Gone With the Wind in Atlanta

Gone With the Wind, the only novel written by author Margaret Mitchell, is set in the deep south during the time of the Civil War and the following Reconstruction.  The novel, one of most popular books ever written, won a Pulitzer Prize. It was later adapted in a movie that won 8 Academy Awards, including Best Actress (Vivien Leigh as Scarlett), Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel as Prissy), and Best Picture.

Fans of the book and movie, or who are interested in this historical time period, will enjoy a trip to Atlanta where a number of locations and attractions are themed around Gone With the Wind and the Civil War era.

Put these stops on your list:

• Start your visit off at the Jonesboro Depot Welcome Center (104 North Main Street, Jonesboro) where you’ll learn about both the legendary characters from Gone With the Wind, as well as the real people from the Civil War and Reconstruction Era.  If you don’t want to explore on your own, consider a tour.  There are two that leave from the Welcome Center:   The Southern Belles and Whistles Tour and the Gone With the Wind Tour.
• Check out original props,costumes, and buy your GWTW collectibles at the Road to Tara Museum & Gift Shop.
• You can tour the apartment where Margaret Mitchell wrote the novel, at the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum (in photo above).  Tours are offered daily, and cost $12 for adults, with reduced admissions for seniors, students, and children.
• Learn about the architecture and layout of plantation life at Stately Oaks Historic Home & Plantation (daily tours), a home that mirrors the Greek-Revival architecture of Tara.  Or take a look at Bulloch Hall and its pre-Civil War Greek Revival architecture.  Or the Smith Plantation Home in Roswell.
• The south is full of cemeteries, honoring their heroes, and you can learn a lot by walking through one.  Patrick R. Cleburne Confederate Memorial Cemetery for many of the Confederate soldier who died in the Battle of Jonesboro, and led to General Sherman capturing Atlanta.  The Historic Oakland Cemetery (downtown Atlanta) is the oldest cemetery in the area, and is home to Confederate and Union soldiers, as well as Margaret Mitchell.  Several walking tours are available at the visitor center.
• The Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum, located in Grant Park next to the zoo, is home to one of only three cyclorama to survive.  A cyclorama  is  a 360 degree painting that tells a story.  Painted in 1921, this one depicts the Civil War’s Battle of Atlanta.
• Stone Mountain Park has the world’s largest exposed piece of granite.  On it, is carved the faces of Confederate heroes Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis.  The park also is home to an antebellum plantation with original buildings built between 1790 – 1845.  At Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park the Confederate Army soundly defeated the Union Army in 1864.
• You can enjoy history at Rhodes Hall (midtown), which features nine stained-glass windows called “The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy. Or visit the country’s largest and most comprehensive exhibits on the Civil War at the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead (130 West Paces Ferry Road NW). Or the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History (2829 Cherokee Street, Kennesaw), with its extensive display of Civil War and railroad artifacts.
• The Downtown Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library (One Margaret Mitchell Square, Atlanta) has a permanent Margaret Mitchell exhibit on the 5th floor, and across the street from library is a monument dedicated to her.
• Scarlett on the Square (18 Whitlock Avenue, Marietta) features an extensive private collection of Gone With the Wind memorabilia, including the honeymoon gown that Vivien Leigh wore as Scarlett in the movie.

You can stay at the Georgian Terrace (659 Peachtree Street NE), an Atlanta landmark hotel (in photo left), where Margaret Mitchell handed over her completed manuscript.  The hotel was also the location of the party after the movie’s premiere in 1939.  Located in midtown, the hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

And if all that sightseeing has left you hungry, you can sample some real southern cooking at Aunt Pittypat’s Porch (25 Andrew Young International Boulevard),  a restaurant named after Scarlett’s Aunt Pittypat.  Scarlett always stayed with Aunt Pitty when she visited Atlanta, as she was known for her sparkling personality, entertainment style, and marvelous cooking.  You can decide if the restaurant lives up to the name.

There’s plenty to keep you busy in GWTW’s Atlanta, and if you can’t see it all this trip, plan a return trip.  Because, in  the words of Scarlett O’Hara — “tomorrow’s another day.”

Photo credit:  Both from flickr; Margaret Mitchell House, Georgian Terrace