Root House

been at that location since the 1990s and is too small to accommodate visitors for events.

“Our hope is we don’t have to turn any people away during events,” he said.

Cobb Landmarks is using bricks from the smokehouse, originally located in Acworth, to reconstruct that structure behind the Root House. Moving its offices into the cabin will allow Cobb Landmarks to return a room it’s using as office space back to the museum’s exhibit lineup. Visitors will also be able to explore new touch-screen exhibits in each room of the museum. These exhibits will feature videos from the perspective of an adult, child or enslaved person who will talk about the relationship he or she had with the space.

Beemon said he hopes to open these new buildings to the public in September when Cobb Landmarks hosts its biggest fundraiser, the Root House Craft Beer Festival. He also said he hopes the community will continue supporting its historic preservation efforts, as the Root House is an important part of Cobb’s legacy.

“It’s important that we preserve some of the past for the future so that it’s not lost to time,” Beemon said.

Two Marietta residents who are passionate about preserving Cobb County history are Steve and Terri Cole, who sit on the Cobb Landmarks board of directors and made the initial donation to get the campaign up and running.

Terri Cole said she and her husband are history fanatics who joined Cobb Landmarks because it “seemed like a good way for us to get involved and get to know people.” Cole also told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution she and others involved with Cobb Landmarks have worked hard to ensure that everything about the Root House Museum, including its furniture, accurately portrays the lives of ordinary people in the decades before the Civil War.

“We are dedicated to it, and we think it’s an important part of the community,” Terri Cole said.

PHOTOS BY BOB ANDRES / BANDRES@AJC.COM Trevor Beemon, executive director of the Root House, checks out the view from the attic in the pioneer cabin. The second floor of the cabin will be used by Cobb Landmarks for an exhibit on slavery, which is an “important part of the story that we need to tell at this house,” Beemon said.

West Side Elementary School students from Marietta tour the Root House grounds. Cobb Landmarks used bricks from the smokehouse (right), originally located in Acworth, to reconstruct the structure behind the Root House.

Trevor Beemon