Kennesaw Mountain Needs Funds To Add Historic House

By Deborah Fitts

KENNESAW, Ga. — A historic house that witnessed the battle of Kennesaw Mountain could be added to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park — but only if supporters are able to raise $450,000 needed to restore it.

Park Superintendent Dan Brown said saving the 1853 Wallis House is the park’s highest priority. Congress would first have to approve a boundary expansion to include the structure, which at present is a half-mile from the park boundary on Burnt Hickory Road.

Cobb County owns the house and is eager to hand it over to the park. But the park has no funds to restore the house, Brown cautioned, and cannot accept it until studies are undertaken, utilities are upgraded, and the house, which has modern additions, is returned to its wartime appearance.
With the “hefty price tag” of $450,000 in hand, Brown has approached the park’s nonprofit cooperating association to raise the money. The Kennesaw Mountain Historical Association runs the park bookstore.

“I don’t know if they have the staff to aggressively pursue it,” acknowledged Brown. “It takes time and effort and expertise in fundraising.”

Brown added that, “in better federal budget times,” the National Park Service (NPS) would have been able to come up with the money. “But right now the federal budget is exceedingly, exceedingly tight.”

In fact, seeking to add a new structure, which will cost the park an extra $165,000 a year in staff, maintenance, protection, utilities and interpretation, already raises concerns by NPS officials.

But Brown said the Wallis House would represent a highly significant addition to the park. At present the park has only one historic home, and very little property associated with the Union side.

The Wallis House, strategically located next to a Union signal station at Harriston Hill, served as headquarters for Union Gen. O.O. Howard. Gen. William T. Sherman stayed there as well, during the battle of Kolb Farm just prior to the battle of Kennesaw Mountain.

The majority of interpretation within the 2,888-acre park at present deals with Confederate positions, Brown noted. The Confederates arrived first on the scene, took the high ground and built earthworks which are “better defined” today than their Yankee counterparts.

Adding the Wallis House with its Union history “would help this park provide a much more complete and balanced interpretation of the battle,” Brown said.

The Wallis House was slated for demolition in 2002 as a 43-home subdivision was built next door. But John Cissell, the park superintendent at the time, got together with the Cobb County Board of Commissioners and the Georgia Civil War Commission, and about $200,000 was raised to buy the house and 1.3 acres. The county made the purchase in 2004, as well as 6 acres encompassing Harriston Hill, to serve as green space. The Cobb Land Trust bought an adjoining acre for public parking for the hill. A sidewalk through the subdivision ties the hill to the house.

Brown noted that the park will close in November on 34 acres in the northern section of the park. He termed it a “significant” addition; given the intense development that in a few short years has turned Kennesaw Mountain into an urban rather than a rural park, there are very few large pieces of undisturbed land left.

Anyone wishing to learn more about the effort to save the Wallis House may contact the Kennesaw Mountain Historical Association at (770) 422-3696, or send an e-mail to Rose@kmha.org.