Margaret Mitchell House - Atlanta Georgia

What is now known as "Margaret Mitchell House" was built in 1899 by Cornelius J. Sheehan. The two-story, single-family home on fashionable Peachtree Street was converted in 1919 into a 10-unit apartment building. It was here, from 1925 until 1932, that Margaret Mitchell lived in Apartment #1 and wrote her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Gone With the Wind.

The Visitors Center, located adjacent to the house on the corner of Peachtree Street and Peachtree Place, is the main entrance and the beginning of the tour. The 4,000 square foot facility houses admissions, a small theater, and a visual arts exhibit gallery.

There is a 60 to 90-minute tour led by a docent that offers exclusive photographs and archival exhibits that tell the story of Margaret Mitchell. The tour starts in the Visitors Center with "Before Scarlett: Girlhood Writings of Margaret Mitchell, 1907-1918." The tour continues into the house, through her apartment where she wrote Gone With The Wind, and finally to the Gone With The Wind Movie Museum.

The museum illuminates the making of the movie through original objects, correspondence, and artifacts such as the legendary doorway to Tara.

Location:

990 Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia. From the North: From Interstate 75 southbound, take Exit 250, 16th - 14th - 10th Streets. Follow the access road until you reach 10th street, and turn left. Travel east on 10th Street toward Peachtree Street. Just before you reach Peachtree Street, you will cross over West Peachtree Street and see the house ahead on the right. Turn right on Crescent Avenue (which currently has no sign identifying it, but it is the only side street to the right past West Peachtree Street). The complimentary parking lot will be on your right once you turn onto Crescent Avenue.

Date Round America Visited: September 2, 2007.

www.gwtw.org