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This photograph of General Sherman and members of his staff was
taken on July 18, 1864, before the Battle of Atlanta. (Sherman is
pictured with arm resting on breach at rear of cannon.)
Libr
ary
of C
ongr
ess
WHATS IN A
NAME?
FRED GLASS 89 traces the origins
of Pace Academys moniker
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KnightTimes | Summer 2015 49
UPON ENTERING THE lobby of One Paces West,
an office building off Paces Ferry Road in Vinings, Ga.,
one notices a life-size statue (shown above) of a rugged
19th-century man. On the
wall adjacent to the statue is the following inscription:
HARDY PACE, 17851864
Hardy Pace was the founder of Vinings. He settled in this
area and acquired 10,000 acres ceded by the Cherokees in 1835,
between Buckhead and Smyrna,
including Vinings Mountain. Pace brought prosperity to the
region. He operated a ferry, built a gristmill and a tavern, had
large farming operations, and was the area postmaster.
The large home he built west of the Chattahoochee was a social
center for friends and travelers. The Civil War brought an end
to
this life. Pace and his family took refuge in Milledgeville. His
home
was occupied and then burned by Federal troops. Pace died in
Milledgeville and is buried on
Vinings Mountain.
IN my six years as a student at Pace Academy, I never gave much
thought to how the schools name came to be. Looking back, I suppose
I assumed that Pace was someone buried in the Gardens or the person
who built the Castle.
A reasonably observant individual might conclude that the
schools name has something to do with a ferry, and is probably
connected to its W. Paces Ferry Road address, and both conclusions
would be correct. But whats interesting is that the ferryin
operation from the 1830s until 1904as well Atlantas many Paces
roads, and yes, even the name Pace Academy, can all be traced back
to one man: Hardy Pace.
Whats equally interesting is Hardy Paces connection to the
significant series of events that occurred in the Vinings and
Buckhead areas as Shermans army approached Atlanta in the summer of
1864.
After the Civil War and well into the 20th century, Hardy Paces
descendants played an important role in the area that would
eventually become Pace Academys present-day campus on W. Paces
Ferry Road.
Hardy Pace, PioneerHardy Pace was a ferryman, miller and early
settler who, among others, is credited with found-
ing the area known today as Buckhead. He was born in obscurity
to Stephen Pace and Catherine Gatewood Buchanan Pace in Anson
County, N.C., and moved to North Georgia in 1809.
Pace would eventually establish Paces Crossroadslater known as
Vinings Station, and then, simply, Vinings. He arrived in North
Georgia when it was lawless frontier wilderness inhabited primarily
by Creek and Cherokee Indians. His first home sat off the old
Indian trail that would become W. Paces Ferry Road near its current
intersection with Castlegate Road, not far from the Pace Academy
campus.
By the 1830s, the inflow of settlers to the region had increased
substantially, and the state of Georgia established land lotteries
to accelerate the orderly settlement of the areas west of the
Chattahoochee River. Pace participated in these lotteries and, over
time, ac-quired an area of land roughly two-thirds the size of
Manhattan.
The construction of the Western & Atlantic Railroad began in
1836, and Pace wisely moved his family across the Chattahoochee and
closer to his business interests, which were strengthened
considerably by the railroads construction through his land in
newly created Cobb County.
He was best known for the ferry he operated upon his acquisition
of land on both the Cobb and Fulton County sides of the river.
Paces Ferry ran from the present-day site of Canoe Restaurant to
what is now the Lovett School campus, and the road leading to the
ferry was soon referred to as Paces Ferry Road. Anyone traveling
via horse and buggy from Marietta to Decatur or Terminus (later
Atlanta) had to cross the river using Paces Ferry and then follow
Paces Ferry Road to their destination. Hermis Bridge, the current
pedestrian bridge constructed in 1904 adjacent to Paces Ferry Road,
ended the ferry service.
From the 1830s until 1861, Pace and his family thrived through
his several business opera-tions. However, the Civil War and the
arrival of Shermans Army of the Cumberland forever altered the
region and the lives of its inhabitants, chief among them the Pace
family.
The Civil War Comes to AtlantaHad General William Tecumseh
Sherman and his 100,000-man army failed to capture
Atlanta in September of 1864, Abraham Lincoln might not have
been elected in November for a second term. A loss for Lincoln
could have meant a Confederate victory, altering the future of the
United Statesand democracy worldwideforever. For this reason, the
events involving Hardy Pace in the summer of 1864 were significant
not only regionally, but nationally as well.
After several outflanking maneuvers, Sherman pushed Joseph E.
Johnstons Con-federate Army south from Chattanooga along the
railroad to the Chattahoochee River.
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
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Sherman needed the railroad as a supply line, and Johnston
planned to use the Chat-
tahoocheethe final major natural barrier separating
Sherman from Atlantato stop his opponents advance.
When Sherman fi-nally reached the river
on July 5, he chose Hardy Paces property as
his headquarters. The land was close to the Chattahoochee,
provided railroad access and high-ground advantage, and afforded a
clear view of the citys stee-ples and spires from Vinings Mountain,
the location of the Pace family cemetery today. There, from July 5
to 17, Sherman and his generals planned their final move on
Atlanta.
During that same time, the Pace home also served as Union
General Oliver O. Howards residence. Howard (pictured above) went
on to found Howard University in Washington, D.C., and led the
Freedmans Bureau. He also commanded the Army of Tennessee in the
right column of Shermans March to the Sea in the fall of 1864.
On July 17, Shermans men built two pontoon bridges at the site
of Paces Ferry (shown in the illustration above), and two corps,
including Joseph Hookers 20th Corps, crossed the river and
proceeded toward At-lanta on Paces Ferry Road. The late CECIL
ALEXANDER, a former Pace Academy Trustee, remembered walking under
Hermis Bridge as a boy in the 1920s and seeing the remains of the
Federal pontoon bridges.
Hookers 20th Corps marched down Paces Ferry Road, past the
future Pace Academy campus, and camped near where Arden Road
intersects W. Paces Ferry Road. On July 18, Hookers men joined two
other Union corps to engage the Confederates, led by John Bell
Hood, at the Battle of Peachtree Creek.
The wounded and killed from the battle,
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
and later the battles of Atlanta and Ezra Church, were sent back
up Paces Ferry Road to Vinings Sta-tion, and the Pace home was
converted into a hospital for the treatment of the
wounded and dying. As many as 30,000 Union men were treated at
Paces home and in tents on his property. One can only imag-ine the
horrific scene as surgeons performed mass amputations in the July
heat with no one on hand to bury the dead.
After the fall of Atlanta, Sherman sent some of his troops north
after Hoods army to protect his railroad supply lines. They would
eventually catch up with Hood at the bat-tles of Nashville and
Franklin, Tenn., where Hoods army was essentially destroyed. As
Shermans men passed back through Vinings in pursuit of Hood in
November 1864, they burned the Paces antebellum home and most
everything at Vinings Station.
Hardy Pace died in Milled-geville, Ga., in December 1864, but
Solomon K. Pace, his only surviving son, would return to At-lanta
to rebuild.
The Pace and Randall Families in the Post-War Era
Solomon Pace (pictured above in hat) buried his father in the
Pace family cemetery on Vinings Mountain. The gravestone reads:
Sacred to the memory of Hardy Pace. Born 1785. Died December 5,
1864.
A friend of the poor, He is gone to secure the riches of Heaven.
They need not
the moon in that land of delight. They need not the pale pale
star. The sun he
is bright by day and by night. Where the souls of the blessed
are.
Before the Civil War, Solomon Pace lived on present-day W. Paces
Ferry Road, somewhere between Randall Mill Road and Northside
Drive; Pickney H. Randall, Paces brother-in-law, and his family,
were his neighbors. Both Pace and Randall had acquired their land
from Hardy Pace, who at one time owned 700 acres on the stretch of
road.
Upon his return to Atlanta, Solomon Pace moved to Vinings and
went to work recon-structing his fathers home, known today as The
Pace House on Paces Mill Road. He estab-lished Vinings United
Methodist Church and was instrumental in the founding of Sardis
United Methodist Church on Powers Ferry Road in Buckhead. When he
died in 1897, he left behind no children to carry on the Pace
name.
Randall and his wife, Hardy Paces daugh-ter Catherine Catron
Gatewood Pace, however, had a son, Hardy I. Randall, named in honor
of his grandfather. Hardy Randall, the inspiration for Gone With
The Winds Captain Randall, served as a Confederate captain and
returned to Atlanta following the war to operate with his father a
mill on Nancy Creek near Paces Ferry Road (hence present-day
Randall Mill Road).
Hardy Randalls son, Harvey Gatewood Randall, continued his
familys entre-
preneurial tradition and established Randall Brothers, Inc., in
1885.
The moulding and millwork company remains in opera-
tionand in the Randall familytoday.
Harvey Randalls son, Luther H. Ran-dall (pictured left with
glasses), succeeded his father at the helm of
Randall Brothers, Inc., and in the 1940s, built his home on 22
acres at the current corner of W. Paces Ferry and Rilman roads.
Much of the landa portion of it now Gatewood Courtwas later sold
off to devel-opers, and in the 1970s, Luther H. Randall Jr., Hardy
Paces great-great-grandson, sold the home to Pace Academy for a
friendly price.
The Randall House now serves as home to Pace Academys Lower
School, and Luther Randall Jr.s widow still maintains a resi-dence
on Gatewood Court. His grandchildren, Hardy Paces
great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren, are Pace Academy
alumni LAURA CHOYCE STEIN 01 and MAT-THEW RANDALL CHOYCE 05.
Librar
y of C
ongr
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50 KnightTimes | Summer 2015
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KnightTimes | Summer 2015 51
WHAT'S IN A NAME?* The Westminster Schools was founded in 1951
as a reorganization of Atlantas North Avenue Presbyterian School, a
school for girls and affiliate of North Avenue Presbyte-rian
Church. In 1953, Washington Seminary, another private school for
girls, merged with Westminster. The Lovett School began in 1926 in
a home in Midtown Atlanta.
SOURCES: An Unfinished History of Pace Academy, Suzi Zadeh
Atlanta and Environs, A Chronicle of its People and Events,
1820s1870s, Volume 1, Franklin M. Garrett, 1954
Hardy Pace Family, Pioneers of Vinings in Georgia, Clare
Isanhour
Hermi's Bridge: A Love Story, Wright Mitchell, 2010
Luther Randall III
The Westminster Schools
Vinings, Susan Kendall, 2013
Vinings Historic Preservation Society; special thanks to Gillian
Greer
Vinings Revisited, A Review of Older Provenance, Anthony Doyle,
2008
Uncredited photos published courtesy of the Vinings Historic
Preservation Society
A School Named PaceBefore the school had a headmaster or a
functioning Board of Trustees, Pace Academy had a name.
In the 1950s, native New Yorker, veteran educator and shrewd
businesswoman JANE TUGGLE recognized the demand for an ad-ditional
independent school in Atlantas Buckhead area. She envisioned a
for-profit school (a matter over which Tuggles rela-tionship with
the school ultimately ended) housed in the Ogden family home on W.
Paces Ferry Road.
At the time, the castle-esque stone struc-ture was held in trust
by C&S Bank, and in order to ensure that the new school would
occupy the homeand permanently tie the school to that
locationTuggle named it Pace Academy and immediately began rais-ing
funds to make the school a reality.
There is no record that the schools name was questioned or
challengedor has been since; at the time, it was simply noted that
the name Pace Academy was very appro-priate given the location of
the school.
The names pertinence is a nod to the histo-ry and heritage of
the Buckhead and Vinings regions, and to the influence of Hardy
Pace and his family. Hardy Paces son, Solomon, died only 61 years
before the schools 1958
founding, so many Buckhead residents knew of the Pace familys
significance.
However, the end of World War II brought a population surge,
interstate highways and aggressive development that forever altered
Buckheads rural character. Prior to 1952, Buckhead sat outside
Atlantas city limits, a rural community in which members of the
wealthy elite, the Ogden and Randall fami-lies among them, built
large country estates to escape the city on weekends or stay cool
during summer months.
As the city grew, the story of Buckheads early days seemed to
disappear from the col-lective memory.
The Pace LegacyNow we know the historythe names, the
important dates and places. But what was Hardy Pace really like?
Did his character and actions in life merit the respect his
name-sake school now enjoys? Does Pace Academy today aspire to
values he also would have held dear?
According to his heirs, Pace was quiet and frugal. He was
devoted to his family, a successful landowner and businessman
disin-clined to involve himself in politics. His story is uniquely
American. He came from nothing and lived to witness the Georgia
frontier, the arrival of the railroad and one of the greatest
conflicts in U.S. history.
One account posits that Pace died at 79 as a result of a wound
inflicted during a gun-fight with Federal troops. Most, however,
refute the story; Paces benevolent personal-ity, keen intellect and
advanced age suggest he most likely would have been gone by the
time Shermans men arrived at his doorstep. Another account suggests
that he may have died of a broken heart following the death of his
favored daughter, Catron, around the same time Atlanta was
burned.
This past December marked the 150th an-niversary of Hardy Paces
death, so its fitting to consider his influence on the Buckhead
regionand on Pace Academy, the only ex-isting institution that
carries his name today.
Consider, for example, the prevalence of the word Paces in
Atlantas vernacular. Until 1954, road signs still recalled Hardy
Paces significance with an apostrophe: Paces Ferry Road. I would
argue that removing
the apostrophea seemingly insignificant changehas
unintentionally obscured the history and meaning of the word, and
there-fore, name.
But the Pace in Pace Academy has re-mained true, which is
appropriate in that Pace Academy was Buckheads first independent
school. Both the Lovett School and the West-minster Schools, now
located in Buckhead, originally began in downtown and midtown
locations, but since its inception, Pace Acad-emy has called W.
Paces Ferry Road home.
Through its history and name, Pace Acad-emy is more directly
tied to the area than its transplant sister schools. The Lovett
School was named for founder Eva Edwards Lovett and, after much
contemplation amongst its trustees, Westminster was named to befit
the schools Presbyterian origins.*
Both schools enjoyed adequate funding and organization; they
were built on more established foundations. Pace Academy, on the
other hand, was something of an under-dog, an upstart. Other than a
desired location and the enthusiasm of its small number of early
supporters, the most valuable asset the new school possessed was
the prominence of and meaning behind the word Pace.
In many ways, Hardy Paces humble be-ginnings and later success
parallel that of the school that bears his name. Pace Academy can
therefore be considered a lasting legacy to Hardy Pace and his
family.
The Pace Academy campus in 1969.
Pace archives
Below: Pace's Ferry operated
until 1904.
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