An 1840s Georgia house with Civil War ties was moved in May. RaceTrac wants to build a controversial gas station on the site where cavalry clashed. The company says it is agreeable to doing an archaeological survey and saving artifacts it finds

Robert McAfee, the current empty lot at Bells Ferry Road (Picket photo); the house in the 1940s (Digital Library of Georgia) and a map showing troop positions in June-July 1864; note McAfee House (Library of Congress)

Opponents of a proposed 24/7 service station in a suburban Atlanta county have raised a list of concerns, from traffic congestion and storm water runoff to the possible impact of alcohol sales and gas vapors on a nearby elementary school and day care center.

But they also lament the loss of what stood for generations at the corner of Bells Ferry Road and Ernest Barrett Parkway in Cobb County, a few miles north of Marietta. The Robert and Eliza McAfee House dated to the 1840s, and their sprawling farm was a fixture in the Noonday Creek area. The property owner wants to sell the remaining two acres to RaceTrac.

The home -- which briefly served as the headquarters for a Union general and was in the middle of cavalry movements and clashes in summer 1864 – this spring was moved to adjoining Cherokee County after a long effort to save it from destruction. 

Now the Cobb County government must decide whether to allow a rezoning to make way for the RaceTrac location, which would feature a convenience store. The planning staff has recommended approval and the matter comes before the planning commission on Sept. 2. If the panel approves the project, the county commission has the final say two weeks later.

McAfee House in Ball Ground a couple months after its move (Civil War Picket photo)

The nonprofit Cobb Landmarks, the Bells Ferry Civic Association and the county’s historic preservation staff all recommend an archaeological survey of the site if the rezoning is approved. That and a report should occur before construction begins, the staff urges.

Any artifacts discovered during the survey should be donated to an appropriate museum, the preservation staff recommends.

“Prior to any development on this property, it is essential that a thorough search be conducted for Indian and Civil War artifacts, trenches, gravesites, and other items of historical significance,” the Bells Ferry Civic Association said in a letter to the planning commission.

Mandy Elliott, a Cobb County historic preservation planner, told the Picket such a recommendation is common for sites like the McAfee House.

“I’m not sure what might be found,” she said.

That’s more than a fair point. Most of Atlanta’s Civil War landscape was paved over long ago and there are only a few sites where remnants of earthworks and other battle features remain. Among them is Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, just a few miles from the neighborhood. (Picket photo of cut house section before move north)

Interestingly, the bomb squad in Cobb County is called in two to four times a year following the discovery of metal objects that look like Civil War ordnance. In some cases, the items are authentic.

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, said: “I'm tempted to guess at the usual archaeological suspects: brass buttons, horseshoe nails, fountain pen nibs, household trash (broken pottery, spoons), etc.”

For its part, RaceTrac has said the location is appropriate for the neighborhood and vowed to comply with any county requirements about safeguarding artifacts.

“RaceTrac is agreeable to the comments from Historical Preservation and is very willing to conduct the additional studies, documentation, etc. as recommended,” attorney Kevin Moore, who represents the company and property owner, told the Picket in an email.  

“To date, as part of due diligence, there has been preliminary study of the first 3 feet, which has not revealed anything of note. However, such study is not considered the historic type study to be conducted,” he said.

Fate of the house was up in the air for years

The McAfee House had no designated historic protection because the owners did not seek it, according to Cobb County officials, and is not on the National Register of Historic Places.

Trevor Beemon, executive director of Cobb Landmarks, said the county’s park system years ago did visit the site and prepare a restoration estimate for the house, should it buy the property. “However, at the time, the costs were deemed too high. The property also would have sat for several years waiting for SPLOST funds to become available.”

Cobb Landmarks tried for several years to find someone to move the home, including when a car wash was proposed. That idea was eventually withdrawn. 

The house was empty for several years, and preservationists worried it would fall to the wrecking ball. Eventually, the owner donated the house to Cobb Landmarks so it could find someone to move it before a development could be built at the busy intersection.

Cobb Landmarks earlier this year sold the house for $1 to entrepreneurs Lee and Brittani Lusk, with the main requirement it be moved and restored. The couple moved the sturdy residence to near their home in Ball Ground, where it awaits foundation work. The Lusks are still deciding on its future use.

I asked Brittani Lusk whether they found any Civil War-related artifacts on the property when they were slicing the home into six pieces for the move. “Sadly, we didn’t,” she replied.

They did find some fascinating (and more contemporary) items inside the house, including a small can for baby powder, a newspaper clipping on World War II food rations and a peso note issued by the Japanese during their World War II occupation of the Philippines (photos above and below, courtesy Brittani Lusk).

Cavalry troops roamed and clashed here

The McAfee House served a few weeks in June and early July 1864 as the headquarters for Brig. Gen. Kenner Garrard (below) and his three brigades during the Atlanta Campaign. After the seizure of Big Shanty (Kennesaw) by Federal forces on June 9, Garrard’s cavalry division was posted on the left flank during operations on the Kennesaw Mountain front. While there were some small towns, including Marietta and Big Shanty, most citizens lived on farms.

The Federal troopers clashed almost daily near Noonday Creek with Confederates led by Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler.

Cobb County was the scene of significant combat action and troop movement as Confederates tried to stall Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s relentless campaign on Atlanta, which began in May 1864 in North Georgia.

The McAfee farm was believed to have been occupied by Confederates, too, during the action around Kennesaw Mountain. The house is said to have been used as a field hospital.

According to a May article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper, McAfee descendants came by the property and spoke to Lee Lusk about the family history.

During the Civil War, the family left when the Union army took over the home and expected it to be burned to the ground when they returned.

“They camped out, as we understand it, for about three months or so around Stockbridge (south of Atlanta) and then came back, not knowing whether their home would be there or not,” Brenda Burns, a descendant, told the AJC. “Thankfully, it was still there.

The McAfee family sold the house in the 1920s and moved to Atlanta.

“My grandmother would be thrilled because she was very into genealogy and the family history,” Burns told the AJC. “We are so glad that somebody could save it.”

Click to enlarge map showing Civil War clashes in Cobb County (ABPP)

RaceTrac says it has agreed site changes

Moore and a RaceTrac representative earlier this month met with neighbors who raised concerns about the gas station. The company said it has agreed to stipulations and its updated plans show the convenience store would be a little farther from the elementary school than first proposed. It argues the property is a proper location for a gas station.

Further, RaceTrac argues, the location would largely draw its customers from those already on the road.

Opponents say it would generate more than 5,500 in-and-out vehicle trips per day. A traffic study is being conducted.

“How will the applicant mitigate the negative environmental impact of cramming a too intense, ill-suited, polluting, 24-hour-a-day traffic mill onto what was once a historic site?” the Bells Ferry Civic Association said in its letter.

The Picket reached out to Cobb County Commissioner Erick Allen, who was at the meeting, and to the real estate agent representing the property owner where the gas station would sit. Thus far, they have not replied. (Above, the house before its move. Photo: Cobb Landmarks)

How much old stuff is left to be found?

It’s possible that this many years later no Civil War artifacts will be found during a survey. But other items would still help tell the story of old Cobb County.

“As a historic homestead site, and a Civil War site, it is very likely that variety of artifacts will be recovered,” said Beemon.

The property is just a tiny portion of the farm, which included more than a dozen enslaved persons before the Civil War.

A 1947 photograph (above) of the McAfee House was taken by Beverly M. DuBose Jr., a renowned Atlanta relic collector whose gifts to the Atlanta History Center are the backbone of its impressive wartime artifacts collection.

All that remains at the site are the foundations of a barn and the house, bright yellow zoning notices and a 1954 marker erected by the state along Bells Ferry Road.

While the house has moved, the marker is staying on site, though it is unclear where it will land following any construction, should the rezoning be approved. I reached out to the Georgia Historical Society, which manages the state marker program, for details. I have not yet heard back.

READ MORE: Details of the rezoning request are here