Birds have always had a better view.
Aerial maps from the beginning of Sugar Hill provide an amazing bird’s eye view of our community that most residents in 1939 could not have imagined. These maps are a treasure that gives us a historical glimpse of our community’s past. We can analyze tree coverage, agricultural land, the early beginnings of downtown Sugar Hill, road and street development, transportation infrastructure like railroad tracks, housing patterns and much more.
In 1939, aerial maps of Sugar Hill were created using photography from airplanes and a process called photogrammetry. An airplane would fly in a series of straight lines over an area like Sugar Hill. Each straight-line flight would slightly overlap with the previous straight-line flight. The aerial photographs would then be assembled into a mosaic and then be used to create the aerial map. Companies like Aerofilms used this method and were commissioned by government agencies like the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Geological Survey.
The 1939 aerial map of Sugar Hill provides a lot of good information about our humble beginnings. On the bottom right going north and south at an angle, the railroad tracks are a prominent feature on the map. Toward the top of the railroad tracks is the area of Mangums’ Crossing, which was the location of the infamous 1908 train wreck and later tragedy involving five teenage girls in the 1970s. On trips to and from Warm Springs, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt journeyed on these railroad tracks to visit Gainesville twice — the first time was in 1936, three days after a devastating tornado hit the city, and the second time was in 1938 after the dedication of a new civic center.
Viewers of the map can also identify the sweeping curve of what, today, is West Broad Street and the straight road that would later become Nelson Brogdon Boulevard and Ga. Highway 20. All the modern streets and roads, even if not in name in 1939, like Hillcrest Drive, Temple Drive, Church Street, Roosevelt Circle, Hannah Street, First Avenue, Second Avenue, Lanier Avenue, Railroad Avenue and Level Creek Road, are present on the map.
Hillcrest Drive winds north all the way out to Richland Creek. Absent, along the left side of the railroad tracks, is Peachtree Industrial Boulevard that would ultimately divide downtown Sugar Hill and streets like First Avenue and Second Avenue into two parts.
A building that is visible on the map is the old vegetable cannery in the area where Church Street and Level Creek Road now meet at a stop sign. In the triangle between Level Creek Road and Church Street, the old Sugar Hill School and First Baptist Church of Sugar Hill are important community assets in the downtown area, as well as the footprint of what is now Sugar Hill Historic Cemetery on the left-side of the map. In place of the current City Hall that was opened in 2013 is the site and building for the future Georgia Boot Factory that would expand to Sugar Hill from Flowery Branch in 1948.
The most interesting feature of the 1939 aerial map of Sugar Hill is the lack of tree coverage. There are patches of trees, but most of Sugar Hill out to the Chattahoochee River was cleared off for agricultural purposes. The tree coverage was less than it is today. The curvature and irregular lines of the fields, caused by Sugar Hill’s hilly topography, creates some interesting artwork on the map. The resulting agricultural production from this farmland in the area kept an early peach cannery and the later vegetable cannery busy with the food needs of the community and a growing Georgia.
Both the differences and the similarities between the Sugar Hill of 1939 and the Sugar Hill of today are striking. History is a matter of viewpoints and perspectives. Maps, like the 1939 aerial map of Sugar Hill, provide historians with one viewpoint and perspective that we can add to other evidence from written documents, recorded stories and other historical items from our community’s past. Altogether, this information helps us learn from our past and know that Sugar Hill is a special place, with a rich history and future.
Brandon Hembree is mayor of Sugar Hill. He is a longtime resident of the city, and he uses his passion in history to detail Sugar Hill’s rich past, present and future.
