The small town of College Park was only four years old in 1900. It had been known earlier as Atlantic City but chartered on October 5, 1891 as Manchester. The charter was amended on January 29, 1896 to read College Park.

A rural area of a few farms following the Civil War, College Park was linked historically with Atlanta by the Atlanta and West Point Railroad which ran the entire length of the small town. With the completion of a seventy-five mile link of rail lines, Atlanta was connected to the west as far as West Point, Georgia.

During the construction of the line, a new town at the railroad's eastern end developed and was named East Point. With the development of the railroad, East Point rapidly grew into a thriving industrial center. East Point's birth soon gave rise to the two other towns making up the Tri-Cities area, Hapeville, and Manchester (College Park).

While East Point was considered the industrial center of the Tri-Cities, Hapeville became known for its plantation owner, Dr. Samuel Hape, and for its beautiful homes originally built by friends of Dr. Hape. Eventually to be called the educational center of the Tri-Cities, Manchester (College Park) was considered the most picturesque and colorful of the group. The Atlanta Constitution, June 15, 1890, announced the birth of the new town of Manchester which would, about five years later, be known as College Park:

"MANCHESTER
ON THE WEST POINT
A NEW TOWN NEAR ATLANTA
That is built Upon an Unique Plan
TRUCK FARMERS TOGETHER
And Other Features Which Make It Interesting"

"A town built by Atlanta men will be named Manchester."

"It will be just behind East Point, and will be one of the prettiest and most attractive suburbs in the neighborhood of the city."

"A syndicate formed of Atlanta men has brought 900 acres of land on the Atlanta and West Point railroad commencing at the point one-half mile below East Point, and extending nearly three miles beyond."

"The tract has about four miles west frontage, and lies most beautifully for the purpose of being transformed into a smiling, prosperous town."

"At the further extremity of the land the capitalists have laid off a town and named it Manchester. The town is a beautifully wooded grove of about 200 acres, level and undulating just enough to give an excellent natural system of drainage. The site is a magnificent one."

"The elevation is six feet higher than that of Atlanta, and there are five or six splendid springs that gurgle continuous streams of pure cold water. One of these springs spurts a strong stream of chalybeate water, which is an attractive and desirable feature of the new town."

"A great deal of the land lies in the fork of the Central and West Point railroads, extending almost to the former. It is the intention of the promoters to run a line of railways from the Central at Hapeville to Manchester, connecting the two roads."

No prettier truck farming lands can be found anywhere in the south than those that will encircle the town of Manchester, the soil being a deep red clay sub-soil, with gray top-soil. The lands lie so that they will hold all manures put upon them, and lie easily and readily accessible to the town of Manchester.

"The intention of the promoters is to have factories established on their lands and in the town of Manchester, and splendid offers will be made to those who desire to build factories on sites in the town, contiguous as it is to two railroads.

"The syndicate has determined to make Manchester the most attractive suburban town around Atlanta. One of their chief ideas is to congregate in the town those people who own truck farms in the vicinity, and will have the entire town built up much after the German plan.

"For the carrying out of their plans, they have arranged to build handsome school buildings, churches and the like. Watch the growth of Manchester!"

In the summer of 1895, the mammoth structure of Cox College was completed (originally known as the Southern Female Institute). The original campus of fourteen acres (present site of College Park City Hall and the Library) was doubled. To a large measure, the town of College Park was built around the greatness of Cox College and the Southern Military Institute (later to become Georgia Military Academy).

Earlier in the last decade of the nineteenth century, a suburban service was inaugurated, and almost all of the ladies of the day did their shopping in Atlanta by using the suburban trains. Later, in 1901, a single-track trolley line was established; and, then in 1905, because of increased travel, a double track, running along side the Atlanta and West Point railroad and through the main street of College Park, was constructed.

The men who founded College Park had in mind making the small town a manufacturing area similar to its sister city, East Point. The area was so suited, however, for residences and educational facilities that it drifted in that direction.

"The building of the two splendid colleges, the one for boys and the other for girls, settled the future status of the place. The name "Manchester" became a misnomer."

To provide the town with a greater academic atmosphere, streets laid out from east to west were renamed for famous colleges: Rugby, Cambridge, Yale, Mercer, Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, etc.; and streets running north and south were named for famous people: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Napolean, etc. Other streets, however, were named for outstanding men of the community at that time: Walker, Hawthorne, Blalock, Hemphill, White, etc. The mother of William Palmour and mother-in-law of Colonel Woodward's youngest daughter, Grace, had the privilege of renaming the streets.

The Atlanta Journal, May 3, 1897, reported:

"The town of College Park itself might, in a word, be described as 'scattering.' It is nearly a mile long, and most of its homes front the railroad tracks, on either side of which is a driveway. Like a metropolis, it is subdivided into stations, and each of its residents has a railroad stop of his own within a couple of hundred yards of his house at the farthest. Around the schools, wealthy and cultural citizens have built homes. With almost hourly trains to Atlanta, making the ride in twenty-five minutes at five cents commutation fares, this rural residence place blends in beautiful harmony the advantages of city and country, on the one hand being within the easy grasp of the literary, musical, social, professional and religious attractions of a metropolis, its superior facilities and inspiring life, and on the other hand furnishing exemption from artificial restraint and temptations to frivolous dissipation, and affording rest, refreshment and seclusion."

The two schools - Cox College and Southern Military Academy - became the nucleus around which the homes of College Park were built. All homes at that time were within a one-mile radius along the Atlanta and West Point Railroad.

Today, however, the small town of College Park extends far beyond what used to be Cox College and the present Woodward Academy (Southern Military Academy, Georgia Military Academy). It extends far beyond the original group of stores on Main Street near the railroad station. It contains many subdivisions and apartments, and shopping centers. "Signs about Kennedy and Cohen, Richway, Levitz, Holiday Inn, Best Western, Citgo, Exxon, Shell, Steak and Ale, One Hour Martinizing, Service Merchandise, Goodyear, Glidden, Big Star, Reed's and Turtle's populate the area; there are enough fast-food places - Burger King, Sizzler, Waffle House, Dipper Dan - to make Old National Highway a richly caloric slice of American pie."

Excerpt from “The Woodward Story”, by Robert Ballentine, published 1990 by Jostens Printing and Publishing; content used with permission of the copyright holder, Woodward Academy Inc., College Park, Georgia, USA.