A Work In Progress That May Never Be Finished, Unless I Run Out of Media Storage Space. Note that the “Now” photos are in color, whereas the “Then” photos are “mostly” in black & white with just a few exceptions I’ll fix at some point.
[6.15.22] 18.0-Min Total Read Time
I’ve included a 3.25-min read of background information that tries to explain why I’ve found myself spending such an inordinate amount of time on this little project which originally followed the Index, below. However, I’ve since moved that to the end of the article, but left the link at the top of the index: a compromised that gets readers to “the good stuff” right away.
List of Featured Areas / Photos:Click on Links to Jump to Section
Regarding the years I’ve used with the photos, in many cases some were included in comments provided with the posted photos and, unless there was a good reason not to assume they were correct, I’ve used those. However, when the dates didn’t seem to be correct based on other source material that is of a higher pedigree, e.g., the Sanborn Insurance Maps from 1885-1923 have been invaluable, I may have used a “best guess” based on that and other data, to include using the production years of vehicles depicted in photos as well as the ever-changing traffic direction around the Marietta Square.
It suffices to say, Marietta’s streetscape was anything but consistent, between many, many fires that damaged or destroyed buildings on the square, others that were simply razed and replaced, remodeling to change the appearance, and the change in traffic flow to, through and around the square, getting the dates correct was anything but an exact science and I would welcome corrections to my dates, comments or descriptions.
Marietta Square, circa 1959
I ‘m providing this to help orient readers to the focus of each grouping of photos and some of the more significant buildings I’ve mentioned.
It was an interesting mix of businesses on East Park that changed rather often, including a hotel, diner and various different types of merchants before the entire block was redeveloped to be all government courts & offices. The Cobb County Courthouses have an interesting history of their own which includes several changes to how they looked.Traffic patterns around the square changed several times, including two-way-through in all directions, to one-way / counter-clockwise around the square, to a hybrid two-way (east-west) with one-way (north-south) which is the present flow pattern. The lower right photo was taken during a transition from one-way back to two-way, hence the barrels to prevent accidents. Proposed changes and debates continue to this day.From “Cotton Days” on dirt streets, streetcars, brick and then asphalt-paving and multiple rebuilds of government buildings, the Marietta Square has endured, gone through multiple redevelopments and changes, struggled during difficult times to be thriving once again, as best as we can tell, as the small antique consignment stores that were everywhere when I first moved to Georgia in the early 1990’s have been replaced by salons, boutiques, food services and pubs although a few remain vacant.
The southeast corner of South Park St. was destroyed several times through the great 1907 fire, but has escaped further catastrophe since based on the building facades that haven’t changed much. Prior to the 1907 fire there had been at least two different, 3-story buildings at the corner of South Park & Winter Streets, mixed-use hotels and business including the Elmwood Hotel.Again, while some aspects of how individual buildings and store fronts look have changed at the street level, the basic roof line and 2nd story features of the 2-story structures built after the 1907 fire remain the same.Note the Streetcar tracks and one-way, counterclockwise traffic pattern during the 1930’s and into the 1950’s.The Southwest half of South Park Street has also seen several fires that have changed its appearance. At the turn of the century, the 3-story Masonic Hall occupied the corner of South Park and Powder Springs Street.The Masonic Hall building which was also mixed-use, was razed in 1917 to make way for the 1st marble-faced building on the square, the 1st National Bank. It was expanded to 3-times its original footprint in 1957. McLellan’s experienced a fire at some point which caused another dramatic change to the look of South Park as the once uniform roof line and 2nd floor window lines were lost to remodeling after the fire.
Of all four sides of Marietta Square, West Park has seen the least change since the 1900’s and always been somewhat eclectic in its appearance. A review of 1885-1923 Sanborn Insurance Maps reflects a very fluid number of businesses on West Park, including at least one bank, several dry-goods and clothiers, jewelry stores, grocery and drug stores.West Park continues to see changes in its business mix, with long-time Hemingway’s bar & grill at West Park and Depot Streets closing in the recent past and being re-opened by local brewer Red Hare. However, the Georgia Dance Conservatory that occupies the old Benson Brothers & one-time Miller’s building at the corner of West Park and Mills Streets has been a long-time occupant since first opening as the Ruth Mitchell Dance Studio in the 1970’s. A a very interesting look at both West & North Park Streets building facades in the early 1900s. I was particularly struck by the checkerboard paint scheme on the building where what became Najjer’s department store was at the northeast corner of North Park. Also note the statue of Senator Alexander Stephens Clay installed in the park has moved several times. But, in this photo it is in its original position on East Park and facing south.
North Park has been destroyed by fire several times. The first in 1854, which destroyed the entire block and became the catalyst for creating the first Marietta Fire Dept, given how long it took for the horse-drawn water pumpers to get to Marietta from Atlanta. Nearly the entire square was burned in 1864 by the Union Army, but the Northwest side of North Park appears to retain all but one of the original structures, the exception being the Cuthbertson Building at Root Street that was razed in 2010 and remains a vacant lot with a basement, aka, the gulch.As for the Northeast side of North Park, it had a fairly uniform core structure from the turn of the century until October 1939, when a fire broke-out in Najjer’s store on the east end of the building that consumed the entire, core structure. The only businesses that were not destroyed were Hodges Drugs and Fines Department store.Again, a before, during and after the fire started by a cold snap that called for the first lighting of the oil-furnace of the season. Note that F.E.A. Shilling’s hardware store was one of the businesses destroyed. They eventually relocated their hardware business to the west end of North Park Street to what, since 1978 through 2020, was known as Shillings on the Square, a popular restaurant and bar. A rumor persists that it was “Shillings” on the west end of North Park that was destroyed by the 1930’s fire which, as these photos confirm, was not the case. That legend has even found its way into the Mac’s Chophouse version of the building’s history after replacing Shillings on the Square in late 2021.
Just off the Square: Southeast / Washington Street
The fourth Cobb County Courthouse was a massive, block-long building built in 1873, which received a major renovation and change in appearance in 1898. It is the 1898 appearance most recognize as the “old” courthouse. However, directly behind the old courthouse was the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office and Jail of similar design. Both the courthouse and jail were razed in the 1969-1971 timeframe, noting the photo at the below right is when the jail was being razed.The “New” Old Bus and Taxi Depot at the 3-way corner of Roswell, Green and Anderson Streets, only identifiable today due to the semi-circular roof arch details and four, east-facing dormers at the north and south end of the original terminal and, well, the name on the wall, “The Depot Building” at 192 Anderson Street.This is a well-known, classic photo taken on Roswell Road at the Marietta National Cemetery during the 1890s, looking west towards the Mareitta Square and Kennesaw Mountain. I did my best to create a “then and now” photo set, noting the growth of trees over time and new construction/redevelopment make the original photo a bit tough to replicate.
The beginning and end of Marietta Square’s brick-paved streets. The first photo from 1917 was taken when a ceremony was held for the laying of the first brick, which appears to be placed at the center of the streetcar tracks running along Atlanta Street in front of the Post Office and City Hall. At the upper right is the then-completed street in the same location. However, below it are photos of both the bricks and rails being removed in the early 1950’s before the streets were paved, noting the streetcars were retired in 1947 due to the proliferation of privately-owned cars negating the need and profitability of the streetcars that were replaced by buses.This is the same stretch of Atlanta Road, the next block north of the Post Office looking north towards the Cobb County Courthouse in the 1960’s a few years after the then two-way street had been paved with asphalt at left, and then a current photo at right with the 1995 State Courthouse visible in the distance. The buildings along this stretch of Atlanta Road are mostly unchanged from as far back at the 1900’s, but Atlanta Road is now only one-way in this direction.The first Marietta Firehouse was located in essentially a storefront on Atlanta Street, with horse stables in the rear of the building. It was relocated one block south to a newer building that was co-located with the City Hall between Atlanta and Winter Streets, with the fire department equipment doors opening onto Winter Street. Johnny MacCracken’s has occupied the building since the 1990’s which was repurposed as a bank and savings and loan following the fire department’s move, and well before the building was converted to a Celtic Pub. It was a Sanborn Insurance Map that clued-me in to this building on Anderson Street having once been the home of the Marietta / Times Journal, noting several of the newspapers in Marietta occupied several different spaces in buildings on the Southeast, South Park block, as did the U.S Post Office. However, this is perhaps one of the few buildings that actually “faced” Anderson Street, somewhat hidden behind the lovely 1910 Marietta Post Office that is now home to the Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art.Moving south along Atlanta Street, only one of these two buildings constructed at the turn of the previous century are still standing, and that would be the aforementioned 1910 U.S. Post Office shown in the lower-right corner, above. The other three photos are of what was first built as the Marietta Opera House and Armory, best represented in the upper left photo. It was later repurposed as the Marietta City Hall and Fire Department, while also receiving something of an architectural update to the rooflines at the front and rear of the building. The fire department was located in the rear of the building, with the equipment entrance on Winter Street. The smaller, two-story brick building that is still standing to the south of where the “old” firehouse and city hall where was, back in the 1920’s, a wooden structure used for lumber storage that had been part of the former Black & Son’s Planning Mill & Lumber Yard that previously occupied this same area.The original, First United Methodist Church of Marietta was also located on Atlanta Street and was an impressive structure with several other buildings in the complex. The structure was razed in the late 1960’s, but one of the distinctive, round stained-glass windows was salvaged and incorporated into the new church located four blocks away on Whitlock Street and what is now Powder Springs Street.A bit further to the South on Atlanta Street are the former Marietta Catholic Church, originally an opera house, that was used from 1906 to 1929 and has since housed a variety of businesses. Next to that is a one-time service station that has been converted into coffee shops & business offices, and further south is the 3-story boarding house (now apartments) at 89 Atlanta St., Marietta, GA, that was also a victim of fire.
I’d be curious to know the full history of this apartment building as it appears to have undergone quite a few changes, having either lost a floor or gained a front expansion.
This is an interesting photo, but one that’s somewhat hard to reconcile with how it looks today since a large section of Atlanta Street and most of the homes and businesses on either side of the GA-120 Loop / South Marietta Parkway were razed before Atlanta Street was lowered to create the railway underpass at Atlanta Street & the GA-120 Loop. For reference, I’ve outlined the one remaining home with a black box that was just razed in July 2022, the Sinclair Gas Service Station at the right and a car at the left with red boxes to help with the “now and then” orientation. The service station is now an auto repair shop that sits on top of a hill above the intersection who most don’t even know is there.Then and Now, 1959 top, 2021 bottom. The Methodist Church and City Hall became parking lots, the County Courthouse was replaced by a utilitarian structure and newer courthouses that invoke some of the traits of the 1893 courthouse have been built. The 1st Marietta Public Housing Project, Clay Homes that replaced the “slums” southwest of downtown, is now filled with $500,000 – $750,000, upscale townhomes, and Atlanta Road would be unrecognizable to anyone who moved away in the 1970’s and came back to visit. But, Marietta still has quite a large number of 100-year old buildings, many hidden under multiple make-overs and other changes due to fires, expansion and additions and repurposing.
Just off the Square: Southwest / Old Powder Springs Street
On the west side of Powder Springs Street, just south of the Marietta Square sits a large, brick building that was at one time home to several different auto dealerships: Butler, Butler-Anderson and Northcutt. There was another building just to the east on Anderson Street that also housed, interchangeably, Butler-Anderson & Northcutt. But, yes, in the 1st half of the 1900’s most businesses were located in and around the Marietta Square. Reference the lower, left photo above, take note of the lovely, two-story building that at one time sat where the Marietta Pizza Company’s one-story building is today.Further to the south on Powder Springs Street, additional commercial brick buildings replaced the frame homes that once occupied all of the land just outside of the Marietta Square. This one photo of Mr. Richardson seated on a Penny-farthing “high wheeler” bicycle was taken in front of his shop, the building in the current photo at the upper right with the silver, metal awning next door to Two-Birds Taphouse. Mr. Richardson later relocated his business to the intersection of Lawrence & Fairground Streets just south of Fairground to a small building that, as you can see in the lower-two photos, is still there.
Whitlock Street was previously known as Paulding Street up and until the late 1890’s when it was renamed for the well-known, 150-room Whitlock Inn & Resort that had occupied an entire city block at the corner of Paulding and Demead Streets that burned to the ground in April 1889. The businesses near the square included former and current stables, warehouses and hotels located near the railway and depots, many of which ended-up being repurposed, to include the Kennesaw House that was at one time a warehouse. Four of the photos above give you a sense of how the corner of Whitlock and Powder Springs Street looked as recently as the 1940’s, while the lower-right photo depicts the Anderson Livery Stables in 1898, sitting at what is now the intersection of Whitlock and the North Marietta Parkway.This series of photos builds on the Anderson Livery Stables in 1898 from above, to show what it looked like to the east, across the railroad tracks where one of the other warehouses adjacent to the Kennesaw House still sits. Note that in the lower, left photo the Anderson Livery Stables across the tracks and behind the bulls had by now received a second story and other improvements. The two men and their bulls were standing just to the south of the Dobbs, Garrison & Co. Grain & Fertilizer building shown looking east that housed the “Gone With The Wind” Museum, which relocated to the Brumby House south of town on Powder Springs Street in 2018.
The Kennesaw House, originally built as a warehouse and repurposed as a hotel, through time. Note that prior to the Civil War the Kennesaw House had a fourth floor that caught fire when the Union Army was burning “public buildings and businesses that could be of value to the enemy” as it left Marietta in 1864. The damaged 4th floor was removed and never replaced.Over the years, the first floor of the Kennesaw House was used as warehouse space, then hotel rooms on the north side were eventually modified into business spaces including a coffee shop and the “Downtown Development Authority” offices. In the 1970’s, a building renovation bricked-in the store fronts, giving the north-facing side of the Kennesaw House its present appearance.In my recounting of the Georgia, Cobb County & Marietta History blog, you’ll note that both Marietta and the Western and Atlantic Railroad came into being in the mid-1930’s: Marietta being settled in 1833, recognized as the county seat in 1834, the Georgia Legislature approving the creation of the Western & Atlantic Railroad in 1836, with the tracks being laid passing through Marietta in 1837. While Marietta’s Passenger Depot located on the east side of the tracks and next to the Kennesaw House remains and now serves as The City Welcome Center, the block-long freight terminal was damaged beyond economic repair by a train wreck on 21 May 1974 and razed
Strangely, it has been very hard to find many photos of the Kennesaw Paper Company, aka, the Kennesaw Paper Mill, the Marietta Paper Company or Mill and Denmead’s Mill, noting it was located at the intersection of Mill & Denmead Streets on the west side of the railway. Most references to searches will, invariably, bring-up information on the Marietta Paper Mill at Sope Creek, which was part of the same company but at different locations. And, it’s noteworthy that the mill near the Marietta Square burned and was rebuilt several times. Yet, I’ve not found a lot of detail aside from these three photos that provide a glimpse of what the mill looked like at different times, and where it sat in relation to the square and why it’s smoke stack features so prominently in many photos from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.The Mill End Store was a well-known fixture on Mill Street which, itself, was a very short street that ran only 4-blocks between the square and former Husk Street where the Gem City Bottle Works sat where Mill Street dead-ends into North Marietta Parkway, just south of the large, round stained glass window of the First United Methodist Church of Marietta salvaged from the Atlanta Street church was installed.A street scene from the 1970’s at the corner before “Shillings on the Square” with the Brumby Furniture Store on the opposite side of the corner. Just a few years later, a southbound freight train derailed just after reaching Mill Street, damaging buildings and destroying the Marietta Freight Terminal: amazingly, there were no serious injuries. And we have one of the few surviving Glover Machine Works Locomotives, a 36″ gauge, 2-6-0 lumber engine that remains on static display west of the Marietta Depot, while the Pulman passenger car that for many years sat on display at the Depot was cut-up for scrap and removed a few years back.
Above is a 1907 photo take at the corner of Church and Mill Street looking northwest from the square, with Rogers Grocery Store sitting at the corner. Note the architectural detail on the upper portion of the south-facing wall on Mill Street remains to this day. Across the railroad tracks and to the west is the Kennesaw Paper Mill with its tall smokestack, and further to the north on the east side of the railroad is the large water tower at the Marietta Chair Company. Below are what the 1905 and 1911 Sanborn Maps showed for the local businesses adjacent to Roger’s Grocery. Today, while most of Church Street just north of the square is occupied by the First Presbyterian, St. James Episcopal, Marietta First Baptist and Mayes Funeral Home buildings, it too remains rich with history. Where parking lots and the First Baptist Family Life Center now sit were at one time a hotel built at the turn of the last century that also housed Field Furniture for many years, taking over the entire building before it was razed, and just to the east of it was the “old, old Marietta Hospital” at the corner of Hansell and Root streets. More interesting is the “old trolley barn” that became the sales office for Guest Motor Co’s used car lot and is now an office building and parking lot for Smith, Tumlin, McCurley & Patrick, P.C.Following-on to the last comments on “the old trolley barn,” as noted it was located directly behind what was at the time “Shilling’s Hardware Store” and became Shillings on the Square from 1905 until 1947 while the Marietta Streetcar Company was in existence and operating with routes between Marietta and Atlanta, a 50-minute trip with 41 stops that cost $0.35.Although a shadow of its former self, the robust Marietta Mill District once was home to several furniture manufacturing businesses including the Brumby Chair Company north of the square and not included in this blog — at least as of yet — as well as the paper mill, ice company and many other trades. Beyond the square were several marble companies, textile manufacturers, the Glover Machine Works, tanneries, etc. that I highlighted in one of my blogs on the Industries included in the Sanborn Insurance Maps of 1885-1923.T.J.” Galley House, built by Sam K. Dick in 1898 for Thomas Galley who passed at the age of 57 in 1929 and left this beautiful home to his wife Nannie. In an effort to become financially self-reliant, she remodeled the home into a Bed and Breakfast with rooms, steam heat, baths, spa, and a tea room. However, like many neighborhoods in and around Marietta Square, her home was razed in 1960, likely with at least two others since publication of the 1923 Sanborn Insurance Map I’ve used as an overlay on the present block (below) to make way for the expansion of the First Presbyterian Church and, of course, more parking. The same fate visited upon four other dwellings along the west side of this block on Church Street. Note that the concrete front walk leading to Church Street remains to this day.
Jumping to the east side of North Park Street and Cherokee Street which paralleled Church Street on the north side of the Marietta Square, what I chose to highlight were two rather important structures. However, for context, the photos above provide a look north on Cherokee Street where, on the right are the “old” Marietta Bus & Taxi Terminal marked by the Gulf sign, and that first building on the right was “the new” Marietta Hospital built I suspect in the 1920’s. Off in the distance is the immense and lovely Zion Baptist Church complex that occupies a city block’s worth of land along Lemon Street at Cherokee Street.This is a “then and now” photo of the Old Marietta Bus & Taxi Terminal & Terminal Grill that sat just north of the Marietta Square on Cherokee Street. The “New” Marietta Bus Depot was located at the 3-way corner of Roswell, Green and Anderson Streets, east of the Marietta Square and is still there, but somewhat remodeled into law offices.
Marietta & Kennestone Hospital
In the “Now” photo at the very top of this entry you’ll see the current Wellstar Kennestone Hospital “complex” and in the center highlighted with the yellow outline is the 1949 “Kennestone” hospital you see at the lower-right photo in the “then” series of photos. The building in the upper-left corner is the Marietta Hospital built after 1923 that replaced the “original” Marietta hospital tucked away at the corner of Hansell and Root Street, behind the buildings on the northwest side of North Park Street. The Marietta Hospital on Cherokee Street was eventually replaced by what was originally to be named the Blair Memorial Hospital built in the late 1940’s, but renamed the Kennestone Memorial Hospital after the Marietta Board of Lights and Water withdrew funding for the hospital’s construction before the federal construction grants authorized by the Hill-Burton Act allowed the project to be finished. The photo to the right of the Cherokee Street Marietta hospital is the parking structure that now occupied that space. The photo to the left of the 1949 Kennestone Hospital is from when it was under construction at the top of Campbell Hill. It is called “Kennestone” because at the time when it was built you could see both Kennesaw & Stone Mountains from Campbelll HIll.This is an older “then and now” composite I created back in April and perhaps the catalyst for this current photo-study / collage / compilation I’m now working on. It was something I created for a blog entry called Marietta, Then & Now: Down the Rabbit Hole Once Again… It depicts a row of homes located where the former Page Street (now the North Marietta Parkway) intersected and ended at Cherokee Street, just south of where Brumby Street used to also intersect and end at Cherokee Street. I felt compelled to make it clear that the old frame home converted into what at the time the photo was taken was “Brown’s Grocery Store” that didn’t sit at the corner of Page & Cherokee, it sat at the corner of Cherokee and Brumby, where the house at 619 Cherokee would have been right in the middle of North Marietta Parkway.
In the “Now” photo at the very top of this entry you’ll see the current intersection of Lawrence & Waddell Streets, where the Marietta City Administration building (outlined in red), the old barber shop and pool hall (outlined in yellow) and the Zion Baptist Church (outlined in green) were all located as shown in the “then” series of photos. Lawrence Street was also once was occupied by homes and businesses just as all of the other streets leading to the Marietta Square. However, in the segregated south and Marietta, it was considered “the negro or black” part of town, and suffered from economic distress, as did most of Marietta during the depression era and 1930’s, but more so. ” The city built the aforementioned, two-story administration building at the corner of Lawrence & Waddell Streets, foreshadowing how nearly 15 blocks east of the Marietta Square would eventually be consumed by public, government buildings to include the city hall, fire department, city & county administration buildings, police department, city and lower courts and parking structures, and many, many parking lots and structures.
Clay & Fort Hill Public Housing Projects Off Waddell & Wayland & Lemon & Cole Streets
Hollandtown, SE of the Marietta Square in the late 1930’S before being razed and replaced by Clay HomesIn 1940, the Marietta Housing Authority was established to deal with the need to redevelop depressed urban communities during the depression, the first two of which were established just east of the Marietta Square. While a large public housing project called Clay Homes was built in 1940 to deal with the “slums” that had developed on the southeast side of the Marietta Square for “the white” poor of Marietta, a separate public housing project called Fort Hill Homes was built in 1940 to replace the slums on the northwest side of the Marietta Square for “the black” poor of Marietta. Both projects have since been razed as of 2012 and recently replaced by upscale, $500k – $900k townhomes and single-family city homes as shown in the “now” photos above the “then” photos.
The Lemon Street Schools
However, worthy of special note are the Lemon Street Schools. Rather than paraphrasing, I’ll just quote what’s on the Historical marker: “The Lemon Street Grammar School opened in 1894. The original wooden structure was funded by Marietta’s school board, and designed to educate Negro students. The high school was built nearby in 1930 at urging of Ursula Jenkins. Professor M. J. Woods became principal of both schools in 1929 and led the high school until 1962. Lemon Street and Marietta High Schools merged in 1967 and the Lemon Street building was demolished. The new grammar school was built at the direction of city council in 1951 and operated as a school until 1971.” The “now” photo is somewhat dated from 2019, just after the Fort Hill Homes Public Housing Project was razed and turned into the aforementioned upscale neighborhood that sits just to the west of the 1951 Lemon Street School, and next to it is a parking lot where the 1894 Lemon Street School had been located.
Late 1800’s artist’s colorized rendering / postcard looking Northwest from Southwest Corner of Marietta SquareLate 1800’s photo taken from “Fort HIll” and current location of The Extension, Northeast of the Marietta Square looking Northwest towards Kennesaw Mountain with the 1894 Lemon Street School with tower in view1950’s aerial photo taken Southeast of Marietta Square looking Northwest towards Kennesaw Mountain1958’s aerial photo taken Northwest of Marietta Square looking Southeast to Glover Park / Atlanta Road.1959’s aerial photo taken North/Northwest of Marietta Square looking South/Southeast 1950’s aerial photo of old Marietta High School (now Marietta City Schools) & Northcutt Stadium
Beyond the Marietta Square, Dobbins & Old Fairground Area
Clay Street @ Fairground with Marietta Place Housing, circa 1940’sClay Street (now South Cobb Drive) at U.S. 41 circa 1953, near current KSU Southern Poly campusRoswell Road at U.S. 41 “4-Lane” back in the 1940’s, looking northeastAlong “old” Dixie Highway, now West Atlanta Street SE, at the east entrance to the City & Confederate CemeteryHyde House / Kennesaw Mountain Nat’l Park Headquarters & Entrance to Park at Stilesboro Road & Old U.S. 41Burnt Hickory just a bit east of the current Barrett Parkway looking northeast towards Kennesaw Mountain.Satellite Images – Parkaire Airfield (now gone) at Johnson’s Ferry & Lower Roswell Rd, circa 1950’sMcCollum Field (now Cobb County Int’l Airport) circa 1960’s
1938 image above Marietta Square, bounded to the North by Kennesaw Street with Air Force Plant 6 at lower right1964 image of U.S. Route 41 at Canton Road Interchange, Southeast of present-day Interstate 75 InterchangeLate 1930’s image of Kennesaw Mountain with 1925 mountain top road & Camp Brumby clearly visible
[3.25 – Min Read]Introduction: I’ve found myself on a local history kick about the history of Marietta and Cobb County since back in March when I felt the need to develop something of a hobby where I could better-focus my interest in doing reading and research on things other than political history and current events. Something more local, as much about my adopted home for the past 31 years is based on word of mouth, captioned photos and not a more structured approach to actually “learning” the history.
However, what’s really caught my interest has been the extensive photo collection a local history-buff amassed on what was a personal, enthusiast’s page which has since been commercialized. Not having grown-up in the area, every new photo of “old Marietta” sent me in search of other, older photos so I could put the image into context with what is currently in the same location by using Google Maps & Google Earth applications here in my office. I hope to get-out and do a bit of an urban history safari at some point to replace the poached-images with my own photos. But, until such time, I decided I’d go ahead and share what I found and consolidated into small photo collages using snapshots of PowerPoint slides.
My first deep-dive into our local history was inspired by our hikes at the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park (KMNBP) a mere 5-mile / 10-minute drive from our home. Like most, my first inclination was to learn the history of The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. And, like so many things, the more I learned through taking an active interest in research, the more I realized how much I thought I knew from various sources was incorrect. And, having gotten a far-better appreciation for the Civil War and the battle that took place in our “backyard” the more my interest in how the park came to be established grew and, once again, what I thought I knew turned out to be incorrect.
One of the things that grabbed my attention was something posted about Marietta Public School No. 1, aka, the Waterstreet School, built in 1892 that was still in use into the 1960’s. My interest in the school’s history and its demise to make way for road expansion sent me down another rabbit hole when I found a series of Insurance Maps created in 1911 by the Sanborn Map Company that essentially provided a visual, hand-drawn inventory of all the streets and structures in the City of Marietta, circa 1911.
I was compelled to knit all 16 of the maps together to create a contiguous picture of the city so I could get a feel for what was still standing, and what had been consumed by progress, i.e., development, re-zoning and re-development. I ended-up putting that map as well as what I learned in yet another blog entry in the same vein as this one: it was something I’d gotten on my mind, learned a great deal about and wanted to capture for future reference and posterity: “Map of Marietta, 1911.” I’ve since then found all six of the maps that were created between 1885 and 1923 which spawned two other blogs, “Marietta Sanborn Insurance Maps, 1885-1923” and “Sanborn Maps: Large Businesses in Marietta, Georgia: 1900’s“
As I was creating the blog, I fell into the habit of searching out older photos to add some additional interest to all of the words and then started to try and find newer or current photos to show significant changes that had taken place.
Then and Now, McCollum Airport in the 1960’s left and center, and more recently at right
This is obviously not a new or novel idea and back when writing my Georgia history blog entry, I’d found and read “Marietta, Then & Now,” a book co-authored by the late and long-time local newspaper editor Joe Kirby and Mr. Damien Guarnieri, a very nice young man who worked at the Marietta Daily Journal with Mr. Kirby before joining and managing the photography group at Lockheed-Martin.
So, that brought about another blog as I went down yet another rabbit hole that has all now culminated in the creation of this new blog where I’m going to try and capture the “Now & Then” composite views I’ve been creating, many of which I’ve since deleted from Facebook after they served their initial purpose, e.g., offering regular followers hopefully something of interest.
A History Trip to Cobb County Georgia 
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