Trail to Standing Peachtree and Houston Chapel - DeKalb Co., GA
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Lat34North
N 33° 47.441 W 084° 18.488
16S E 749231 N 3742204
This historic marker about the history of DeKalb Co. is located on the south side of N Decatur Rd, just east of Westminster Way, Decatur, GA.
Waymark Code: WM8KNQ
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 04/15/2010
Views: 3
Trail to Standing Peachtree and Houston Chapel
This ancient trail led west to the Indian village of Standing Peachtree. It joined the Shallowford Trail near this spot linking it with trade routes to Stone Mountain. Later becoming a road it was among the first authorized when DeKalb County was formed out of Henry County following the 1821 Treaty of Indian Springs. On July 28, 1823 the newly formed Inferior Court of DeKalb County ordered that "new roads be cut out of land lot 246," its chosen location for the county seat that would become the city of Decatur. The court appointed
Naman Hardman (among others) to "view and designate the different routs . . . from Standing Peachtree to said lot" Naman Hardman was an early settler in this part of DeKalbv County who owned land between the two trails.
The road was first called the Peachtree road, but in 1837 James Montgomery established a ferry crossing the Chattahoochee River at Standing Peachtree. Subsequently this road become known as "the Montgomery Ferry road and then later, the North Decatur and Atlanta road."
In 1905 with her own funds, Mrs. Amanda Powell Houston, Naman Hardman´s niece had erected beside this road a community chapel. Constructed of heart-of-pine lumber, it had an organ and seated sixty worshipers. Known as the Houston Chapel, it remained in service to the community until about 1917 at which time it was moved approximately 1,000 feet south of this marker and converted to a residence for Rev. Ernest Moore. Moore resided in the former chapel until his death in 1992.