Clarkdale is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

west-northwest of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, Georgia, in southwestern

Cobb County Cobb County is a county in the U.S. state of Georgia, and is a core county of the Atlanta metropolitan area in the north-central portion of the state. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 766,149. It is the state's third most populous cou ...

. It has a post office with ZIP Code 30111 and is the hometown of

novelty Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...

and

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

singer

Ray Stevens Harold Ray Ragsdale (born January 24, 1939), known professionally as Ray Stevens, is an American country music, country and pop singer-songwriter and comedian. He is best known for his Grammy-winning recordings "Everything Is Beautiful" and "M ...

. The population in 2020 was 23,401. Clarkdale began as a

mill village A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories, often cotton mills or factories producing textiles. Europe Italy * '' Crespi d'Adda'', UNESCO World He ...

built in 1932 to support a spinning mill of the Coats & Clark Thread Company. Both the mill and the neighborhood, consisting of 98 dwellings (a mixture of single-family and duplex floorplans), were designed by North Carolina architect Joseph Emory Sirrine. The neighborhood boasted many modern conveniences for the time, such as electricity and indoor plumbing. Additionally, residents enjoyed a public swimming pool, a community house for public functions, and a mill-sponsored baseball team. As the mill thrived, the community fostered the growth of several local businesses, a dedicated post office, and two churches, both of which still hold religious services as of 2020. Layoffs in the 1950s and 1960s preceded the mill's closing in 1983; in 1966, the homes were sold to current residents, many of whom were current or former employees of the mill. In 1987, Clarkdale was listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. During the historic September 2009 Atlanta floods, Clarkdale Elementary School (part of Cobb County Public Schools) was ruined by Noses Creek in the hours after students and faculty evacuated. Although it was outside the 100-year flood plain, massive rainfall and upstream land development caused the stream to swell to more than 10 times its normal height, also flooding other locations in Clarkdale. The new Clarkdale Elementary School opened at a different location in August 2012.

References

Unincorporated communities in Georgia (U.S. state) Unincorporated communities in Cobb County, Georgia Populated places established in 1932 1932 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Company towns in Georgia (U.S. state) {{CobbCountyGA-geo-stub