Biography

Norris A. Broyles, Jr., a fourth-generation Atlantan, was born at Piedmont Hospital in 1929. He grew up in Buckhead on Peachtree Road, and remembers playing football in the front yards of the homes that once lined Peachtree, where condominiums now stand. Mr. Broyles attended Mrs. Bloodworth’s kindergarten and the Lovett School in Buckhead before attending high school in Virginia and then college at the University of Virginia. After graduating, he worked on Wall Street for a year before returning to Atlanta and taking a job at Beer and Company, a stock brokerage firm where his father was a partner. Mr. Broyles worked at several local brokerage firms before retiring, and still resides in Atlanta today.

Abstract of Interview

In this interview, Mr. Broyles discusses growing up on Peachtree Road in the area known as “The Block,” when single-family homes stood where condominiums and commercial buildings are today. He describes attending school in Buckhead, riding the streetcar up and down Peachtree, Saturdays spent at The Buckhead Theater and Jacob’s Drugstore, going to Fritz Orr’s camp, and taking classes at Margaret Bryan’s dance school. Mr. Broyles also talks about his employment at various Atlanta stock brokerage firms, and being an early member of the Peachtree Golf Club. For over 30 years, Mr. Broyles and his family lived in an old hunting lodge on Rivers Road, one of the earliest structures in that part of Buckhead. Mr. Broyles describes his memories of other Buckhead landmarks including Fred’s Fruit Stand, Buckhead Men’s Shop, Kamper’s Grocery, and Murray’s Grocery. He remembers the Buckhead of his childhood and early adulthood as a small village where everyone knew one another.

Interview conducted by Charles Wright, March 3, 2014.

Read the transcript.

Video

In the video clip below, Broyles, describes receiving a billy goat as a present from his grandfather. The goat later was given to Fritz Orr’s camp.

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