The Military History Hidden Under Today’s Chamblee

This week, on Veterans Day 2025, angling through 5 p.m. Atlanta traffic with my aging vehicle in need of repair, I was attempting to get to the Chamblee dealership before it closed.

Credit: Jeff Hullinger

The rush hour conga line of trucks, cars, SUVs and buses made for early evening misery on a familiar stretch of road once known as Peachtree Industrial, now Peachtree Boulevard.

Over the past decade, the construction and development in Chamblee is mind-boggling, unrecognizable with a population swell of business, apartments, and motorists.

Historic Chamblee has been a center of building activity, too. Its footprint looks very different today.

Inside I-285, Dekalb County, the proximity to everything makes this real estate highly desirable. The former General Motors plant around the corner, now known as Assembly, holds a massive movie studio, mixed-use living, and is often described as a city within a city.

Chamblee’s past is mostly forgotten because its future seems bigger, brighter, more interesting. But this place once housed one of the biggest American military bases in the country, an anchor for U.S. involvement in World War I.

Credit: U.S. Army Center of Military History

“It started in June of 1917, and opened to receive men by September of 1917,” said Michael Hitt, a local historian. “More than a century ago, Chamblee was all about military construction.”

Mr. Hitt pointed out areas now packed with restaurants, bars, specialty bagels, and personal wellness.

“What is now the Southbound Restaurant (5394 Peachtree Road) in Chamblee, they exited the train, and crossed the street to the general store and post office. Welcome to Camp Gordon. The camp would eventually get their own train stop. The new men are greeted by officers.”

Credit: U.S. Army Center of Military History

It’s the grounds of what will be known as PDK Airport, DeKalb Peachtree in the generations ahead.

Established in the summer of 1917, the Chamblee project was one of 16 National Army Training Camps prepared for the United States’ entry into World War I. 2,400 acres, 1,600 buildings with 47,000 troops and a cost of just under $12 million.

Before mechanization in the U.S. Army, it was run on horse power. Almost 5,000 horses and mules were taken care at 4600 Peachtree Road.

One of the world’s best golf courses beginning in 1948, Peachtree of Bobby Jones (next to the Lowe’s and the tire shop), would facilitate a series of massive stables and barns.

There were Caucasian and African American men training at Camp Gordon.

⇒ Read the entire article on the Georgia Public Broadcasting website.
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