This House was Owned by the Same Family Since its Construction in 1839
Barrington Hall, Roswell Georgia
Barrington Hall is a significant landmark in Roswell, and Roswell is one of north Georgia's most historic towns. The house and site command the highest point in the area and are integral parts of the original town plan.
The town site was chosen in 1837 by Roswell King, father of Barrington for whom the house was built and named. The site of nearby Atlanta was also determined that same year, by the terminus of a railroad, but Atlanta has grown to such a mammoth metropolis that it, and similar growth patterns in Roswell, threaten to destroy the town's historic fabric in which Barrington is the woof and warp. Continuously occupied by King's descendants, its very fine Greek Revival temple-style outside and in reflects long years of family history, a family which helped to make Roswell what it has traditionally been.
All of Roswell's earliest homes are linked with the choice of town site in in 1837 by Roswell King. While on a banking trip from his home on the coast to the U.S. Branch Mint in Dahlonega, he noticed the area's fine water power and fertile soil and realized its potential as an industrial center. Father and son together purchased a huge amount of acreage and Barrington personally laid out the town plan. The Kings induced six affluent friends from the coast to join them in Roswell by offering each a free tract of land with the stipulation that they build homes here. Roswell soon developed from a summer resort as was the original intention into the permanent residence of a number of sophisticated and influential families. In 1839 Roswell and Barrington King organized the Roswell Manufacturing Company, one of the first cotton mills in the area. Barrington served as president.
Willis Ball, a Connecticut architect was commissioned to design Barrington Hall as well as Bulloch Hall, Mimosa Hall, and the Roswell Presbyterian Church. All are excellent pieces of design and craftsmanship. After two years of cutting and seasoning lumber, Barrington Hall was begun in 1839 and completed three years later. Willis Ball, a relatively little-known builder-architect, must also be congratulated on his interior workmanship. Mantlepieces in the drawing and dining rooms are exact copies of line drawings in Asher Benjamin's Practical House Carpenter, plate 51. Original boxwood gardens, designed by an English landscape architect, and graceful trees add to the charm of Barrington's setting.
Miss Katharine Baker Simpson, Barrington King's great-granddaughter, is now the owner and resides in the home. Since 1948 she has kept Barrington open to the public and hopes to assure this tradition by some legal means which will preserve the Hall as a monument to the founders of Roswell.
Building Description
Barrington Hall is a variation of the Greek Revival temple house, one of three such homes designed by Willis Ball in Roswell, Georgia. Barrington was begun in 1839, after two years of cutting and seasoning lumber, and completed in 1842. The academic plan is surrounded on three sides by a columned portico in the Doric order. A hipped roof features a small widow's walk between two chimney stacks. The two-story facade displays a symmetrical arrangement of shuttered windows and a simple six-paned transom covers the front entrance.
A wide hall divides the interior floor plan. An arch supported by two Doric columns leads to the staircase. Interior craftsmanship is exceptionally fine. Ball's design for dining room and parlor chimney-pieces are exact copies of line drawings in Asher Benjamin's 1835 Practical House Carpenter, plate 51. Many original furnishings are still displayed in place at Barrington, among them two painted console tables (c. 1840) standing on an original black and white, diamond-patterned cloth rug in the hall. Few changes have been made in the interior and exterior features of the home.
Main or North Facade (1971)
Right-hand Parlor, looking north (1971)
Parlor and Dining Room, looking south (1971)
West Facade, looking southeast (1971)
