Smyrna receives
4 proposals for
Aunt Fanny’s Cabin,
council to discuss
In the final hours before a deadline for
proposals, the city received four bids to
save Aunt Fanny’s Cabin, the 19th-century
structure that once housed an Old Souththemed
restaurant.
Two proposals were submitted by the
Coalition to Save Aunt Fanny’s Cabin, a group
of residents who have been advocating for
the cabin’s preservation since January. A
third proposal was submitted by Whey To
Go, a juice company whose owner, Karen
Shockley, has spoken out about the cabin
at City Council meetings and coalition press
conferences. A fourth proposal was submitted
by Acworth-based Ashley Limousin Farms, a
beef company.
The cabin was the home of a restaurant
that glorified the Old South, operating from
1941 until the 1990s. It became a destination
in Smyrna, attracting tourists, celebrities
and politicians. But it did so by employing
offensive, minstrel show-esque caricatures of
Black people.
Since the council’s December vote to
demolish or give away the cabin, however,
some residents have campaigned for
the structure to be saved in honor of its
namesake: Fanny Williams.
Williams was a Black woman who worked
as a housekeeper for Smyrna’s prominent
Campbell family, which started the restaurant.
She has been credited as an early civil rights
figure in Cobb County, helping found the
Cobb Cooperative in Marietta, the state’s first
all-Black hospital, and enduring intimidation
from the Ku Klux Klan for her efforts.
A committee of council members and
48 COBB LIFE | APRIL 2022