North Atlanta, Then: Barrington Hall in 1939

Barrington Hall in 1939, photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnston. Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-csas-00559.

The columns are familiar. The view around them is from another century. In 1939, photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston stood in front of Barrington Hall in Roswell and made this photograph, with branches framing the house and a pale walk leading toward its entrance.

The image belongs to Johnston’s Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South, now held by the Library of Congress. It records a house already nearly a century old: Barrington Hall was completed in 1842 for Barrington King, who helped establish Roswell as a manufacturing town.

Architect Willis Ball designed the Greek Revival house. Enslaved people carried out its construction, a part of its history that belongs alongside the names of its owner and architect. Its tall columns and broad porches survive as some of Roswell’s most recognizable architectural features.

Today, the house at 535 Barrington Drive is a city-owned historic house museum near the town square. Visitors can tour the interior and walk the grounds, including its formal garden. Johnston’s photograph offers an earlier view of a place that remains open to the public—before most of the Roswell familiar to today’s residents had been built.

Sources: Library of Congress photograph and catalog record; Georgia Trust building history, Digital Library of Georgia; City of Roswell visitor information. The Library of Congress identifies no known restrictions on publication for photographs taken by Johnston.

Share a piece of your North Atlanta

Have a photograph from growing up here—a school day, a family gathering, a neighborhood shop, a ball game, or an ordinary moment that means something to you? We’d love to see it. Photos from your parents’ or grandparents’ albums, and from more recent years, are welcome too. Send a digital copy to info@northatlantastar.com with “North Atlanta, Then” in the subject line. Tell us where and roughly when it was taken, who is pictured if you know, and the story behind it. Include your name, town and the photographer’s name if known. Please send only photographs you own the rights to or have permission to share for publication. Selected photographs and memories may appear in North Atlanta Star, with permission and credit.

Also this Sunday: Kate Chopin’s “A Pair of Silk Stockings” and the North Atlanta Sunday Quiz. Explore The Sunday Page archive.