Lithonia, Main Street, 1967

Top: Photograph of businesses along Main Street, Lithonia, DeKalb County, Georgia, 1967. From the Vanishing Georgia archives. Image dek288-85. Listed as "circa 1970" even though the photo says April 1967.

Bottom: April 2009. 42 years later, poor Lithonia is as deserted as a western ghost town. Taking pictures in this town reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode where the guy walks around the empty streets yelling, "Where is everybody? Where is everybody?"

Today's lesson in local history: The name Lithonia was created by combining the Greek words Litho, meaning rock, and Onia, meaning place. Many of the old businesses, churches, and houses were constructed with granite from local quarries. Nearby Stone Mountain is primarily composed of a rock called Lithonia gneiss.

And... Brenda Lee is from Lithonia. (PHOTOS AND TEXT COURTESY OF DAVID HENDERSON)