Harriet Witham Ellis - Buckhead Heritage

Biography

Mrs. Harriet Witham Ellis is a native Buckhedian who has lived in the Peachtree Heights West neighborhood her entire life. She is from long-standing Buckhead family.

Abstract of Interview

Mrs. Ellis talks about growing up in Buckhead and many of the Buckhead families with whom she and her family associated. She talks a great deal about architecture, Neel Reid, and historic Buckhead homes. She discusses Buckhead in the 1930s and 40s and the rural nature of the community and how it grew over time. Mrs. Ellis also talks about dating in high school and the social life of a young Buckhead woman.

Interview by Chad Wright, Bob Helget, and Lewis Nix, March 15, 2011.

Read the transcript.

Video

In the following clip, Harriet Witham Ellis discusses her family’s former summer home, which was located where Phipps Plaza is now. When her father, Stuart Witham, was young, it would take his family all day to travel from 10th Street in Midtown to the home. The family would have to ford Peachtree Creek en route.

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Buckhead Heritage Society
3180 Mathieson Drive, Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30305