Appropriate to the Halloween season, the William Root House is decorated for a Victorian-era funeral through October.
According to the announcement on the City of Marietta website:
In the 1850s, Hannah and William Root shared their home with their children and extended family. Hannah Root’s father, Leonard Simpson, lived with the family and passed away on October 11, 1856. During this special exhibit, the rooms inside the Root House will be decorated as they would have been following Leonard’s death. Curtains will be drawn, and rooms will be adorned with black crepe and ribbons. Visitors will be able to view 19th century embalming equipment, mourning jewelry made from human hair, and other curious artifacts related to death and mourning in the Victorian era.
New to the exhibit this year is a 19th century embalming/cooling board. Embalming gained popularity during the Civil War when bodies needed to be transported long distances without decaying. Portable cooling boards were an essential tool of the undertaker. In the home, cooling boards were often brought to the bedroom of the deceased where the embalming procedure would be performed. This particular cooling board was made in Columbus, Ohio during the late 1800s and was acquired by the museum from a shuttered funeral home in Madison, Indiana. This unusual piece of funerary history has been restored to show what it would have looked like when it was new.
Admission to the exhibit is included in the cost of regular museum admission.
On October 18th and 25th special flashlight tours through the exhibit will be available from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. for a cost of $10 per person.
Space for those special tours is limited, so those interested are encouraged to purchase their tickets in advance online at WilliamRootHouse.com/Funeral.
About the William Root House
The William Root House was built in about 1845, and was the home of William Root and his wife Hannah.
William Root was a druggist who was born in Philadelphia. He moved to Marietta in 1839 to open a drug and general store. He married Hannah Simpson a year later, and they built the house at what is now Church and Lemon streets.
It was later moved to face Lemon Street, and was owned by William Root until 1886.
Afterward it had a series of owners and went into steady decline, and in the 1940s was split into apartments.
By the 1980s, the house was in serious disrepair and scheduled for demolition.
A preservation effort began, and in 1989 Cobb Landmarks & Historical Society bought the house and moved it to its current location at 80 North Marietta Pkwy NW, Marietta, GA 30060.
According to promotional materials for the museum, “While the home and grounds have been meticulously restored to their 1860 appearance, interactive electronic displays have been added to tell the story of the Root family and their enslaved house servants.”
