The original Mt. Bethel Community Center on Johnson Ferry Road also housed a school and was the first Cobb Police precinct location in East Cobb. (Special photo)
It’s hard to imagine the East Cobb we live in now being mostly farmland not that long ago. But going back in history turned out to a delightful departure from current news cycle for many of our readers after we published a story this summer about a family that remembered the community when it was called Mt. Bethel.
As the siblings of a prominent Mt. Bethel family told us, the changes have been rather recent: They were among the first graduates of Walton High School in the late 1970s, attending classes with suburban peers while they grew up on a farm on Lower Roswell Road at Woodlawn Drive.
Some of their cows occasionally wandered into a new planned community with a golf course that changed the area for good.
“When Indian Hills opened, that was a huge caveat to a changing community,” said Cherie Chandler, the fifth of the six Poss children. “That’s when it went from being Mt. Bethel to East Cobb.”
Her sister Gail Poss Towe saw a story we published in May about the demolition of a home near theirs belonging to Wilce Frasier, and was eager to share stories about a very different time.
We sat down with the three youngest children of Arthur and Evelyn Poss, who threw themselves into family and community life with eagerness and impact.
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)
The response from readers to this story was heartwarming: More local history, please! While we haven’t been able to do that as much as we had hoped, we’ve got some ideas along those lines heading into 2020.
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East Cobb realtor Janice Overbeck, is hosting a Women’s Empowerment Day at her real estate office on Saturday, October 5th from 10:00 am -2:00 pm.
The event will include a panel style seminar featuring business owners and leaders in the Atlanta community. The speakers will include: Emmy Award winner Mishael Porembski, Celebrity Hairstylist Nyema Bennett, Marine Corps Veteran & Motivational Speaker Chonta Flowers, Owner of Goodlife Magazine Kristen Bland, and Immersion Spanish Specialist Natalia Barrero.
The event will also feature breakout sessions and a vision board workshop. Attendees will have the opportunity to take a break from vision boards and treat themselves to a chair massage compliments of Life Moves Manual Therapies in Marietta.
The cost of the event is just $15 and covers materials and t-shirt. Attendees have the option to buy lunch catered by Red Sky Tapas or bring a packed lunch from home.
Coffee will be sponsored by local roaster Aroma Ridge and breakfast snacks will be sponsored by First American Home Warranty.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the events tab at www.JaniceOverbeck.com.
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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)
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The Taste of East Cobb raises funds for Walton band programs. (ECN file photo)
Thanks to Beth Compton for the information below:
Organizers of the Taste of East Cobb are announcing that the annual food and community event will be held on Saturday, May 4, 2019.
Known as “the most delicious Saturday of the year,” the Taste of East Cobb event will be held on May 4th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the parking lot of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, 955 Johnson Ferry Road, Marietta, Georgia 30068.
“Taste of East Cobb is our way of bringing people of all ages together to celebrate our vibrant community,” said Gregg Maynard, event chair. “Join us for a great day of family, food, and fun!”
Taste of East Cobb showcases the best of East Cobb’s local restaurant talent with chefs offering a delicious variety of tastings from their menus. All restaurant featured ‘tastes’ will be offered at only 1-5 tickets per serving, so make sure to arrive HUNGRY!
Come for the food — stay for the fun. Event goers can discover unique products from local vendors as well as participate in a silent auction with a lot of unique opportunities for great deals on valuable items.
Local high school jazz bands will provide music throughout the day — come hear some of the best emerging music talent from local neighborhoods. Our kid zone features inflatables and hands-on activities. Also, Taste of East Cobb is pleased to welcome Atlanta United 2 to the event — soccer ticket discount codes will be available on site for a game later in the evening.
Taste of East Cobb tickets are available for purchase on the day of the event for $1 each. Tickets can also be preordered online at www.TasteofEastCobb.com.
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I got really lucky Sunday afternoon finding a parking space in front of East Cobb Park, which was packed with people walking their dogs, tossing around a football, having cookouts, riding swings and just enjoying a sunny January afternoon that nearly reached 70 degrees.
It was the last day of an otherwise soggy and cold holiday season. The sun and warmth will stick around for the first part of the week as Cobb students head back to school, with highs in the 60s.
Toward the end of the week it will start to get colder, with highs in the 40s and lows in the 30s and 20s. The rain returns next weekend.
Before leaving I took a look at the free library box near the front of the park. I had seen it from a distance but for some reason had not been curious to see what books had been left there. You can drop off books for others too.
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The front of the Casteel-Nix-Volin House, which sits on 1.4 acres off Holly Springs Road near Sewell Mill Road. (Photos: Cobb Community Development Agency)
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.
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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This one’s from our calendar listings and a bit more to follow. Saturday should be fabulous for the Cobb Master Gardeners Spring Tour, which is being held at several locations around East Cobb, including the new Hyde Farm Community Garden.
The tour lasts from 10-5, and on-site tickets will cost $20. The sites can be visited in any order:
Experience how art meets science at six (6) fabulous gardens in East Cobb! This year’s lineup features four private gardens, the newly constructed Community Garden at Hyde Farm and the gardens at Murdock Elementary School.
Teams of Master Gardeners will be on hand to educate gardeners young and old on plant selection, soil preparation, and best practices that were learned and applied over the years thanks to their UGA training and continuing education. And this year, we want to engage all of your senses with music, art, photography and food preparation as you wander through.
Admission is free for children 17 and under.
And now for the specifics of each location, and what you’ll find when you get there:
Jazz It Up At Joe’s, The Washington Garden (2192 Deep Woods Way)
From tots to teens to empty nest, Master Gardener Joe Washington’s garden of 34 years has evolved. The sound of soft jazz is the perfect match for a stroll from the sunny front to the shady back – the perfect spot to kick back and relax! A variety of native and non-native plants complement the hardscape features. Joe has enjoyed years of designing and completing his garden projects with an eye toward low maintenance and simplicity of care. As a special treat, visitors “of a certain age” will learn that you are never too old to garden if you adopt some helpful adaptive gardening tools and techniques.
Seed What It’s All About at Murdock Elementary School (2320 Murdock Road)
Kindergarteners and First Graders enhance their science education at Murdock outside by planting a summer vegetable garden entirely from seeds and harvesting the vegetables in the fall! Students and staff will be on-hand to demonstrate how seamlessly the indoor classroom and outdoors work together to enrich their educational programs. And, visitors will learn to hone their garden skills with several hands-on demonstrations including proper pruning techniques from the Master Gardeners. Don’t be late for class!
Farm to Table, Hyde Farm Community Garden (726 Hyde Road)
There is no better place to prepare and taste your veggies than right on the farm! And there is no better place for growing them than at the historic Hyde Farm property in East Cobb. The Community Garden at Hyde Farm was opened for “bed renters” in late 2017. The newest project of the Cobb Master Gardeners, the garden features 50, 4’ x 8’ raised beds and a large pollinator garden. Visitors will not only experience how a community garden works, but learn the health benefits of growing and preparing the harvest in the adjacent kitchen. Come on in!
On the Waterfront, The Lok Garden (1811 Baldwin Farms Drive)
Twenty years ago, the lakeside garden of Master Gardener Maureen Lok and her husband, Jan Michael, was a “boring” mix of lawn, junipers, and “meatball shrubs.” No traces remain. Today, they are surrounded by a healthy assortment of native and favorite trees and perennials. Their vision is a peaceful, shady retreat for the family to enjoy and for flora and fauna to flourish. Their garden is a certified Wildlife Habitat. Like many lots in Cobb County, steep slopes and erosion have presented drainage and gardening challenges. Learn how they have redesigned the garden to meet those challenges and oh yes, take in that view!
Thanks for the Memories, The Young Garden (4066 Sweat Creek Cove)
Pat and Tom Young’s garden is affectionately known as “Waldo Gardens.” It bears the name of a special kitty that passed not long before they built and moved into their home in 2007. Their garden is a living album of people, pets, and plants loved. The Youngs painstakingly restored the topsoil removed during construction and blended the formal front yard into the steep, natural, yet stunning back which is also certified Wildlife Habitat. Guests will enjoy discovering the garden’s special features and perhaps get a glimpse of the resident breeding hawks.
The Artful Gardener, The Hebert Garden (4145 Jefferson Township Parkway)
Split rail and picket fences, colonial style homes, and large lots welcome you to the enclave of Jefferson Township. Master Gardener and former art educator Jayne Hebert took full advantage of all her yard has to offer. The garden features a wide variety of flowering perennials, parterre raised beds, grape vines, blueberries, fruit and nut trees, and more, all set against a lovely backdrop of the home and 100-year-old barn. Her artistic eye is apparent as you will discover artfully integrated garden antiques with flea market finds. Visitors will especially appreciate her handmade deer fencing.
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!
All four public library branches in East Cobb have ongoing book group discussions, and here’s a sampling of what’s on tap in May, with information courtesy the Cobb County Public Library System:
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!
East Cobb News photos and slideshow by Wendy Parker
The Cobb Master Gardeners Garden Fair and Plant Sale came to East Cobb this year, and the quad at East Cobb Park was filled on Friday and Saturday with vendors selling plants, fresh herbs, garden supplies, equipment and furnishings, arts and crafts, food and more.
The volunteer organization was also soliciting support from attendees to sign a petition to preserve county funding for the UGA Cobb Extension Office, which oversees the Master Gardener program and county 4-H services.
Proposed budget cuts would eliminate the office entirely. The extension office has posted information on its Facebook page about upcoming budget town hall meetings in Cobb.
The Master Gardeners volunteer time to grow and cultivate community gardens in the county, including the CrossRoads Community Garden at Chestnut Ridge Christian Church in East Cobb. The garden grows food that’s donated to pantries and teaches children about gardening, and it recently expanded plant beds.
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The Cobb Master Gardeners will return to the East Cobb area on May 12 for their spring Garden Tour, which features a new community garden at Hyde Farm, and gardens at Murdock Elementary School.
More information here about hours, admission charges and an event map. Proceeds will be used to continue Cobb Master Gardener projects, including the community gardens.
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Terrence Roberts speaking Monday night at the Wheeler High School Performing Arts Center. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
Near the end of Black History Month, Terrence Roberts, a civil rights figure from the early years of the movement, made a return appearance in East Cobb.
One of the “Little Rock Nine” who integrated Central High School in 1957, Roberts recounted his participation in that event as part of a lifelong commitment to racial equality.
“There is no present without a past,” Roberts said to an audience Monday at the Wheeler High School Performing Arts Center. He was speaking at an event organized by the East Cobb Middle School Foundation.
Austin and PJ Goodloe, the grandsons of Terrence Roberts.
Roberts’ grandsons PJ Goodloe, a Wheeler student, and Austin Goodloe, who attends ECMS, introduced him. Roberts’ address, “Hope in a Time of Chaos,” was attended by a mostly adult audience, but the thrust of his message was geared toward young listeners.
The arrival of the first African slave ship in 1619 “set the tone for who we are,” Roberts said in drawing a timeline to nearly 400 years later. “That continues today.
“There’s a very direct connection between 1619 to 2018,” said Roberts, who is a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal.
Roberts, now 76, ranged between two key Supreme Court rulings, in 1896 that upheld a separate but equal doctrine, and in 1954 outlawing segregated schools, as part of that history, as well as his own birth in 1941.
He was 15 years old when he and eight other black students faced repeated gauntlets of angry white students, even though they were ushered in by National Guard troops ordered to Little Rock by President Dwight Eisenhower.
While “the law was on our side,” he said, ingrained social, cultural, psychological and religious attitudes have remained, and this Roberts believes is still where much progress must be made.
“I was 15 but I knew the truth of the matter,” said Roberts, who finished high school in Los Angeles and still lives in southern California, having a long career in the social services field, academia and now in management consulting.
The psychological torment he and the other students faced, and especially their families, might have produced the biggest scars.
Roberts told about how his mother received a phone call with a false report that he had been beaten at school. The mother of another of the Little Rock Nine, Gloria Ray, lost her job with a white employer for refusing to take her child out of Central High.
“We hung in there for the year,” he said. “Eight of us made it through the school year.”
He credited his parents for “their great strength. I have been so blessed.”
Roberts also recalled a rare white schoolmate who expressed empathy for the black students, and who was “psychologically beaten down.” Going against the grain during such a momentous time took a toll.
“If you do what other people do, that’s not peer pressure, that’s stupidity,” he said.
Roberts was asked if he would try to change anything about that experience, and he didn’t waver in his answer.
“I would have tried to have a dialogue with the kids who were beating us up,” he said.
He also addressed notion that social progress is inevitable, and that Americans have made sufficient progress in racial relations in the 61 years since he became a participant in that movement.
“We are preparing to make progress,” Roberts said, describing the word as “a concentrated effort to rid ourselves of the underlying problem” of racism.
Roberts, who proudly called himself a member of the “Civil Rights Army,” said those efforts continue, because “we have a responsibility to recognize that we are part of the problem.
“Humans choose what they choose to do. We choose best when we know that we have more options.”
After his remarks he autographed copies of his books, “Simple Not Easy: Reflections on Community, Social Responsibility and Tolerance,” and “Lessons From Little Rock.”
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When we passed by the old Mabry Farm homestead building on a nice Sunday afternoon drive, the photo we snapped would turn out to be one of the last to be taken of the historic farmhouse.
On Monday, an East Cobb News reader noted that the structure has been demolished. We swung by there again this afternoon and saw that construction indeed has begun on an 18-home subdivision that was approved for rezoning last year.
The homestead building, which was once part of the Mabry Farm spread (history here), was built in 1915. It’s located on Wesley Chapel Road, just south of Sandy Plains Road, and right across from what will be Mabry Park.
The construction work for that park, also on former farmland owned by the Mabry family, is just getting underway after Cobb commissioners finally approved funding in November.
CSP Development, LLC is putting up 3,000-square-foot homes, or about two per acre, on the nine acres of gentle rolling hillside.
Mabry Farm was established in 1904 and ultimately spanned 220 acres. In a blog post from 2016, local nature artist Ed Cahill—whom we met last summer at the first East Cobb Garden Tour at MacFarlane Nature Park—wrote about his impressions of the Mabry Farm, and his paintings of the surroundings.
In addition to the horses, he noted the flowering trees that dotted the landscape, as well as a tomato barn and other structures that served the many uses of the farm.
Because of the historic nature of the building, the developer was required in a stipulation as part of the rezoning to pay a mitigation fee for historic preservation efforts in Cobb County. Acceptance of that $7,500 payment from CSP Development is on the Cobb Board of Commissioners agenda Tuesday.
Just beyond the construction sites on either side of Wesley Chapel Road are homes and subdivisions similar to what’s going up now, on a vanishing slice of East Cobb’s not-so-distant past.
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It’s always the music that moves me the most whenever I attend a religious service.
While the words spoken at Thursday’s Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service at Temple Kol Emeth were comforting and inspiring, the human voice in chanting, poetry or song is one of the more uplifting sounds there is. To hear the Muslim call to prayer in a synagogue is an incredible experience.
When many voices collaborate, the effect is sensational. The interfaith choir’s finale, “Take Down These Walls,” was absolutely stirring, following Rabbi Steven Lebow’s remarks about the diversity of faith communities represented at the service, that “this is what America looks like!”
But it was a musical number right before that, by some young people who might not have much reason to be joyful, that really delivered the message of thanks that’s fitting for this time of year.
They were teenagers living at the Center for Children and Young Adults facility in Marietta, which was the beneficiary of offering proceeds from the service. If you’re not familiar with the CCYA, it’s a place where homeless, neglected and abused young people live, and as one of their leaders pointed out, it’s not just a shelter, it’s a home.
We were asked not to photograph these young people for privacy reasons, but if you could have seen the looks on their faces as they were greeted with applause following their song, it would have brought tears to your eyes. Tears of joy, that is.
Another holiday season will soon be upon us with Thanksgiving this week, and it’s easy to mumble about seeing decorations in stores and commercials on television urging us to buy, buy, buy. Sometimes the sledgehammer comes down before Halloween.
We often become weary of the wrong kind of holiday messages, and are reminded in the media about how to cope with stress and demands on our time that don’t reflect the spirit of the season.
But imagine being 16 or even younger as the holidays approach, and there isn’t a traditional family with which to enjoy turkey and trimmings and the other familiar Thanksgiving traditions. You’re living at a place that’s certainly better than a typical shelter, but it’s not the sense of home that most of us take for granted.
The money collected by attendees at the Ecumenical service was going directly for these foodstuffs, to help these young people enjoy not only an excellent meal, but also to feel the comforts of home in as meaningful a way as possible.
In years past there were times when I would look upon the holiday season with some trepidation. The commercialism of it all still is too much, but focusing on the real meaning of Thanksgiving, thinking about and helping those in need, makes me look forward to what’s to come over the next few weeks.
The good cheer, comforting messages and fellowship on display at the synagogue this week is not only the perfect way to start the holiday season, but has year-round lasting value. Especially the music.
The Charlestones, an a capella group from Charleston, S.C., perform at St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church on Friday.
The leaves are changing, and very quickly the season, as the upcoming East Cobb weekend slate of events takes on an autunmnal pre-holiday flair.
Saturday is Veterans Day, and events throughout the weekend are scheduled to observe and honor those who served in the military.
A number of East Cobb schools have had their special events during the week, and from 5-8 Friday the East Cobb Senior Center and both East Cobb YMCAs will serve up dinner, music and tributes. They had “sold out” of the free tickets before November rolled around, but you may want to call 770-509-4900 770-977-5991 to see if there’s any space that’s opened up at the last minute.
Also on tap for Veterans Day in East Cobb:
Two concerts, one Saturday at Transfiguration Catholic Church (1815 Blackwell Road) that starts at 2:30 p.m. featuring the Metropolitan Atlanta Community band and is followed by a commemorative mass at 5; and Sunday at 3 at the Lassiter Concert Hall (2601 Shallowford Road). It’s the annual Veterans Day concert performed by the Cobb Wind Symphony, and it’s free to the public;
On Saturday, a couple new Veterans Day events in East Cobb: A car cruise theme is featured from 8-12 at Club Pilates East Cobb (2960 Shallowford Road, Suite 200); and a public celebration at Merchants Walk Shopping Center (1280 Johnson Ferry Road) from 11-8 includes sidewalk sales, a food truck and more;
And with the brisk weather now seemingly here for good, there’s post-season football, holiday crafts and music for all tastes:
Three East Cobb high school football teams reached the state playoffs, and they’re all in action Friday. Unbeaten Walton is at home against North Cobb, while Kell visits Flowery Branch and Pope travels to Dacula. Universal kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.;
Friday night temps will be dipping into the 30s, so if staying indoors is your thing, the 2017-18 Concert Series of St. St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church (571 Holt Road) continues with a free to the public 7:30 p.m. concert featuring The Charlestones, an a capella group from Charleston, S.C.;
The Pope Band XPlosion! event is from 7-9 p.m. Saturday at the school (3001 Hembree Road), and features all components of the band program, from the marchers to the jazz orchestra and smaller ensembles, with raffle proceeds supporting the young musicians;
This weekend also marks the return of the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church Craft Fair, from 9-5 Friday and 9-4 on Saturday at the church (1330 Johnson Ferry Road); it’s organized by the church’s women’s ministry and includes a bake sale and silent auction.
Did we miss anything? Do you have a community calendar listing to share, for this weekend and beyond? Send it to us, and we’ll post it ASAP! E-mail: calendar@eastcobbnews.com.
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After another unusual weather week—wet and wintry conditions over the weekend, followed by temperatures in the high 70s—East Cobb fall photos look like they could encompass all four seasons.
Willow Glenn DriveHampton Lake DriveIndian Hills Parkway
The best barometer is typically East Cobb Park, where balmy, sunny weather drew out a nice late Friday afternoon crowd, including some young boys playing catch—both the football and baseball varieties.
All seasons—sports and weather—are converging on this first weekend of November, which will remain warm, with high temperatures in the high 70s. There is the chance for rain, and low temperatures in the 60s.
If you’ve got photos you’d like to share with the East Cobb community—of the weather, a school, or church or organizational event—please feel free to send them, and we’ll post them.
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Don’t need much of a drumroll introduction for what’s coming up over the next few days. The East Cobb Halloween events calendar is absolutely loaded (and if we’ve missed your event there’s still time to let us know. E-mail calendar@eastcobbnews.com and we’ll post it!). So many trunk or treat events, assorted fall festivals and a new spooky event that may become a bonafide tradition: The Pope Dead Band Running 5K. Pope also has a Haunted Theater presentation of “The Dollhouse” to ramp up a frightening selection of Halloween-themed events
Trunk or Treats galore: Kicking off Friday at 6 at Addison ES, and including similar events for kids at St. Catherine’s Episcopal on Saturday, Wesley Chapel UMC on Sunday and on Halloween itself, at Powers Ferry UMC;
Run for Your Haunted Lives: A 5K run at night? In the spirit of Halloween, that’s what the Pope High School Marching Band has put together from 7-9 Saturday at the Mountain View Aquatic Center (2650 Gordy Parkway): The Pope Dead Band Running 5K, and you can show up in a costume or regular running attire. The proceeds raise funds for the band, which says it needs to replace Bessie, its aging equipment truck. Race-day registration begins at 6 p.m.;
Terrifying dollies: The Pope Haunted Theater gets into the spirit of Halloween with presentations of “The Dollhouse” Saturday and Sunday at $6, after two previous shows this week;
Get Your Pumpkin Carving On: Once you get your pumpkin, bring it on by the Mountain View Regional Library (3320 Sandy Plains Road) from 2-3 on Saturday for a carving event. It’s ideally for kids K-5 to enjoy, but you can come by even if you’re older;
Shopping for the kitties: With Halloween near, it also means it’s time for the Good Mews Holiday Décor Market, which starts Saturday at the Sandy Plains Exchange Shopping Center (1860 Sandy Plains Road, at Scufflegrit Road). The hours are 10-6 Saturdays and 12-6 Sundays, and the sale continues through Dec. 17. The proceeds benefit the Good Mews programs to care and place homeless cats for adoption, and they’re taking gently-used items on-site on Saturday until 3 p.m.;
All the way to state: The high school football season is winding down, with only two games left. Walton has already clinched a state playoff berth, and Lassiter and Kell have the best chances of joining them. But the biggest high school sporting events this weekend involve the young ladies of East Cobb. On Saturday, Walton attempts a three-peat in the Class 7A state volleyball finals against Etowah (6 p.m., Marietta High School, 1171 Whitlock Ave.). In Columbus, the Pope softball team is competing in the Class 6A softball finals, which got underway Thursday. We’ll be posting updates on these events as we get the results, so keep checking back for the latest scores;
Piedmont Church Fall Festival: Sunday will be an all-day and all-night of activities at the Piedmont Church (570 Piedmont Road). Sunday morning services will be followed by a family fall festival from 6-8, including pumpkin painting, a petting zoo and food. The event is free and open to the public.
Check out our full calendar listings page for more things to do this weekend and beyond. Did we miss something? Have an event you’d like to share with the East Cobb community? E-mail your calendar listing to: calendar@eastcobbnews.com and we’ll post it ASAP! Here’s more information on how to send your news to East Cobb News!
Late October and it’s all green in many East Cobb neighborhoods. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
One of the things my mother misses most since her move to Florida a number of years ago is a real, authentic autumn. That East Cobb fall feeling, I always called it, at least in my own mind.
A native of Wisconsin, she grew to relish the four full, distinct seasons we seem to have in Georgia. While coming here was initially culture shock for her—this was the South of the early 1960s, as air conditioning, school integration and multiple-lane roads were still new—she grew to regard the place as home.
It’s still home for me, the only member of the family who hasn’t relocated to the Florida panhandle or Alabama Gulf Coast (perhaps I should take a hint?). Like mother, I really do revere the autumns around here, and drives through neighborhoods in East Cobb like where we once lived, that still retain the trees and feel of a community as it was coming to be what we know it today.
When I traversed down our old residential street the other day, it looked very different than how it always did in late October. The lush green colors gave off the feel of mid-summer, instead of the yellow, orange and brown of autumn.
In fact, if you go most anywhere in the community, it doesn’t feel like fall at all. Even East Cobb Park, with its majestic backdrop of high trees framing a singular shade of green, dark green, and hardly any leaves falling anywhere.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not complaining about 70-degree temperatures, for when they go away, they will disappear fast, with a cold winter likely setting in.
For the moment, however, it’s just a different feeling, a week before Halloween, without the natural accompaniment to go with the pumpkin patches and other signs of the coming holiday seasons.
They will be here soon enough, with November just around the corner. While these Indian Summer days are a nice reward for enduring the heat of June, July and August, I’m eager for the fall to start feeling like it, and the beautiful sights of the season that for me is the most special of all.
Whatever you’re doing this week, make it a great one! Thanks so much for reading East Cobb News!
The East Marietta Library will reopen as the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center in December. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
“It is now 5:30. The library will be closing in 30 minutes.”
When I heard the announcement over the intercom, I winced and fought back some emotion.
Because this closing wasn’t just for this one day. It was forever.
I had a half-hour to look around the East Marietta Library on Saturday, the last day the little block two-story building was open to the public after 50 years of dutiful service to a growing, and thriving, community.
The East Marietta Library, located at 2051 Lower Roswell Road, is within walking distance of the house where I grew up, in the Pioneer Woods neighborhood (directly behind Faith Lutheran Church). When I wasn’t at Sewell Park, playing softball or tennis or swimming, I was at the library.
These twin community gems were like a second home, a convenient place to slip away from younger siblings and after-school chores. I didn’t need a parent to ferry me to a place where I could let my imagination roam, whether it was in left field at Sewell Park or the rather roomy shelves of the children’s section of the library downstairs.
I can’t remember how many books I checked out, but I remember taking home more than once a book about “new” journalism featuring Tom Wolfe, and the Baseball Encyclopedia. These were the days when reference books could be checked out, and those volumes became de facto parts of my own library at home, at least for two or three weeks at a time.
The building had been obsolete for years, and it was the subject of a long lobbying campaign to be replaced. Finally, that came about, when Cobb voters included a new facility in the last SPLOST. While I was thrilled, I also knew I would have bittersweet pangs about the East Marietta branch closing.
On Saturday, with time in my childhood time machine dwindling, I rummaged around the shelves of books, which were being labeled by category for their removal to the new $10.6 million Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, which opens up next door in early December.
Earlier this week, Cobb commissioners finally voted to fund additional staff needed for the new place, in what had become a testy and frankly disappointing turn of events. In their budget battles, we’ve seen both East Cobb commissioners fighting over library funding, pitting one branch against another, ignoring citizens’ pleas to do right by what many here think are underfunded, but popular community treasures.
It reminded me of the ugly budget incident a few years ago, when then-commission chairman Tim Lee threatened to shut down East Marietta and all but a few of the Cobb libraries in a stunt to get his colleagues to the bargaining table during the recession. While that ploy worked, it created a lot of community bad will, and not just from library diehards like me.
A few years later, the same commissioners approved a creative way to finance a nearly $400 million dollar bond issue for the Atlanta Braves’ new stadium, then declared it wasn’t going to raise property taxes. Libraries, on the other hand, continue to be nickel-and-dimed, considered a “non-essential” service by the commissioner who wanted to close the East Cobb Library (and who even once held a town hall at the East Marietta branch meeting room).
There seems to be no political will to open libraries before, say, 11 a.m. on a Saturday (or 1 p.m., as was the case with the East Marietta Library). No Sunday hours at all, unless it’s the main branch in downtown Marietta, but only during the school year.
Tiny little East Marietta has been a real workhorse during these past 50 years, built with money from the very first Cobb library bond, and opened when the area was becoming rapidly suburbanized. As it closes, it was serving a community in transition that was taking advantage of the modernized information and resource needs of the public.
Like my old Wheeler High School, though, I appreciate what’s contained in the walls of old buildings, even if they’re eventually torn down.
East Marietta’s grand opening on March 7, 1967, coincided with the opening of the Kennesaw, Acworth, South Cobb, Sibley, Powder Springs and Lewis A. Ray branches. They were all built from the bond issue; it was the dawn of a new era in Cobb County, in which quality-of-life concerns were beginning to be met.
I know the Sewell Mill Library is going to be fabulous, and I can’t wait to take a look inside. But as the last 30 minutes began to trickle down to the last 15 on Saturday, and as the librarians continued their packing, I got a little choked up.
For a moment, I thought about checking out one last book with the East Marietta branch stamped in the bank, a volume that’s survived since the days of physical card checkout. At least for three weeks, I could have a relic in my possession, and savor what those memories continue to provide.
But I decided it was time to move on, to let these memories assume their rightful place. They’ll always be there, but better days are ahead for this library, and I’m confident the new place will continue to serve and elevate its citizens well.
The Cobb Planning Commission is recommending approval of a rezoning that would create a major commercial complex on the site of the former Mountain View Elementary School.
Although some nearby residents were seeking a delay, the commission voted 5-0 on Tuesday for a plan (packet item here) that would change the zoning category on Sandy Plains Road from R-20 (many schools are zoned on residential land) to CAC (community activity center).
The 13.8-acre development would include seven separate buildings for restaurants, retail shops, banks and a grocery store. The complex, which would exceed 100,000 square feet, is being developed by Brooks Chadwick Capital LLC of East Cobb and Jeff Fuqua, a private developer.
Residents living in the adjacent Hunters Lodge neighborhood were concerned about the reduction of the hill on which the former school sat affecting their sight lines, and some were opposed because they say the area already has enough businesses of the kind being proposed.
But Trish Steiner of the East Cobb Civic Association said the organization voted unanimously to support the rezoning.
“We realize this is difficult for the neighbors to accept change,” she said. “However, we believe this application is appropriate.
Kevin Moore, an attorney for the applicants, said a full site plan hasn’t been completed because of possible changes in the final building design, depending on what businesses locate there. He said he couldn’t divulge which specific businesses are interested in the new development.
“When they sign the lease, that’s when things get set in stone,” Moore said. “We’re confident where we are with the placement of the buildings.”
Moore said the developer’s agreements to provide several buffers—50 feet of undisturbed buffers, a landscape buffer and a wall—will not change.
Those stipulations are final, he said: “We wanted to be transparent up front . . . to show the guardrails” between the development and the neighborhood.
Planning commission member Judy Williams, who represents District 3, said she also understands the opposition, but “the community has changed since the subdivision was built. I think they came up with a good plan.”
The Cobb Board of Commissioners will decide that case on Oct. 17.
The following East Cobb restaurant scores for thus far in the month of September have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing to view details of the inspection:
The Walton High School band, including the flag team, will once again participate in Saturday’s East Cobber parade. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
After a harrowing week of stormy and fall-like weather, the East Cobb weekend schedule is perfectly suited for the Indian Summer-like conditions that are on tap.
In other words, get—and stay!—outdoors! In addition to some local rivalry football tilts, one of East Cobb’s biggest most festive events returns, while another that figures to become a big hit makes its debut. Check our full calendar listings for more, but here are some of the highlights of a jam-packed schedule of events designed to soak up some welcome sun and warmth in mid-September:
Walton vs. Wheeler football, Friday, 7:30 p.m.: Raider Valley (1590 Bill Murdock Road) is the site for this backyard bout, which also is a key regional game. The Raiders are 3-0 and Wheeler is 2-1;
Lassiter Homecoming: Parade starts at 5:30 p.m. Friday, followed by the 3-0 Trojans vs. Marietta at 7:30 (2601 Shallowford Road);
East Cobber Parade & Festival, Saturday 10 a.m.: Johnson Ferry Road from Princeton Lakes Drive to Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (955 Johnson Ferry Road) for the parade, featuring dozens of schools, faith communities, organizations, businesses, elected officials and more. The festival featuring exhibitors, food, live music and more takes place in the church parking lot from 11-3;
East Cobb Garden Tour, Sunday 12-5 p.m.: The inaugural event, sponsored by the Cobb Master Gardeners, starts at the McFarlane Nature Park (280 Farm Road) and extends to several nearby Chattahoochee Plantation homes;
Sunday Funday at East Cobb Park, Sunday 4-6 p.m.: Free family entertainment includes live music from The LooSe ShoEs Band. Bring a blanket and picnic food in the last Sunday Funday of the summer. 3332 Roswell Road.
Check out our full calendar listings for more events, including more football games and live music. Did we miss something? Would you like to let the community know about your event? E-mail us: calendar@eastcobbnews.com.
