Discovering the Vine-Covered Ruins of Marietta's Historic Steam Tannery

Hidden in trees, covered in vines and left to nature, these brick ruins in Marietta, GA, offer a window into Georgia history.Photo byDeanLand / OurTravelCafe.com

Coming into Marietta along Kennesaw Avenue, drivers and riders alike often are surprised to see a towering brick ruin rising from the underbrush, trees and vines along the thoroughfare. We wondered about it for years before finding the answer right in front of our eyes.

So what's this mystery ruin and the story behind the towering old bricks? The answers date back to the mid-1800s when Marietta was a bustling, growing railroad town in the antebellum South.

Drivers on busy Kennesaw Avenue near Tower Drive in Marietta can miss the brick ruins in the blink of an eye.Photo byDeanLand / OurTravelCafe.com

Tracks to Growth

After settlement of the area as a pioneer town in the 1830s, growth came to Marietta as the Western and Atlantic Railroad built its main line through Cobb County and the new town. Once the railroad was fully opened between Atlanta and Chattanooga in the last 1840s, Marietta became a favored stop for travelers with many hotels and inns, according to the Georgia Encyclopedia.

One of those travelers became a resident, a local business person and the town's first mayor. John Heyward Glover, a former South Carolina rice planter, opened a bank in the town. And by the 1850s, he founded a tannery to produce shoes and other leather goods.

A daguerreotype photo of a painting of Marietta Steam Tannery, from around 1850.Photo byGeorgia Archives

Barking for Materials

Located near the main railroad line on the banks of Noses Creek, the Glover Steam Tannery was a large and modern factory for the mid 1800s. Reports published in the Georgia Historical Quarterly indicate that Glover utilized enslaved labor managed by British overseers to operate the large facility.

Tanneries required large quantities of tree bark. Workers cut hemlock and oak forests, then stripped the trees of bark.Photo byBiography of Zadock Pratt, 1852

The use of steam engines in tanning greatly expanded the capacity of tanneries, according to The Quick History of the Tanning Industry. One of those steam-powered operations was the bark mill, which ground tannin-containing hemlock or oak bark into a fine powder. The ground bark was mixed with water to create a tanning solution. The, hides were immersed in progressively stronger tanning solutions over several months.

In fact, the steam-powered tannery proved so productive that the Marietta Steam Tannery ran short of raw materials. To solve the problem, John Glover turned to the local weekly newspaper, The Marietta Advocate, running ads in 1861 soliciting for more bark as the tannery increased production to meet demand from the Civil War.

In May 1861, John Glover used advertising in the weekly Marietta Journal to find bark, a critical element in the tannery operation.Photo byGeorgia Historic Newspapers

Shoes for Confederates

With the Civil War underway, the Marietta Steam Tannery became a supplier to the Confederate States of America. The tannery produced the tanned leather used in shoes for the Confederate Army, according to published history in McCollom's Old Marietta blog.

But as the war progressed, the good fortune brought by the large customer would lead to the ultimate destruction of the modern tannery. Union troops under the command of General William Sherman entered Marietta in July 1864. By the time they left in November, the Marietta Steam Tannery burned to the ground, along with many of Marietta's other businesses and industries. The ruins along today's Kennesaw Avenue are the remnants of this factory.

When Union troops left Marietta in November of 1864, the tannery and other industries were destroyed. The smokestack no longer remains.Photo byGeorgia Archives

Down, Not Out

After the war, John B. Glover, son of the original owner, and J R Wilder rebuilt the tannery business, though not the original factory, which laid in ruins beyond repair.

In February of 1875, the two owners dissolved their partnership in the tannery, as reported in the Marietta Journal. Then, JB Glover reopened the business as Oakton Tannery immediately.

JB Glover and JR Wilder re-established their tannery business following the Civil War, then dissolved their partnership in 1875.Photo byMarietta Journal March 1875

By June 1882, the tannery business had expanded into providing leather shoes, too. An overview of factory production in Cobb County published in the Marietta Journal reported the Glover business "have a capacity for 200 pairs shoes per day of twelve hours, and is the only factory in the south where shoes are manufactured by machinery.

What's Next

Today, a small sign erected by Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society and visible solely to pedestrians walking along the busy street provides the only identification for the vine-shrouded brick ruins along Kennesaw Avenue.

A small sign, generally visible only to pedestrians on the adjacent sidewalk, provides some history on the historic site.Photo byDeanLand / OurTravelCafe.com

The ruins are located on private property, thus are not available for visitors. Several blog posts and newspaper articles published in recent years include more detailed photos, descriptions and information on the ruins.

In 2020, the City of Marietta proposed to purchase the site and preserve the ruins as part of a SPLOST Tax proposal. However, the project was not included in the list of projects for the 2022 SPLOST.

Today, preservation of the site remains on the preservation priorities as a "watchlist" items for Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society.

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For more than 100 posts and videos on Georgia history, fun outings, regional travel and more, visit DeanLand's blog, OurTravelCafe.com