Roads, landmarks named for modern, past leaders By TOM SPIGOLON
tspigolon@covnews.com
Newton County has a number of roads, sections of highways and landmarks named for individuals who have had hands in the area’s development. Here are a few of them: TURNER LAKE PARK Turner Lake Park is a county-owned recreation complex that includes 158 acres and a 26-acre lake on Covington’s west side. It is named for Nat S. Turner, who was a major cotton broker, owner of Covington Mills and a co-founder of the Bank of Covington — now Truist Bank. Turner built a cabin on what is now Turner Lake Park in 1929 and bought the 158 acres from the Hendricks family. Members of his family created the 26acre lake sometime thereafter, said his great-grandson, Frank Turner Jr. “After my grandmother died, the
consensus in the family was to sell it to the county for a park rather than see it developed,” he said. The county government bought the land and lake with money from a 1995 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST). Turner Lake Park now includes a 34,000-square-foot, multi-use building housing a meeting room, full-service senior center, gymnasium, and offices for the county’s Senior Services and Parks & Recreation department offices. It also includes four lighted softball fields and support buildings, a youth football and cheerleading field, covered pavilion, picnic area, three-mile walking trail, tot lot and playground, and two batting cages. LAKE VARNER ROY & AARON VARNER HIGHWAY The county’s main drinking water source in northeast Newton is named in
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John R. Williams was the owner of Williams Brothers Lumber Co., which opened in 1922 and operated 10 stores in Metro Atlanta before it sold to Home Depot in 2005. Tom Spigolon | The News
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