Bulloch Hall in Roswell is used these days for education, preservation and events like festival and quilt shows. AJC file photo

Out-of-town family and friends should soon arrive at your house for ye olde holiday visit, and the age-old question remains: What to do with them? Even for the ones you’re sincerely happy to host, this can be tough.

AJCer Howard Pousner and I had an idea: get out of the house and take them to someone else’s — one of Atlanta’s historic homes, some of which already have halls beautifully decked for the season. They can learn something about the way our fine burg was back when chestnuts really did roast on an open fire. Life their  spirits with garland, candlelight and other seasonal decoration done by folks with a true talent for making things pretty. (Not that we’re not suggesting you’re something short of Martha Stewart; no, we’d never.)

Howard will start us off with a tour he took up in Roswell.

Bulloch Hall

History: The Greek Revival home of one of Roswell’s founding fathers, Major James Stephens Bulloch, was completed in 1839. It was the childhood home of Mittie Bulloch, who married Theodore Roosevelt in the home’s dining room in 1853. Their son, Theodore Jr., became the 26th U.S. president.

Highlights

• Designed by Connecticut architect Willis Ball, and built with slave labor, the home has elements of a Greek temple, with four Tuscan columns framing the portico. The dining room table could be expanded to seat 37, but children were not allowed until they were 12. In the brick floor basement kitchen, meals were cooked by “Maum Rose” and other slaves — 29 lived on the property by 1851 — on an open hearth or inside a beehive oven.
• The home boasts 11 fireplaces but feels suspiciously drafty even on a warm fall day. In the summer, to discourage insects and rodents, Osage orange trees were planted near the house. Today, a sign to right of the entry warns: “Danger — Falling Fruit.” The heart-shaped front lawn and building site were carved from dense woods, including two towering trees that produced a set of 56-foot-long beams that can be seen in the attic.

Tour: Informative guided tours, except during the holidays, when guests self-guide.

Holiday offerings: Not even Santa is this busy during Christmas. Each room of the house is decorated to represent a verse of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” Among the many special events are High Teas on Dec. 1, 3, 8, 10, 14 and 16, and a Trilogy Candlelight Tour that includes visits to two other city of Roswell-owned historic homes, Barrington Hall and Smith Plantation. Mittie Bulloch’s wedding to Theodore Roosevelt is reenacted on Dec. 17.

Bulloch Hall, 180 Bulloch Ave., Roswell. 770-992-1731, www.bullochhall.org.

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