I’m thinking about starting up a property owner “wall of shame” for the areas surrounding my neighborhood. For the people / holding companies that own properties or homes that are just sitting around rotting away due to abandonment. These owners pretty much just seem to be waiting around for that big payout from a neighborhood development or a commercial purchase. Meanwhile their properties are complete eyesores all along stretches of road we travel every day.

The old house at 13725 Arnold Mill Road just burned down this week. It had been abandoned for at least 12 years, and was built in 1941 making it 83 years old before it went up in flames.

I looked into the owner of this property and I’m not surprised. Owned by Larry Chadwick. The Chadwick family has owned pieces of property all over the place south of the Little River for many decades. They used to have a general store and hardware store across the street from the house. Funny enough, the hardware store also burned down sometime around 2010 leaving the older general store still standing. It was most recently used as a military surplus store, but even that has left and now it’s abandoned.

There’s various other properties that the Chadwick family owns all up and down this stretch of Arnold Mill Road / SR-140. Many of them along the road are either abandoned, burned down, or just sitting in limbo and rotting away. I get that at one time the Chadwicks were amazing folks with great things to offer the Arnold area, but these days it looks like they’re just land-hoarders. Take for example the historic McConnell-Chadwick Homestead.

Larry Chadwick also owns this property, which is so old that it has its own historical marker. Built around 1832, the original portion of the house is 192 years old! You’d think that since it was one of the very first homes ever built in the original Cherokee County that Larry and the Chadwicks would do something to protect it and preserve it. Nope! Just look at it. I’m surprised it’s still standing. I hear there’s some efforts by the city of Milton to put some money into restoring the house. Sounds to me like the Chadwicks are just waiting around for that free handout from the city so they can get a nice tourist attraction and increased property value out of the deal.

Chadwick family… you all would be the first on my wall of shame for the growing collection of blight you have around the Arnold Mill community. Broken down BBQ restaurant, burned down home, abandoned general store, a dilapitated historic home… plus more! It’s fitting that the landfill behind these properties adopted your name. An eyesore backdrop for the property collection. The most amusing part is even THAT property is also now closed and being abandoned!