Cascade History

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Delowe Drive SW

From D. Lowe to Delowe: The Evolution of a Street Name and a Civic Legacy

Introduction

For the thousands of commuters who navigate Southwest Atlanta today, Delowe Drive is a vital, utilitarian artery. Stretching southward from Cascade Road, it bisects the historic Adams Park, separating the main recreational grounds from the municipal golf course, and extends past the commercial hub of Campbellton Plaza southward into neighboring East Point. Like many mid-century suburban streets, its name appears to be a standard, developer-generated moniker. However, the street is actually a phonetic adaptation of “D. Lowe Drive,” originally named to honor a civic leader who directed the aesthetic foundation of the Cascade corridor. The history of the street illustrates how a specific horticultural tribute gradually evolved into a standard suburban address.

Chapter 1: The Merchant, the Matriarch, and the Dairy Farm

The namesake of the street was D. Wilson Lowe Pitts, frequently referred to in the press by her married name, Mrs. Thomas H. Pitts. A native of Atlanta who lived in the city her entire life, she was a prominent figure in local high society, holding memberships in the First Presbyterian Church, the Atlanta Woman’s Club, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy.[1] She frequently hosted elite gatherings, such as the Mary Poole Circle, at her sprawling country estate on Cascade Avenue [now Cascade Road].[2]

Her husband, Thomas H. Pitts, was a well-known figure in Atlanta commerce. For thirty-four years, he operated a cigar and soft drink establishment at Five Points, the absolute center of the city. His property was so valuable that real estate developer Forrest Adair Sr. noted it had originally been acquired by Wash Collier in a trade for a $150 mule, only to become one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in Atlanta.[3] Tom Pitts watched the city transform from his storefront, recalling the days when Five Points had a “town pump” and an artesian well, before the increase in automobiles caused such severe traffic congestion that the city had to decentralize into community centers like Buckhead and Little Five Points. Through it all, Tom Pitts’s place remained a downtown institution, famous across the city for its chocolate milks.[4]

Following his retirement from the Five Points establishment, Thomas H. Pitts transitioned into the local property market. By the late 1930s, he was officially recognized in the press as an “Atlanta real estate operator” with “extensive property holdings.”[5] The Pitts family’s wealth and land ownership served as an early anchor for the corridor’s development. When the Weyman and Conley Company (Wey-Con, Inc.) announced the massive 280-acre acquisition for the Cascade Heights subdivision in June 1924, developers explicitly listed Tom Pitts alongside other prominent property owners in the vicinity to establish the prestige of the new neighborhood.[6]

The Pitts family resided at “Casa Loma,” a sprawling country estate located further west on Cascade Road at Childress Drive. Before the area was heavily subdivided for residential use, the property functioned as a working agricultural enterprise. In the early 1920s, it operated as the Casa Loma Holstein Stock Farm, a federally supervised dairy business featuring pure-bred cattle managed by Thomas Pitts.[7], [8] This location made them direct neighbors to Fulton County Commissioner Dr. Charles R. Adams, who operated an 80-acre farm nearby at 2700 Cascade Road. The social and political proximity of these figures was documented in a September 1937 full-page newspaper spread titled “Handsome and Palatial Homes in West End Section.” The feature placed photographs of the Adams and Pitts estates side-by-side, surrounded by advertisements congratulating the West End Business Men’s Association, an organization presided over by local real estate developer George L. Wilson.[9]

Chapter 2: 10,000 Roses and the Dedication of D. Lowe Drive

While Thomas Pitts operated in real estate and agriculture, D. Wilson Lowe Pitts focused her civic efforts on the rural outskirts. Serving as the president of the Cascade Garden Club and the Cascade Woman’s Club, Mrs. Pitts utilized her civic connections to advocate for the beautification of the corridor.[10]

In the early 1930s, Mrs. Pitts initiated a project to transform the rural stretch of Cascade Road into a scenic highway. Her efforts were significant in scale. Over the course of about three years, she personally supervised the planting of 10,000 Paul’s scarlet roses, 5,000 crepe myrtles, and thousands of dogwood trees and other shrubs along a six-and-a-half-mile stretch of Cascade Road.[11] To ensure the maintenance of this landscaping, she actively incentivized her neighbors, offering prizes for the “best kept places on Cascade Road” and hosting award ceremonies for the winners.[12], [13]

To fund these extensive horticultural projects, Mrs. Pitts hosted private fundraising events, including “Benefit Bridge” parties held directly at Casa Loma.[14] However, this private fundraising was supplemented by municipal resources. As noted by journalist Bessie S. Stafford in 1936, the county commissioners “co-operated in this work, and the highway department has furnished labor for the planting.”[15] Mrs. Pitts actively utilized Fulton County public works labor to execute her vision for the neighborhood’s aesthetic.

To honor her contribution to the community’s landscape, local civic leaders decided to name a street in her honor. During this period, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was engaged in constructing the Adams Park recreational project further east down the corridor. As part of this federal and county-funded infrastructure expansion, a new street was cut directly through the park to intersect with Cascade Road, the very thoroughfare she had spent years beautifying. This new WPA-constructed road was officially named “D. Lowe Drive, S.W.”

The naming was formalized with a civic ceremony. On Sunday afternoon, November 17, 1935, a crowd gathered at the corner of Cascade Road and the newly minted D. Lowe Drive for the unveiling of a monument in her honor.[16] A bronze tablet commemorating her work was embedded into a pink flint design at the entrance of the street.[17]

The dedication speech was delivered by her neighbor, Fulton County Commissioner Dr. Charles R. Adams, who was also overseeing the development of the park that bordered the new street. Dr. Adams paid tribute to Mrs. Pitts, praising her for bringing to reality her dream of making Cascade Road a “thing of beauty.”[18] Following a sketch of her work by Mrs. Macon Wilson, the tablet was officially unveiled by Dr. Adams’s young daughter, Clara Adams, and Mrs. Pitts’s young relative, Tom Pitts Bardin. The 1936 rotogravure feature documenting the event noted a somber detail regarding the ceremony, reporting that young Tom Pitts Bardin had “met a tragic death several days ago.”[19], [20]

Chapter 3: The 1939 Grand Jury Presentment

Mrs. Pitts passed away on December 22, 1938, and was buried in West View Cemetery.[21] While her obituaries celebrated her as a leading clubwoman and civic worker, the physical street that bore her name was soon mentioned in a municipal investigation.

In the fall of 1939, a Fulton County Grand Jury launched an investigation into the county’s public works department. The presentments cited Commissioner Dr. Charles R. Adams and real estate developer George L. Wilson for using taxpayer funds to lay water mains and pave roads for private subdivisions. The Grand Jury also reviewed the county’s work on the Pitts estate.

“We further find that the property of Mrs. D. Lowe Pitts, located on Cascade road, was improved by the county forces by the building of a driveway and the planting of shrubbery. We are informed that Mrs. Pitts paid the county for the shrubbery, but we are unable to find where she paid for the labor and machinery used in building the driveway.”[22]

The grand jury findings indicated that the civic leader who spearheaded the corridor’s beautification had also benefited from the unauthorized use of county labor and equipment for her private estate at Childress Drive. This infraction mirrored the actions of her neighbor, Commissioner Adams, who was cited in the exact same Grand Jury report for using county forces to pave the access road to his own Cascade Road farm.

Chapter 4: Taccoa Road and the Phonetic Shift to “Delowe”

As the 1930s gave way to the 1940s, the Cascade corridor experienced a real estate boom. The road named in her honor was extended and utilized by developers to access new subdivisions and Adams Park. The new WPA cut of D. Lowe Drive was routed southward through the park, where it physically linked up with an existing, older thoroughfare known as Taccoa Road [now Delowe Drive].

The geographic reality of this era was captured in a 1942 civil engineering map of Fulton County produced by Robert & Robert. The map clearly labels the street bisecting Adams Park as “D LOWE DR.” Furthermore, the map illustrates a separate street named “PITTS RD” located further west, running south from Cascade Road near Childress Drive, directly adjacent to the family’s Casa Loma estate.[23]

Historical Context: The Phonetic Shift
As the street name was repeatedly recorded by real estate agents, newspaper linotype operators, and municipal clerks, the punctuation began to vary. The first stage of this linguistic shift appeared in civic documents. On June 22, 1940, Commissioner C.R. Adams presented a petition to the Fulton County Commission on behalf of 100 residents of the Cascade Road area asking for residential-only zoning and a 25-mile-per-hour speed limit. In the official petition, he requested stop signs be placed at the intersection of Cascade Road and “Delowe drive,” indicating the phonetic spelling was already taking root in municipal paperwork.[24]

In the real estate market, the name went through a hyphenated transition. An example occurred in an August 3, 1941, advertisement in The Atlanta Constitution. The ad promoted a newly completed home built by Hallman Bros. for Miss Lou Farr. The listing noted that the $10,000-class home sat on a 90×210 foot lot that “OVERLOOKS ADAMS PARK,” and stated the property was located at the intersection of “D-Lowe drive and Wilson drive.”[25] The intersection of D-Lowe Drive and Wilson Drive represented a literal crossroads of the figures who had heavily shaped the corridor’s aesthetic and residential footprint. Coincidentally, the intersection of these two specific streets also contained all three elements of Mrs. Pitts’s maiden name (D. Wilson Lowe).

By the post-war era, as the street was extended further south past the Campbellton Plaza shopping center and into East Point, the city required a single, unified name for the continuous artery. The historic “Taccoa Road” designation for the southern half was dropped, and the hyphen in the northern half was abandoned entirely. City planners, mapmakers, and residents merged the letters into a single, phonetic word: Delowe.

Conclusion

Today, Delowe Drive is an essential corridor of Southwest Atlanta. The thousands of drivers who travel it daily are largely unaware of the street’s original namesake. The gradual removal of the punctuation obscured the tribute to D. Wilson Lowe Pitts, transforming a personal dedication into a standard suburban address. The archival record, however, preserves the history of a civic leader who utilized her influence and county resources to shape the aesthetic foundation of the corridor.

Related Reading:

Footnotes & Citations (Click to Expand)
Citations:
  1. “Mrs. Thomas Pitts Paid Last Tribute; West View Burial,” The Atlanta Journal, December 23, 1938, 20. ↑
  2. “Women Voters Tea,” The Atlanta Constitution, July 16, 1936, 13. ↑
  3. Elinor Hillyer, “Tom Pitts Tells of Changes at Five Points,” The Atlanta Journal, October 10, 1926, 102. ↑
  4. Elinor Hillyer, “Tom Pitts Tells of Changes at Five Points,” The Atlanta Journal, October 10, 1926, 102. ↑
  5. “‘Tom’ Pitts Ill, Condition Critical After Operation,” The Atlanta Constitution, February 10, 1938, 21. ↑
  6. “‘Wey-Con’ Co. Will Subdivide West End Tract,” The Atlanta Constitution, June 29, 1924, 28. ↑
  7. Display Advertisement for Casa Loma Holstein Stock Farm, The Atlanta Journal, November 16, 1920, 17. ↑
  8. Display Advertisement for Dr. Thos. H. Pitts’ Dairy Business, The Atlanta Journal, September 1, 1922, 21. ↑
  9. “Handsome and Palatial Homes in West End Section,” The Atlanta Constitution, September 26, 1937, 32. ↑
  10. “Mrs. Thomas Pitts Paid Last Tribute; West View Burial,” The Atlanta Journal, December 23, 1938, 20. ↑
  11. Bessie S. Stafford, “The Work of Mrs. Pitts and Associates In Beautification of Cascade Road,” The Atlanta Constitution, August 2, 1936, 31. ↑
  12. “Mrs. Pitts Offers Prizes For Best Kept Places On Cascade Road,” The Atlanta Journal, April 30, 1933, 24. ↑
  13. “Winners Announced By Mrs. Pitts In Cascade Road Contest,” The Atlanta Journal, September 3, 1933, 20. ↑
  14. “Benefit Bridge To Be Given for Beautification Of Cascade Road,” The Atlanta Journal, January 28, 1934, 30. ↑
  15. Bessie S. Stafford, “The Work of Mrs. Pitts and Associates In Beautification of Cascade Road,” The Atlanta Constitution, August 2, 1936, 31. ↑
  16. “Tablet to Be Unveiled To Mrs. D. Lowe Pitts,” The Atlanta Journal, November 17, 1935, 9. ↑
  17. “Gravure Pictorial Section,” The Atlanta Constitution, August 2, 1936, 38. ↑
  18. “Gravure Pictorial Section,” The Atlanta Constitution, August 2, 1936, 38. ↑
  19. “Gravure Pictorial Section,” The Atlanta Constitution, August 2, 1936, 38. ↑
  20. Bessie S. Stafford, “The Work of Mrs. Pitts and Associates In Beautification of Cascade Road,” The Atlanta Constitution, August 2, 1936, 31. ↑
  21. “Mrs. Thomas Pitts Paid Last Tribute; West View Burial,” The Atlanta Journal, December 23, 1938, 20. ↑
  22. “Fulton County Grand Jury Presentments for September and October Term,” The Atlanta Constitution, November 4, 1939, 8. ↑
  23. Robert & Robert, Civil Engineers, “Robert’s 1942 Map of Fulton County Georgia,” 1942, County Maps, Surveyor General, RG 3-9-66, Georgia Archives. ↑
  24. “Zoning Asked By Residents of Cascade Area,” The Atlanta Constitution, June 23, 1940, 2. ↑
  25. “Real Estate Transfers – Sales – Leases,” The Atlanta Constitution, August 3, 1941, 21. ↑
Comprehensive Bibliography (Click to Expand)
  • Hillyer, Elinor. “Tom Pitts Tells of Changes at Five Points.” The Atlanta Journal, October 10, 1926.
  • Robert & Robert, Civil Engineers. “Robert’s 1942 Map of Fulton County Georgia.” 1942. County Maps, Surveyor General, RG 3-9-66, Georgia Archives.
  • Stafford, Bessie S. “The Work of Mrs. Pitts and Associates In Beautification of Cascade Road.” The Atlanta Constitution, August 2, 1936.
  • The Atlanta Constitution. “Fulton County Grand Jury Presentments for September and October Term.” November 4, 1939.
  • The Atlanta Constitution. “Gravure Pictorial Section.” August 2, 1936.
  • The Atlanta Constitution. “Handsome and Palatial Homes in West End Section.” September 26, 1937.
  • The Atlanta Constitution. “Real Estate Transfers – Sales – Leases.” August 3, 1941.
  • The Atlanta Constitution. “‘Tom’ Pitts Ill, Condition Critical After Operation.” February 10, 1938.
  • The Atlanta Constitution. “‘Wey-Con’ Co. Will Subdivide West End Tract.” June 29, 1924.
  • The Atlanta Constitution. “Women Voters Tea.” July 16, 1936.
  • The Atlanta Constitution. “Zoning Asked By Residents of Cascade Area.” June 23, 1940.
  • The Atlanta Journal. “Benefit Bridge To Be Given for Beautification Of Cascade Road.” January 28, 1934.
  • The Atlanta Journal. Display Advertisement for Casa Loma Holstein Stock Farm. November 16, 1920.
  • The Atlanta Journal. Display Advertisement for Dr. Thos. H. Pitts’ Dairy Business. September 1, 1922.
  • The Atlanta Journal. “Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Pitts Fete Visitors at Buffet Supper.” September 8, 1935.
  • The Atlanta Journal. “Mr. and Mrs. Pitts Will Entertain on Thursday Evening.” September 3, 1935.
  • The Atlanta Journal. “Mrs. Berry Makes Talk on ‘Trees’ at Meeting of Mimosa Club.” January 28, 1934.
  • The Atlanta Journal. “Mrs. Pitts Offers Prizes For Best Kept Places On Cascade Road.” April 30, 1933.
  • The Atlanta Journal. “Mrs. Pitts to Honor Garden Division of Atlanta Woman’s Club.” October 14, 1934.
  • The Atlanta Journal. “Mrs. Thomas Pitts Paid Last Tribute; West View Burial.” December 23, 1938.
  • The Atlanta Journal. “Tablet to Be Unveiled To Mrs. D. Lowe Pitts.” November 17, 1935.
  • The Atlanta Journal. “Winners Announced By Mrs. Pitts In Cascade Road Contest.” September 3, 1933.
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