Georgia Metropolitan
Dance Theatre announces
65th season
For the past six decades, a local dance
company housed on Marietta Square has
brought a myriad of shows to audiences in
the greater Atlanta area.
Now, in its 65th season, the Georgia
Metropolitan Dance Theatre announced its
Sapphire Season lineup complete with new
choreography and timeless classics.
Under the direction of artistic director
Ashleigh Whitworth and associate artistic
director Gray Stoner, the full company for the
first time since March 2020 will return to the
Jennie T. Anderson Theater in Cobb County
kicking off the holiday season with “The
Nutcracker” just after Thanksgiving. In the
spring of 2022, the dancers will bring back to
the stage Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.”
The 2021-2022 GMDT company is
comprised of 108 students ranging in age
from seven years-old to graduating high
school seniors who train at Georgia Dance
Conservatory on Marietta Square.
Tickets and live stream services start
at $20 and are available through www.
georgiametrodance.org.
Construction begins on
out-parcels at historic
Oakton house
After years of jockeying by community
members over the future of the 180-plusyear
old Oakton house in Marietta, site work
has begun on three houses to be built on a
slice of its front yard.
The news comes nearly three years after
Marietta allowed owner Will Goodman to
subdivide the roughly 5.5 acre property for
future development. The three lots along St.
Mary’s Lane, each about a third of an acre,
were sold earlier this year for $195,000 each.
Marietta councilman Johnny Walker, who’s
been the Realtor for the out-parcels, said
developers plan to build three spec homes
on the lots. The parcels extend across the
southern driveway leading up to the home,
and Walker said the driveway may yet be
relocated.
Estimates around floor plans and square
footage, Walker added, are still in flux given
the current dynamism of the housing market,
but he estimates the homes will sell for
$900,000 to $1 million. Walker is preparing to
list another three-quarter-acre parcel at the
property’s north end.
Goodman told the Marietta Daily Journal
the architectural style of the three new homes
is subject to his review. The key, he said, will
be getting a design which is attractive from
both the St. Mary’s Lane side and the main
property.
About an acre of land directly in front of
the home will remain undeveloped for now,
and lies under a scenic easement imposed by
the city over a decade ago. That means the
view of the home from Kennesaw Avenue will
remain unobstructed unless the Marietta City
Council agrees to lift the easement.
“If somebody buys the property and wants
to eliminate the easement, they have to go
back and get City Council to agree to waive
it,” Marietta Development Director Rusty Roth
explained in 2018 when the division of the
property was first approved.
Goodman said the idea, ultimately, is to
maintain the “soul of the house.” He’s turned
down a number of offers over the years from
developers who said they would knock down
the whole place. And in a sense, he said,
downsizing has been the fate of the property
for decades.
“When my grandfather bought it in 1939, it
was 325 acres,” Goodman said. Much of that
became the Oakton subdivision accessed via
St. Mary’s Lane.
The main parcel of the home has now
been whittled down to about three acres, and
Goodman says he’s got two contracts under
negotiation on the house itself.
The house was built in 1838 by Judge
David Irwin, a prominent citizen in Marietta’s
early days. It changed hands several times
over the following decades, and was
commandeered by Confederate Maj. Gen.
William L. Loring as a base of operations
during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.
“It’s the house, and the gardens, and the
barn, and the front yard, you know, that’s
all part of the historic fabric,” said David
Freedman, Chair of the Marietta Historic
Preservation Commission.
Campbell Clark, center, danced as the Dew Drop Fairy in “The Nutcracker”
for the Georgia Metropolitan Dance Theatre’s 2020 show.
Marietta resident Will Goodman, the owner of the 180-plus-year-old Oakton house in
Marietta, has begun site work on three houses to be built on a slice of the Oakton property.
58 COBB LIFE | NOVEMBER 2021
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