The Kennesaw House is a three story historic building in downtown
Marietta, Georgia. It houses the
Marietta History Center. The building is west of the
town square, adjacent to the
CSX
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
(originally
Western and Atlantic Railroad)
track
Track or Tracks may refer to:
Routes or imprints
* Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity
* Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across
* Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...
s.
History
The Kennesaw House was built in 1845, making it one of Marietta's oldest buildings. Intended to be a
cotton warehouse, the building was turned into the Fletcher House
hotel in 1855 after it was purchased by Dix Fletcher. The Fletcher as it was called was where the
Great Locomotive Chase began. While some may claim it started in Big Shanty (now
Kennesaw), it began at the Fletcher House. James Andrews, a
civilian working with the Union Army, made his way down to Marietta along with disguised Union soldiers in April 1862. On the night of April 11, Andrews and some of the men spent the night at the Fletcher House. A
historic reproduction of what the room may have looked like has been re-created at the Marietta Museum of History, in the room that the men supposedly slept. The men, along with their leader James Andrews boarded the train on April 12 with the rest of the passengers. The Kennesaw House was one of the only buildings in Marietta not burned to the ground during
William Tecumseh Sherman's
Atlanta Campaign, partly because Fletcher was a
Mason
Mason may refer to:
Occupations
* Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces
* Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cut ...
, and his
son-in-law was a
Union spy
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...
. The building, like many others on the Marietta square was converted to a war hospital for the Confederate Army and later Union Army.
In 1920, the first floor was
renovated and converted to
retail shops. In 1979, the entire building was renovated. The renovation included removing the white facade from the building to expose the original brickwork while completely demolishing the interior. The few original parts of the building are the wooden staircases and some of the fireplaces. The 1979 renovation saw the top two floors were converted into offices, with the bottom being the Brickworks
restaurant
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
. Finally, in 1996, the Marietta Museum of History (now the Marietta History Center) assumed
occupancy of the second floor then took over the third floor after the Junior League and Southern Baseball Federation left.
Since 2010, the Center occupies the entire building with the first floor containing an event rental space, Museum Store and staff offices. The second floor features the Center's exhibits and gallery spaces. The third floor contains the collections storage and the rest of the staff offices.
External links
Marietta Museum of History
{{coord, 33.95276, -84.55017, display=title
Industrial buildings and structures in Georgia (U.S. state)
Hotel buildings completed in 1845
Buildings and structures in Marietta, Georgia
Museums in Cobb County, Georgia