[wenfen]

One of the threads last week here, made me curious, so when I drove by this week, I pulled in the "plaza" and walked the area, went up the stairs to the lookout, saw the mill, and what looked to may have been a bandstand?? near that. Kind of a neat area-it must have some crummy history, though?

[Mrs G]

I do NOT know the hsitory but, I have been in Paulding Co since the summer of 1997 and I do know that every business that has been located there, didn't last very long. The few on the front side has lasted longer than the others. It would be awesome "IF" the place could be successful!!!!!!!!

[CrabbyDaddy]

Failed business after failed business after failed business. Nice place though, I wish we could have something nice there.

[sm0kediver]

Built by a millionaire who literally had to spend huge amounts of money to meet the terms of a trust. The original restaurant was very good but PC just wasn't ready for it yet. Shame. The whole complex is well designed, and has tons more character than any commercial development in the region... and most of it has been vacant for most of its life.

[mysterious]

sm0kediver, on 25 June 2012 - 10:01 PM, said:

Built by a millionaire who literally had to spend huge amounts of money to meet the terms of a trust. The original restaurant was very good but PC just wasn't ready for it yet. Shame. The whole complex is well designed, and has tons more character than any commercial development in the region... and most of it has been vacant for most of its life.

It would have made an awesome place for the new movie production company to have used, rather than building a new building. JMHO.

[rockysmom]

So many tales about this place. From what I've heard, the rent being charged pretty much dooms any new business from the jump. I guess 100% of nothing is better than 50% of something. Just doesn't make sense to me.

Maybe the owner has a write off on the losses on this property. I don't know.

[CrabbyDaddy]

Mini golf and a go cart track. Bet that would make some money over there.

[PUBBY]

I did a story on this way back when.

Seems the man who owned it had married into the family that runs the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes. The mill was rebuilt from a family mill owned by the husband that was there originally - i.e some of the structural timbers come from the original growth forest that was here prior to the civil war.

Anyway, there were issues and I understand the family ended up in a divorce, at least in part because of the serial failures of local business ventures they sought to establish.

I'm kinda vague because I did this story about 20 years ago when the place was new.

pubby

[Georgia Dawg]

When we moved to Hiram off Nebo road back in 1994 we started going to the Cotton Gin Restaurant pretty regular. Someone came around and sold a book for $20 that basically gave you 20 coupons with a buy one dinner - get one dinner free. I thought it was a heck of a deal, and we bought one and we went to the Cotton Gin at least once a week and we kept going for quite a while after the coupons ran out. Food and service was always great. It was a really nice place where high schoolers would take their prom dates. I was sad to see it go. When others reopened it, we went several times to show support and to avoid the traffic on 92/278, but to no avail.

[~S~]

I remember when Sweet Treats was there. That was the first thing I ever remember being there.

[bh67]

It was there is 92 when I moved out, a guy I worked with told me basically the same story as Pubby about 15 years ago.

[Georgia Dawg]

PUBBY, on 25 June 2012 - 11:04 PM, said:

I did a story on this way back when.

Seems the man who owned it had married into the family that runs the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes. The mill was rebuilt from a family mill owned by the husband that was there originally - i.e some of the structural timbers come from the original growth forest that was here prior to the civil war.

Anyway, there were issues and I understand the family ended up in a divorce, at least in part because of the serial failures of local business ventures they sought to establish.

I'm kinda vague because I did this story about 20 years ago when the place was new.

pubby

Wasn't the name "Barry's Cotton Gin Restaurant"? Or was that later?

[Myprayers77]

~S~, on 26 June 2012 - 12:30 PM, said:

I remember when Sweet Treats was there. That was the first thing I ever remember being there.

Was that an ice cream shop? I vaguely remember it. I was very young when it was around.

[tbird]

Myprayers77, on 26 June 2012 - 12:54 PM, said:

Was that an ice cream shop? I vaguely remember it. I was very young when it was around.

Ice cream and sandwiches. Ray and Linda Fletcher owned it. They then went on to open Fletchers in the old Catfish Den building and it was there for several years. Those two sure do know how to cook!! And they are 2 of the nicest people I have ever known!!

[STRAWMAN]

From my understanding, and I may be wrong, but that place suffers from the same issue that down town Hiram does, the businesses are on septic tanks, and not sewer. And now you can't open a restaurant in Hiram without having a sewer connection. I may be way off on that, it's 3rd hand information.

[lowrider]

I thought I remembered going there in the late eighties.....maybe early nineties when my daughter was around 9-10. It was the Cotton Gin and it was very good but I remember it being expensive.

The best place to go back in the day was the Catfish Den there on the corner at Nebo. It was small and on the weekends you had to wait but it was the best. They should have never moved.

[feelip]

PUBBY, on 25 June 2012 - 11:04 PM, said:

I did a story on this way back when.

Seems the man who owned it had married into the family that runs the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes. The mill was rebuilt from a family mill owned by the husband that was there originally - i.e some of the structural timbers come from the original growth forest that was here prior to the civil war.

Anyway, there were issues and I understand the family ended up in a divorce, at least in part because of the serial failures of local business ventures they sought to establish.

I'm kinda vague because I did this story about 20 years ago when the place was new.

pubby

Ben Croker owned the feed mill in Hiram. It was on the same street as the post office. His son, John (or Johnny) built the Cotton Gin. John was a school teacher. His wife, Susie was an heir to the Publisher's Clearing House founder. Seems like all this took place not long after I moved to Hiram in 1983.

There was a crew of older gentlemen that hung out at the feed mill on a daily basis. Those old farts gossiped worse than any bunch of old women have ever thought about. Those were the good old days.

[PUBBY]

Thanks for the updates. My memory was such I wasn't sure if it was Coker or Croker but I do remember distinctly being shown the place before its grand opening by John who described the source of the beams, etc. and talked about the history.

One thing I remember quite distinctly was that the women's bathroom had silver plated fixtures while the men's had gold-plated fixtures.

I suppose it could have been as early as the spring/summer of 1989 - when I first worked at the Neighbor - but you got to know I was only in the women's rest room before its opening

pubby

PS: John also opened a home movie store ... a place where you could buy home theater installations (not videos although he did have the first video disks at that time before DVD's) that opened just north of downtown and later moved next to Best Buy on Cobb Parkway.

[dallasbrowneyes]

I loved the Cotton Gin restaurant. I would love to see it open again as a nice restaurant

[Greatma]

feelip, on 26 June 2012 - 04:56 PM, said:

Ben Croker owned the feed mill in Hiram. It was on the same street as the post office. His son, John (or Johnny) built the Cotton Gin. John was a school teacher. His wife, Susie was an heir to the Publisher's Clearing House founder. Seems like all this took place not long after I moved to Hiram in 1983.

There was a crew of older gentlemen that hung out at the feed mill on a daily basis. Those old farts gossiped worse than any bunch of old women have ever thought about. Those were the good old days.

I don't think John was a school teacher. I went to school with him, in fact my brother
graduated with him. John had a lot of problems. I think he lives in Alabama now.

[feelip]

BMR, on 26 June 2012 - 07:10 PM, said:

I don't think John was a school teacher. I went to school with him, in fact my brother
graduated with him. John had a lot of problems. I think he lives in Alabama now.

I could be wrong on that. But I thought he was.

I agree he had some issues. He owned the cafe in Dallas too didn't he?

[LPPT]

The place would make a wonderful event hall if someone wanted to do something nice with it. It is very rustic and scenic. I loved it and always thought it would work well as a comedy place only open on the weekends.
The economy is not very favorable to either one of those things now, but in the future it would work great.

[Greatma]

feelip, on 26 June 2012 - 07:53 PM, said:

I could be wrong on that. But I thought he was.

I agree he had some issues. He owned the cafe in Dallas too didn't he?

He had a cousin,Franklin, that was a school teacher.

[Georgia Dawg]

When did Barry take it over?