The Lindridge-Martin Manor Historic District in Atlanta was listed last month in the National Register of Historic Places.
The district includes four contiguous, historically related subdivisions located southeast of Interstate 85, west of Cheshire Bridge Road, and extends to streets on both the north and south sides of Lindbergh Drive.
The Lindridge-Martin Manor neighborhood was developed in response to rapid population growth north of Atlanta in the years following World War II. The area had been farmland until developer B.A. Martin began the first major phase of construction in 1946. This platted suburb was based on the new mobility provided by the automobile and the growing network of arterial streets, such as nearby Cheshire Bridge Road, Lindbergh Drive, Piedmont Road, and Buford Highway.
The platted areas were the Martin Development (1946, revised in 1954), the Lindridge Subdivision (1948), the Fletcher Magbee Subdivision (1953), and the Armand Heights Subdivision (1958). Together they came to be known as Lindridge-Martin Manor. There are also two houses (built in 1935 and 1936) that pre-date the plats; these were the beginnings of suburbanization of the area’s farmland, and they were fully incorporated into the residential street patterns that followed.
The district contains an intact collection of mid-20th-century houses that follow the predominant national trends of that time. Residential architecture includes a couple of examples of the American Small House and the English Cottage, but the vast majority of the houses represent various styles and sub-types of ranch houses.
The only identified architect was John Wesley Cherry (1918-1981), who worked with developer B.A. Martin to design several floor plans with a variety of facades for the Martin Development. The layout of the neighborhood is irregular – most streets are rectilinear, but it also includes curving streets and two cul-de-sacs. Lots and setbacks are fairly uniform within their subdivisions. The landscape is rolling hills with mature trees and no sidewalks, except on Lindbergh Drive.
About the Author
