What Is Changing on Main Street in Downtown Kennesaw?
Kennesaw
Kennesaw
By Deborah Morton, Managing Partner, The Agency Atlanta. RealTrends Top 1.5%.
Stand on North Main Street between J.O. Stephenson Avenue and Lewis Street and the old brick row looks like one long, tired building. It is actually three buildings and an empty lot, and almost every piece of the block is getting a new job: a brewery on the vacant corner, a food hall inside a 1903 landmark, and an end to the storefront that shaped downtown Kennesaw's reputation for half a century.
For anyone who lives near downtown, is thinking about buying there, or just likes knowing what that scaffolding is for, this is the block to watch. Here is what is on it, what is planned, and what it could mean for the homes around it.
Because the town started as a railroad stop. Before it was Kennesaw, this was Big Shanty, a stop on the state-owned Western & Atlantic Railroad, and it was incorporated as the City of Kennesaw in 1887. Main Street still runs beside the tracks, which is why so much of downtown faces the rail line.
Big Shanty's most famous morning was April 12, 1862. A northbound train stopped so its crew and passengers could eat breakfast at the Lacy Hotel, which stood beside the tracks. While they ate, a band of Union raiders led by James Andrews climbed aboard the locomotive, a Western & Atlantic engine called the General, and steamed north, planning to wreck the Confederate supply line between Atlanta and Chattanooga. Railroad men, among them William Fuller, gave chase.
The chase ran more than 80 miles before the General ran out of steam north of Ringgold and the raiders were rounded up. Andrews and seven of his men were later executed in Atlanta, and members of the raid were among the first recipients of the Medal of Honor. It became known as the Great Locomotive Chase.
The General came home. It sits today inside the city's Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History on Cherokee Street, a few yards from where it was taken, which makes downtown Kennesaw one of the few places you can see a getaway vehicle parked at the scene of the crime. The hotel's name turns up downtown again, too: one of the newer developments on South Main Street is called The Lacy.
The block runs along the west side of North Main Street, from J.O. Stephenson Avenue at the south end to Lewis Street at the north. Walking north, you pass four addresses:
Because the brick colors nearly match and the storefronts have weathered together, most people have always read the row as one property. It never was, and that matters now, because each address is on its own path.
Reformation Brewery is building a new downtown location on the corner lot. The city hosted the groundbreaking at 2861 Main Street in November 2025.
The plans call for a two-story taproom of about 6,900 square feet, with two bars and a wraparound second-floor patio, plus a separate 1,300-square-foot building for Reformation's distilling operations. The 1946 Whistle Stop building next door is part of the project and is planned as a restaurant. Out back, an open-air green space called Kennesaw's Backyard is planned for seating, events and a small stage.
The design did not come out of a catalog. Because this block sits in downtown's historic area, the plans went before Kennesaw's Historic Preservation Commission, and the architect described borrowing window spacing, floor heights and rooflines from the 1903 Collier Building at the other end of the block. The goal is a new building that looks like it belongs with its century-old neighbors rather than one that is trying to win an argument with them.
Reformation opened in Woodstock in 2013 and already runs taprooms in Woodstock, Canton and Smyrna, so Kennesaw is getting an operator with a track record rather than a first-timer learning on Main Street.
The Collier Building is the tall one at the Lewis Street corner, and it is the block's comeback story. Built in 1903, it has been a dry goods store, a canteen, a Masonic meeting space, a church and a hardware store. Its last long-running tenant, Collier Parts, closed in 1996. The building has been empty for roughly three decades.
The city and its development authority bought the building so they could choose its next owner rather than wait for the right buyer to wander by. In April 2026, the development authority approved selling it to the operators of Chamblee Tap & Market, the sale closed that August, and the new owners plan a food hall called Kennesaw Tap & Market.
The plans, as presented publicly, include:
The exterior changes are still in front of the Historic Preservation Commission. On October 16, 2026, it tabled the application to its November 20, 2026 meeting so the owners could add detail on the front balcony, the rear cooler and landing, and the dumpster enclosure. The owners are aiming to open in the second or third quarter of 2028. A 1903 building with 30 years of vacancy needs structural work, new systems and a lot of patience, so expect a long renovation rather than a quick paint job.
One practical problem: the building has no parking of its own. The city bought the former downtown library property across Lewis Street and plans to replace the deteriorated building with a public lot of about 48 spaces, part of which will serve the new food hall.
Every town has a building people give directions by. For decades, downtown Kennesaw had one people argued about.
Dent "Wildman" Myers opened Wildman's Civil War Surplus in 1971. He wore a pair of .45-caliber pistols in the shop, claimed to be the reincarnation of Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, and in 2012, convinced the world was about to end, built his own 15-foot tombstone in Kennesaw City Cemetery, complete with his death mask. The world kept going. So did he, until January 2022, when he died at 90.
The store was not a quirky antique shop. Alongside Confederate memorabilia, it displayed artifacts from Nazi Germany, a mannequin in a Ku Klux Klan robe and hood with a noose, and items depicting Black people in the worst racial stereotypes. Myers called it a museum. Critics saw something else entirely, and over the years it drew national news crews and, in 2020, protesters, many of them Kennesaw State students.
Even then, the story was not simple. Myers was an enthusiastic supporter of the city's Southern Museum, and a former Black city council member once described sitting down with him for lunch and leaving as friends. Kennesaw has had to hold all of that at once.
After Myers died, the shop reopened in June 2022 under new management, and a city councilman resigned in protest. A legal fight over his estate followed, and the store closed in December 2025. No plans for the storefront have been announced.
That empty middle storefront is now the biggest unknown on the block. With a brewery coming at one end and a food hall at the other, whatever happens at 2879 North Main Street will shape how the whole row looks and feels.
Downtown Kennesaw has a historic district and a central business district, both created to protect the character of the old town center. Exterior changes to properties in the historic district go to the Historic Preservation Commission for review. When the commission signs off, it issues what is called a certificate of appropriateness, which is a formal way of saying the plan fits.
That is why both big projects on this block have spent so much time in front of the commission, and why the new brewery building is borrowing details from its neighbors. The commission typically meets one Friday morning a month at City Hall, and its agendas are posted on the city's public meetings page.
For homeowners, the takeaway is simple. If you own property inside the historic district, check with the city before changing windows, siding, porches or other exterior features. If you are buying there, ask the question before you fall in love with your renovation plans. It is much easier to plan around the rules than to argue with them after the dumpster arrives.
A block that has been mostly boarded up for years is turning into places to eat, drink and gather. For people who live within walking distance, that is a real change in the weekly rhythm: dinner without a car, a coffee before a Saturday at Depot Park, somewhere to take out-of-town guests that is not a chain.
It is also fair to name the trade-offs, because they are real:
What is taking shape is a walkable dinner district: a meal after practice without the car, or an evening stroll in place of a drive. None of that is a promise about home values, and anyone who says it is should show their math.
For what homes around Kennesaw have actually been selling for, see our Kennesaw market update, and for a wider look at the city's neighborhoods and parks, our Kennesaw area guide.
And if you already own a home near downtown, here is the honest part: you do not have to do anything. The upside of a livelier Main Street comes to you whether or not you move. Staying put and enjoying it is often the smartest play.
Plans on a block like this move step by step, and most of the steps are public:
Opening dates for projects like these tend to slide, sometimes by a lot. The meeting agendas are a better guide than any announced timeline.
A new Reformation Brewery location with a two-story taproom, a separate distilling building, an outdoor green space and a restaurant in the 1946 Whistle Stop building next door.
The operators of Chamblee Tap & Market plan a food hall called Kennesaw Tap & Market, with food stalls, bars and a third-floor event space, after a full renovation of the 1903 building.
No. The store closed in December 2025 after a legal dispute over the estate of founder Dent Myers, and no plans for the storefront have been announced.
If the property is inside the Kennesaw Historic District, exterior changes generally need review by the Historic Preservation Commission. Check with the city's Planning and Zoning Department before starting work.
Big Shanty. It was a stop on the Western & Atlantic Railroad and was incorporated as the City of Kennesaw in 1887. In 1862, Union raiders stole the locomotive the General there, starting the Great Locomotive Chase.
Yes. Kennesaw is an incorporated city in Cobb County, and downtown is inside the city limits.
Questions? Call (470) 990-4414.
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