Island Ford Lodge: Cultural Landscape Report, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, National Park Service

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This Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) is for the Island Ford Lodge cultural landscape, a 46.2-acre component landscape of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CHAT) in Fulton County, Georgia, in the city of Sandy Springs. In December 1978, the National Park Service assumed management of CHAT, which includes sixteen discontinuous units along the Chattahoochee River corridor. The National Park Service (NPS) owns and manages the subject property, including the historic Hewlett Lodge and several other buildings and structures on the property that serve as components of CHAT Administrative Headquarters. Hewlett Lodge (built in 1935) and three associated contributing structures (built 1945) are listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) for their significance under Criterion C (embodiment of the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction) at the state level in the area of Architecture. Hewlett Lodge is an excellent and rare example of a Rustic-style building in Georgia. The period of significance begins with construction of Hewlett Lodge by prominent Atlanta-based attorney, Samuel Dunbar Hewlett, in 1935 and ends when the Buckhead Century Club purchased the property in 1950. Additional contributing cultural landscape features include a historic Barbecue Pavilion and Springhouse, as well as natural systems and features, spatial organization, views, and circulation features. There are eight noncontributing buildings and thirteen noncontributing structures, all constructed since the end of the period of significance. The site history included in this CLR examines the development and evolution of Island Ford Lodge cultural landscape and presents a broad overview of its history, tracing the use of the land by Native Americans, early American settlers, Samuel D. Hewlett, Sr., the Buckhead Century Club, the Atlanta Baptist Association, and the National Park Service (NPS). The site history is based on historic research utilizing a wide range of primary and secondary sources including census records, historic maps, historic photographs and aerial imagery, local history texts, oral history interviews, and NPS reports/documents. While there is very little written or photographic documentation of the landscape’s historic spatial organization or details of daily life on the site, oral history interviews and historic aerial photographs contribute immensely to the twentieth-century record. The existing conditions section provides a comprehensive description of cultural landscape features at the site, including natural and cultural resources. The inventory includes information gathered during site visits by project team members between December 2018 and March 2020. The analysis of integrity section uses criteria developed by the National Register of Historic Places and the Secretary of Interior Standards for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes to evaluate the historic integrity of existing landscape resources. The section on treatment recommendations provides guidance for future management decisions related to the site’s historic landscape resources. Treatment recommendations focus on an interpretive period that aligns with the National Register period of significance—1935-1950. The recommended ultimate treatment is rehabilitation, which provides measures to protect the historic character-defining features while improving the overall appearance, functionality, and natural resiliency of the site.

Island Ford Lodge: Cultural Landscape Report, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, National Park Service

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