A handful of Marietta residents appealed to Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin and the City Council on Sept. 13 to buy the 1838 Oakton estate before developers can purchase it.
“I encourage you to put your heads together and step up to the plate and try to solve this problem,” Judge Jim Miller said. Neither the mayor nor any City Council member offered a comment about this matter during the meeting. For more than two years, Oakton House and Gardens, 581 Kennesaw Ave. NW, has been for sale, according to a Facebook post by co-owner Michelle Goodman.
“Putting our family home on the market was one of the toughest, but needed, decisions I have ever made. Our goal is to locate a family (or group) that would keep the integrity of the property as have the three families that have previously owned the place,” she wrote.
“Our experience to date has been pretty miserable. We have been contacted by businesses that wanted to tear the house down and develop or introduce up to 13 homes in the front yard. I always felt I was not allowed the opportunity to live here only to let it be destroyed. As much as I do not want to, there will be a point that we might have to listen to a developer,” she added.
Goodman said she is hoping a buyer will come forward who will preserve Oakton which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
At Oakton, Goodman offers tours, full-service event planning and floral design, handmade crafts, heirloom seeds and hands-on landscaping and gardening workshops.
Information: Michelle Goodman at 770-560-5407 or OaktonQueen@gmail.com, OaktonHouseAndGardens.com, facebook.com/SaveOaktonProject, GeorgiaTrust.org/sale/ads.php.
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