Introduction In the fall and winter of 2017 I conducted two lengthy videotaped interviews with long-time Smyrna Mayor Max Bacon. The following is the first of a series of excerpts from those interviews that I plan to publish on this blog over the next few weeks. The illustrations appearing here were mostly provided by Mayor …
Category: Local History
Brighton Center Walking Tour: Part 2
Contemporary Map of Brighton Center #9: Vantage Point: Dighton Street & Chestnut Hill Ave. intersection facing Brighton Square Park Brighton Square Park: This green space on the opposite side of Chestnut Hill Avenue, now known as Brighton Square Park, is the closest thing that Brighton has to a town common, but it was in fact …
Brighton Center Walking Tour: Part 1
By William P. Marchione The Noah Worcester House, built in the 1680s, one of the oldest houses in Brighton Center, the residence in the 1810 to 1837 period of Dr. Noah Worcester, the founder of the American Peace Movement who also served as Brighton's first postmaster. The year the house was decorated with these flags …
Smyrna Transportation History, part 2, after 1870
1. The North Atlanta and Marietta Streetcar Line, 1905-47 With the introduction of electric streetcars into the City of Atlanta in 1889, a process of rapid extension of streetcar service to the suburbs was set in motion. Not until 1905, however, was Electric streetcar service extended through Smyrna by the North Atlanta and Marietta Streetcar line. …
Continue reading Smyrna Transportation History, part 2, after 1870
Photo Essay #4, part 1: Smyrna’s Transportation History, 1828-1870
The following photo essay, presents over 50 images with commentary relating to aspects of the transportation history of Smyrna and South Cobb up to 1870. Part 2, which will follow within the next few days, will carry the transportation history of the area forward to the present day. WPM 1. North Georgia Land Hunger and the …
Continue reading Photo Essay #4, part 1: Smyrna’s Transportation History, 1828-1870
Martin Milmore: Boston’s Great Civil War Sculptor
The last of the more than 100 historical columns that I wrote for the Boston Tab and Allston-Brighton Tab newspapers between 1998 and 2002, this piece on the life and career of the noted Boston Sculptor Martin Milmore never appeared in print, nor was it included in either of my books of collected articles. Only …
Continue reading Martin Milmore: Boston’s Great Civil War Sculptor
Photo Essay #3: Smyrna’s Old Downtown
The following images of Smyrna's Old Downtown are arranged in approximate chronological order. Smyrna's downtown was largely demolished in the 1989-90 period to allow for the widening of traffic choked Atlanta Road. Please bear in mind that the age of the buildings pictured here cannot be established with absolute certainty in every instance. Nor is …
James L. L. F. Warren of Brighton: Horticulturalist. Reformer, the “Father of California Agriculture”
This article first appeared in the Boston Tab newspaper on September 21, 1999. It was subsequently published in my book Allston-Brighton in Transition: From Cattle Town to Streetcar Suburb (2007) - WPM Bostonians have made many significant contributions to the development of California and the Pacific Northwest. In the 1790 to 1792 period a Boston-owned ship, the Columbia, …
Oral Interview with Helen Terrell McGee, age 91, and Nancy McGee, part 2
Davenport Town, the racially segregated black neighborhood on the eastern edge of Smyrna Bill Marchione: I wanted to ask you if you had any experience of the black neighborhood called Davenport Town. Helen McGee: Yes, actually one of the black ladies that used to live in Davenport Town used to do our washing years ago, and …
Continue reading Oral Interview with Helen Terrell McGee, age 91, and Nancy McGee, part 2
Oral Interview with Helen Terell McGee, age 91, and her daughter, Nancy McGee of Smyrna, Georgia, June 2011, part 1
This oral interview with Helen Terrell McGee and her daughter Nancy McGee was conducted in June 2011. Helen McGee passed away at age 95, in 2014. Helen’s mother, Bess Embree Terrell, kept a diary documenting her day-to-day activities in Smyrna from 1927 to 1942. They were made available to me when I was researching my …
Local Historian North & South 