Roswell CVB | Quick Facts About Roswell

Quick Facts About Roswell

Quick Facts

  • The City of Roswell was founded in 1839 by Roswell King, who moved to the area in 1836.
  • Roswell King established the Roswell Manufacturing Company and built a mill to harness the power of the local rivers to make textiles.
  • Roswell officially became a city on February 16, 1854.
  • Union Soldiers occupied Roswell from July 5 – July 17, 1864 on their march to Atlanta.
  • The Roswell Manufacturing Company mill was destroyed by fire twice.
    • In 1864, Union General W.T. Sherman ordered soldiers to torch the mill.
    • Lightening caused the second fire.
  • Telephone service came to Roswell in 1901. All phone numbers were one digit.
  • The very first traffic signal was installed in 1949 at the intersection of Sloan and Atlanta streets for $436.40.
  • Dr. Francis Goulding, an early Roswell resident and author of children’s books, invented the sewing machine. Unfortunately, this machine is not associated with his name because he failed to obtain a patent.
  • Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt, the mother of 26th President Theodore Roosevelt, grew up at Bulloch Hall. She was the daughter of one of Roswell’s first families, the Major James Stephen Bulloch family.
  • Mittie’s other son, Elliot, became the father of Eleanor Roosevelt who would later marry President Franklin D. Roosevelt (a distant cousin).

"The Enchanted Land"

Located on the banks of the Chattahoochee, Roswell's founding goes back to a time when the Cherokee Nation ruled the land. learn more


Quick Facts Continued

  • Roswell is now Georgia’s eighth largest city, but its major growth in population has just happened in the last twenty years:
    • 1870: 479
    • 1880: 1,180
    • 1920: 1,316
    • 1940: 1,622
    • 1950: 2,123
    • 1980: 23,337
    • 1990: 48,257
    • 2000: 79,334
    • 2010: 88,346
  • The City of Roswell has 22 parks with 918 acres of active and passive parkland and facilities.
  • The City Hall building was completed in 1991 at a cost of $12 million.
  • The City has been chosen twice by Atlanta Magazine as the best place to live in the Metro-Atlanta area.
  • The Georgia Municipal Association awarded the City of Roswell the City of Excellence Award in 2003.
  • The City of Roswell has been ranked one of the safest cities to live in the United States according to City Crime Rankings.

Local Stories

Old Mill Park Machine Shop

The first cotton mill for the Roswell Manufacturing Company was opened in...

Roswell is the perfect place to visit for those in search of history, and...

vickery creek waterfall

February 20, 1937, the first Roswell Fire Department was organized with C....