The Island Ford Lodge, located within the Chattahoochee River area in Sandy Springs, has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Island Ford Lodge was listed in the National Register at the state level of significance for its architecture, because it is a rare example of a Rustic-style building in Georgia. Island Ford Lodge is part of a 10-acre complex located in a cul-de-sac at the end of Island Ford Parkway. As part of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, the lodge is owned and managed by the National Park Service.
The property consists of the main house, seven buildings, and four structures. Atlanta attorney Samuel D. Hewlett built the lodge in 1935 as a retreat home for his family. Designed in the manner of the Adirondack camps of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the one-story house is constructed with V-notched cypress logs that were felled, on property owned by Hewlett, within the Okefenokee Swamp, in South Georgia.
Since the construction of the complex in 1935, its uses have evolved from a family summer retreat to a private club (Buckhead Century Club), and later as a church retreat facility (Atlanta Baptist Association). In the 1950s, a large dormitory building and a storage building were added to the property by the Atlanta Baptist Association. Between 1970 and 2002, the National Park Service added several buildings, and a structure to the property – Batty Building (1970); Maintenance Building (1972); Island Ford Quarters (1973); Stone Patio (1984); and Hazmat Building (2002). It currently serves as the headquarters for the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, a unit of the NPS.
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