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: Points South
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. …
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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 …
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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 …
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 …
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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 …
Smyrna Photographic Essay #2: Public Education
The following posting is a by-product of a project undertaken by the History Committee of the Smyrna Arts and Cultural Council in which more than 1400 historical photographs of Smyrna were gathered and topically categorized. This is the second of a series of Smyrna history photographic essays to appear on this blog, the first on …
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Smyrna Photographic Essay #1: Religious History/ Churches
The community of Smyrna originated in the late 1830s with the establishment of the Smyrna Campground by the Methodists of the area. The Campground served as a gathering point for religious services in a day when preachers rode circuit owing to their limited number and distances they were obliged to travel in this sparsely settled …
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The Smyrna Memorial Cemetery
Tucked Away On Atlanta Road, Smyrna Memorial Cemetery Holds City Trailblazers An article by Haisten Willis Thousands of drivers pass downtown Smyrna along Atlanta Road every single day, many of them completely unaware they’re passing one of the city’s most important historic landmarks: the Smyrna Memorial Cemetery. “I had a conversation with a couple the …
An Expansion of Smyrna’s Photographic Resources
Marietta Daily Journal, March 6, 2017, Page 1 During the past year a committee of volunteers, working under the auspices of the Smyrna Arts & Cultural Council’s History Committee, met on a regular basis at the Smyrna Public Library to examine the back issues of the old Smyrna Herald and Smyrna Neighbor newspapers, published between …
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Local Historian North & South 