Have you ever wondered what was in Historic Brookhaven before summer cottages popped up around 1900 and Brookhaven Estates began developing a planned golf course community in 1910? The area was originally Creek Indian land and became part of a large acreage first settled by John Leroy Evins in the 1820s.

 

Evins was from South Carolina and moved to Georgia with his wife Nancy, for whom nearby Nancy Creek is named. The parcels they purchased bordered Nancy Creek and stretched to what became Peachtree Road. Evins built a plantation on the land, with the home closer to the creek, and had 13 children.

 

In the Indian Springs Treaty of 1821, the Creek Indians had ceded all lands within the state of Georgia to the United States. DeKalb County was created shortly thereafter in 1822 from what had been portions of Henry, Fayette, and Gwinnett counties.

 

The Evins are considered one of the original settlers of DeKalb. By the 1830s, however, the part of their land on which Historic Brookhaven stands had passed to Harris and Solomon Goodwin, also from South Carolina.

 

The Goodwins built a house in the 3900 block of Peachtree Road, near where Extended Stay America now stands and the intersection of Peachtree Road and North Druid Hills Road. The Goodwin property fell on both sides of Peachtree Road and held a 600-acre farm. The home also served as a railway stop for Atlanta and Charlotte Airline Railway (later Southern Railway) for many years.

 

By the late 1800s, most of what is now the Historic Brookhaven neighborhood was owned by Salson Stovall. Years later Salson’s son Samuel offered lots along Club Drive and Stovall Boulevard for sale, and by 1928 eight homes had been built there. Samuel was a railroad employee and real estate owner and developer for whom Stovall Boulevard was named.

 

The Goodwin house was dismantled and moved to storage at an undisclosed location in 2016. Nancy Evins is reportedly buried at the Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery in Ashford Park.