Pine Lake was established as a city in 1937, after a short life as a subdivision run by the Pine Woods Corporation, which sold lots around a small fishing lake to Atlantans who lived in (then) faraway areas like Buckhead for use as a weekend retreat. Many homeowners continued to use their property as a weekend getaway long after the city incorporated.

Today, Pine Lake is one of the most eclectic cities in the state, including among its residents a number of locally, regionally and nationally known artists in the fields of music, fine art, sculpture, poetry and prose and other disciplines. The city is also known as one of the most neighborly of cities — new residents are often told that when someone says, “Let me know what I can do to help,” in Pine Lake, that’s not an empty statement.