Christopher John McLoughlin (1910 – 1962) and Jane Sharp McLoughlin (1913 – 1962) purchased Meredith House on May 7, 1954.
Christopher J. McLoughlin was born on August 28, 1910 in Philadelphia, PA, the only child of John Stephen and Veronica McGann McLoughlin who lived in the Chestnut Hill area of that city.
Dr. McLoughlin married July 31, 1942 to Jane Sharp in Atlanta, Georgia at the Cathedral of Christ the King on Peachtree Road by Rev. Father Charles J. Brady in a ceremony at 11 o’clock that was attended by members of both families. Dr. Robert G. Bennett of Warm Springs, Georgia and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was best man. Mrs. Jack Sharp, her sister-in-law, was the matron of honor.
Dr. McLoughlin was a graduate of St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia, received his medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College in Pennsylvania, and a post graduate degree in medicine from the University of Minnesota. He was at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for four years, (including during the 1940 Census) first as a fellow and then as a consultant in medicine. He entered the Army Medical Corps in July 1941 and was a Captain. His fraternities were Sigma Alpha Pi, Phi Rho Sigma, and Sigma Xi, an international honorary scientific society. He was stationed at Lawson General Hospital where he was chief of the section on physical medicine. In private medical practice in Atlanta he was a diagnostician specializing in internal medicine, arthritis, rheumatism and diabetes, and was associated with Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, the Fulton County Medical Association, the Georgia Medical Association, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the American Diabetes Association, the American Medical Association, and the Atlanta Academy of Medicine where the McLoughlin Diabetes Department was named for him. (The Academy of Medicine building is included in the National Register of Historic Places.)
According to the Diabetes Association of Atlanta’s website, “Under the guidance of Dr. Christopher McLoughlin, the group expanded to include adults and interested physicians [in addition to parents of children with diabetes] and was incorporated in 1953.”
Dr. McLoughlin belonged to the Georgia Kiwanis Club, the Piedmont Driving Club, and joined the Capital City Club in 1949.
Dr. & Mrs. McLoughlin had two sons. Christopher John McLoughlin, Jr. was born in 1944 and attended Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. Norman Sharp McLoughlin was born in 1948, attended Marist in Atlanta, and completed undergraduate and graduate studies at Antioch University in Seattle, Washington.
On March 11, 1960, a snow storm hit the metropolitan Atlanta area. Accumulation was recorded as 4″ and is a Top 20 snow storm for Atlanta. The McLoughlins captured the effects of the storm and Meredith House.
Dr. and Mrs. McLoughlin died June 03, 1962 in Paris, France at Orly Airport in the crash of Air France Charter Flight #007, a Boeing 707-328, Registration #F-BHSM, Aircraft Name Chateau de Sully. The flight was chartered through the Atlanta Arts Association for a twenty-five day tour departing Atlanta on May 09, 1962. “Rejected takeoff due to mechanical failure” was cited as the reason for the crash, which killed 130 passengers; there were two survivors.
Jane and Christopher McLoughlin were buried in Westview Cemetery in Atlanta on June 29, 1962.
Jane Sharp was born August 27, 1913 at 317 Capitol Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. She was the paternal granddaughter of Mr. & Mrs. James B. Sharp of Forsyth, Monroe County, Georgia and was the great grand niece of George W. Crawford, a former governor of Georgia; a grand niece of Martin Crawford, a Supreme Court justice, and Macon Crawford for who the city of Macon, Georgia is named. On her maternal side she was the granddaughter of Harry S. Horsey of Charleston, SC and Llewellyn Horsey; and the great granddaughter of T.M. Horsey of Charleston. She is the niece of Harry B. Horsey of Atlanta.
Jane Sharp and her older brother Jack (1902 – 1974) were both confirmed at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on March 3, 1930. Jane made her debut on December 24, 1931 at a tea dance at the Piedmont Driving Club.
Jane Sharp attended Washington Seminary where she was a member of Pi Pi Sorority, Oglethorpe University, and Johns Hopkins University where she specialized in advanced English and journalism. She was a member of Hopkins Dramatic Club and the Hopkins Girl Group. She was a member of the Young Girls’ Circle of the Tallulah Falls School and served as vice-president and secretary of the organization.
At the time of the wedding in 1942, Mrs. McLoughlin was actively engaged with war work as a member of the Red Cross Staff Assistant Corps, and was the junior chairman of the Victory Emergency Committee of the Atlanta Federation of Women’s Clubs.
Norman Sharp (1866 – 1957) and Deryl (nee Horsey) Sharp (1882 – 1969) moved from their home on Rivers Road in Atlanta to Hillside Drive in May 1954. The McLoughlins, who had lived with the Sharps, were now the homeowners.
Norman Sharp was born July 18, 1866 in Forsyth, Monroe County, Georgia at his family home, Rose Hill. He married Deryl Horsey.
Even after moving to Meredith House at 87 years old, Norman was still active in his business and was driven to work every morning and collected every afternoon. His business, started after the war by selling pots, pans and dry goods from the back of a wagon, was what had survived the times. Eventually it flourished and he moved to Atlanta. The company, through the years and after a series of changes in ownership and business names became the Sharp – Horsey Wholesale Hardware Company. It operated from a large, three story warehouse with railroad backing ties, on Marietta Street in the vicinity of what is now the Aquarium and the CNN Center. It is now closed.
Norman Sharp joined the Capital City Club in 1919 and is thought to have been a charter member of the Piedmont Driving Club. While not much of a socializer himself, he held the membership for the benefit and enjoyment of his wife Deryl and their daughter Jane.
Norman Sharp died January 29, 1957 (perhaps January 30) at Meredith House on Hillside Drive on a dark, cold, rainy morning. At 91, he had all but retired from the business he started and built in Atlanta. In the evening after having supper with the family in the dining room he fell half way down from the first landing of the front stairs. He is buried at Westview Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.
Deryl Horsey Sharp, born on April 1, 1882, in Atlanta, Georgia. Norman Sharp and Deryl Horsey were confirmed together at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta in 1895.
In 1922, the Atlanta City Council appointed Mrs. Sharp to serve on the Bureau of Municipal Research. On June 14, 1925, she became president of the Atlanta Women’s Club. In 1925, Governor Clifford Walker appointed her to represent the State of Georgia at the Woman’s Congress in London at Windsor Castle. In 1926, State of Georgia Highway Department named her head of the Dixie Road Auxiliary; she was head of the Atlanta Federation of Women’s Clubs.
Deryl Sharp died February 9, 1969 and is buried at Westview Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.
John “Jack” Stephen McLoughlin (1877 – 1967), father of Christopher John McLoughlin, lived at Meredith House for some time during his son’s ownership of the property. He was born November 19, 1877 in Saltaire, England. He married Veronica McGann in the United States (probably Philadelphia, Pennsylvania); date unknown. He died December 1967 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is buried there.
Jack McLoughlin came to the United States in 1905 and took up residence in the Chestnut Hill area of Philadelphia where he lived until he retired and came to Atlanta. A restless widower and with no friends in Atlanta, he moved to Florida where he worked as a manager/trainer with the Philadelphia Phillies major league baseball team. That association began with a friendship the head coach for the team. Jack would stay with the team during the summer months and returned to Philadelphia for visits in the off-season. After the death of his son he stayed in Philadelphia.
Veronica McGann McLoughlin (1875 – ) was born 1875 in Bingley, Yorkshire, England. On April 13, 1904 she set sail from England and lived on Sutter Street in Philadelphia, eventually marrying Jack and moving to the Chestnut Hill area. Her occupation was shown as a weaver in England. It has been noted and recorded that both sets of Jack’s and Veronica’s parents were born in Ireland.
Meredith House 