William Root House

William Root House. . Welcome to the William Root House, one of the oldest homes remaining in the Atlanta area! The home of the Root family from 1845 to 1886, the Root House is more typical of its time and place than the columned mansions popularized by Gone With the Wind. , Meticulously restored to its c. 1860 appearance, the home and its gardens are waiting to be explored! An admission fee is required. Tickets can be purchased inside the Manning Cabin (E). , A. William Root House , This c. 1845 house was built for Hannah and William Root, early settlers of Marietta. William was one of Marietta's earliest merchants and city's first druggist. Born in Philadelphia in 1815, William moved to Marietta in August 1839 to open a drug and mercantile store. A year later, he married Hannah Remer Simpson, and in 1844 the couple purchased a lot for their house on the corner of present-day Church and Lemon Streets in downtown Marietta The Root family owned the house until 1886. In 1893 the lot was divided and the house was moved to face Lemon Street. Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society acquired the house from Margaret and William E. Bullard in 1989 and moved it to its present location in 1990. , B. Cookhouse , Detached kitchens were common in the South during the mid-19th century. Putting the kitchen, also called a cookhouse, in a separate structure helped keep heat from the stove out of the main house during hot summer months and protected the house in case of fire. In the event of a fire, a cookhouse was much easier to repair or rebuild than an entire house. This cookhouse is a reproduction that was constructed in 1996. The location and dimensions match the original cookhouse and were determined using 19th century insurance records mapping the Root property. , C. Smokehouse , Before refrigeration, smokehouses were commonly used to preserve and store meats like pork and beef. Pork was typically cured using salt. The meat was then hung from the rafters and smoked for about two weeks. Meats preserved in the smokehouse could be stored there for a year or more afterwards. Smokehouses were usually constructed with timber framing and masonry with dirt floors where a fire could be built. Vents on the walls helped direct the smoke upwards. Insurance records from the 19th century show a smokehouse on the Root property. The smokehouse you see today was constructed in 2019 using original 19th century bricks reclaimed from a smokehouse located in downtown Acworth, Georgia. , D. Privy , Outdoor toilets had many names. The term “privy,” which is derived from the word “private,” was commonly used in North America during the 1860s. Privies were small structures built over a hole or vault. Depending on the number of individuals using the privy, the waste or “night soil” would have to be removed from the vault two or three times per year. “Night men” would come after dark and use long-handled dippers to collect the waste. The “night soil” was then taken away and discarded or sold as fertilizer. Lime, ashes, and soil were sprinkled into vaults between use to help contain unpleasant odors. In the city of Marietta, privies were required to be “cleaned at least once every ten days, and be sprinkled with lime.” During inspection, if the privy was not “free from filth and stench,” the owner could be fined or jailed. , E. Manning Cabin , Originally located on Macland Road, this c. 1830 log cabin was occupied by members of the Manning family during the Civil War. In 1990 the cabin was slated for demolition as part of a road-widening project. The cabin was saved by Manning family descendants, who dismantled and reconstructed it on private property in Powder Springs, Georgia. The cabin was used by the family for the next 25 years. In 2016 the Manning family decided the cabin should be preserved for public use. With that in mind, the family generously donated the cabin to Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society, requiring that it be moved from their property. The cabin was relocated to the Root House campus in 2018 to be integrated into a new interpretive center. , William Root House Gardens , The gardens at the William Root House have been designed to reflect the gardening practices of the mid-19th century. All of the vegetables, herbs, fruit trees, decorative flowers, and blooming shrubs in the garden have been researched for availability in Georgia during the 1850s. Homes like this one typically had three distinct gardens: an ornamental garden in front of the house with flowers and shrubs, a kitchen garden near the cookhouse with medicinal and culinary herbs, and a vegetable garden at the back of the property. The gardens are maintained by the Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County. The William Root House is a member of Georgia Grown, a marketing and economic development program of the Georgia Department of Agriculture.