Pints, Pub Food and an 1885 Firehouse with a Second Act
Marietta Square has plenty of polished dining rooms. Johnnie MacCracken’s Celtic Firehouse Pub has old brick, broad firehouse doors, operational bank vaults, a wall of beer taps, and the good sense to leave a few rough edges alone.
The building opened in late 1885 as Marietta Fire Station No. 1, home to Georgia’s first professional fire department. Horse drawn firefighting equipment once exited through the large doors facing Atlanta Street. The firehouse predates Atlanta’s oldest surviving fire station, Station No. 6, by nearly a decade. After its firefighting years, the building housed a savings and loan, leaving two bank vaults behind. Johnnie MacCracken’s opened in the space in 2004.
Those earlier lives remain visible. The station doors, firefighting artifacts, and old masonry belong to the first chapter. The vaults belong to the banking chapter. The bars, beer signs, jukeboxes and comfortable furniture came later, after subtlety had apparently left the building.
Inside Johnnie MacCracken’s
Johnnie MacCracken’s stretches far beyond the narrow entrance seen from Atlanta Street. The interior contains several bar areas, smaller rooms furnished with sofas and oversized chairs, a performance area, and a large rear patio with a fire pit. Indoor bar areas have been smoke free since the pandemic, according to owner Gary Leake, though the pub retains the worn wood and crowded walls associated with an older neighborhood bar…