The Marietta Museum of History in the historic Kennesaw House on the Marietta Square has entertained more than 300,000 visitors from every state and all over the world since 1996.
The museum serves as the history hub for Marietta, preserving its history and hosting events and discussions about the city’s storied past. It has been featured in shows on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, The Discovery Channel, the History Channel, and the Travel Channel, and has even been studied for its ghostly inhabitants.
In 2018, the Museum became an official entity of the City of Marietta. The Education Program at the Marietta Museum of History accommodates school tours year round, hosting more than 75,000 school children through field trips since 2000. The Marietta Museum of History has also provided mentoring for the start of museums at Lockheed, the Strand, Zion Church, the Marietta High School Foundation, the Marietta City Fire and Police Departments, and Turner Chapel.
The Kennesaw House, where the museum is housed, was built as a cotton warehouse by John Glover in 1845 and is one of Marietta’s oldest buildings. Dix Fletcher purchased the warehouse in 1855, and, after remodeling it, opened the Fletcher House Hotel in its place.
During the early years of the Civil War, the hotel was used as a Confederate hospital and a morgue. In addition, Andrews’ Raiders stayed in a second floor room on the evening prior to their theft of the steam engine, “The General.”
As the war was nearing its climax in July of 1864, the Union Army took over the building, and when General Sherman came through town on his “March to the Sea,” he did not burn the Fletcher House. Sherman spared the hotel because Dix Fletcher was a Mason and because his son-in-law, Henry Cole, was a Yankee spy. However, the fourth floor did catch fire as ashes from other burning buildings blew onto the roof, and the fourth floor was not rebuilt.
For more information on the museum, including the steps it has taken during the coronavirus pandemic, visit mariettahistory.org.