David Ardis (1804-1872) and Eliza C. Gray Ardis (1804-1867) are the earliest known owners of this home, one of the few antebellum residences in Marietta to survive the Civil War. They regularly came to Marietta as a retreat from the hot summers of their native Edgefield, South Carolina, and moved here permanently circa 1850. Ardis Street in Marietta is named for this family. The house is now home to the Little & Smith Insurance Company.
Northwest Marietta Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This home, which originated as a Victorian cottage in 1893, was purchased by Dr. Peter Rouse Cortelyou (1843-1902) for his son, Adrian Voorhees Cortelyou (1876-1956) circa 1901. After a fire in the 1920s, it was remodeled to its present two-story Colonial Revival/Georgian appearance. Dr. Cortelyou came to Georgia from Brooklyn, New York, in 1879 to treat a lung condition and became one of the most renowned physicians of his time in the Southeast. Adrian Cortelyou was best known as the vice-president of the Georgia Marble Company. The house remains in the family to this day.
Church Street-Cherokee Street Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Eclectic architecture runs the gamut of styles, and this is a good example. It has Victorian and Classical elements but overall is reminiscent of the New South Cottage type, as identified by the Georgia Historic Preservation Division in their definitive 1991 handbook, Georgia’s Living Places: Historic Houses in Their Landscaped Settings.
Whitlock Avenue Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
I wasn’t able to locate a history for this house, but I love the Georgian style and couldn’t resist making a photograph. Georgian, of course, refers not to our state, but to the four British monarchs of the House of Hanover named George. And it’s also not the same as the Georgian cottage style so common in the state.
Whitlock Avenue Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
According to the Old Marietta group, this charming home, also known as the Anderson-Huffman House, was built by Edgar Anderson (1886-1959) using rocks cleared from the Anderson farm on Burnt Hickory Road. Richardson owned a motel known as the Stonewall Court and a liquor store in Smyrna.
This Dutch Colonial Revival cottage has been identified as the “Reid House” in the National Register of Historic Places because it was built using a design of the prominent Georgia architect Neel Reid. Real estate listings date it to 1962.
Whitlock Avenue Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This beautifully maintained landmark is known as the Whitlock Inn today, and the following history is shared from their website. “In the 1890s, the M.G. Whitlock House, the famous 150 room Marietta resort, burned to the ground. It had been a popular showplace for tourists taking the train from the hot coastal towns, to the cooler foothills of Georgia. The resort occupied nearly the whole block of Whitlock Avenue. In 1900, part of the land was purchased by Herbert C. Dobbs (1867-1939) and his wife Annie (1870-1961) where the built a Victorian mansion for their family of eight. Since then, the Whitlock Inn has served as a beloved family home, senior citizen center, bed & breakfast, and today, an award winning event facility.”
Whitlock Avenue Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This house was built in the Greek Revival style circa 1851 for John Heyward Glover, Jr, most likely with the labor of enslaved people. It was restored and given its present Victorian appearance after a fire in the 1870s. Another fire in the 1930s destroyed the second floor and it was redesigned, with an altered roofline, by architect Montgomery Anderson.
John Heyward Glover, Jr. (1816-1859), originally a South Carolina rice planter, became a prominent local entrepreneur in Marietta, serving as its first mayor in 1852. He was instrumental in several early businesses in town, including a tannery and bank, with interest in a telegraph company.
Whitlock Avenue Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
James Thomas Anderson (1866-1949), who constructed this house in 1900, was the wealthiest man in Cobb County at the time and the property is a significant example of early 20th-century revivalist architecture within the Whitlock Avenue Historic District. His son, James Thomas Anderson, Jr., was instrumental in the establishment of Cobb Landmarks and this house served for many years as its headquarters.
Whitlock Avenue Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The William Root House is a typical I-House form with a shed room at the rear (Plantation Plain), enhanced by a vernacular Greek Revival portico. Built circa 1845, it is one of the oldest houses in Marietta and an inspiring preservation success story. It was facing demolition when it was saved by Cobb Landmarks and now serves as a cultural and historic focal point. It was originally located two blocks east on the northeast corner of Church and Lemon streets and has been relocated twice. In 1893, the house was repositioned on its original lot. In 1989, it was relocated two blocks to its present location and restored. It is now an award-winning house museum, operated by Cobb Landmarks.
William Root (1815-1891), a native of Philadelphia, moved to Marietta in 1839, five years after the city’s founding. He began working as an assistant in William H. Kitchens’s drug store in Augusta in 1836, then relocated to Hamburg, South Carolina, in 1837. After a brief return to Philadelphia in 1838, he came back to Augusta in 1839 and then moved to Marietta to open a new drug and grocery store for Kitchens. On 15 September 1840, he married Hannah Rhemer Simpson (1807-1886).
The business grew quickly and Root became an influential pioneer citizen of Marietta. He helped establish St. James Episcopal Church. In 1844 he purchased the business from Kitchens and built this home about a year later. The Roots had five children (one son died as a toddler), and, according to the 1860 census, four enslaved people in their service. Cobb Landmarks has identified two of the enslaved by name: Lall Burge, who was likely a butler, or house servant, and Elsay Blake, also a domestic laborer.
With Atlanta and environs in the crosshairs of the Union armies, the Root family relocated to Washington, Georgia, in June 1864. They returned to a ruined Marietta on 15 July 1865, but fared better than many others, who lost everything. They were able to reoccupy their house. According to family papers, William Root noted, “Our dwelling, though damaged, was in tolerable condition.”
In 1866 William Root opened a new store on the Marietta Square, and owned the entire block bounded by Church, Ardis, Cherokee, and Lemon streets, the block on which the Root House originally stood. Marietta quickly rebuilt after the war and by the 1870s, Root’s sons joined him in business. He sold it to John R. Winters in 1884 and retired.
