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Prior to 1818, the western corner of what became Gwinnett County was Creek and Cherokee territory, and it was illegal for white families to settle there. Nevertheless, there were several families of white squatters in the area before settlement was legalized, including Isham Medlock, whose name is lent to Medlock Bridge Road. In the early 1800s, a road was built along a Native American trail from what is now Buford, past what is now Peachtree Corners, to what is now Atlanta. A small farming community, known as “Pinckneyville,” grew up along that road. By 1827, the community was home to the second school in Gwinnett County, the Washington Academy, founded on what is now Spalding Drive. The area was also home to a post office, saloon, blacksmith shop, carpenter shop and inn; however, the prosperity of Pinckneyville was to be short-lived.

In 1870, a railroad was built through neighboring Norcross, and due to the heavy trading that could be done via the railroad, all of the area’s businesses and many residents moved from Pinckneyville to Norcross.

For the next century, the area remained a rural farming community. In the late 1960s, Paul Duke developed the idea of creating Peachtree Corners, a planned community to be constructed in the area that was once known as Pinckneyville. In 1967, Duke initiated the planning of the office component of Peachtree Corners: Technology Park Atlanta, a campus for high technology industries that would benefit from employing engineers and business people graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), the University of Georgia, and other universities with technology and business schools. As a member of the Georgia Tech National Advisory Board, he raised $1.7 million to develop the business center. Initial residents of the technology park included GE, Scientific Atlanta (now part of Cisco Systems), and Hayes Microcomputer Products. In 1968, Duke established Peachtree Corners, Inc., a development corporation for the residential parts of the community.