Fate Of Aunt Fanny's Cabin To Be Decided Monday; Task Force Recommends Demolition Or Sale

SMYRNA, GA — A task force created to discuss the future of Aunt Fanny's Cabin, a historic World War II-era restaurant that once brought celebrities and thousands of dinner guests across the country to Smyrna, recommended selling or demolishing the structure — which also garnered infamy for its derogatory depictions of Black people for the entertainment of dinner guests.

The 20-member task force, created in August, decided Monday that it would recommend demolition of Aunt Fanny's Cabin, unless the city of Smyrna could find someone to buy and preserve it, the Marietta Daily Journal reported. City Council is expected to vote on the measure at its meeting Monday, Dec. 20.

The decision to demolish the cabin was made in part due to the dilapidated state of the building. Smyrna hasn't maintained it since it bought portions of the building in 1997, and cost estimates to renovate the cabin started at $400,000 but would've likely exceeded $600,000, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

• Related: Aunt Fanny's Cabin Could Be Repaired, Demolished Or Preserved

Task force members were also unable to move past Aunt Fanny's Cabin's controversial history.

The cabin was originally built for sharecroppers in the 1890s, but became a restaurant in 1941 when Isoline Campbell MacKenna Howell — a member of the wealthy Campbell family, some of Smyrna's first settlers — decided she needed something to do, according to Mike Terry, a former chair of the Cobb Planning Commission and unofficial city historian.

The house was named after Fanny Williams, a longtime servant the Campbell family, for whom Campbell Road and Campbell Elementary School are named.

Williams was a beloved figure in metro Atlanta, and was even considered an early civil rights advocate who spoke out against Cobb County's Ku Klux Klan and helped raise money for the state's first all-Black hospital in Marietta, according to the AJC. But she was reduced to a mascot of sorts for the cabin, which had Old South aesthetic that many other restaurants mimicked, Councilman Lewis Wheaton told the news outlet.

When heading inside even now, there are still reminders of the shameful slavery period in American and Georgian history. Councilman Travis Lindley previously told the AJC that he came across a placemat which depicted children in blackface advertising Aunt Fanny's Cabin's hot biscuits, charbroiled steaks and other menu items.

“We uncovered a lot of the photos from that era and some other things,” Wheaton told the MDJ. “It’s pretty visceral — I mean, you have young boys, young Black boys with boards around their necks, you have them dancing on tables, you have Black children singing songs about the resurrection of the Old South. ... Placemats with incredibly graphic, and just incredibly emotional images of Black children with massive lips and spiked hair. This is the kind of thing that was going on there.”

Task force members did say one part of the cabin should be preserved: the fireplace and chimney. Those will be used as the first piece of a monument that pays tribute to Williams, the AJC reported.

The city of Smyrna released a statement Thursday night in regard to the future of Aunt Fanny's Cabin.

"Make no mistake, and we wish to be very clear, with no ambiguity, that whether there is ever merit in considering retaining objects of history for historic preservation, we condemn the caricature and overt indignity of the theme of the establishment that was Aunt Fanny’s Cabin and it is our intent to do what we can to break the myth of 'Aunt Fanny' and honor her appropriately.

"Fanny Williams had significant accomplishments through her association with Wheat Street Baptist Church, an historical African-American activist church in Atlanta where she was a member. In Cobb County, she is reported to have endured the Ku Klux Klan attempting to burn a cross to intimidate her over her activities which included being one of the major fundraisers for Marietta’s 'Negro Hospital,' which broke ground in 1947. The decision that we have faced has given us the opportunity to respect the rights and dignity of Fanny Williams.

"We wish to honor Fanny Williams and not the racist theme and myths of the former establishment and others like it, popular and profitable in post WWII Atlanta. Though sometimes viewed in more glowing terms by an almost exclusively white patronage with fond memories of 'great food' and a 'family atmosphere,' these establishments are symbols and sentiments of a time that does not represent or honor the dignity of all, and certainly does not represent our community.

"Fanny Williams’ image and person, by all verifiable historical accounts, was exploited in the social and marketing myths of the former establishment. We hope to help protect her memory from myth and exploitation by honoring her, not the memory of a restaurant."

City Council will vote Monday to remove the cabin, either by finding someone to pay for its transportation and maintenance or by demolition.