A VISION FOR SMYRNA – 1900 to 2000

Stories My Father Told Me

By Mark Reed

My family has been in the real estate business in Smyrna/Cobb County for three generations.

My grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Reed, Sr., known as Frank to his friends, “Big Papa” to the family, and Mr. Reed to everyone else, was the first licensed real estate broker in Cobb County. His firm was B.F. Reed Real Estate and Lands, founded circa 1900.

My dad, William Marcus Reed, known as Bill to most, and “Little Darlin” to many, founded Reed Realty Company in 1949. This was after his discharge from the Army Air Corp as a B-17 pilot after the end of WWII. I became a partner at Reed Realty with dad in 1971 after I got my discharge from the Army.

Dad, who was born in 1921, pretty much grew up in the real estate business. He told me his earliest memories were going with his dad in a mule drawn wagon to watch him auction land from the back of the wagon. I grew up in the business, too; working for dad putting up real estate signs and doing cleanup and detail of homes he built in the 50’s and 60’s. There was never any doubt what career I was going to follow, majoring in real estate at UGA, graduating in 1969.

I remember from an early age listening to my dad talk about his dad and how he had a vision for Smyrna, his hometown. Big Papa said that there was no reason that Smyrna couldn’t become the second largest city in Georgia, behind Atlanta. His vision for that to happen was for Smyrna to grow almost unencumbered toward the west and south, but primarily in an easterly and northeasterly direction, across the railroad tracks that bisected the center of town. He said there was nothing to stop that growth except some natural boundaries, like the City of Marietta to the north, the Chattahoochee River as the obvious boundary between Atlanta and Smyrna, and the little town of Roswell to the northeast. He felt that if Smyrna did not do this, that our neighbor, the City of Marietta, would expand and cut us off from that grand design, especially to the northeast.

Big papa, who was one of the largest property owners in Cobb County, was thwarted from implementing his vision by The Great Depression, which started in 1929, continuing through the 30’s. During that time, he lost most of his land holdings due to being unable to pay the taxes on all the farms and land he owned. Up until the depression, he had tenant farmers who paid him rent, which was his primary source of income. Once the depression started, his tenants could no longer pay rent in cash, paying instead in food (crops, meat and the like). Dad said that during the depression the Reed family ate better than most. One by one, he lost almost all of the property holdings. The final nail in the coffin of his real estate “empire” was the condemnation of the Reed Farm at Little Kennesaw Mountain, where the government took his land for the new Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield Park, paying him pennies on the dollar for its value. There was a lot of bitterness in the Reed family over that, especially since many of the well-connected Marietta families kept their land. If you look at a map of the Park, you will see some irregularities in the shape of the park. That was due to some O.M. (Old Marietta) property owners keeping their land. The O.S. (Old Smyrna) property owners lost theirs. Political influence. Not much has changed in that regard.

When WWII broke out in 1941, and the Bell Bomber plant was built north of Smyrna, portions of the runway on the Hwy 41 frontage being on Reed land, Big Papa said that this was going to be the best thing that ever happened to Smyrna and Cobb County. He felt that after the war, the airfield there would be the logical site for the second airport in Atlanta, surpassing the existing Atlanta Airport in air traffic due to the major population base being to the north of Atlanta rather than to the south. Alas, that never happened, although much good came from Lockheed taking over there, and of course there is still a presence with Dobbins Air Force Base and the Naval Air Station. But imagine if Atlanta Airport were there.

In 1949 dad took up the battle to move Smyrna forward with his dad’s vision of growth. He was met with opposition by the Smyrna City fathers who did not want to see Smyrna grow in an easterly direction across the railroad tracks. Can you guess why? Davenport Town. The community of blacks that lay in its way. The inherent racism of the time would not allow Smyrna to grow in that direction because there was no way Smyrna would allow blacks to live in the City Limits of Smyrna. There may be those who dispute this assessment, but I stand by it.

Dad and his partner Hoot Gibson (a Mayor of Smyrna in the 50’s) bucked that system by developing and building a black subdivision called Rose Garden Hills. The homes there were some of the nicest being built in Cobb County at the time, with a nice school in the center. Subsequently, dad and Hoot were the most hated and vilified men in Cobb County for a time.

Dad attempted to put together an assemblage of property on the east side of the tracks to expand commercial development in that direction, but was turned down by the City in his zoning efforts. Dad was Bill’s Ward’s “apprentice.” With Bill as his mentor, dad worked with him on the development of Belmont Hills Shopping Center to the north of Smyrna, the largest shopping center in the southeast at the time it was built. Dad handled the sale of many of the homes that sprung up along the Cherokee Road corridor (now Windy Hill Road).

In the early 60’s, dad did real estate acquisition for the I-75 corridor on the section south to the Chattahoochee River. Even then, he had hopes that Smyrna could fulfill its destiny to grow into a huge city. By this time, though, the City of Marietta had gotten in on the expansion move. In a way, Marietta cut Smyrna off at the pass, to use an old cowboy term, just as Big Papa had predicted.

I remember sitting with my dad, Bill Ward and some other Cobb County “movers and shakers” back in the early 60’s at the old Chattahoochee Plantation Club in East Cobb on the River. They talked about building a world-class golf course to host a PGA golf tournament to match the Masters. A lofty vision, I will give you that. This was the birth of Atlanta Country Club and the Atlanta Classic Golf Tournament. It had a good run, but it never lived up to its potential. I spent many a day playing that great golf course and followed Palmer, Nicklaus and Player, to name a few of the greats, at the Atlanta Classic. Michelle and I lived on Paper Mill Road across from the club for a number of years, and we could just walk over to the course and not have to fight the parking.

Anyway, Big Papa’s vision for Smyrna was never realized, although I must say that my boyhood buddy, Mayor Max Bacon, has taken Smyrna to a great place. Good job, Max. Too bad you are not Mayor of one of the largest cities in Georgia.

The two photos below show dad in front of Reed Realty on Atlanta Street backing up to the railroad tracks in 1955…me in front of the building just before it was torn down in 1987.