Life College is transforming a portion of the wooded Marietta campus into an original 19th century village, with plans to offer free tours to the public -- especially school-aged children -- to demonstrate how people lived in the South in that era.
The college is taking great care to reproduce much of the structures in their original forms using the original materials. The centerpiece of the village is a log cabin built in 1898 by a Pine Ridge, North Carolina beekeeper and bootlegger. Next to the cabin is a barn that the college moved from a large farm in Dugspur, Virginia. Across from the barn is a corn crib (circa 1845), a molasses mill, and farm tools over a century old: a seeder, and a plow. Across the road, visitors will see a tobacco barn that the Life College crew found outside of Mt. Airy, North Carolina.
The village is in close proximity to a scenic waterfall on campus, which will soon include a grist mill with the original stones, wooden gearing, and the building itself, last operated some 50 years ago. The corn mill and an old saw mill will be attached and be powered by a waterwheel.
Life College is located on an historic site. Originally Cherokee land, the area was mined for placer gold (Rottenwood Creek), and was the right flank of the Confederate Army's defense line during the battle of Kennesaw Mountain. After the Civil War, emancipated slaves established Jonesville on the grounds, and headstones from the cemetery still remain. In the 1830s, Isaac Sewell built a water-powered mill on Rottenwood Creek. In 1896, a stone dam was built to replace the Sewell Mill, becoming the city of Marietta's first waterworks. Life College's student center is the original caretaker's house for the Marietta Waterworks.
Janie Kelly, coordinator of Life's village site, predicts that tours of the village may begin as early as this November.
Trio of Trustees Joins Life Board
Joseph Myers, PhD, Marie Smith, EdD, and Judge Kenneth Nix have been appointed to Life's board of trustees.
Dr. Myers, a faculty member at Life on "day one" -- the college's inception -- is currently a professor of biology at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia.
Dr. Smith, who taught and served as academic dean at Life West, is president of the College of Alameda in Alameda, California.
Judge Nix serves on the state court of Cobb County in Marietta, Georgia.
Life Names New Admissions Director
Herschel Hatcher has been appointed new director of Life College's admissions services. Mr. Hatcher has worked for the college for a decade as a counselor and before his promotion was an assistant professor of counseling. "My biggest challenge is maintaining the quality of applicants ..." said Mr. Hatcher.
Mr. Hatch has an ABJ degree in journalism from the University of Georgia, and a master's of education in community counseling from Georgia State University.
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