OUR HISTORY, OUR STORY, CHATTAHOOCHEE PLANTATION WOMEN’S CLUB

You will soon be asked to vote on dropping the word “plantation “from our Chattahoochee Plantation Women’s Club name. This will be voted on by all voting members of the Chattahoochee Plantation Women’s Club. Our history and sense of community is being challenged.

From a bean farm grew a beautiful and special community called Chattahoochee Plantation. Our Chattahoochee Plantation Women’s Club has been a significant and vital part of our lives for 54 years. 

Our name is our HISTORY. We are CHATTAHOOCHEE PLANTATION. It is our STORY. It has been our STORY since the 1930’s when our area was a large bean farm and when developers purchased the land and named it Chattahoochee Plantation Estates in the 1950’s. And although the area had been a large farm (plantation, from the French word plantaire), the word Plantation was now highlighting a place that was looking ahead to a new vibrant future of beautiful homes, a rolling golf course, and a community of caring neighbors.

For the past 80 years, that grand vision has grown and prospered. The story continued with the creation of a city in 1961 to prevent annexation from the city of Atlanta, named Chattahoochee Plantation. You can see its HISTORY in the signage in the area. The Chattahoochee Plantation Community Association was created in 1964, after 44 houses had been built, and the women’s club, Chattahoochee Plantation Garden Club, was created in 1970.  

Our founder, Lettie Nixon, has stated so eloquently, that our Chattahoochee Plantation Women’s Club was founded on HISTORY and working together with the Chattahoochee Plantation Community Association for the past 54 years to prevent overbuilding and commercial encroachment, fight zoning issues, and beautify the area.

We have always been INCLUSIVE and have served our neighbors and the community at large, through working with state and local officials, charities, churches and public servants such as the police and fire department, to better the community we live in. We have made CONNECTIONS and FRIENDSHIPS and have built COMMUNITY. We have extended our hospitality and charitable giving to neighbors in so many impactful and compassionate ways and raised thousands of dollars for area charities.

Our women’s club reflects diversity of religion, ethnicities, and nationalities. All are welcomed and invited. We are our own “Welcome Wagon.”

The Old Farmhouse at McFarlane Park is part of our history, too, and a story we cherish. Florence McFarlane was a member of our women’s club and loved her property so much that she willed it to our community.

Let’s consider the value of our HISTORY, our uniqueness, and our future.  Our stories are still being written, and the Chattahoochee Plantation Women’s Club must remain a central and enduring part of the story. 

Vote NO to the proposal to change and “rebrand” the Chattahoochee Plantation Women’s Club name, a name which has meant so much to so many. 

To read the argument I presented to the board, click here.

Respectfully,

Janie Kissling

RE-BRANDING PROPOSAL

AMENDMENT TO THE

BY-LAWS

As we move into our 53rd year, our club has an opportunity to renew our goals with boldness and purpose. We can continue to promote close, social contacts with our neighbors and serve community charities without ‘Plantation’ in our name, a word that many associate with generations of abuse, tragedy and human suffering; this is the polar opposite of our community, a place of natural beauty where we have fostered close-knit connections and supported countless charitable causes since its establishment in 1970 as the Chattahoochee Plantation Garden Club. This tradition will remain steadfast.

Re-branding the Women’s Club was discussed among our Board in 2019 and in Strategic Planning Meetings, and now is the right time to do so. Undoubtedly, our community has a rich history of attracting talented, committed women who represent many countries and cultures. We have an opportunity to demonstrate that we are inclusive, empathetic and celebrate the diversity of all neighbors. Will you agree that no part of our name should cause any prospective member to pause, feel uncomfortable, or unwelcome?

Research shows that communities, businesses, and other entities bearing the name ‘plantation’ have chosen to remove the word from their name in keeping with their values. Similarly, our name should not detract from our cherished values of connection and inclusion. As a private club with our own by-laws, I believe we should make this change on our own terms and timeline, rather than another’s. This re-branding would have no impact whatsoever on the Chattahoochee Plantation Homeowners Association, street names in the neighborhood, or our relationship with the Chattahoochee Plantation Community Association.

Regarding the history of the Chattahoochee Plantation development, we cannot overlook that when the neighborhood plat was submitted to Cobb County in 1956 it was called “Riverside Park Subdivision.” The developers of the property established the Chattahoochee Plantation Club, a private (whites only) club surrounded by “one of the largest restricted neighborhoods in the Southeast.” (Marietta Daily Journal, May 14, 1961.) “Restrictive covenants… were contracts among property owners prohibiting sales of homes to blacks or other minorities. As private agreements, they were considered exempt from laws preventing government discrimination,” according to the National Association of Realtors.   

Since moving here in 2005, I have devoted countless hours and served as president, charity chair, historian and communications chair in our Women’s Club and shared experiences with a loving, creative, supportive group of women who believe in and contribute greatly making our community a wonderful place to live. I chaired our 50^th Anniversary Celebration, working closely with our founding members whom I have tremendous respect for and am honored to call my friends. Now is the time to embrace our greater community and send a message of inclusion by re-branding as the “Chattahoochee Women’s Club.” 

"Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interests of others." (Philippians 2:3-4)

"We rise by lifting others."

-- Robert Ingersoll

Thank you for taking the time to read this proposal and review the research and background information linked here. 

Julie Lischer