Davis Lee Stokes’ father taught him what every farmer’s son needed to know in order to survive in the Post-Civil War South. You have to take care of the land. And if you take care of the land, “DL” learned, the land will take care of you. But the dirt farm in South Georgia where DL grew up didn’t offer up this life lesson without a fight. DL’s father provided for a household of ten people in a time when most farmers in the Deep South were as poor as he was – or worse – and the land they farmed was tired from years of abuse. Poor and tired. Perhaps these were the reasons DL decided to leave farming when he came of age and head North to earn a living. Until then, DL’s universe consisted of the family’s 200-acre farm. He was born in 1886 to James Edwin Stokes and his wife, the former Mary Margaret Fowler, during an era when 70% of the population farmed for a living in the South.

DL and his wife, Florence, started D.L. Stokes & Company to represent lenders in the loan business. Like his father before him, a man who made a living off of the land that had little give in return, DL found lenders for people in an economy that didn’t have a lot to offer.

After World War II, DL recognized opportunities to build housing, mainly for veterans. For a man who loved progress, there was nothing more exciting than an opportunity. He began to build “cracker box” houses, a type of house architect Charlie Moore calls a “totally solid, well-built rectangular box that fulfilled a huge need in 1950.” Versions of these houses were sold through the Sears & Roebuck catalog. The company continued originating and servicing mortgage loans while developing subdivisions, building homes and apartment communities, and in doing so, DL provided a leg up to the growing middle class of the new South. DL Stokes didn’t farm cotton, tobacco or corn, he farmed something different: homes.

In 1949, DL Stokes developed Lindmont and Morosgo apartments on more than forty acres. It was touted as the largest housing community east of the Mississippi and south of the Mason Dixon line. Designed by acclaimed Atlanta architect Henry Jordan, a partner in the venture, these apartment communities, with 504 total units in 85 two story brick and tile buildings, were located at the intersection of Piedmont Road and Lindbergh Drive across Piedmont from what is now the Lindbergh Center MARTA rail station.  Derided by many for “building in the middle of the country” north of Atlanta, the gamble paid off and began a great spurt of growth in that area that continues to this day.  It’s interesting to note that many of the areas that the company developed in the 1940s and 1950s are many of the same areas that are central to its residential and commercial real estate development now, such as Oakland City, Kirkwood, West End, West Midtown, the Old Fourth Ward, and Hapeville to name a few.

EpiCity is honored, and the business focus is diversified and focuses on development, construction, lending, servicing, managing, and insurance.

DL started a fun annual excursion appropriately called the Stokes Special, combining his love for trains and college football. While the main route was from Atlanta to Athens for the University of Georgia versus the Georgia Institute of Technology (Tech) game, other itineraries were occasionally arranged to such places as Birmingham for the Georgia Tech versus Alabama game in 1955. As many as 500 guests, friends and family were a part of this annual tradition, including his entire staff and hired entertainment.

In 1964, DL and Florence’s youngest children, Tom Stokes Sr. and Mona (Stokes) LaVallee, take over the family business, at the time one of Atlanta’s most respected full service real estate services firms. The company offered real estate development and construction services in addition to brokerage, leasing and management, loan origination and servicing and insurance products. But still, they expanded their operation to include investment in income producing assets.

Tom and Mona sell the loan servicing and insurance sales arms of the business. The company refocuses on real estate investments and management services.

After graduating from Emory University in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics/Computer Science and English Literature, Tom Stokes Jr., travels to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and other countries with the forty-four member Emory Glee Club and Women’s Chorale for a grand European Tour. He returns to Atlanta in the fall as Director of Academic Computing at The Westminster Schools. In casual conversation with his father, Tom Jr. mentions some IT solutions that would make sense for EpiCity. Tom Sr. realizes the value and convinces his son to help, joining the firm in a permanent capacity as property manager, and adding the third generation to the family business.

Tom Jr., cousin Jim LaVallee, and friend John Mangham devise ways to provide housing for the 1996 Olympic Games held in Atlanta. This work becomes the foundation for reorganizing the company, as EpiCity works with homeowners and owners of multi-family units to provide housing for Olympic tourists and employees.

EpiCity receives the Certified Residential Management Company (CRMC) designation. EpiCity was the first firm in the nation to hold both the CRMC from NARPM and the Accredited Management Organization (AMO®) designation for the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM).

Tom Zachary, pictured, is just one of EpiCity’s longtime employees. Mr. Zachary worked on the original construction team at the Lindmont and Morosgo apartments in 1948. Tom stayed on as a maintenance director even after the property was sold to the Lane Company in July 2005.

An EpiCity sponsored partnership purchases the Lumberyard Lofts, a 68,000 SF office loft space located at 1425 Ellsworth Industrial Drive in the Chattahoochee Industrial Area. Originally a single building developed for milling lumber, this property was creatively divided into three separate buildings in 2000 and offered modern, attractive loft/creative office space. The award-winning property boomed as the Westside blossomed. It is one of Atlanta’s finest examples of successful adaptive reuse. In May 2018, EpiCity received a favorable offer and exited the property.

EpiCity sponsored the adaptive reuse of Armour Junction, a seven-building collection of loft office/industrial space in Buckhead, about a mile southwest of the Lindmont/Morosgo apartment site in the heart of Atlanta’s urban affluence and renewal. Following in the footsteps of the highly successful Lumberyard Loft development, Armour Junction is shaping into a valuable ‘intown’ Atlanta asset. EpiCity’s offices move here and are at the center of the property both physically and emotionally.

This event offered attendees a chance to learn how EpiCity and Epic Development, the custom home building sister company, partner with the Lifecycle Building Center (LBC) to salvage reusable building materials. EpiCity and Epic Development have been volunteers and partners with LBC for several years. The company has given the organization full access to its residential demolition sites. LBC’s deconstruction crew partners with Epic to selectively remove unusable building material from each project, thereby making these items available to homeowners, builders, small business owners, and nonprofits in the community. These materials include everything from cabinets, countertops, appliances, hardwood flooring, trim molding, plumbing fixtures, lighting, doors, windows, mantels, and many other types of materials. EpiCity and Epic Development played an integral part in the 2017 gala and fundraising effort.

Mary Kathryn LaVallee Stocks joins the company as Director of Project Management, primarily working with the construction and development team specializing in small commercial and custom home building and design. As a member of EpiCity Real Estate Services’ fourth generation, Mary Kathryn is excited to have joined the company that her great grandparents D. L. and Florence Stokes began ninety years ago.

The people who make up EpiCity today trust each other more than you’d expect in a business of any size. They are family to one another, whether literally or not. Several staff members have been a part of the operation for over thirty years. EpiCity is investing in Atlanta. We are building and renovating in areas like West Midtown and the Old Fourth Ward. Atlanta is an area rich with history and burgeoning with new vitality and EpiCity is right in the center of it all. To learn more about what EpiCity is doing today, please contact us. We’d love to hear from you.