In 1994, Joyce Amacher and Lynne Byrd, two longtime Dunwoody residents, awoke one morning to find that two 1880 railroad section houses had been demolished during the night. Of the three buildings that once housed the workers who laid the tracks for Old Buck, also called The Dinky, the little train that connected the farms of 19th-Century Dunwoody to the world beyond, only one remained. With developers closing in on a more significant property, the 1906 Cheek-Spruill House, the two concerned women, both experienced historic preservationists, founded the Dunwoody Preservation Trust, a 501(c)(3), with seed money from the Dunwoody Homeowners Association, the de facto Dunwoody government at the time.
Harmony of Past, Present and Future
Serving as DPT’s first presidents, Joyce and Lynne founded a movement of passionate volunteers dedicated to ensuring that their once-rural community never forgot where it came from. DPT has since saved some of the most iconic historical properties in Dunwoody, meticulously rehabilitating and maintaining them not just as relics of the past but as places with programs for public education and enjoyment.
For more than 25 years, we have seen ourselves as friends working with friends – and developers, local businesses and the city government – to help make Dunwoody a place where the past and present co-exist in harmony. Today, wherever the people of Dunwoody gather for public celebrations, you’re bound to see us – proud of being part of the glue that holds our community together.
