You can’t see it from Holly Springs Road, but a home tucked away in a rural setting near Sewell Mill Creek and close to a typical suburban subdivision is a relic from Cobb County’s distant past.
What was built as a tenant farmer house, and preserved close to that function by its many owners, has been added to the Cobb County Register of Historic Places.
It’s called the Casteel-Nix-Volin House, and local historical preservationists say it’s one of a handful of “saddlebag” homes still standing in Cobb County. Those were log-style homes with two rooms and a central chimney and were built starting from the late 1800s into the 1920s or so.
That’s when the Casteel-Nix-Volin House, which was part of a larger farmstead that dates back to the years before the Civil War, was built.
According to background material gathered by the Cobb Historic Preservation Commission, a portion of the original front porch was enclosed in the late 1930s to make up a bedroom, and the home has gradually been expanded to include 1,750 square feet.
Owners Curtis and Emily Volin applied for the designation, which was adopted last week by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
“This is a great example of our agricultural history in East Cobb,” said Dana Johnson, the director of the Cobb Community Development Agency.
(You can read more here about the home’s history, which was submitted as part of the application, and see more photos of the house and the property.)
“This is very rare, to have an historic home in this area,” said Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, before she and her colleagues voted 5-0 to add the Casteel-Nix-Volin House to the register.
Here’s what Emily Yewell Volin told East Cobb News:
“Our family fell in love with this home and the setting’s uniqueness in the area, at first sight and we are excited for this little piece of local history to always be preserved. The place seems to have attracted kindred spirits throughout its history. We are grateful to everyone who has cared for the home and setting before, but historic properties cannot rely solely upon goodwill to preserve their heritage. We are glad the Cobb Registry of Historic Places exists and that this property is now in its protection.”
She and her husband Curtis, a system divisions chief at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, are involved in FTC Team 4631 robotics team. She thanked Mandy Elliott of the Cobb Historic Preservation staff for guidance during the historic register process:
“She and the Cobb County Historic Preservation Committee were helpful with all the procedures and protocols needed for the Cobb Cobb County Community Development Agency to present our application to the Board of Commissioners for a vote. We are thankful for their service and guidance.”
The Volins’ application noted that by 1900, roughly half of all farmers in then-agricultural Cobb County were tenant farmers, rather than land owners. The homes they lived in, and especially those built in the saddlebag style, are almost extinct today:
“Today, in the suburban growth area of east Cobb County, historic structures in general have dwindled and it is yet more uncommon to find a representation of the tenant farming system that was once prevalent in the County. The loss of saddlebag houses in Cobb County also exemplifies the loss of Cobb County’s agricultural history. The 2007 Cobb County Historic Resources Survey identified nine saddlebag-type houses in the County. Two are known to have been demolished, leaving the Casteel-Nix-Volin House likely one of eight saddlebags left in Cobb County.”
Local history buffs will be interested to know that the original landholders, and those who purchased the property on which the Casteel-Nix-Volin House stands today, were involved in the Marietta Camp Ground, which dates back to 1837 and still remains on Roswell Road, the venue for the Marietta Campmeeting revival every summer.
So was the family of Cline Nix, another owner of the property, and who is buried along with some relatives at the cemetery located across the street, next to the East Cobb United Methodist Church.
Some members of the Casteel family are buried at the Holly Springs Cemetery, which is now surrounded by a new housing development further north on Holly Springs Road.
Parcels of the land and the home changed ownership hands several times over the years, with Curtis and Emily Volin buying it in 2013.
As noted above, there’s a lot more to this story of East Cobb history.
While there are tax incentives to property owners for having a structure included on the register, Johnson said “there is a benefit to preserving history and we hope to extend it around the county.”
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