This year marks the 60th anniversary of Chattahoochee Technical College opening its first campus. The college began with one building in 1963 for 120 students at the college’s current 980 South Cobb Drive location in Marietta.
Originally known as Marietta-Cobb Area Vocational Technical School, the school was established through the joint efforts of the Marietta City Board of Education and the State Board of Vocational Education. Marietta furnished the land, half the cost of the building, and the equipment needed for the new building. The State Board was responsible for paying teacher salaries and the remaining half of the building cost. Excavation began in 1961 for this new facility, which was completed at a cost of $636,000. When the building opened on Sept. 3, 1963, the programs of study included Electronics; Electricity; Machine Drafting and Design; Practical Nursing; Radio and Television Repair; Machine Shop; Cosmetology; and Business Education.
The evolution of Chattahoochee Tech over the past 60 years has been grounded in dynamic enrollment for programs of study designed to meet Georgia’s workforce needs. To help accommodate growing student enrollment in its early years, the college added classroom space at the Marietta Campus. The college then established additional campus locations in South Cobb, Paulding County, and East Cobb. The college’s South Cobb Campus opened in 1995 followed the next year by the opening of the Chattahoochee Tech Paulding Campus. In 2000, the college opened its Mountain View Campus in East Cobb. Between 1987 and 2000, the college was known as Chattahoochee Technical Institute until the Georgia Legislature converted the names of all accredited technical institutes to technical colleges.
One of the most significant milestones in the 60-year history of Chattahoochee Tech involved the 2009 merger with two other colleges – Appalachian Technical College in Pickens County and North Metro Technical College in Bartow County. Appalachian Technical College had been established in 1967 as Pickens Area Vocational Technical School in Jasper. North Metro Technical College had been established in 1989 as North Metro Technical Institute. With the 2009 merger of the three colleges, representatives from the Board of Directors of these colleges adopted the name of Chattahoochee Technical College for the single college.
A Unit of the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), Chattahoochee Tech is now the largest technical college in the state. In addition to the Chattahoochee Tech campuses in Bartow, Cobb, Paulding and Pickens counties, there are two campuses in Cherokee county. One of these campuses is located in the heart of downtown Woodstock, and the other one is in Canton. An additional Chattahoochee Tech campus is currently under construction in Paulding County for the college’s $35 million Aviation Training Academy.
Chattahoochee Tech awards associate degrees, diplomas and certificates in programs of study linked to the state’s fastest growing, high-demand career fields. “Chattahoochee Tech has a strong history of preparing students with the workforce skills and experience they need to achieve successful careers,” said Chattahoochee Tech President Dr. Newcomb. “We are very proud of the fact that our graduates are meeting the demand from local employers for highly skilled employees to fill well-paying jobs available in our community.”
