Public commenter recounts history of early 20th-century Black summer resort in Kennesaw

During the public comment period of the council meeting, resident Andrew Bam recounted local history about a summer resort in Kennesaw that served Black visitors from about 1915 to 1919 and said much of the site’s physical presence has vanished.

Bam told the council the resort, located on Cherokee Street, was developed by Cornelius King, a businessman from Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue, on land he purchased from "Bishop Henry McNeil Turnau," and that the resort offered a wake, swimming pool, cabins, golf links and a baseball field. "It was only open during the summer, and it attracted many of the most notable names in black Atlanta at that time," Bam said.

Bam said newspaper accounts from the Atlanta Independent described the resort as an idyllic retreat, and he said the resort closed in 1919 after a guest was falsely accused of attacking a woman, after which its amenities seemed to vanish. He told the council the land where the resort once stood is now the Terra neighborhood and said a steel cutout of Native American teeth survives on a building in Atlanta known as the Wequam Building. He referenced additional research available via a QR code in a paper he presented at an undergraduate conference.

Why it matters: The comment documented a piece of local Black history that, according to the speaker, is not widely preserved in physical form and may be of interest to local historians and preservationists. The council did not take action on the comment during the meeting.