Almost 50 years ago, the young North Atlanta Club Area Civic Association (predecessor to the Historic Brookhaven Neighborhood Association) decided to host a street party to celebrate the neighborhood and build association membership. The party would be open to all neighbors, not just association members.

 

The first party was in Jack and Russell Huber’s backyard. Jack was one of the association’s founding members. The Huber’s house faces the Capital City Club golf course and sits on the corner of East Club Lane and Lakehaven Drive. At the time of the first street party, Jack and Russell also owned an adjacent lot on Lakehaven Drive that served as a play area. When they purchased the lot, it had a riding ring and horse stables. They took down the ring but maintained the stables and added a basketball court as well as a back driveway entrance.

 

“We decided that would be the location for the street party,” Jack says. “We didn’t have port-a-lets back then so our basement bathroom, with access from the garden, was used for the party.”

Russell and another neighbor organized games for the kids and everyone brought food for the potluck dinner. Jack says about 150 people attended the first party. “It did a lot to generate and stimulate neighborhood spirit and membership in the association,” he notes. “We were fighting hard to get acceptance and members.” There was a lot of old-fashioned fun, including potato sack and three-legged races and a boom box for music.

 

After a few years, the Hubers’ backyard became too small for the crowd. The street party became a dinner and moved to Lakehaven Drive. “It was on one big, long buffet table,” says Stephanie McGarity of the party in 1993/94 when she first moved to Historic Brookhaven. Stephanie is a former East Brookhaven Drive resident and still heads the Brookhaven Security Association. The food was potluck, but neighbors brought their most special dishes for dinner. She jokes that when buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken showed up, everyone knew it was time to do something different.

 

In its next iteration, the street party became more family oriented and by the early 2000s had moved down to Vermont Road between Winall Down Road and Stovall Boulevard. “We had a zone for smaller children,” says Ramie Little, a former Winall Down resident and street party chair. “It was very important to have a specific play area for them. We brought Big Wheels and Little Tikes cars and scooters.”

 

The City of Atlanta Fire Department brought a fire truck and the association rented a blow-up bounce house. Volunteers ran arts and crafts tables and teens volunteered to sit in the dunking booth. A live band entertained the crowd.

 

Neighbors either purchased catered barbecue or brought their own food. The association provided beer and other beverages.

 

In addition to being a celebration, the street party became a way to disseminate information to residents and again encourage neighborhood association membership. One year as part of an association campaign to slow traffic, neighbors received a cling on sticker that read “Drive 25.” Another year (prior to the establishment of the City of Brookhaven and the area’s distinction as Historic Brookhaven), attendees received “I  Heart Brookhaven” T-shirts.

 

Eventually the street party moved back to near Lakehaven, where it still takes place each year. The celebration encompasses the area around the two triangles at the East Brookhaven/Lakehaven/Davidson intersection. Rather than catered food, the party now has food trucks where neighbors can purchase dinner as well as a truck for cocktails and other adult beverages. A DJ provides music and there’s also an area for kids’ activities.