Event space coming to former home of Marietta's Gone With the Wind Museum

Chart Riggall, Marietta Daily Journal, Ga.
·2 min read

Oct. 5—After sitting vacant for years, the former home of Marietta's Gone With the Wind Museum just off Marietta Square is getting a new lease on life.

Boxwood Social Hall, a multi-use event space, will be the latest tenant of the historic building and is expected to open this fall.

Lauren Ainsworth, the venue's proprietor, told the MDJ she recently moved from Atlanta to restore the structure. She hopes it'll be "something different than your typical venue space."

"We can host anything from a large wedding or dinner gala to small corporate meetings and seminars," she said. "We don't really want to pigeonhole ourselves as a wedding venue. There's so many of those around Marietta."

The property itself has sat vacant since 2018, when the museum moved to its current location in Brumby Hall on Powder Springs Street. Plans to open a restaurant with rooftop dining at the location never materialized. Property records indicate the building is owned by Murphy Thomas.

The 1880s-era building has a rich history, according to Amy Reed, head of the Marietta History Center. It was originally used as a cotton warehouse, becoming a newspaper office and printer for the Cobb County Times in 1918.

In the early 1980s, it had a brief stint as Gus Fletcher's Livery Stable, a bar and dance hall, before it housed Captain Billy's seafood joint in the 1990s, its last tenant before the museum moved in.

Ainsworth said she's worked to preserve the building's historic character while installing some needed updates.

"It's really beautiful. We've kept all the original brick, we still have the original hardwood flooring in. All we've done is put up some some drywall that can easily be taken down without damage," she said. "We're restoring the original rafters, and we did some work on the roof, all keeping to the original designs."

The opening date for the venue remains "a moving target," Ainsworth added, as it awaits its certificate of occupancy from the city, but she hopes to welcome Marietta with a grand opening party soon enough.