New Book on Mid-Century Modern Architecture
The William Root House is one of the oldest homes in the Atlanta area. It’s located in Marietta, Georgia (northwest of Atlanta) and was recently the site for a day of lectures on preservation, restoration and architecture history hosted by Cobb Landmarks. Among the speakers were James Barfield and Walter Elliott who presented their new book.
The Root House (pictured above) was built circa 1845 for Hannah and William Root. William was among Marietta’s first merchants and its first druggist. He was born in Philadelphia and moved to Marietta in 1839. William and Hannah Rhemer Simpson married in 1840 and bought a lot for their house on the corner of (present-day) Church and Lemon Streets.
The William Root house is now a museum with other structures on the property. A cabin sits behind the Root House. The image below was taken while standing behind the Root House.
The cabin of the Manning Family is not original to the property. It’s older than the Root House. As the placard below explains, it was dismantled and moved to the property to avoid its loss.
The cabin now houses the Root House gift shop. An addition was made to the rear of the cabin (the portion painted white) to create some additional space. The addition is used for meetings and was the location of the lecture series.
James Barfield and Walter Elliott have collaborated on three books. The first two are “Living Macon Style” and “Architectural Works of W. Elliott Dunwoody, Jr., FAIA”. As it happens, Ryan bought a copy of their second book while visiting the Hay House in Macon, GA some years ago.
Barfield and Elliott just published a new book titled “Mid-Century Macon 1945 - 1969”. There are a significant number of mid-century modern homes in Macon and the 180-page book presents forty of them.
In the image above, James Barfield speaks to the audience while Walter Elliott drives the presentation from a laptop (front right of the room). According to a write-up by Oby Brown of Historic Macon, Elliott is an architecture photographer and Barfield provides the words. Barfield focuses on the stories of the houses by speaking with people who owned and visited the houses.
Barfield is quoted as Oby’s article: “Macon is a treasure trove of good architecture - no just mid-century modern - but we were the in the vanguard of that as well here.”. We would agree - there’s much to see and enjoy in Macon.
You can order the book through the Historic Macon Foundation. You might also be able to catch Barfield and Elliott at a lecture event where you can buy a book and have it autographed!
Leave a comment below to let us know if you’ve read the Mid-Century Macon book - we’d like to know your opinion. We’d also like to know if you’ve visited the Root House, have any questions or have any suggestions for books + sites to visit. Thanks for sharing and being in touch with us!
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