NE Cobb rezoning historic preservation efforts Archives

Two homes built in the 1840s—a decade after the creation of Cobb County—have stood the test of time.

The Power-Jackson Cabin on Post Oak Tritt Road and the McAfee House at Bells Ferry Road and Barrett Parkway have been the subject of considerable attention by historic preservation interests for a number of years.

But they stand on property being eyed by developers in areas of Northeast Cobb where there’s little undeveloped land remaining.

Two current rezoning cases will likely determine the fate of those historic buildings.

On Tuesday, the Cobb Planning Commission will hear for a second time a proposal to develop a subdivision on the Post Oak Tritt property after voting to hold it at their April hearing (case filings here).

In addition to community opposition for density and stormwater issues, the subject of the Power-Jackson Cabin is also a consideration.

It’s regarded as one of the last one-room cabins left in Cobb from that era, and is literally falling apart.

At the April Planning Commission hearing, an attorney for the applicant said the building is “uninhabitable” and urged for its relocation.

In a stipulation letter to the Cobb Zoning Office dated Monday (you can read it here), attorney Parks Huff said his client would provide Cobb Landmarks, a local historic preservation non-profit, access to the cabin “for research purposes” and to make it available for relocation or for preserving parts of the building.

In response to a message from East Cobb News, Cobb Landmarks executive director Trevor Beemon said his organization would like to relocate the Power-Jackson Cabin to Hyde Farm off Lower Roswell Road.

That’s where another 1840s-era cabin, the Power Cabin, has been preserved, and where another cabin in the Power family also sits.

A rezoning case on land where the McAfee House is located was to have been on Tuesday’s Planning Commission agenda.

It was the homestead of farmers Eliza and Robert McAfee, and 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.

Huff, also the attorney for that applicant, has asked for a delay to June (see case filings here).

His client is Tommy’s Express by Northgate, which wants to build a car wash on the two-acre site that’s across from Bells Ferry Elementary School and near a retail center with a Publix and a Barnes & Noble.

The Medford Family Limited Partnership, which owns the land, has wanted to sell for several years. Cobb Landmarks has been in talks since 2019 to find a way to relocate and preserve the land, but acknowledged that despite the designation of an historical marker (there’s also one at the Power-Jackson Cabin) “the house and land are not protected through local zoning or historic designation.”

Those discussions, with the landowner and potential developers, have not been successful, but Beemon said Thursday that efforts would continue “with the developer and a private individual to relocate the home to Marietta for restoration and use as a residence.”

Another East Cobb case that’s been delayed and that also won’t be heard Tuesday is a request to build a new standalone Starbucks at Paper Mill Village.

Garvis Sams, the applicant’s attorney, asked this week for another continuance, to July.

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.