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Continued from Page 18 a stable operated by Joe’s cousin, Harry Kaye Mansell and cousin Howard Rucker. The stable offered horseback riding and pony rides for children. Nephew Willie Mansell ran the bait shop. There were row boats for rent, train rides around the property, a pony-pulled covered wagon, picnic grounds with tables, area for Boy Scout overnighters and a snack bar. A bowling alley was added in the early 1960s. Admission for adults was 50 cents and 25 cents for children when it first opened.

Joe’s daughter, Linda Mansell Martin, has many memories of the park. She worked every summer as a teenager “behind the basket counter (for holding swimmers’ clothes) or flipping burgers at the snack bar or eventually becoming a lifeguard at the swim lake when I was a little older.” She recalls “sock hops, picnics, swimming, diving and sunning, train rides, fishing and horseback riding through the woods, egg hunts, and even a few folks who were caught ‘skinny dipping’ when they broke in at night.”

In the 1950s the rivalry between Roswell and Alpharetta teenagers was strong. The park was neutral ground where teens from all over the area would gather to enjoy the fun and sun. “I don’t know what teenagers in Alpharetta and Roswell would have done without the park. It healed some of the rivalry between the two cities,” says Linda. Up to 500 to a 1,000 people would visit the park on weekends.

Linda says her father” along with his 4 siblings, inherited land along Highway 9 from their father, Robert Henry Mansell II, a farmer, who provided his children with a house and 60 acres of land each.” Joe, Robert’s oldest son, started his career as a farmer also, but found that he preferred other ways of making a living. In 1930 he opened a filling station in Roswell, and then an ice and coal business. Subsequently he was an investigator in the Fulton County Solicitor General’s office in Atlanta where he worked for 20 years. Joe served as Mayor of Roswell in 1941 and 1942.

He sold part of his 60 acres to Carroll Beyers for Beyers Furniture Store and land for Greenlawn Cemetery in 1961. The rest was Sun Valley Property, all along Hwy 9. When his wife, Lessie Coleman Mansell (1908-1959) became ill with cancer in 1950, he quit his Atlanta job to be home with his wife and two daughters. It was then that Joe decided to convert the property into the recreation park. After his wife died, the family moved to Florida for 8 months where Joe managed the Sharlo Manor Motel on Clearwater Beach. In October 1965 Joe sold the park to John Talbott, Jr, an Atlanta physician, who operated the park for three years before closing it.

Today there are businesses and apartments along Sun Valley Drive, and the City of Roswell owns 11 acres of the original property. A few remnants of the park’s glory days can be detected by discerning eyes, but most of the remaining park land is overgrown with vegetation.

Bob is director emeritus of the Milton Historical Society and a Member of the City of Alpharetta Historic Preservation Commission. You can email him at bobmey@bellsouth.net. Bob welcomes suggestions for future columns.