Gover Park

Glover Park will be the focus point of the 4th of July celebrations here in Marietta so I thought I would just say a little about it.

It was first the grounds of the second Cobb County Courthouse but Sherman had it burned to the ground in 1864. The the courthouse was rebuilt across the street.

Somehow the Glover family became owners of Glover Park. The Glover family supplied the city with its first mayor and it was certainly one of the wealthiest families in Marietta, they owned Glover Machine Works which first made locomotives and then other things, mostly for a war effort.

Until fairly recent times black people was not allowed to sent on the benches in the part. The Glover family still owned the park and a sipulation on the loan of the park that if black people sat on the benches then the park would reverse back to the owners, the Glover family. Less than twenty years ago a member of the Glover family had lawyers change that clause.

When I was young I did not enjoy walking throughthe park to get to other side after I left the movies. On Saturdays it was full of farmers sitting on benches talking about politics and crazed preachers on soapboxes thumping on their bibles saying the end is near. And on weekdays it contained mostly drunks drinking out of brown paperbags and pissing in the bushes. The shrubs were untrimmed and the dirt looked like white sand. There was squeaky equipment playground and on one corner was a telephone on the side of a pole. It was the office of Red the Cab Driver. Red also was your local bootlegger, if Red was alive today, he would be be your local pusher-man.

About 30 or so years ago Glover Park with private funds got a face lift. Joann Woodward and her husband Paul got things rolling by donating several hundred thousands. The cement walks were changed to cobblestone and the gold fish well in the center was made to look like a shrine - they also put in a big fountain and kicked the gold fish out.

Througout the years I have taken pictures of the park. Here are some of them.