Submitted photoGranada Garden Club is beautifying the park area with ornamental trees, a grassy walkway and pine straw to define the area near the large oak tree. Club members planted Coral Drift roses around the marker. Participating in the planting are, from left to right, Barbara Curry, Tonda Hickey, Peggy Barhite, Molly White, Beth Price and Jackie Booth.

Many have driven past the cast bronze sign that was once at the corner of Remington and Seward, never knowing or even wondering about the story it was placed to tell, but the Old Coffee Road historical marker commemorates one of the earliest roads to bring pioneer settlers and supplies to our area. 

Old Coffee Road was a supply trail cut through the southern Georgia frontier in the early 1820s by Gen. John E. Coffee with the help of Thomas Swain. The Georgia General Assembly approved construction of the road December 23, 1822, with funds of $1,500. The trail was built in the early 1820s and ran from Jacksonville, Georgia, through Metcalfe and across the Florida border to Tallahassee. The trail was first built to carry munitions of war to the Florida Territory to fight the Indians during the Creek Wars. It was later used by settlers moving into the Georgia frontier. Many pioneer families migrated to claim land for farms and plantations. The road was later improved to modern paved standards and much of the road remains in daily use. Old Coffee Road markers can be found in Thomasville. Barwick, Quitman, Barney, Nashville and Willacoochee.

Thomasville Landmarks, in collaboration with the City of Thomasville, recently relocated the Georgia Historical Society’s (GHS) Old Coffee Road marker from the corner of Seward Street and Remington Avenue to the new pocket park at the corner of Smith Avenue and Hansell Street, the former terminating point of McLean Avenue, a small lane running parallel to Smith. The portion of McLean between Hansell Street and Snodgrass Lane had long remained the last unpaved remnant of the original route of the Old Coffee Road in Thomas County. In the 19th century following the creation of Smith Avenue, the path of Old Coffee Road was changed and rerouted along Remington Avenue, where the marker stood for years. When the city closed McLean’s access to Hansell to create a new pocket park and a sidewalk as part of the ongoing community trail initiative, it seemed the perfect location and opportunity to correct history.

In 2018 Landmarks submitted an official request for permission to move the GHS marker, with supporting documentation compiled by Roy Lilly and John Hand proving the earliest route of the supply trail along McLean. After review, GHS agreed and granted official permission to relocate the marker. Lyndall Knight refinished the marker in 2017. Granada Garden Club has taken on the beautification of this Smith Avenue Park as a service project and plans to plant roses around the marker at its new location. Phase one began last year with the installation of ornamental trees and a grassy path, as well as clearing weeds along the fence. Granada Garden Club will continue with phase two this year, adding more trees, shrubs and roses to the park. 

Marker Text:  The Old Coffee Road, earliest vehicular and postal route of this section, running southwestward from the Ocmulgee River to the Florida Line, passed through today’s Lax, Nashville, Cecil, Barwick and Thomasville. The thoroughfare was opened by direction of the State in 1823 under supervision of Gen. John Coffee and Thomas Swain. Over this pioneer route the products of the region were carried to the coast to be sold and imported goods brought back. Sections of the original route are in use today.