. of Georgia Press, 1969.