Phase two of the parkway is in yellow; Phase three is in blue.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
APRIL 28, 2020 | A reader wrote in: “My husband and I have traveled Sugarloaf Parkway twice thinking it leads to a town with the same name. Is there a Sugarloaf town? If not, then why is it called Sugarloaf?”
The short answer is: there is no town of Sugarloaf in Gwinnett.
Somehow, we had never questioned this. Best answer is that the county came up with the name in the late 1990s. This parkway now runs from Peachtree Industrial Boulevard on the west, eastward and curving around all the way to Georgia Highway 316 east of Lawrenceville. The name comes from the Sugarloaf Country Club. Eventually, where the road now ends near Dacula will then connect with Interstate 85 north of Buford. Long range plans are in the engineering stage to have the road then curve past Buford and Sugar Hill to end again….several miles north of where it begins on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, south of Sugar Hill. It will be built as funding is available. That entire loop road was first envisioned in the 1988-89 Thoroughfare Plan.
Where the current Sugarloaf Parkway crosses Georgia Highway 316 the first time, near Gwinnett Tech, was once known as Atkinson Road. When the county decided to construct a four-lane highway across the middle of Gwinnett, part of the alignment was the former Atkinson Road and the name was changed in late 1990.
The western portion of Sugarloaf Parkway from Interstate 85 to Peachtree Industrial Boulevard was dedicated in late 2003. When the present day Infinite Energy Center had its groundbreaking, in 1992, then known as the Gwinnett Civic Center, there was no Sugarloaf Parkway near the Center. Attendees took Satellite Boulevard, then itself a relatively new road, to the project.
The land where the Sugarloaf Country Club is located was once known as the vast Rollins Farm. Later it was owned for many years as an investment of the Eastern Airline Pilot’s Pension Plan, who then sold it to Crescent Properties (an off-shoot of Duke Power), who in turn developed the Sugarloaf Country Club and golf course. Crescent Properties gave 90 acres to the county where the Infinite Energy Center is now. And the main road leading to that club eventually was named Sugarloaf Parkway. Whew! Long answer to a short question.
From Jim Savadelis in Duluth: “Seeing your picture with a mask on made me think. I bet this is the only time anyone could walk into a bank with a mask on and not get arrested.”
Giselbach
We mourn in the passing of a hard-charging resident of Buford last week. We’re speaking of Bob Giselbach, 88. He was a quiet leader who knew how to get things done.
A native of Tipton, Indiana, Bob retired from the Army Artillery as a staff sergeant after serving over 20 years, including combat tours of duty in Korea, and twice to Vietnam. He was awarded the Purple Heart. Then Bob put in 20 years with the U.S. Postal Police. While living in Gwinnett, he was a volunteer with the Parks and Recreation Department and founded the Gwinnett Senior Golden Games in 1999.
We first met him when he began running the Garden Railway at Vines Botanical Garden. He was always a happy and outgoing fellow, and enjoyed this big-gauge railroad operation, to the delight of many children.
He didn’t limit himself in retirement to Gwinnett. He and his wife, Eileen, traveled the country participating in the National Senior Olympics, winning medals. Among his honors were the Shining light Award for volunteerism and the president’s Award.
Robert Giselbach, (1931-2020), May you rest in peace.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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