A reader alerted us earlier this week to the fact that the Power-Jackson Cabin located on Post Oak Tritt Road, and that has been the subject of an urgent historic preservation effort, was no longer there.
Cobb Landmarks, a local historic preservation non-profit, has been raising funds to have the cabin removed and relocated elsewhere in East Cobb, to Hyde Farm, with other 1840s-era farming structures.
On Thursday, the organization said the task was completed this week, during a process of tagging, disassembling, relocating.
Cobb Landmarks raised more than $70,000 to do the work, after getting approval from the Cobb Board of Commissioners in April for $321,000 in 2011 SPLOST funds for professional restoration work on the cabin at Hyde Farm.
It’s been more than a year since the preservation effort got underway, following a rezoning request on the wooded property where the cabin stood.
The Power-Jackson Cabin, possibly built before 1840 by farmer William Power, was 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.
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.
At one 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.
Cobb Landmarks said there’s evidence suggesting the Power-Jackson Cabin may be the oldest standing structure in Cobb County, even predating the establishment of the county in 1832.
As for the possible burial grounds, the organization said that while “their exact location remains uncertain, we took precautions to avoid disturbing the suspected burial area during the disassembly of the cabin.”
The restoration work will be performed by Leatherwood Inc., a Tennessee-based company that restored 13 structures at Hyde Farm in 2014.
Cobb PARKS also is awaiting word on a request submitted to the National Park Service to add Hyde Farm to the National Register of Historic Places.
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We need to save all older homes and farms. I don’t understand why we don’t put on national register, which means they can’t destroy the properties. We need protect the house on the corner of Piedmont and Bell ferry..
Just because a building is on the National Register of Historic Places doesn’t mean it can’t be destroyed. The Gresham Building on the Galloway School campus was on the National Register of Historic Places; it was torn down last month. The Georgia Preservation Society has numerous places in peril that are on the register.