AUSTELL
Staff reports
Austell, Cobb County’s smallest city, is located in the
county’s southwest corner. With a population of nearly
7,300 people, Austell was incorporated in 1885.
The city, once called Salt Springs, was well known for its
medicinal springs, which made it a destination for the sick
before the Civil War.
Many of the people who came for the medicinal features
of the springs decided to stay and prevailed upon Mr.
G.O. Mozeley, then the owner of all the property around
Austell, to sell them a lot.
Austell subdivided 40 acres and divided the town into
squares with streets 50 feet wide.
The old Georgia Pacific, now a division of the Southern
Railway, contributed to the city by making Austell a station
with connecting lines to Birmingham and to Chattanooga.
Today rail fans from all over the Southeast visit Historic
Downtown Austell for a chance to catch their favorite train
go by.
The city was named after Alfred Austell, a banker and
railroad builder who organized the Atlanta National Bank
and served on Atlanta’s first board of education. The city
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was home to Cobb County’s first public school, which was
built in 1890, and is now Austell Elementary School.
The city is governed by a six-member council, and the
mayor is the chief executive of the city. Starting his first
term in January 2020, Ollie Clemons was the first elected
African American mayor in the history of Austell.
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