What is McFarlane Nature Park?

The 11.5-acre McFarlane Nature Park, was a gift of William and Florence McFarlane. Upon her death in October 1990, Mrs. McFarlane wished for us

“to preserve the sanctity and tranquility of its natural state”.

In 1992 The Cobb Land Trust Inc. acquired the park as a passive green space and continues to work to fulfill their wishes.

William and Florence McFarlane purchased the property in 1958. They boarded polo ponies and raised lineage dogs. They loved the property and are both still here,

having had their ashes scattered across the farm when they died.

Prior to the McFarlanes, the farm was the centerpiece of extensive agricultural acreage of the late Atlanta attorney Hughes Spalding Sr. Mr. Spalding commissioned the

design of the house in about 1940 for his farm manager, Floyd Spruill. The architect was Henry Toombs, who also designed the Little White House for President

Roosevelt.

The house has chimneys on either end, made of stone from the Sope Creek quarry, and a slate roof moved from the Spalding’s Peachtree Street home, Deerland, that stood where Piedmont Hospital, in Midtown Atlanta, is today.