Gwinnett County has purchased another chunk of the Promised Land, a historic property that was once a plantation and later became an epicenter for black life in the area.
Gwinnett commissioners approved Tuesday afternoon the $81,000 purchase of a little less than two acres of the land near Anderson-Livsey Lane and Lee Road in the far southern tip of the county. The property will be purchased from Thomas and Dorethia Livsey, descendants of the original black families that made a home at the former plantation.
The newly acquired land is contiguous with the 1.5 acres that Gwinnett purchased from the Livseys in 2016. That property included the so-called "Big House," the original home that slaveowner Thomas Maguire built in the 1820s.
Thomas Livsey’s father, Robert, bought the Big House and about 100 surrounding acres in the early 1920s, using savings from his work with the railroad. He converted the property into a thriving farm and opened several businesses in what became an important black community, not just in Gwinnett but in the entire region.
Gwinnett County is in the process of renovating the Big House and plans to open it as a museum with educational tours. Spokesman Joe Sorenson said the piece of property commissioners agreed to purchase Tuesday will be “programmed into the master plan for the main site.”
