MARIETTA - Marietta High School is starting a new tradition by having its senior class photo and pre-prom gathering at historic Brumby Hall on Friday.

Since the late '60s, seniors, along with their friends and family, have made a pre-prom stop at the Kennesaw Avenue home of Bobbi Burruss to have their photos made on the sweeping staircase that leads to her front door.

Burruss is the widow of the late state Rep. A.L. Burruss, who served as Georgia House speaker pro tem and majority leader at the time of his death in 1986. She said the prom affair started in the late 1960s, when her son, Robin Burruss, now CEO of the family's food manufacturing business, Tip Top Poultry, attended Marietta High. The MHS superlatives began gathering on her front porch to be photographed, and the event morphed into the entire senior class doing so before taking their dates to prom.

"When she started this years ago you'd have 10 couples," Marietta High School Principal Leigh Colburn said. "Last year, we had almost 300 students there and their parents."

Burruss has been kind to host the seniors over the years, but the class has simply outgrown her staircase, Colburn said.

Marietta seniors should be excited about their new gathering spot, though. Brumby Hall, which is located next to the Marietta Conference Center, is a home built in 1851 by Col. Arnoldus Brumby, the first superintendent of the Georgia Military Institute. Now owned by the city, the Greek-revival style house serves as a setting for weddings.

The event occurs before the school's junior/senior prom, which will be held at the Marietta Conference Center, from 8 p.m. to midnight Friday, with the theme Arabian Nights.

Brumby Hall will be open for seniors, their dates, and their families, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, with the senior class photo taking place on the front porch at 5:30 p.m.

However, for those students who insist on their prom photo taking place on the Burruss staircase for nostalgic reasons, Burruss will allow students to drop by from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., Colburn said.

"For me, even though the tradition has evolved over the years, the important thing is we want a place where our seniors could gather with their dates and families at a beautiful historic Marietta home, and we are pleased Brumby Hall could accommodate us," Colburn said.

Juniors typically take their pictures at their homes or local Marietta landmarks, such as the courtyards of the middle or high school, or Glover Park.