Roswell’s first Black-owned business to be preserved piece by piece

Starting in the 1950s, Black residents in Roswell would venture to a small establishment situated on a grassy slope overlooking Oxbo Road, where patrons were drawn to the sounds of its jukebox and pinball machine during lively date nights.

Those who lived in the Groveway community would park their cars and play music in front of the wooden building to entice dancing. At the same time, founder Sam Stafford, who was known as “Doc,” could be seen cooking some barbecue inside or in the yard.

With movie theaters and most social gathering spots off limits for the Black community during the segregation era, Doc’s Café was a small but vibrant abode they made their own.

But more importantly, the city’s first Black-owned business was a place where they could kick back, have fun and be themselves, while leaving the world’s problems behind.

“It was a time when segregation limited safe and welcoming spaces and often sought to divide,“ said longtime resident Sabin Strickland, the pastor at Roswell’s Pleasant Hill Church, which is located just a few feet from the cafe’s original location. ”But this establishment, this place, served as a beacon of unity and dignity."

Now, city officials and community leaders are working to ensure Doc’s Café will be preserved and returned to its original spot on the slope of Cafe Hill, where they plan on allowing the public to visit.

But getting to that point won’t be easy. Starting a few weeks ago, the roughly 800-square-foot building has been in the process of being deconstructed, piece by piece, due to its historical significance.

Roswell mayor Kurt Wilson points to the future site of Doc’s Café. (Natrice Miller/ AJC)

The first phase of the city’s plan includes capturing 3D scans and architectural drawings of the cafe, the deconstruction, and cataloging and storing the items. Those steps are expected to be finished this week, but officials told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they don’t have a timetable for the completion of the project since it has yet to receive formal funding for a design firm and construction costs. A request for the firm was included in the city’s 2026 fiscal year budget.

The cafe was operational until about the mid-1960s and later served as living quarters for Doc’s relatives until it became unoccupied in the late 2000s, Strickland said. It was then moved less than a mile away to 79 Oxbo Road to accommodate the Oxbo Road realignment project, city officials said, leaving it essentially hidden for more than 15 years.

The proposed new site was approved by the Roswell City Council in 2020, but efforts to move the cafe were not successful. Following a change in administration, Strickland approached the new mayor, Kurt Wilson, who said he was eager to do something about it.

Over the years, the building had fallen into disrepair. Photos taken at the start of the deconstruction project show it was propped up on cinder blocks and resembled more of a dilapidated home than a restaurant. Its windows were boarded, the roof and walls appeared torn, and wiring was hanging down its eastern side like a vine.

Doc's Café is seen in the early stages of the deconstruction project on Oxbo Road. (City of Roswell photo)

Many of the historical items, including the jukebox and pinball machine, were gone after the establishment stopped serving customers.

At the site Tuesday, most of the walls were being removed by a steady stream of workers, who have been funneling in and out of the structure since August when the project started. Wilson smiled proudly as he placed his hand on the building’s beams, one of the hundreds of pieces of wood that were meticulously labeled by number and placed into a metal shipping container. The kitchen was taken out in recent days.

A construction worker holds pieces of wood at the deconstruction site of Doc’s Café in Roswell. (Natrice Miller/ AJC)

Officials labeled items they deemed historically significant, which Wilson said included the entire structure besides the drywall. Since the building is not in good shape, crews have taken their time.

A construction worker stores wood panels from Doc’s Café in a shipping container. (Natrice Miller/ AJC)

“If you were to take a usual deconstruction process, you would tear this structure up pretty quickly,” Wilson told the AJC while touching the wooden exterior. “Does it matter how we take it apart and put it back together? Yes. So the whole process was to take it down literally, piece by piece ... each little piece makes up a whole.”

The cafe had been forgotten in recent years after being moved to that location off Oxbo Road, where you “wouldn’t know that black life existed” anymore, Strickland said. That’s why moving it back home, and to a more visible spot, is so important, he said.

Construction workers deconstruct Doc’s Café in Roswell. (Natrice Miller/ AJC)

Strickland grew up playing on the steps of the church. As a child, his mother would tell him how she would have to go all the way to Atlanta to get clothes, as nearby businesses wouldn’t let her in due to her skin color.

Many Black community members lived near the cafe in homes and apartments, Strickland said. It was that safe space for those who simply wanted to socialize in public. For that reason, it became more than a restaurant.

“For us as a city, I think it means we’re investing in diversity, equity and inclusion in a very tangible and lasting way,” Strickland said. “(During) our initial conversation with the previous administration, I was looking around, and seeing all of these properties, and they have historical significance. But they were all white and pointed toward slavery, with the plantation homes and that kind of thing. They’re part of Roswell history, and it’s well and good, but this aspect of Roswell history, that Black presence, was missing in a very significant way.

“Doc’s Café was one of the ways that we could actually preserve that.”