A Little History

The City of Roswell was founded by Roswell King who came from St. Simons Island, GA in 1836. He established the Roswell Manufacturing Company and built a mill to harness the power of the local rivers to make textiles.

Roswell was incorporated, 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. Lightning 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. Today there are 93 traffic signals in the City.

Roswell is now Georgia’s sixth largest city, but its major growth has just happened in the last fifteen years.
1870 - 479
1880 - 1,180
1920 - 1,316
1940 - 1,622
1950 - 2,123
1980 - 23,337
1990 - 48,257
2000 - 79,334
2003 - 82,714

The City of Roswell has 18 parks with 800 acres of active and passive parkland and facilities. It 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.