Cobb County Youth Museum to expand

A special land use permit was granted by the Marietta City Council on May 8 for the expansion of the Cobb County Youth Museum.

In its 49th year of operation, the museum at 649 Cheatham Hill Drive SW will expand by about 5,000 square feet from 3,300 to 8,077 square feet.

Executive Director Kristi Storey, who in 2016 succeeded Anita Barton who was the executive director for 38 years, told the Council an additional restroom will be added to the one restroom among the renovations.

Variances approved include:

• reducing the setback for the pavilion from 75 feet to eight inches and for the Youth Museum and proposed addition from 75 feet to 16 feet.
• allowing a septic system for a commercial site.
• reducing the required parking spaces from 26 to 14.
• reducing the two-way interior drive width from 20 feet to 18 feet.

No one spoke during the public hearing.

Storey said 15,000 children visit each year with 90 percent of the tours from school children on buses.

Also, there are around 40 home school groups attending mainly by car pool, she said.

Organized by the Junior Welfare League in 1964, the museum hosts elementary school students who are led by trained docents.

The children are costumed and rehearsed for their roles in three historically staged areas.

The content of the two-hour tour is related to the elementary curriculum and includes an original puppet production.

Currently, the production is “America’s Pathways to Independence” with the three exhibit areas of Colonial Boston with storyteller Mercy Otis Warren, the American Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence with storyteller Abigail Adams and the Constitutional Convention with storyteller James Madison.