Tours of the Root House are offered 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Admission: $5 - $7. Information:
770-426-4982, www.cobblandmarks.com.
It’s taken 20 years, but the modest white frame house that occupies the traffic-crazed corner of Polk Street and the North Marietta Parkway has finally been given the recognition local historians have fought for. The Root House, a two-story, white-frame structure dating back to 1845, recently earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, despite having been moved from its original location on Church Street.
The Plantation Plain-style design with elements of Greek Revivial was moved two blocks to the present busy corner in 1990 and documented to be one of the oldest surviving frame homes in Marietta. It took years to restore it, based on information historians recovered from records and an archaeological dig performed on the original site.
“This house is original, and everything has been authenticated - even the fence,” said Abbie Parks, chair of the
Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society that owns the property. “We were lucky that William Root, who had a mercantile store on the square, left a memoir.”
The home’s four rooms are furnished with items that represent the lifestyle of a middle class family in the days before the Civil War. Research has also led historians to uncover and reproduce the original red and green colors on the living room walls. The dining room table is set with china that matches shards of pottery found during the dig. One of the upstairs bedrooms features rope beds, cradles, children’s toys and a wardrobe.
Surrounding the house are gardens designed and maintained by volunteers from Cobb’s Master Gardeners, who replanted herbs, trees, shrubs and other plants that would have been typical of city yards around 1860. Most of the plantings are functional, finding their way into the detached kitchen where a wood-burning stove, fireplace and racks of dried herbs are on display.
On a recent Saturday afternoon, volunteer Katie Gobbi was showing off the kitchen to visitors, reminding them that while the Civil War story focuses largely on soldiers and battles, there was another side to the story.
“We talk so much about that we forget what it was like on the home front,” said Gobbi. “It was so hard to get supplies that mothers saw their children starving.”
Living on the edge of a battlefield has been the story the Root House’s costumed guides have been focusing on in the last few weeks. They’ve adopted the roles of the family members preparing to evacuate ahead of Sherman and Union troops marching into the neighborhood.
“You have to remember, the family living here was close enough to the battle in Kennesaw to hear the canon and see the broken soldiers coming back,” said Parks. “We want to give a context to what life on the home front was like.”
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