R is for

The Root House, a Greek Revival home built circa 1854 by Hannah and William Root, is one of the oldest surviving frame houses in Marietta and now stands just two blocks from its original location.

some history:

1833: 26-year-old Hannah came with her family in a horse or oxen-drawn wagon from South Carolina to Marietta. They probably traveled by ferry over the Chattahoochee River. Settlers to the area lived in their wagons, tents, or half-houses until they could build log houses. Stores and government buildings were also log structures. Leonard Simpson,age 64, Hannah’s father, built a log tavern near the Square. His tavern was an eight-room, one-and-a-half story log building.

1839: 32-year-old Hannah took over the tavern’s housekeeping duties when her mother Hannah Simpson, age 66, passed away.

That same year, 24-year-old William Root wrote, “Arrived in Marietta by stage and somehow soon felt like it was to be my home. It was not a pretty place…. Still there was enough
to make me decide to not go farther….” William was traveling from Augusta, Georgia, along
the route of the newly proposed Western and Atlantic Railroad seeking a good location to
open a new business. William Root’s drug store opened for business September 3, 1839.

Do you think that, upon his arrival, he stayed in Leonard Simpson’s Tavern? Do you think he met Hannah there? Almost exactly one year later, on September 15, 1840, Hannah Remer Simpson and William Root were married!

Here are some roses at the Root House garden; still blooming here in warm October. All the plants around the Root house have been researched for availability at the time the house was built.

Mr. Root was Marietta's first druggist and the first merchant to receive a shipment of goods on the Western and Atlantic Railroad.

And it wouldn't be the square without the railroad. The W&A railroad, founded in 1836, is partially famous because of the Andrews Raid, a/k/a The Great Locomotive Chase of the Civil War. Except for a few track realignments, the W&A Railroad is little changed since 1862 and trains go through Marietta several times a day. There are underpasses at both the north and south end of the square, but three roads cross directly over the tracks into the Square.