What to See in Roswell - Top Sights and Attractions

Mansion in Roswell, Georgia. Bulloch Hall is a Greek Revival mansion in Roswell, Georgia, built in 1839. It is one of several historically significant buildings in the city and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This is where Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, mother of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th U.S. president, lived as a child. It is also where she married Theodore Roosevelt's father, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. The Roosevelt family are descendants of Archibald Bulloch, the first Governor of Georgia.

The antebellum mansion was built by Mittie's father, Major James Stephens Bulloch. He was a prominent planter from the Georgia coast, who was invited to the new settlement by his friend Roswell King. After the death of his first wife Hester Amarintha "Hettie" Elliott - mother of his son James D. Bulloch - Bulloch married the widow of his first wife's father, Martha "Patsy" Stewart Elliot, and had four more children:

• Anna Bulloch
• Martha Bulloch
• Charles Bulloch (who died young)
• Irvine Bulloch.

Major Bulloch selected a ten-acre plot of land and engaged a skilled builder, Willis Ball, to design and construct an elegant Greek Revival home. The Bulloch family lived in an abandoned Cherokee farmhouse while slaves and trained laborers built the house. In 1839, Major Bulloch and his family moved into the completed house.

Soon Bulloch also owned land for cotton production and held enslaved African-Americans to work his fields. According to the 1850 Slave Schedules, Martha Stewart Elliott Bulloch, by then widowed a second time, owned 31 enslaved African-Americans. They mostly labored on cotton and crop production; but some would have worked in the home, on cooking and domestic tasks to support the family. Some of the known slaves who worked in the house were "Maum" Rose (cook), "Maum" Charlotte (housekeeper), "Maum" Grace (nursemaid), "Daddy" William, "Daddy" Luke, and Henry.^[1]

Non-profit. The Chattahoochee Nature Center is a private, non-profit environmental education facility in Roswell, Georgia. Located on 127 acres adjacent to the Chattahoochee River, the nature center focuses on educational outreach through the use of live flora and fauna. The mission of the Chattahoochee Nature Center is to connect people to nature.

An on-site wildlife clinic operates at the center for the rehabilitation and release of reptiles, amphibians, and birds of prey. Animals that can not be released back into the wild remain on-site or are transferred to other facilities that need them for educational purposes. Many are utilized in displays or for community outreach programs.

Local species of native plants are housed and grown in the center's greenhouse and nursery. You can see native plants throughout the grounds in the gardens and purchase native plants two times a year at the native plant sales. The Unity Garden also provides fresh produce to the North Fulton Community Charities all year long.

The Chattahoochee Nature Center also offers a popular day camp for Summer, Winter, and Spring Breaks. The camp was recently voted Nickelodeon's Parent's Pick, Best Day Camp for Big Kids.

The Nature Center opened its new interpretive center in June 2009. The building, designed by Lord, Aeck & Sargent is LEED-certified, and the exhibits, designed by AldrichPears Associates, bring to life the important, necessary and timely story of understanding and protecting the Chattahoochee River watershed. The Center houses exciting experiential exhibits, a 65-seat high-definition theater, a rooftop terrace garden for community activities and a Nature Exchange.^[3]

Museum in Roswell, Georgia. Barrington Hall is an 1842 Greek Revival-style plantation home, likely built by enslaved Africans and African Americans. It was the residence of Barrington King who, along with his father Roswell King, was the founder of the town of Roswell, in northern Fulton County, Georgia. The house was designed by Willis Ball. It was held by the family until 1995 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ranked as one of the "50 Most Beautiful Homes in Metro Atlanta" by Atlanta magazine, the mansion has been fully restored and furnished with many period and family pieces. It is owned and operated as a house museum by the City of Roswell. A variety of events for families are held at the mansion and on the grounds throughout the year, as well as daily tours of the house.^[4]

The Roswell Historic District, in Roswell, Georgia in Fulton County, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The district is a 120 acres (49 ha) area roughly bounded by Big Creek, King and Dam Streets, and SW along New Marietta Hwy, in Roswell.

Structures in the district date from as early as 1837.

Willis Ball, from Connecticut, was builder and/or designer/architect of four buildings: Primrose Cottage, Roswell Presbyterian Church, Bulloch Hall, Barrington Hall.

The district includes Bulloch Hall and Barrington Hall, both built in 1839, which were separately listed on the National Register in 1971. It includes Greek Revival architecture and Late Georgian architecture amongst its 28 contributing buildings and three contributing structures. It also includes a contributing site, the Roswell town square.

Elements of the district are:

• Bulloch Hall (1839) (34.01529°N 84.36774°W / 34.01529; -84.36774 (Bulloch Hall))
• Barrington Hall (1839) (34.013322°N 84.36364°W / 34.013322; -84.36364 (Barrington Hall))
• Roswell Town Square, described as "the Boston Common of this most southern of New England villages", which includes historic monuments (34.01485°N 84.36328°W / 34.01485; -84.36328 (Roswell Town Square))
• Mimosa Hall (1847), also known as Phoenix Hall, Greek Revival in style. On 2017 "Places in Peril" watchlist of Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. It was built in 1840 for Roswell settler John Dunwoody, then rebuilt in 1847 after a fire. It was named Mimosa Hall by later owner General A. J. Hansell. It was eventually purchased in 1916 by noted Georgia architect Neel Reid who designed renovations of the house and its gardens. The house was purchased in 1947 by Granger Hansell, great-grandson of A. J. Hansell, and up to 2017 it had remained in the Hansell family. In 2017 it was for sale, and the Georgia Trust was concerned its acreage might be developed, and was offering inducements for a new owner to preserve the house and property. On June 12, 2017, the Roswell city council voted to purchase the property. The sale went through in August 2017, and there were later plans for the mansion to be retrofitted to become the "nation's oldest 'net zero' home". (34.01595°N 84.36583°W / 34.01595; -84.36583 (Mimosa Hall))

• Holly Hill (built between 1842 and 1847). Raised Greek Revival house facing upon town square. Built c.1845. Holly Hill was built as a summer home for Savannah cotton broker Robert Adams Lewis and his wife, Catherine Barrington Cook. Also known as the Lewis Place, it was documented under that name by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1936. (34.01572°N 84.36431°W / 34.01572; -84.36431 (Holly Hill))
• Primrose Cottage (c.1839), Mimosa Boulevard (34.01701°N 84.36441°W / 34.01701; -84.36441 (Primrose Cottage))
• various houses across from Primrose Cottage
• Great Oaks (1842), Mimosa Boulevard (34.01997°N 84.36405°W / 34.01997; -84.36405 (Great Oaks)), now a wedding venue, "The Gardens at Great Oaks"

• Roswell Presbyterian Church (1840). The church was organized at Primrose Cottage in 1839. (34.01879°N 84.36285°W / 34.01879; -84.36285 (Roswell Presbyterian Church))
• Presbyterian Church's cemetery (1841); about 300 feet (91 m) away from church, on east side of Atlanta St. (34.01932°N 84.36132°W / 34.01932; -84.36132 (Cemetery, of Roswell Presbyterian Church))
• stores on Atlantic St. (34.01523°N 84.36271°W / 34.01523; -84.36271 (stores on Atlantic St.))

• The Old Bricks, originally housing for Roswell Mills workers (34.01515°N 84.36060°W / 34.01515; -84.36060 (The Old Bricks))
• Southern Mills building (1882), Mill St. Per a sign on site, original mill destroyed by Sherman's men in 1864, rebuilt 1882, destroyed by lightning 1929, continued in operations to 1975. (34.01394°N 84.35989°W / 34.01394; -84.35989 (Southern Mills building))
• Old Mill (c.1840), off Mill Street on Big Creek. Two-story brick building with brick cornice, late Georgian in style. This is "the last surviving physical remains of the original 1839 Roswell Manufacturing Company." (34.01338°N 84.35886°W / 34.01338; -84.35886 (Old Mill)) Now the "Old Mill Park and Machine Shop"

Building in Roswell, Georgia. Primrose Cottage was the first permanent private home in Roswell, Georgia, United States. The house built and completed in 1839 for Roswell King's recently widowed daughter, Eliza King Hand, and her children. Roswell King also moved into the house with his daughter's family.

As of 2021, the house functions as an events facility.

It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing building in the Roswell Historic District.

Willis Ball designed and/or built it. He also designed or built at least three other properties in Roswell Historic District including the Roswell Presbyterian Church.

The home was purchased in 1853 by George H. Camp, Roswell’s first postmaster and succeesor to Barrington King as the president of the Roswell Manufacturing Company. Nap Rucker, a former major league pitcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Mayor of Roswell in the 1930s, was also a resident.^[8]