The Loyd Homeplace: Then and Now

After I wrote my book in 2007, I had a personal

desire to find out all I could about the old Loyd

Homeplace.  Though the house still stands, only

my 98 year-old father remembers it as it was in

his childhood.  On a visit there, he was able to 

call up memories of long ago to help me 

reconstruct where things were.  Click on the

map below to enlarge the image and see where 

such things as sheds, orchards, hog pen, 

barn, and the outhouse were.

A refurbished house now serves as the 

clubhouse for the Chateau Montagne

Apartments.  Through all the changes,

certain attributes are still familiar to 

my father.

The historic plaque on the front porch is

not 100% accurate.  We're not sure of the

exact year of the house's construction.  But

it wasn't built by my great grandfather Joseph

Alford Loyd.  It was built by his father, Jabez

M. Loyd and willed to Joseph A. Loyd.

Click to enlarge the plaque and note the

location's historical significance.

My father recalls very well a special room

prepared for circuit-riding preachers to stay

in when they journeyed to the Chamblee

community for revivals and other church

services.  This pump organ, which belongs

to our family, is like the one in the preacher's

guest room.

The timbers which form these steps are

likely 150 years old or more.

Some of the heavy beams supporting the

ceilings are likely the originals.

This is one of the house's 

original stone fireplaces.

You might think everything outside the house

would be different.  But my father said this

gigantic elm tree in back of the house was 

already huge when he was a boy.  He believes

it pre-dates the Civil War.  I wish that gnarled

trunk could tell the history it has witnessed.

I was thrilled to find a heavy growth of

resurrection fern on its massive limbs.

One of the house's original chimneys.

The original stone foundation.

Shortly after our visit to the Loyd Homeplace,

I took my father to a neighborhood park and

showed him Peachtree Creek, where he often

played as a boy.

A few miles away, the Battle of Peachtree

Creek was fought back in 1864, 148 years ago.

Daddy did not realize until I discovered it on

old maps that this portion of the famous creek,

which now winds underneath Interstate 85,

was at the corner of 600 acres of the original

Loyd property.

Many Loyds toiled on that land since 1821,

and the full story has not even been uncovered

yet.  But I am having the time of my life delving

into the story.  I have learned much about my

father and his family, especially his father and

grandfather, Joseph Carl Loyd and Joseph

Alford Loyd, pictured below.

They're the two on the right!