The Lemon Street Story

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Historical Marker for Lemon Street High and Grammar Schools
Spirit Pennants for the former Lemon Street High School

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Dr. Rona D. Roberts

Dr. Roberts brings extensive experience to leveraging academic and non-academic supports to positively impact student success. She began her career in Marietta in 1995 at the Woods-Wilkins Center as a teacher. Ever since, Dr. Roberts has served Marietta in a variety of capacities, including assistant principal, Administrator of Curriculum, Administrator of Operations, Assistant to the Superintendent, Administrator of Assessment, and Director of the Marietta Student Life Center.

Additional roles Dr. Roberts has held within the Marietta community include Executive Director of a local non-profit and extensive work with historically under-resourced youth. Dr. Roberts completed her bachelor's degree in Political Science at Duquesne University, her master's degree in Instructional Studies at Duquesne University, and a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Research from The University of Southern Mississippi in 2004. The focus of her academic research is resilience theory.

  • The Lemon Street grammar school opened in 1951 and closed in 1970. The school served all Black students in Cobb County until the district integrated in 1965. It was briefly used as a junior high school, and later served as the home of the Hattie G. Wilson Library until the county shut it down in January 2013. Marietta City Schools committed to a massive project in 2019 to renovate the site that now houses non-traditional academic programs for middle and high school students.

    In 2022, the building was selected to receive an Excellence in Rehabilitation Award from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. For more than 40 years, the Trust has recognized preservation projects that make compatible use of a building through repair, alterations, or additions while preserving features of the property that convey its historic value.

    Kennesaw State University public history students will submit an application for the site to be recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the nation's historic places worthy of preservation.