Image credit: David Seibert

Year Erected: 1956

Marker Text:  John Wellborn Root (1850-1891), world famous architect, was born on this site. The son of Mary Clark and Sidney Root, he was educated in Lumpkin, Atlanta, New York, and Claremont and Oxford in England. A pioneer in some phases of architecture, he designed plans for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and for the Fine Arts Building that became Chicago’s permanent Museum of Fine Arts. He devised the system of grillage foundations, now standard practice in architecture, and his work was “modern, honest and structurally true”. He was a gifted musician, artist and amateur actor.