Sandy Springs, Georgia

About Sandy Springs, Georgia

Sandy Springs (formerly Hammond) is a newly incorporated city, founded as of December 2005. It is a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. Located in Fulton County, Georgia, just south of Roswell, it is named for the sandy springs that still exist in the city as a protected historic site. Sandy Springs is Georgia's eighth-largest city, with an estimated 2006 population of 85,771. It is the second-largest of the three principal cities of the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is the main component of the larger Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville, Georgia-Alabama (part) Combined Statistical Area.

In 1851 Wilson Spruill donated five acres (two hectares) of land for the founding of the Sandy Springs United Methodist Church, near the sandy spring for which the city is named. In 1905 the Hammond School was built at Johnson Ferry Road and Mt. Vernon Highway, across the street from the church.

After World War II, Sandy Springs experienced a housing boom, bringing new residents and major land development. In the 1960s and 1970s Georgia 400 and Interstate 285 connected Sandy Springs to metro Atlanta.