The last Past Tense included history and memories of Stephen Spruill, who once owned land up and down what is now Ashford Dunwoody Road on both sides of the road. A photograph of Stephen and Ethel Spruill standing among other 1950 Dunwoody Methodist Church members accompanied the article. At the end of the article, I said more information about the photograph would be included in the next Past Tense.
The Dunwoody Methodist Chapel pictured was not the first church building. The first building was across the street from the Dunwoody United Methodist Church of today, measured 30 by 54 feet and cost $500 to build.
The 1906 wedding of Glenn Greer Austin Sr. and Nettie Southern Austin was the first wedding in the church. Their son, John Austin, began sweeping the church each Saturday in 1918. On Sundays, he set out water for the pastor, distributed hymnals and rang the church bell for 25 cents a week.
By the 1930s the community had grown and there was a need for more space. Arva C. Floyd, Charlie Marchman, Glenn Austin Sr., B. C. Spruill, and Calvin Eidson were on the building committee formed in 1933 to proceed with plans for a new church across the road.
In 1935, Mr. Euil Spruill donated the use of his mules and excavation of the building site began. As mentioned last week, the timber came from the Spruill and Wallace sawmills. Will Donaldson used his masonry skills to construct the walls, and he laid stone walkways. Donaldson’s sons, Fred and Fletcher, brought granite to the site from Stone Mountain. They also laid granite curbing. Young people gathered stones and older members brought in sand from the creek bottoms to help construct the foundation.
When the brick exterior was added in 1941, the church was complete. The portico over the entrance, steeple and Sunday School classrooms were added in the mid-1950s. A cross was placed…
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