You can't say that Acworth isn't on the map any more. The north Cobb city on Lake Acworth is sprucing up its aging downtown, and shoppers are coming back for new gift shops and restaurants.

Most people come from nearby subdivisions such as the sprawling Brookstone three miles west. A new community center has sprung up on Mars Hill Road with a county library branch, YMCA and shopping centers; folks are driving into town to shop as well.

There's a resurgence of retail stores, a tea room, sandwich shop, and a popular Cajun restaurant that is expanding into another building.

That's good news for the city that has just finished a downtown road-widening project that added sidewalks along both sides of Main Street, bike lanes and old-fashioned lamp posts. A gazebo and city clock soon will be added at Lemon and Main streets to complete the small-town feel.

Kennesaw

The north Cobb city's big news this year is the opening of the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History. The home of the General, the Confederate locomotive stolen in Marietta in 1862 by Andrews' Raiders, has been expanded to include train artifacts from the Glover Machine Works, a former Marietta company.

Officials hope the $6 million museum will be the catalyst for downtown revitalization. City manager Mike McDowell said some of the older houses on side streets off Main Street have been remodeled, and there is an interest in reviving aging commercial buildings. A streetscape program finished this year added benches, bicycle racks, period lighting and brick paved crossings along Main Street.

Marietta

The Marietta Square is becoming an ethnic restaurant mecca. Additions to existing French, Italian and Chinese restaurants include Slovak, Australian, Turkish and Thai eateries. A Celtic pub opened in May in a 90-year-old building that has housed a fire station and bank. The beer cooler is located in the former bank vault.

City economic developer Beth Tippins said people like to dine where they live and where they don't have to fight traffic. That is bringing folks downtown to eat and live. Loft living is popular in a former sock mill and rocking chair factory, and large, historic houses around the Square are hard to come by. Tippins said people are gravitating towards smaller, older houses west and north of the Square.

The city capitalizes on its picturesque town square with free outdoor concerts and numerous arts and crafts festivals. Downtown Marietta also has a professional theater, several community playhouses, numerous antique stores, an art museum and four history museums.

East Cobb

In an area of affluent subdivisions, upscale shopping and top-notch schools, there has been a groundswell for a community gathering place. Without a town square or central meeting place, citizens organized five years ago to save 13 acres on Roswell Road for a public park. Seven adjoining acres were acquired using state green space money. The park opened in July 2003.

Sunny Walker, former president of Friends of East Cobb Park, said baby boomers are hungry for the small towns they grew up in. She said the Marietta Square is too far for people who want a meeting place in their own neighborhood.

After the group raised more than $1 million, it deeded the land to Cobb County. The county is constructing the first phase of the park with the opening set this summer. There will be walking trails, two playgrounds, picnic pavilions, an outdoor classroom, restrooms and an outdoor stage. A perfect place, Walker said, for people to meet.

South Cobb

In Austell, a three-block stretch along Veterans Memorial Highway is dotted with restaurants, an art dealer, dry cleaners and antique shops.

The city plans to dress things up this year by adding trees and landscaping, signs and lighting. The downtown area is important to Mayor Joe Jerkins, who fought to keep the U.S. Post Office from moving out of town several years ago and would like to see a grocery store there. The city has bought a building that was a grocery store 25 years ago and wants to lease it as a food store again.

A few miles down the road, another community center has developed at the Threadmill building. The mammoth former Coats and Clark plant has been redeveloped as a mix of government offices and shops. Austell's municipal court, mayor's and clerk's offices and public works have relocated there as well as law enforcement agencies.

The Threadmill has become a small town of its own within a 240,000-square-foot building that has offices and shops, chiropractors and several eateries including a Cajun restaurant and the Big Pink for sandwiches.

Powder Springs

The sleepy south Cobb city is also sprucing up its downtown. New signs beckon and cosmetic improvements are underway, but traffic often passes by a few Mexican restaurants and shops on Marietta Street. Virginia Meldrum continues to delight children at her bookstore, the Owl's Tree, and retirees stop to swap tales at a lawn mower repair shop across the street.

The Silver Comet Trail, a 13-mile multiuse trail, now connects to downtown Powder Springs via Dillard Street, but so far not too many bikers make a detour. Mayor Brad Hulsey said commercial development in nearby Hiram has hurt redevelopment, but he is optimistic the city will find a way to get people to visit downtown where they can speak to a friendly face.

Smyrna-Vinings

The two communities, once separated by I-285 and the burg of Oakdale, have melded in recent years. But both have retain strong village centers with busy shops and restaurants. Smyrna started the redevelopment movement in Cobb 15 years ago when it decided to level its downtown on Atlanta Road instead of renovating it.

Close to $30 million later, the city has new police and fire departments, a library, community center and city hall around a village green where concerts are held in warmer months. The last phase recently opened with shops, restaurants and upscale townhomes above them. A 1-acre memorial to veterans was also completed this year next to City Hall.

Although new housing costs have spiraled, City Manager Wayne Wright said there's still affordable housing in Smyrna. Smaller, older houses on streets around the new city center are being remodeled, and houses of Craftsman-style bungalows are being built across Atlanta Road.

West Cobb

Subdivisions are sprouting in Cobb's last frontier. Although there's no town square in this part of unincorporated Cobb, many communities attract families with good schools, numerous parks and neighborhood amenities. Clubhouses and swim and tennis facilities serve as gathering places.

The next community center, a collection of upscale restaurants and shops and the counterpart to the Avenue East Cobb, is under construction five miles west of the Marietta Square.