ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602280018
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JILL ELIZABETH WESTFALL
A wheelbarrow, which brims with rubble, stands alongside the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, where the author lived, with her husband, during the time she wrote "Gone With the Wind."
Over a year ago, fire gutted the building, which is now surrounded by a metal gate, and seems trapped in time, standing at bustling Peachtree Street and Crescent Avenue, and in stark contrast with the banks, skyscrapers and restaurants comprising its modern-day environs.
The site should symbolize the resilience of the city itself, which was destroyed by fire during the Civil War. Restoration began on the Margaret Mitchell House in September, and by summer, when Atlanta hosts the Olympic Games, the building should be restored.
The apartment where Mitchell and her husband, John Marsh, lived will be restored to its original state, while the rest of the building will be turned into a museum shop, exhibition space and meeting rooms. The Peachtree Street facade will look the way it did in 1899, when the building was new, and the Crescent Avenue facade will look as it did in 1925, when Mitchell lived there.
Nearby, the Road to Tara Museum, which opened in June 1993, is dedicated to preserving "Gone With the Wind" memorabilia, and pieces of the author's life. The museum has a collection of letters sent between a young Margaret Mitchell and Henry Angel Sr., a teen-age suitor.
The Road to Tara Museum also has more than 50 photographs from their courtship, and has an unpublished manuscript entitled "Lost Laysen," which Mitchell also wrote as a teen-ager. "Lost Laysen" should be published in May, when "Gone With the Wind" celebrates its 60th anniversary.
The Road to Tara Museum is housed within the Georgian Terrace in Midtown across from the Fox Theatre, and has myriad replicas of the dresses Scarlett O'Hara wore in "Gone With the Wind," and a replica of the carriage she rode into town, as she awaited news of whether Ashley, fighting in the war, was still alive.
The Georgian Terrace itself is significant to the history of "Gone With the Wind," as the cast stayed there during the movie's 1939 premiere at Loew's Grand Theater in Atlanta. The Georgian Terrace was also where Mitchell presented a completed manuscript of the novel to the publisher.
Mitchell is buried at the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta.
The depiction of the lifestyle on a Southern plantation in "Gone With the Wind" captured the imagination, but sites around the city, such as the Tullie Smith House, at the Atlanta History Center, in Buckhead, begin to paint a more typical portrait of life on a north Georgia plantation. The Tullie Smith House is a north Georgia plantation farmhouse from the mid-1840s.
Stately Oaks Plantation is also a preserved plantation home, where tours are given regularly. Stately Oaks dates back to 1839, and has Greek Revival architecture, which was popular in the late 1830s. The elegant home is south of Atlanta, in Clayton County.
Clayton County provided the setting for the fictitious Tara. Mitchell knew the area well because she often visited two great aunts who lived in the region. During those visits, she would also often hear stories of the Civil War.
The Jarrell Plantation, in Juliette, Ga., has a plantation plain-style house, dating back to 1847, and inside are many original furnishings, including a cobbler's bench. The site is an original middle Georgia plantation with myriad buildings, such as a three-story barn and smokehouses.
The Battle of Atlanta is depicted in Atlanta's cyclorama. The painting dates back to 1886. A Civil War battlefield, with original earthworks, and historic markers, is preserved in Cobb County, at the site where the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain took place in 1864.
At Stone Mountain Park, east of Atlanta, the likenesses of three Confederate heroes - Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson - are carved into the largest piece of exposed granite in the world. The park also has an antebellum plantation, comprised of 19 buildings.
Atlanta has several museums, which each preserve an important piece of the city's history. At the Museum of the Jimmy Carter Library, visitors see a replica of the Oval Office, many pictures taken during the Carter presidency, miniature copies of dresses worn by the First Ladies, and a 30-minute movie, which explains how the role of president has evolved. One section of the museum lets visitors choose questions to ask the former president, such as how the press impacted his presidency, and how his daughter, Amy, adjusted to growing up in the White House. Also within the museum are gifts the Carters received during Jimmy Carter's presidency, and some of the president's handwritten notes, taken during critical meetings.
At the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, farther into the heart of Atlanta, rays of light dance across the water of a reflecting pool, surrounding a cement tomb.
"Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last," the inscription on the tomb reads. King's burial place is directly behind the King Center's exhibition hall, where one of King's handwritten sermons is displayed, along with his room key at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where he was killed, and some of the family's photographs.
Just north of the exhibition hall on Auburn Avenue, in downtown Atlanta, is the home where King was born. Tours of the house, where a wooden swing on the front porch sways in the breeze, are given regularly. Just south, along Auburn Avenue, is the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where, as a young man, King was co-pastor. Services, at the church, are still held.
In addition to Margaret Mitchell, another famous writer, Joel Chandler Harris, author of the Uncle Remus Tales, also lived in Atlanta. The Wren's Nest, where the family lived from 1881 to 1908, is located in the historic West End district, and became a museum shortly after Harris' death in 1908.
The Victorian house, open to visitors, contains many of the family's furnishings, including a stuffed owl, which was a gift to the Harrises from Theodore Roosevelt. Harris' bedroom remains untouched, which was stipulated in an agreement by his family. Harris' bedroom contains only his original furnishings, and there are some cracks in the ceiling. The rest of the house was renovated.
Harris' birthhome, a wooden cabin, is also a museum, some two hours south of Atlanta, in Eatonton, Ga. The idea for the Uncle Remus Tales, involving Br'er Rabbit and Br'er Fox came after Harris, as a young man, worked on the Turnwold Plantation, near Eatonton, and visited some of the slaves' cabins, who shared African folktales, on which the Uncle Remus Tales were later loosely based.
For more information, call the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau at (404) 521-6600.
Jill Elizabeth Westfall is a free-lance travel writer based in Marietta, Ga.
LENGTH: Long : 127 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Dusk falls on Atlanta, site of the 1996 Summerby CNBOlympic Games. 2. The roof on the Georgia State Capitol (above)
shines with gold mined from Dahlonega, Ga., site of the first gold
rush. 3. When the Margaret Mitchell House (above, right) is
completed, the facade should look as it did in 1899, when it was
new. 4. The Battle of Atlanta is depicted in the Atlanta Cyclorama
(left). 5. The Stately Oaks Plantation, (right) south of Atlanta in
Clayton County, dates to 1839. The house has Greek Revival
architecture, which was popular at the time it was built. color.