Kennesaw House

The Kennesaw House is a three story historic building in downtown Marietta, Georgia. It houses the Marietta Museum of History on its second and third floors. The building is west of the town square, adjacent to the CSX Western and Atlantic Railroad.

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 Kennesaw, GA it started at the Fletcher House Hotel. 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, 1862, Andrews and some of the men spent the night in Fletcher House. A reproduction of what the room may have looked like has been recreated at the Marietta Museum of History, in the room that the men supposedly slept in. The men along with their leader James Andrews boarded the train on April 12th with the rest of the passengers. The Kennesaw House was one of the only buildings in Marietta not burned to the ground during William Techumseh Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, partly because Fletcher was a Mason, and his son-in-law was a Union spy.

In 1920, the first floor was renovated and converted to retail shops. In 1979, the top two floors were converted into offices. Finally, in 1996, the Marietta Museum of History assumed occupancy of the top two floors.

External links

* www.mariettahistory.org [http://www.mariettahistory.org]
* [http://roadsidegeorgia.com/site/kennesawhouse.html Kennesaw House at Roadside Georgia]