Timeline of Atlanta North Church

1859: Charles F. Curtis, (who later brought Adventism to Georgia) was born on May 1, 1859 in Iowa City, Iowa.

1861: The Civil War started at Fort Sumter, SC and Charles Curtis had relatives who fought with the Northern Army.

1864: The Battle of Atlanta began on June 22, 1864. Note from Bob Field: "My Great Great Uncle, Jacob Gerber was drafted in the Army and fought for the North; My Great Grandfather, John Abrams was drafted in the Georgia cavalry and fought for the South;"

1864: Charles F. Curtis' mother (Amanda Curtis) died. She was a part of the Millerite movement and an early SDA pioneer; His sister took him to live with her in Sigourney, Iowa.

1865: The Civil War ended and the City of Atlanta began building its businesses and homes;

1872: J. A. Killingworth and his family were converted in Griffin, Ga. (First Adventists in Georgia)

1874: Uriah Smith was ordained as a minister and co-found Battle Creek College.

1875: In Georgia, Rufus Eugene Seagraves learned the Seventh-day Adventist health principles and was baptized; C. O. Taylor was the first denominational worker;

1877: J. S. Killen was converted in Houston County, Ga. The Killen's sons and three daughters were baptized and became colporteurs;

1878: In Quitman, Ga., Samuel Mitchell was arrested for plowing on Sunday. He was put in jail and died a martyr.

1880: Charles F. Curtis enrolled at Battle Creek College. While in school, he worked at the Review & Herald Publishing Co., binding books and selling books in South Carolina and Georgia. Uriah Smith was the Editor and the author of "Daniel and Revelation".

1886: Charles F. Curtis completed his studies and on February 28, 1887 Charles married Leanna Morrell and immediately traveled to Georgia; Uriah Smith officiated the wedding ceremony.

1887: Charles became a field representative for the General Conference and became a Manager of the southern branch of Review & Herald in Atlanta. He worked as a manager for 5 years;

1888: Charles and Leanna established their home at the corner of Boulevard at Bryan Street. He held tent meetings in Atlanta and 6 adults and 6 children were baptized. A total of 15 people met their first Sabbath School meeting in a tool shed in the rear of Charles home.

1892: the first SDA Church was built in Atlanta on Memorial Drive near Cherokee Ave.

1892: While building the church, the pastor (possibly S. H. Lane) worked on Sunday and was arrested. A trial was held and by using his Bible as his defense, he convinced one juror (Tom Bottoms) as being correct with the Sabbath. He became a Sabbath keeper and decided to move to Alabama because the State of Alabama did not have Blue Laws. However the rest of the jurors convicted the Pastor and was convicted and paid a fine.

1897: Charles F, Curtis had a burden for the medical Missionary work so he went to the Battle Creek Sanitarium operated by Dr. Harvey Kellogg. He worked with Dr. Kellogg for two Years and was licensed as a nurse treating alcoholics with hydrotherapy.

1899: Adeline Curtis (Charles Curtis' daughter), a long time member of the Beverly Road and Atlanta North Seventh-Day churches, was born in a home on Memorial Drive across of Oakland Cemetery.

1900: Charles purchased 7 acres of land at the corner of Memorial Drive, Carter Ave and Alston Drive. He built a large building to serve as a Sanitarium treating alcoholics.

1902: Charles built a school building on Memorial Drive; He hired his niece, Bessie Tanner, as the Teacher and paid all her salary and school expenses.

1903: Charles desired more training so he enrolled at Georgia College of Eclectic Medicine and Surgery (Now Emory School of Medicine).

1907: Charles Curtis graduated and became a medical doctor;

1912: Elder Carlyle B. Haynes conducted large evangelistic meetings at Peachtree and West Peachtree St.

1912: Adeline Curtis (Dr. Curtis' daughter) was baptized by Elder Haynes

1917: Elder Haynes had another evangelistic meeting and had hundreds attended the meetings and 120 people were baptized.

1918: The church members moved to a new building at the corner of Orleans Street at Cherokee Ave.

1923: Dr. Curtis operated the East Lake Sanitarium through 1923.

1926: Charles and Leanna Curtis moved to California due to bad health;

1938: The Church members purchased property at the corner of Beverly Road at Peachtree:

1986: The membership dropped to about 60 active members therefore Pastor Ralph Lafave encouraged the membership to sell the property and purchase another location on the north side of Atlanta.

A committee was established to sell the Beverly Road property. L. F. Roberts suggested that the property should be sold at the price of $2,400,000.

A search committee was established: Pastor LaFave, L. F. Roberts, Chairman, Dr. Joe Cruise, Vice Chairman, Ann Montgomery, Skip Spellman, Aubrey Liles, L. B. Smith, Odelia King and Elder Harold Metcalf.

In the early of 1986, Ann Montgomery was driving down Chamblee Dunwoody Road and saw a vacant piece of property. She did not see a "For Sale" sign. She felt that it was an ideal location. She contacted Pastor LaFave to see if the property would be a good location for the church. Pastor LaFave looked at the property and also felt that it would be a good location for our church. He checked the tax records to see if he could determine the name and address of the owner. The tax records indicated that the owner of the property was a Dr. Ben Giles, a medical doctor. Dr. Giles was not interested to sell the property. One of our members, Dr. Joe Cruise, knew Dr. Giles. Dr. Cruise contacted Dr. Giles and told him that his church was looking for property for a church building. Dr. Giles apparently thought that he did not want to sell his property to a business but decided that he would sell the property for our church. Dr. Giles decided to sell the property but did not set a price. The committee tried to come up with a fair price from our standpoint. There were many properties "for sale" but the properties were too expensive for our church. The committee voted to set up a price of $80,000 per acre. We prepared the offer and Dr. Giles accepted the offer. We felt it was a miracle.

The Beverly Road was sold at a net price of $2,287,800

Purchased land on Chamblee/ Dunwoody Road: ....$ 471,200

1988: The Atlanta North Seventh-Day Adventist church was completed. Pastor Ralph LaFave continued as the pastor until 1991.

1992 through 2023 are the following senior pastors:

Gregory Ellis (1992); William Levin (1993-1999); B. J. Boles (2000-October, 2003); Dan Hall (November, 2003-2009): (Interim pastors: Jason Salyers: April, 2009 to July, 2009; Gary Patterson: August, 2009 - November, 2009) Joe Cirigliano (December 2009-October, 2011); Rick Esterline (November 2011-December, 2014); Maurice Witt (2015-2017); Edgar Alquinta (2017-Present)