The future of the Aunt Fanny’s Cabin building will remain uncertain for several weeks.
During a Monday meeting, Smyrna City Council decided to extend the deadline for proposals for acquisition and relocation of the controversial structure until 10 a.m. on March 16.
Officials will vote on the bids during the March 21 meeting or decide next steps to demolish what remains of the former restaurant if no proposals are submitted. No bids were submitted before the original Feb. 1 deadline.
Smyrna is offering the cabin for free, but the bidder must pay the expense of moving the condemned building which was moved to its current location at 2875 Atlanta Road in 1997 from Campbell Road.
Aunt Fanny’s Cabin became known for its southern cooking after opening in the 1940s but has been criticized for promoting stereotypes of Black people. The servers were Black boys who wore wooden menu boards around their necks. Reportedly, framed slave advertisements decorated the walls.
Getting rid of the condemned building and finding a way to honor Fanny Williams, for whom the eatery was named, is a source of contention between some officials and residents.
Smyrna decided in late December to demolish the facility if a credible bidder doesn’t come forward.
Last week, a group called “The Coalition to Save Aunt Fanny’s Cabin” gathered at the cabin location asking the city to allow more time for bids.
Councilwoman Susan Wilkinson and coalition members who spoke during Monday’s meeting said they want the city to cancel demolition plans and restore the building — which would cost an estimated $500,000.
Cabin supporters said Williams, who died in 1949, has been inaccurately characterized as a “mascot” for Aunt Fanny’s Cabin and exploited by Isoline Campbell McKenna, the original owner of the restaurant.
It was subsequent owners of the cabin who created the stereotypes, Wilkinson read in an email from a resident.
“Aunt Fanny’s Cabin actually brought the community together, resident Shawn Martin said.
Williams was a longtime servant of the wealthy Campbell family that was among Smyrna’s first settlers. A civil rights activist, Williams spoke out against the Ku Klux Klan and helped to raise money to build the state’s first all-Black hospital in Marietta. She is buried in an unmarked grave at South View Cemetery in Jonesboro.
“Because of (the cemetery’s) disrepair we cannot honor her where she rests,” Councilman Lewis Wheaton said, adding that Smyrna inquired about placing a marker at Williams’ gravesite.
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