Cobb commissioners on Tuesday will consider a request to relocate an 1840s-era cabin off Post Oak Tritt Road to the Hyde Farm facility in East Cobb.
An agenda item states that the badly deteriorating Power-Jackson Cabin would be moved to Hyde Farm off Lower Roswell Road near the Chattahoochee River, where it would be restored as part of a continuing 19th century working farm.
Cobb PARKS said it’s recommending that Leatherwood Inc., a Tennessee-based company that restored 13 structures at Hyde Farm in 2014, perform the restoration of the Power-Jackson Cabin.
The cost to do so would be $321,000 in 2011 SPLOST funds earmarked for Hyde Park restoration projects. Commissioners would have to vote separately to approve that contract.
“As a collaborative community effort, moving the cabin to and restoring the cabin at Hyde Farm honors the history of Cobb County by saving this valuable historic asset,” the agenda item states.
Cobb Landmarks, a Marietta-based historic preservation non-profit, has raised more than $65,000 to pay for relocation expenses for the Power-Jackson Cabin.
Hyde Farm, which includes 136 acres and 42 acres run by the county, is where another Power family cabin exists. Last year, commissioners approved a resolution for the county to submit an application for Hyde Farm to be included on the National Register of Historic Places.
A property near Hyde Farm, the George Abner Power House, which also dates to the 1840s, is owned by Cobb Landmarks and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
The Power-Jackson Cabin, possibly built before 1840 by farmer William Power, is located on 13 undeveloped acres on Post Oak Tritt Road near McPherson Road that was part of a recent zoning case.
Landowner Kenneth B. Clary sought rezoning for a single-family subdivision, but issues over the cabin and possible Power family burials complicated the issue.
Clary later withdrew the rezoning request, and his family agreed to allow Cobb Landmarks to remove the cabin.
Last week Cobb Landmarks said it’s working with University of West Georgia to perform dendrochronology (the study of tree rings) on the logs, which could help determine when the trees were cut down to construct the cabin.
“This is part of our ongoing effort to better understand and preserve the cabin,” Cobb Landmarks said.
The full agenda for Tuesday’s meeting can be viewed by clicking here; the meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society, a Marietta-based historic preservation non-profit, has begun a fundraising drive to collect an estimated $65,000 in donations to relocate an 184os log cabin on Post Oak Tritt Road to the county-run Hyde Farm in East Cobb.
The organization believes the Power-Jackson Cabin may be the oldest existing structure in Cobb County.
But a recent rezoning case involving the land where the cabin sits has triggered a new effort to save it, as well as an evaluation by a log cabin expert, Vic Hood.
In May attorneys for Kenneth B. Clary withdrew a rezoning request for a proposed subdivision on 13 acres of undeveloped land on Post Oak Tritt Road near McPherson Road after opposition surfaced for historical and stormwater issues.
That’s where the cabin, which initially belonged to William Power before it was given to his daughter, Martha Jane, still sits, in badly deteriorating shape.
At a zoning hearing, cemetery preservationists also noted that a young mother—likely Power’s daughter—and two infants are buried on the site, further complicating development efforts.
In a message that the organization sent out Tuesday, Cobb Landmarks is asking for donations to disassemble, tag and relocate the logs to Hyde Farm. Clary’s family has agreed to allow Cobb Landmarks to remove the cabin.
“The purpose of Hood’s visit was to determine if the cabin could be saved and the scope of work a restoration project might entail,” Cobb Landmarks said in its Tuesday update. “Hood determined the cabin is still salvageable, but that time is running out.”
Hyde Farm is where another Power family cabin exists, as part of a working 1840s farm that was in family hands until the 1990s.
Cobb PARKS oversees that property off Lower Roswell Road, and the Cobb Landmarks message noted that the department has been discussing the possibility of using 2016 Cobb SPLOST funds to restore the cabin.
“Having the Power-Jackson Cabin join her sibling cabins at Hyde Farm creates a unique opportunity for the public to view three pioneer log cabins that, at one time, all belonged to members of the same family,” the Cobb Landmarks message said.
“Commissioner Jerica Richardson believes this to be a worthwhile investment to the community. With approval of restoration, Cobb PARKS would be responsible for maintaining the cabin in perpetuity.”
East Cobb News has left a message with Richardson’s office seeking comment.
SPLOST funds have been used to preserve other structures at Hyde Farm, which was turned over to the county in 1999 by the Trust for Public Land. Cobb Landmarks maintains the cabin and conducts tours of the property.
“This partnership between Cobb Landmarks and Cobb County PARKS represents a meaningful and significant investment in the preservation of local history and offers a path for the rescue and protection of the Power-Jackson Cabin,” Cobb Landmarks said in its update.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A home in Northeast Cobb that served as a Union general’s headquarters during the Civil War could soon give way to a car wash.
The Cobb Planning Commission on Tuesday is expected to give a first hearing for a proposed car wash at the intersection of Bells Ferry Road and Barrett Parkway after the application had been delayed.
The McAfee House has been vacant for years, and historic preservation interests have been negotiating with the landowners to have the building relocated.
Two-acre site is surrounded by commercial property, including a shopping center with a Publix and a Barnes and Noble, and is across the street from Bells Ferry Elementary School.
Tommy’s Express by Northgate is seeking the neighborhood retail commercial (NRC) category (case filings here) for the two-acre site, which currently is zoned general commercial.
The car wash, which would include 5,315 square feet of space and 29 parking spaces, would be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
The Cobb Zoning Office is recommending approval with some conditions, and suggested that “if the house cannot be moved and/or preserved on site, staff recommends that documentation of the structure, all outbuildings, and its setting, including current archival-quality photographs be completed by a cultural resource consultant. These materials should be submitted to the historic preservation planner.”
The McAfee House was the homestead of farmers Eliza and Robert McAfee, and it dates back to the 1840s. It was used as a Union Army general’s headquarters after the seizure of the Big Shanty during the Civil War. It also served as a field hospital after an 1864 engagement near what was called McAfee’s Crossroads.
Cobb Landmarks had been working to preserve another 1840s home on Post Oak Tritt Road where another rezoning case was being considered.
But the applicant, Kenneth B. Clary, withdrew that application last month after a proposal for a subdivision drew opposition for stormwater and historic preservation reasons.
The Power-Jackson Cabin was also built in the 1840s and has been abandoned for several decades. Cobb Landmarks posted earlier this week that it recently visited the site to assess the possibility of having an archaeological survey conducted:
“Cobb Landmarks is also exploring different options for the long-term preservation of the cabin, including the possibility of relocating it to a nearby park for public display. . . We were encouraged by what we saw and are hopeful the cabin can still be saved.”
Cobb Landmarks has been interested in having the structure relocated to the Hyde Farm facility on Lower Roswell Road.
Another Northeast Cobb rezoning case of interest to be heard Tuesday has been placed on the consent agenda, meaning there is no known opposition.
It’s a proposal by Toys & Gift Delivery, Inc. for a bakery at 2601 Sandy Plains Road, from office-industrial to NRC.
The vacant building at 6,552 square feet and the bakery would be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, according to the zoning filing.
The Cobb Planning Commission hearing begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta), you can view the full agenda and individual case files by clicking here.
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a resolution for the county to submit an application for the Hyde Farm property in East Cobb to be included on the National Register of Historic Places.
What’s officially called the Power-Hyde Historic District contains 136 acres and is what’s left of an 1840s working farm on Hyde Road, located off Lower Roswell Road near the Chattahoochee River.
The national register, which is part of the U.S. National Park Service, was created in 1996 to identify, evaluate and protect historic places “worthy of preservation.”
Nominations for inclusion start with state historic preservation authorities and must include several criteria for consideration.
In addition to the publicity for earning the designation, properties on the register may be eligible for preservation grants and tax credits.
The Hyde Farm property is jointly owned and run by the county (42 acres) and the U.S. government, the latter being the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.
More than 40 acres were sold to the Trust for Public Land in the late 1980s, and 95 more acres were told to the same entity in 2004. Cobb purchased 40 acres and the rest went to the National Park Service.
JC Hyde, the last member of the Power-Hyde families to run the farmstead, died in 2008.
Cobb Parks restored the farmstead in 2013 and conducts monthly walking tours.
Cobb Parks also holds a summer fishing rodeo for kids at Hyde Farm, and the property is used for educational purposes, summer camps and classes.
Tuesday’s action means that the county will submit the application to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Historic Preservation Division for nomination to the national register.
There are more than 40 properties in Cobb that are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Sope Creek Ruins off Paper Mill Road.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
From left, Gail Poss Towe, Mark Poss and Cherie Poss Chandler, the youngest children of Arthur and Evelyn Poss. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
As a girl in the early 1960s, Gail Poss Towe would sit in front of her family home and count the number of cars passing by on what was called South Roswell Road, or Route 3.
“There was nothing going on,” she recalls of a much slower pace of life.
During those days, the Posses lived in a community that was called Mt. Bethel, named after the Methodist church then located on Johnson Ferry Road, and a school, community center and baseball field across the road.
Gail’s younger sister, Cherie Poss Chandler, remembers cows from the family farm wandering down what had become known as Lower Roswell Road, and into a new development of homes and a golf course called Indian Hills.
By then, the early 1970s, the name “East Cobb” was rolling off the tongues of newcomers moving into a rapidly suburbanizing part of metro Atlanta.
The Posses still called their surroundings Mt. Bethel, but they could see what was coming. While they welcomed newer schools and more conveniences, they also knew that their community would never be the same.
“When Indian Hills opened, that was a huge caveat to a changing community,” said Chandler, the fifth of the Poss children.
“That’s when it went from being Mt. Bethel to East Cobb.”
The Poss home at 4608 Lower Roswell Road, where the Mt. Bethel Community Center stands today at Woodlawn Drive. (Poss family photo)
Memories of another time
Gail and Cherie and their brother Mark, the youngest of six children of Arthur and Evelyn Poss, were childhood witnesses to a stunning transformation of a community that went from rural to suburban within the space of a generation.
Although the Posses never moved, their children went to three different high schools. The oldest, Betty Poss Smith, Linda Poss Webster and Marion Arthur Poss Jr. earned diplomas from Sprayberry, when it was still located on the current campus of The Walker School on Cobb Parkway at Allgood Road.
Gail graduated from Wheeler, and Cherie and Mark from Walton.
Unlike the suburban kids who were becoming their schoolmates, they fed chickens and did other farm chores before school.
Believe it not, they played kickball in Johnson Ferry Road, and walked down the corner of Johnson Ferry and Lower Roswell to the Johnny Perkins and Fred Sauls stores, both country groceries, to spend their allowance money on gum and candy.
Betty was a lifeguard at the private pool at the Parkaire airfield. Cherie recalls a fire station on the current site of the Chick-fil-A on Johnson Ferry. What’s now Merchants Walk Shopping Center was the Porter farm, run by an influential family.
In those days, the intersection of Johnson Ferry and what was called Upper Roswell Road was dubbed Five Points.
“I can’t remember what the fifth road was called,” Towe said.
When the Posses were kids, there wasn’t a nearby police station. In 1980, the old Mt. Bethel Community Center—originally built as Mt. Bethel Elementary School—became the first home for Cobb Police Precinct 4, opened by the county at Arthur Poss’ urging.
The first captain there, Bob Hightower, was good friends with Arthur Poss and later would become Cobb’s first public safety director. The center was the hub of local life, the spot for turkey shoots in the fall, cake walks and Friday community suppers.
Further down Woodlawn Drive was another farm owned by a prosperous businessman, Atlanta car dealer Walter Boomershine, who retired there to raise cows and Tennessee walking horses.
An aerial photo of the Poss farmstead on 10 acres at Lower Roswell Road and Woodlawn Drive. (Poss family photo)
The Posses lived on 10 acres at what is now the southwest intersection of Lower Roswell and Woodlawn Drive. Behind the home, where the current Mt. Bethel Community Center stands, were chicken coops. Black Angus and white Hereford cows roamed in the back, as did quail and bird dogs.
Off to the side was an area called “the onion bed” where vegetables and fruits were grown, and included a grapevine lush with muscadines. Arthur Poss also kept honeybees.
“He came from a long line of farmers,” Chandler says of her father. “He farmed because he loved the land, and he wanted us to learn to grow things.”
Their closest neighbor was Wilce Frasier, who lived on the opposite corner Lower Roswell and Woodlawn in a family home dating back to the late 1890s, where he cultivated a small garden.
“He was just so sweet,” Chandler said.
“His house was fabulous,” added Towe. “There were antiques and flowers everywhere.”
Coming back home to Mt. Bethel
Marion Arthur Poss Sr. was raised on another farm in Mt. Bethel. His grandparents, David and Nancy Poss, settled on some land on what is now known as Johnson Ferry Road, near Post Oak Tritt Road, after the Civil War.
His parents also had land on Johnson Ferry, on the current site of the River Hill subdivision, then moved to the present location of the Johnson Ferry Animal Hospital below Lower Roswell.
That’s where Arthur grew up before living in Brookhaven as a young man. When he returned to Mt. Bethel in the early 1940s, he brought with him his bride Evelyn Barfield Poss, a city girl from Atlanta. In 1947, they moved to a house he built at 4608 South Roswell/Route 3—then a dirt road—and raised their family.
At the time, they used coal to heat the house—there was no natural gas—and Propane tanks to keep the chicken houses warm. Their water supply came from a well.
Newlyweds Arthur and Evelyn Poss in the early 1940s. (Poss family photo)
Arthur made his living as a master plumber, traveling around Atlanta on jobs that included Crawford Long Hospital, as well as businesses and other institutions.
In his soul, however, he was a farmer, and in his spare time he ran a 50-acre spread on South Roswell. In the 1950s, Cobb County government wanted most of his land to build a wastewater treatment plant, and condemned 40 acres.
That’s where the James E. Quarles Water Treatment Plant, completed in 1952 as the first facility of the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority, sits today.
In the 1980s, the land fronting the plant on Lower Roswell became the site for the East Cobb Government Service Center, including the current headquarters for Precinct 4 and Cobb Fire Station 21.
As their children were growing up, Arthur and Evelyn were heavily involved in community life. He served as president of the Mt. Bethel Community Center for 16 years and after retiring as a plumber was a court bailiff.
Another of Arthur’s good friends was former Cobb Sheriff Bill Hutson, and they were regular hunting companions.
Evelyn served on PTA boards at Mt. Bethel Elementary and East Side Elementary and was a devoted member and president of the Sope Creek Garden Club, winning ribbons at the Cobb County Fair for her hydrangeas and other flowers she tended at home.
“She was sweetest lady ever,” Chandler said of her mother.
A building at Lower Roswell and Johnson Ferry Road that housed the original Mt. Bethel Elementary School, Mt. Bethel Community Center and Cobb Police Precinct 4 stood until 2000. (Poss family photo)
Subdivided and suburbanized
By the time the Poss children were grown, most markers of the old Mt. Bethel community had been swept away.
The community center was torn down in 2000, when Johnson Ferry was widened to six lanes, and the church was relocated years before across from the East Cobb government center.
While the church cemetery still lines Johnson Ferry near the new Northside medical complex, Perkins and Sauls were replaced by the likes of CVS, Zaxby’s and Tijuana Joe’s. The Parkaire airport gave way to what is now Parkaire Landing Shopping and the Marietta Ice Center.
The U.S. Postal Service wanted to buy the Poss land, prizing the location at the Lower Roswell-Woodlawn intersection.
“Dad turned it down,” Towe said. “He just wouldn’t sell. That’s why the post office (located just down Lower Roswell next to Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church) is where it is now.”
Arthur Poss died in 1990; Evelyn Poss stayed in the home until her death in 1999. The house and the property were sold in 2001.
The current Mt. Bethel Community Center is the home to Aloha to Aging, a non-profit senior services agency, and counseling services provided by Mt. Bethel UMC.
Chandler said that some years before, her father wanted to build a subdivision on the back of the land and have streets named after each of his children, “but Cobb County had a different idea.”
Today, what was the Poss farmstead is now the Whitehall subdivision (below).
The Poss children scattered into adulthood, but not too far away. Betty and Linda, both retired, are still in East Cobb. Cherie lives in Roswell and is a substitute teacher at Roswell High School. Gail and Mark reside in Woodstock. Their brother Marion, who settled in Douglasville, died in 2014 at the age of 68.
Cherie says when she comes back through East Cobb with her son, she’ll find herself pointing to a development and say “that was a pasture,” and offering other such recollections.
The Poss siblings say these things without passing judgment, understanding the nature of the changes they experienced. They did sound bittersweet upon learning of the demolition of the Frasier home earlier this year (previous East Cobb News story here), realizing that truly was the last standing memory of the world they had known as Mt. Bethel.
They were also thinking about what their father thought of what had come to be known as East Cobb, and how it’s growing still.
“For him to see the land turned into buildings, that was just sad to him,” Chandler said.
“He loved the land, and he just loved the Mt. Bethel community.”
A 2005 photo of the Poss siblings, from left: Mark Poss, Cherie Poss Chandler, Gail Poss Towe, Linda Poss Webster, the late Marion Arthur Poss Jr. and Betty Poss Smith. (Poss family photo)
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
