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After 63 years of being part of our neighborhood an early settler is leaving her home at 4055 North Ivy Road for the comforts of retirement living.
Mrs. R. Beverly Irwin, better known as Miriam to her friends, was a new bride in 1939 when she moved into the home her husband, an attorney, had built for her. It was one of about 15 homes on the street at the time. Now there are more than 40.
Just a few weeks earlier, while teaching in Chickamauga, Georgia, she had told her husband-to-be, "I just can't live in Atlanta." But "you see, he swept me off my feet," she said.
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Her husband continued to sweep her off her feet, taking her to dances at the neighborhood's popular dance spot, the Peachtree Gardens Club, which "had a really big dance floor." The club was built in 1927 at the foot of North Ivy but was torn down in 2000 to make way for new homes.
In the intervening years, the Irwins raised two children and maintained a vacation home on St. Simons Island. Her husband died in 1987.
Miriam recalled that North Buckhead was once known as a place where Atlanta's wealthier residents built their summer homes to escape the city heat. One such home, known as the Timmons place, was located at the end of the dirt road that runs off of North Ivy at Mountain Drive. This home was demolished prior to the construction of Georgia 400.
A log cabin on Arden Way was another retreat from the heat, Miriam remembers. The cabin still stands today and is occupied. It reportedly was the summer home of Georgia Governor John M. Slaton who served from 1911-1912.
Asked if she had enjoyed her time on North Ivy she replied, "I must have. I stayed here for 63 years."
Although Miriam has moved to a retirement home on Roswell Road, her home on North Ivy did not go up for sale. The new owners are her granddaughter, Dorothy, and her husband, Phillip Walker.
"I'm really pleased that they want to move in," she said. "They like the location, the good schools, and the great neighbors."
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