HISTORY of the ROOT HOUSE
 Digitally enhanced image of William Root, 1849
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 Digitally enhanced image of Hannah Root, 1849
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The Root House was built circa 1845 for Hannah and William Root, early settlers of Marietta. William was one of Marietta’s earliest merchants and its first druggist. Born in Philadelphia in 1815, William moved to Marietta in August 1839 to open a drug/mercantile store. A year later, he married Hannah Rhemer Simpson, and in 1844 the couple purchased a lot for their house on the corner of present-day Church and Lemon Streets. William and Hannah had four sons and one daughter. William owned the house from 1845 to 1886.
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In 1893 the house was moved to face Lemon Street and remodeled in the Victorian style. The home remained a single-family residence until the 1940s when it was subdivided into three apartments. It remained an apartment building for several decades. By the late 1980s, the Root house had fallen into disrepair and was slated for demolition. After the house was formally documented as one of Marietta’s oldest buildings, preservation efforts began, and in 1989, Cobb Landmarks & Historical Society acquired the house from Marguerite and William E. Bullard and moved it to its present location. After being moved, the exterior of the house was restored to its c. 1845 appearance through architectural analysis. Today the home offers an in-depth look at daily life for the Root family and the enslaved people who worked and lived on the property. Decorated with period antiques in the fashion of the 1860s, great effort has been made to bring only authentic furnishings into the house.
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Outside, visitors can view the recreated cookhouse and see the working 1850s cookstove. The Root House gardens are designed to reflect the gardening practices of the mid-19th century. The gardens are planted with vegetables, culinary herbs, fruit trees, decorative flowers, and blooming shrubs. Medicinal herbs are also grown. William Root would have likely used many herbs in his pharmacy. All the plants in the Root House Garden have been researched for availability in Georgia at the time the house was built. |
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