Where's Tara? Atlanta's Gone with the Wind Legacy | My American Odyssey 4 Deeply flawed, at times downright contemptible, Scarlett nevertheless wins our admiration. Even 70 years later, one of the most common questions asked by tourists visiting Atlanta is “Where is Tara?” Not where is Coca Cola, where is CNN or where is Olympic Park. They want to see the iconic antebellum home where Scarlett flirted with her beaus and later, having been brought low by the war, gnawed a turnip and vowed never to go hungry again. The real Tara doesn’t exist. It was a Hollywood invention and a fantasy in the minds of screenwriters who took the original modest middle-class dwelling of Margaret Mitchell’s vaguely autobiographical novel and re-imagined it as the quintessential southern plantation house. In fact, none of the scenes in Gone with the Wind were shot in Atlanta. The film was shot entirely in California. But that doesn’t stop people from going to Atlanta to find it. The real Tara doesn’t exist. It was a Hollywood invention and a fantasy in the minds of screenwriters. Groundbreaking and Audacious Perhaps no movie is more associated with a place than Gone with the Wind.

Margaret Mitchell’s panoramic tale of the fall and rise of Scarlett O’Hara and the Civil War era South is an American fable of such power and resonance that even today it has the ability to bring viewers to tears. Gone with the Wind was ahead of it’s time. At a time when nearly all movies were about white males, this was a movie about females. What’s more, African-Americans played pivotal roles. At a time when Tarzan movies were still painting white actors in black face to play Africans, Hattie McDaniels won an Oscar for her role as Mammy in the film. Scarlett O’Hara, a Different Kind of Heroine In this clip from the beginning of the film Scarlett is seen at Tara being courted by her beaus. Seen through the prism of today’s sensibilities, Scarlett O’Hara is the perfect anti-hero. Deeply flawed, at times downright contemptible, she nevertheless wins our admiration. While anti-heroes are common today, in 1939 the idea that the hero could be so petty, narcissistic and ruthless was unimaginable – until one saw the movie. And what they saw was a character more complex and realistic than anything they had seen before.

Gone with the Wind made people examine themselves as individuals and as Americans at a time when the nation was about to embark on one of its greatest challenges. One month after the movie’s premier the Nazis invaded Poland, setting off World War II. Atlanta Under Siege After a series of flanking movements, the Union Army confronted the Confederate Army at Kennesaw Mountain. With all this to inform it, it’s little wonder Gone with the Wind still holds Americans in its thrall. In Atlanta, the city and its surrounding communities have had to be inventive to answer tourists’ demands to see something of its legacy. By the 1980’s even the theatre it premiered in had been gutted by fire and torn down. The sets and costumes had been dismantled or lost. Only the tiny depression-era apartment where Margaret Mitchell had written the book remained, although it was dilapidated and boarded up. Still, that was a start, that and the battlefield. The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was a turning point in the American Civil War and the first domino to fall in what would become the defeat of Atlanta. Today Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park is a 2884 acre site comprised of 16 miles of hiking trails and activity grounds.

The park is a favorite haunt of joggers, hikers and picnickers from nearby Marietta. A self-guided cell phone audio tour walks history buffs through the events of June 27, 1864. After a series of flanking movements, the Union Army under General William T. Sherman confronted the Confederate Army at Kennesaw Mountain. While the Union Army lost 3,000 men in the frontal assault, it was able to exploit a weakness and force a Confederate withdrawal. It was the beginning of the end for the Confederacy and for Atlanta. In little more than a month, Sherman had Atlanta under siege. The Invaluable Devotion of Collectors Oil paintings at the Marietta Gone with the Wind Museum In the movie, Scarlett is caught in Atlanta as the city comes under Union bombardment. It is her strength under pressure that most impresses the viewer who soon grasps that her frivolous romantic obsessions up until now are but trifling aspects of the fierce tenacity at her core. At the Marietta Gone with the Wind Museum these qualities of Scarlett are on display, as are a wide range of cinematic artifacts collected here in a former cotton warehouse. The fruits of the extensive collection of Dr.

Chris Sullivan, an Akron, Ohio endocrinologist and Gone with the Wind aficionado, the 1,500 square foot museum is strong on rare editions of the novel and promotional items, including film posters, premiere programs, conceptual artworks, advertisements and collectibles. Its centerpiece is the original Bengaline honeymoon gown worn by Vivien Leigh in her portrayal of Scarlett. The development of a viable Gone with the Wind tourist industry owes much to the devotion of collectors like Sullivan. If it hadn’t been for them, there wouldn’t have been much left to show people by the time Atlanta woke up to what it had. It’s telling that all of this was only put on display here in 2003, some 63 years after the film first hit theatres. If Atlantans went through a long stretch wondering when visitors would finally stop asking “Where is Tara?” by the 1990’s they knew that the film’s appeal was for the ages, and they got about the business of promoting it. Frankly, Margaret, I don’t give a damn Margaret Mitchell, sassy, flirtatious and irresistible. The best of the Gone with the Wind attractions is the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum.

Located in downtown Atlanta, it is the original ten-unit brick apartment building where Mitchell wrote the novel from 1925 to 1932. Having survived a period of decline and abandonment, the building was restored in 1995 and opened to the public in 1997. Today trained docents walk you through the events of Mitchell’s life revealing this remarkable woman who, it soon becomes clear, was the real life model for the fictional character of Scarlett O’Hara. Mitchell, like her heroine, was sassy, flirtatious, irresistible to men, and not to be trifled with. Considerably ahead of her time, Mitchell defied convention to become one of the first female journalists at the Atlanta Journal. Her love life raised eyebrows in the 1920’s when, like her character, she entertained the advances of two men at once. One was bookish and courtly, like Ashley Wilkes, the other brash and daring, a gambler and lady’s man named Red Berrian. The similarity to the name Rhett Butler is not coincidental.

For a time, she cohabitated with both men, and eventually married Red, only to divorce him two years later after he became abusive. It is not a stretch to imagine him growling, “Frankly, Margaret, I don’t give a damn.” Soon after her divorce she married her other lover, John Marsh, who came to be her muse. When, having read nearly every novel in the Atlanta Public Turns out Margaret Mitchell had her very own Rhett Butler. Library, Margaret complained there was nothing left to read, John told her she would just have to write her own novel. Thus began the seven year project that would become Gone with the Wind. Published in 1936 the book became an overnight sensation and a huge national bestseller. At the museum you are guided through the tiny three room apartment where the book was written. Much of the original furniture remains and visitors gets a real sense of the straitened circumstances in which the author and her husband lived at the time of its composition. By the time the movie came out three years later, Margaret Mitchell was the toast of Atlanta and considerably better off.

Pot Likker and “Honey Pies” After touring the museum, a great complement to the experience is lunch at Mary Mac’s Tea Room. About eight blocks south of the Margaret Mitchell House, this bastion of authentic southern cooking is actually seven rooms, a sprawling multi-faceted eatery belied by its understated storefront and demure moniker. As it turns out, back in 1945 “tea room” was a polite way of downplaying the fact that a woman – gasp! – was running a restaurant, something many war widows did to make ends meet. Mary Mac’s restaurant flourished over the years and today you can enjoy buttered peas, fried okra, pickled beets, turnip greens, pot likker and corn bread, as well as fried chicken, roasted pork and “the best iced tea in the South”. The service is prompt and friendly with lots of “darlins” and “honey pies” and the price is right. My waitress was actually named Flo. Here’s the famous scene where Rhett kisses Scarlett after escaping a burning Atlanta. The Road to Tara While you are filling your stomach at Mary Mac’s you may recall that Scarlett was starving as Atlanta fell.

That’s because Union forces cut off Confederate supply lines by moving troops into the town of Jonesboro south of Atlanta. Driving out to suburban Jonesboro today you will pass Dollar General Stores and squat brick Baptist churches and arrive at the place where Union troops tore up the tracks, heating them up and twisting them around trees, making what were called “Sherman neckties”, so the Confederate troops couldn’t replace them. In the historic train depot at Jonesboro you will find the Road to Tara Museum, opened at this location in 2000. Here are items from the collection of Herb Bridges, a historian and collector who, as a teenager, worked as an usher at the Loews Grand Theatre where Gone with the Wind premiered. On display are reproductions of several of the famous dresses from the film, as well as the actual cotton pantalettes worn by Vivien Leigh in the famous scene where Mammy helps her get dressed for the barbeque.

In addition there is a Civil War exhibit explaining the Battle of Jonesboro as well as collectibles related to the film and several sound stations where actor Fred Crane, who played Brent Tarleton in the film, reminisces about the making of the film The Significance of Square Pillars The folks at Stately Oaks don’t claim it was the model for Tara, but they don’t claim it wasn’t either. Yet with all of this, the question remains, “Where is Tara?” In an attempt to address that, the Jonesboro historical society moved the 1839 Greek revival mansion known as Stately Oaks to it current location in the 1970’s and opened it for tours. While the historical society does not claim Stately Oaks was the original model for Tara, it does point out that Margaret Mitchell was familiar with the home and that Mitchell’s Tara featured square pillars, just like the ones at Stately Oaks. If you are eager to imagine yourself at Tara, the costumed docents at Stately Oaks will try to accommodate you. The house, most likely smaller than the Tara of your imagination, consists of only eight rooms.

The tour features accounts of people left behind on the plantation while the men went off to war, and the docents are knowledgeable about the history of the period and the details of the movie. If you arrive in Jonesboro during tourist season, you can arrange for a shuttle bus tour of the Jonesboro area, which includes the Road to Tara Museum and Stately Oaks and features actors in period costumes. Contact the Road to Tara Museum for more details. Answering the Question Gone with the Wind sits squarely in the arc of our history. The same number of years has passed between the end of the Civil War and the making of the film as have passed between the premier of the film and today. As a depiction of American resolve and tenacity in the face of crisis it helped inspire a nation on the brink of war, and as an insight into the complexity of the human character it still stands among the best of American film.

While Atlanta went through a long stretch where it virtually ignored the legacy of Gone with the Wind, since the early 90’s it has been busily about correcting that and today there are plenty of ways they can answer that most common of questions: “Where is Tara?” Interactive Gone with the Wind Tour map Click the map for more details Other Tour Itineraries on My American Odyssey Previous stop on the odyssey: Boone, NC // Next stop on the odyssey: Acadiana, LA Click image to see route in detail Image Credits: Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara, Public Domain ; Scarlett and Tara, Public Domain ; Battle of Kennesaw Mountain by Kurz and Allison, Public Domain ; Kennesaw Mountain cannon, Mike Reichold ; Oil Paintings, Malcolm Logan; Marietta Gone with the Wind Museum, Malcolm Logan; Margaret Mitchell, Malcolm Logan of an image at the Margaret Mitchell House; Margaret Mitchell’s apartment, Malcolm Logan; Rhett Butler, Public Domain ; Mary Mac’s Tea Room, Malcolm Logan; Road to Tara Museum exterior, Malcolm Logan; Stately Oaks, Historicaljonesboro.org ; Road to Tara Museum interior, Dierdre History of Georgia Plantations Georgia's Plantations Andalusia Is the name of Southern

 American author Flannery O'Connor's rural Georgia estate.

The estate is located in Baldwin County, Georgia, approximately 4 miles northwest of Milledgeville. It comprises 544 acres , including the house where O'Connor penned some of her last and best-known fiction.. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and opened to the public in 2003. The estate is currently maintained by The Andalusia Foundation, Inc. Anderson House Is an historic building located in Danburg, Georgia, USA and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Greek Revival home probably incorporates an earlier structure built in the 1790's and may have been built by Dr. W. D. Quinn. John Anderson built the home as it now stands. The columns were made in Savannah and the mirrors and cornices were made in England. Fine furniture and imported curtains came from New York and Chicago. The 24x35 foot banquet room and the old stone kitchen were located in a separate building connected to the main home by a breezeway. The last Anderson to live in the home was Miss Pink Anderson. This was during the Great Depression and there was no money to maintain the home.

The formal gardens and fountain were long gone and vines and undergrowth had taken over. The home set empty for many years until it was purchased in 1962 by Ernest Walker who painted and remodeled the home. The roof of the old kitchen and dining room had fallen in, with only the 16-18 walls standing, and was demolished. Richard Simms, who bought the home in 1972,added a welcoming porch in the back. They also added a picket fence where an original black iron fence had once been. The home is currently owned by Vinnie and Roderick Dowling. The front porch with its columns faced the formal gardens, fountains, and holly trees. It also had a greenhouse, brick walkways, and a gazebo. Bellevue The historic home of senator Benjamin Harvey Hill in LaGrange, Georgia, built from 1853-1855. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1973. Bellevue is a significant example of the domesticated temple form of the Greek Revival style at the height of antebellum Southern affluence.

Brampton Plantation Jonathan Bryan, Revolutionary patriot, is the most outstanding figure associated with the history of Brampton. State historians, in recounting the services of Bryan to Georgia as a Colony and as a State, have invariably referred to him as "owner of Brampton" and have described Brampton as "Jonathan Bryan's plantation." It was he who named the plantation and directed its activities for a period of over two decades, and it was his prominence in the Colony as planter and civic leader that gave distinction to the estate during his residence there. Brampton did not become the home of Jonathan Bryan until 1765. .... But after the 1757 treaty ceding the Indian holdings to the Crown, the territory, including Brampton, was promptly cut up and allotted to planters. David Graham was the earliest colonial owner of the tract which included the later Brampton. A plat map, dated "16th Day of November 1752" and signed "Hr Yonge & Ellis Surveyors," shows that the original 250 acres of Brampton were then part of a 500-acre Savannah River tract called "Redfoord" or Redford belonging to David Graham.

On the north of David Graham's land lay a tract owned by Patrick Graham, David's brother, and also called "Redfoord," while on the south was the plantation of Samuel Barker, which many years later was known as Retreat and finally became a part of Brampton. Very little is known of David Graham save that he was brother to one of the most prominent figures in the Colony and in 1752 was also granted 500 acres on the west end of Argyle Island. [Savannah River plantations. Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1947] Bulloch Hall Is a Greek Revival mansion in Roswell, Georgia built in 1839. It is one of several historically significant buildings in the city and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This is where Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, mother of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President, lived as a child. It is also where she married Theodore Roosevelt's father, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. The Hall was built by Martha's father, Major James Stephens Bulloch. He was a prominent planter from the coast who was invited to the new settlement by his friend Roswell King.

After the death of his first wife Hester Amarintha Elliott, in 1831 Bulloch married the widow of his first wife's father, Martha Stewart Elliott and had four more children: Irvine Bulloch, Anna Bulloch, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, and Charles Bulloch, who died young. In 1839 Bulloch and his family moved to the completed house. Soon Bulloch also owned land for cotton production and held enslaved African-Americans to work his fields. According to the 1850 Slave Schedules , Martha Stewart Elliott Bulloch, by then widowed a second time, owned 31 enslaved African-Americans. They mostly labored on cotton and crop production, but some would also have worked in Bulloch Hall on cooking and domestic tasks to support the family. Causton's Bluff Plantation by 1738 Thomas Causton had settled on his plantation called Ockstead on St Augustine Creek. Thomas became the "keeper at the stores" of the new colony and was responsible for all the supplies and stores of the colony.

It was charged that he was mismanaging the funds and supplies and it was ordered by the Magistrates in England that he account for all the missing funds and supplies. The family was removed from their home and moved to town, while living there the only child of Thomas, a son died from a fever in 1740 , a month later his wife died. Thomas Causton went to the Trustees to prove his case and was order to return upon his return on the ship the Judith, the Capt, Thomas, and the majority of the crew perished. Ockstead (Causton's Bluff) was held by the trustees until the year 1745, though William Williamson would not have ownership until many years later. William Williamson was married to the niece of Thomas Causton. After the deaths of Williamson and his wife the land passed to their son Rev. Joseph Williamson who sold it to John McQueen Jr. McQueen would marry Margaret Cowper, and upon his death Causton's Bluff was left to his wife. [Savannah River plantations.

Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1947] The Callaway Plantation Is now an open air museum featuring several historic houses and other structures that is located in Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia. The buildings at the site are either original or were moved to the location to represent typical plantation buildings. The museum is operated by the Washington-Wilkes Historical Foundation. The main building is the 1860s period Brick House, a mansion built by the Callaway family out of Georgia red clay. The house features some original family antiques and contains no indoor plumbing or electricity, since it was never modernized. The 1785 log cabin was moved to the site and contains one room with a sleeping loft. The 1790 Grey House was the second dwelling built at the plantation by the Callaway family, and features Federal period furnishings and decorations. Other structures include a 1871 one-room schoolhouse, an 1840 slave cabin, and a 1930 general store, a corn crib, a house for making bricks, and a smoke house.

[courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development] Coalson Plantation Located in Thomasville Georgia is another old plantation home that was built about 1825 by Paul Coalson who was the first solicitor, or attorney, for Thomas County. Colerain Tweedside Plantation The plantation known during the 19th and early 20th centuries as Colerain, or sometimes as Colerain and Tweedside, was a tract of more than 2,000 acres on the Savannah River about seven miles westward from Savannah. Originally this great plantation consisted of four individual crown grants contiguous to each other. As time passed these grants were subjected to many divisions and were held by diversified tenures. Finally, in the early part of the 19th century, the entire tract was consolidated as a great agricultural unit under the ownership of James Potter. Its operation as a plantation was continuous until the early years of the 20th century, when commercial and industrial organizations began encroaching on its valuable river frontage. Though the plantation lands are no longer legally bound together, names of old tracts and properties still persist. View Plantation Layout [Savannah River plantations.

Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1947] Drakies Plantation Drakies Plantation, approximately 10 miles north-west of Savannah, is one of the few Savannah River plantations of early settlement days that have escaped the enveloping influence of industry. Its acres are still under cultivation, though on a diminishing scale, after 200 years of varied agricultural development. In early colonial days the approach to Drakies was by water, but today the old Augusta Road passes the entrance of the plantation. A number of antiquated one-room huts face the plantation road itself, and one in particular is noticeable. Leaning slightly, as if to leave its stick and mud chimney, this hut of wide vertical boards has taken on a soft green hue from age and the old shingled roof is covered with ivy. [Savannah River plantations. Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1947] Hamilton Plantation Located on St. Simons Island, the remains of this antebellum plantation contain two surviving slave cabins, originally a set of four built before 1833.

Among the better surviving slave cabins in the South, they are made of tabby, a cement consisting of lime, water, and crushed oyster shells. The cabins have built-in windows and a central chimney. James Hamilton Couper, namesake of the owner and manager of the plantation, was an architect and a builder. He designed and built the cabins to house the slaves who served in the plantation's main house. Utilizing a duplex plan to house more than one family, the cabins were originally part of a planned community of slave dwellings. The Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation Located in the marshlands of the Altamaha River. The plantation illustrates more than a century of Georgia's coastal history and was owned and occupied by the same family from 1804 to 1973. The plantation, originally known as "Broadfield," became a center for rice cultivation in the 19th century. The plantation house, "Hofwyl House," was probably constructed by slave labor in the 1850s after the original residence was destroyed. Modeled after a large farmhouse with the original kitchen and a cabin connected to the house by long passages, the interior shows strong Federal influences.

One of the more notable features in the house is the ornate marble fireplace in the dining room. The furniture in the house spans several centuries and includes many rare pieces. The plantation grounds are landscaped with large oak trees, most of which are very old. Tabby ruins, likely the foundation of the rice mill, and several surviving outbuildings, including a barn and an ice house, are located on the property. A museum interprets a working a rice plantation, and the life of slaves and planters The Jarrell Plantation State Historic Site is a cotton plantation and state park in Juliette, Georgia. Located in the red clay hills of the Georgia piedmont, the site stands as one of the best preserved examples of a “middle class" Southern plantation. The Jarrell Plantation's buildings and artifacts all came from one source, the Jarrell family, who farmed the land for over 140 years.

Before the Civil War, the Jarrell’s farm was one of the half-million cotton farms in the South that collectively produced two-thirds the world's cotton Like many small planters, the Jarrell family benefited from the development of the cotton gin in 1793 by Eli Whitney, which made it practical to cultivate heavily seeded, short-staple cotton even in hilly, inland areas of Georgia. John Fitz Jarrell built the first permanent structure on the site in 1847. Typical of antebellum cotton plantations, John Jarrell ran the farm with his family and slave labor. By 1860 John Jarrell operated the 660-acre farm with the labor of 39 slaves. Although primarily a cotton plantation, the farm also provided food crops and grazing for livestock. During the turbulent decade of the 1860’s, the farm survived a typhoid fever outbreak, General Sherman, Emancipation, and Reconstruction. After the Civil War, John Jarrell continued to farm with the help of former slaves and he increased the farm to nearly 1,000 acres. The former-slave labors began leaving the farm in John Jarrell’s final years.

After John’s death in 1884 one of John’s sons, Benjamin Richard “Dick” Jarrell, gave up a teaching career to return home and build his family home in 1895. Although the farm had been processing sugarcane since 1864, Dick Jarrell expanded the industrialization of the farm by adding a mill complex that eventually included a steam-driven sawmill, cotton gin, gristmill, shingle mill, and planer. In 1920, with the labor of his five sons and two nephews, Dick Jarrell completed a second home, fit for his large family. The Jarrell 1920 House is a 5,000-square-foot , 1850’s-style home built of heart pine. In 1974, Dick Jarrell’s nine surviving adult children donated the plantation site to the State of Georgia for the preservation of the farm and the education of future generations about their heritage. The State of Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources operates the now 8-acre historic site and opens it to the public Tuesday through Sunday.

The site's buildings and structures include the farmhouse, a sawmill, cotton gin, gristmill, shingle mill, planer, sugar cane press, syrup evaporator, workshop, barn and outbuildings. Mulberry Grove Plantation Mulberry Grove was an active plantation from 1736 until the end of the civil war. The great plantation house was destroyed in December, 1864 by General William T. Sherman during his march to Savannah and the sea. Located in Chatham County, twelve miles north-west of Savannah, its high ground covered with green woods, its grassy marsh sloping down to the yellow waters of the Savannah River. The significance of Mulberry Grove was derived not only from its historic aspect but also from its economic importance among the surrounding plantations. During the early period, in which the silk industry was struggling for a foothold on Georgia soil, this tract supported the movement with its large mulberry nursery. Upon the failure of the industry it was among the first estates to turn its low marsh acreage to rice, and in the prosperous years preceding the War between the States it was among the leading rice plantations along the Savannah River.

Moreover, Mulberry Grove is famous as the place where the cotton gin came into being. Notwithstanding this illustrious history, the plantation today is only a deserted wilderness on the bank of a river. Long marsh grasses supplant the rice stalks of the dead plantation era. The dry rice canals are covered with brambles and bushes. Only the foundations remain of the magnificent dwelling house that once faced the river, and even the slave cabins have long disappeared, leaving only a row or two of crumbling chimney bricks. [Savannah River plantations. Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1947] Ossabaw Island Plantation 800 acres on the south end of Ossabaw Island [Note: GEORGE J. KOLLOCK's plantation journals are located in the Manuscripts Department of the Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The journals provide a record of the lives of the slaves on Kollock's plantations: their births and deaths, sick days, and daily tasks are noted.] Pebble Hill Plantation Located in Thomas County, Southwest Georgia. Thomas Jefferson Johnson first came to the area when he was 25 years old.

He acquired the initial Pebble Hill acreage in 1825 and built the first house on the property in 1827. He continued to add to his land holdings and was recognized as a very successful planter in the area. During this time, Johnson also wrote the bill to create Thomas County. Johnson and his first wife had three children, but only one survived to adulthood. When Johnson died in 1847, his daughter, Julia Ann, inherited Pebble Hill. She was 21 years old at that time. She married John William Henry Mitchell in 1849 and together they continued to operate Pebble Hill as a successful working farm. In 1850, they replaced the original residence with one designed by English architect, John Wind. When Mitchell died in 1865, the strong-willed Julia Ann determined to continue the farming operations on Pebble Hill. She struggled in the throes of the post-war depression and died in 1881. Not surprisingly, by this time Pebble Hill was in a serious state of disrepair. Pebble Hill sold in 1896 to Howard Melville Hanna of Cleveland, Ohio.

He was a brother to Marc Hanna, the Ohio senator who guided McKinley to the U. S. Presidency. Hanna gave the Pebble Hill property to his daughter, Kate Benedict Hanna Ireland, in 1901. Kate was married twice. Her first husband, with whom she had two children, was Robert Livingston Ireland. Their children were Robert Livingston "Liv" Ireland, Jr. and Elisabeth "Pansy" Ireland. Her second marriage was in 1923 to Perry Williams Harvey. Kate was mistress of Pebble Hill until her death in 1936. Tragedy struck in 1934 when the 1850 portion of the Main House was destroyed by fire. The Loggia wing, added in 1914, was saved from the fire and was included in the plans for the new house. The new house was constructed in the following 18 months and was completed in January, 1936. Kate died in May of 1936, and her daughter, Pansy, became Pebble Hill's mistress. In the 1950s, Pansy established the Pebble Hill Foundation, a private foundation which she endowed.

At her death, her will dictated that the Pebble Hill property would go to the Foundation and that Pebble Hill would become a museum open to the public. Pharr Plantation near Social Circle, Georgia. This house was built in 1840 by slave labor. The bricks came from England to Savannah, thence by ox team to the plantation. The plantation formerly had 150 slaves, is now abandoned by the one remaining member of the family, and the land rented out to small farmers (as of July 1937). [picture courtesy of Library of Congress] Rae's Hall Plantation Rae's Hall Plantation, once "one of the most public and best known places in Georgia," lies five miles northwestward from Savannah on a broad curve of the Savannah River. Although its river frontage is appreciably high, vast acreages receding southward from the river are lowlands and these have been developed to accommodate railroads, factories, and warehouses. The inland acreage, though subdivided for prospective purchasers, is for the most part unsettled and supports a heavy growth of oak, pine, and other flora indigenous to this section.

On a high bluff overlooking the river, near the mouth of Pipemaker's Creek, is the site of the Indian Village New Yamacraw. Here, bounded on one side by the river and a broad belt of high trees and on the other side by flat, timeworn fields, are also the crumbling foundations of the old mansion house of Captain John Rae, builder of Rae's Hall. [Savannah River plantations. Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1947] Gen. Samuel Elbert died Nov. 2, 1788, and was buried at Rae's Hall Plantation near Savannah. In time, the burial place of the Revolutionary hero was forsaken and forgotten. During the early years of the 20th century the grave was desecrated and exposed when earth was removed from the Indian mound on which he and his wife, Elizabeth Rae Elbert, were buried. Following identification by acceptable evidence, the remains of the Revolutionary hero were rescued in 1916 by a committee of Sons of the Revolution, headed by R.J. Travis. The bones of the patriot were reinterred here in 1924 with full military honors.

[Source: Historical sign marker at site] Retreat Plantation Located near Savannah on the Little Ogeechee River at Coffee Bluff. Was land originally granted to Priscilla Houstoun's grandfather, Sir Patrick Houstoun. [Note: GEORGE J. KOLLOCK's plantation journals are located in the Manuscripts Department of the Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The journals provide a record of the lives of the slaves on Kollock's plantations: their births and deaths, sick days, and daily tasks are noted.] Richmond Oakgrove Plantation Three historic estates on the Savannah River were united in the latter part of the nineteenth century to form the large holdings of Richmond Oakgrove Plantation about 13 or 14 miles above Savannah. Richmond and Kew, Morton Hall and New Settlement, later Oakgrove, were the names by which these tracts were known from the Colonial era to 1890, when they were brought together for the purpose of large scale truck gardening.

The land itself, could its shifting usages be pictured, would show in succession mulberry groves, indigo and rice fields, cotton fields, vegetable gardens, sawmills, and finally cattle ranges sloping up to the forested sections. Traveling today from one tract to another of Richmond Oakgrove, it is hard to visualize the prosperous times of the plantation era. Except for a decrepit dwelling house with paneless windows, only a few un-inhabited board shacks remain. [Savannah River plantations. Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1947] Rosedew Plantation Rose Dhu (Rosedew), an adjoining 550-acre tract to Retreat Planation. Was land originally granted to Priscilla Houstoun's grandfather, Sir Patrick Houstoun. [Note: GEORGE J. KOLLOCK's plantation journals are located in the Manuscripts Department of the Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The journals provide a record of the lives of the slaves on Kollock's plantations: their births and deaths, sick days, and daily tasks are noted.] Shepherd's Plantation On June 9, 1836, while the whites and the Creeks were at war with each other, a battle was fought at the plantation of Doctor Shepherd, in Stewart county. Captain Garmany's company of Georgia militia was at dinner when firing was heard a short distance away. The men were ordered to leave the dinner and in light marching order they moved in the direction of the firing. After a brisk march of about half a mile they came upon a party of Indians prepared for battle. Garmany's men fired at a distance of one hundred yards and several of the enemy were seen to fall. The Creeks retreated a short distance, when they again formed in line, but a second volley compelled them to again fall back. At each retreat they were reinforced until the number was about 250, while Garmany had but 42 men in action. Seeing the Indians were trying to turn his flanks Garmany ordered his men to retreat.

Half of the men were faced to the right and the other half to the left, with instructions to keep up a fire on the savages to prevent the flank movements from being successful. After retreating some distance, a small field containing a gin house and some other buildings was reached and the fence used as a breastwork until two rounds were fired. Here the company was divided by the Indians and Captain Garmany was seriously wounded. Major Jarnigan, who was stationed at Fort Jones, three miles from the scene of the conflict, arrived just at this moment with a small detachment of troops and charged the Creeks, which diverted their attention and enabled Garmany to escape. Another body of reinforcements arrived soon after from Fort McCreay and the Indians were put to flight. The whites lost in this engagement 12 killed and 7 wounded. The loss of the Indians was estimated at 25 or 30 killed and a number wounded, but it was never fully ascertained.

Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form Transcribed by Kristen Bisanz The Plantation of the Royal Vale Vale Royal Plantation is bounded on the southwest by lands that in the eighteenth century were "the Garden & farm lots of Savannah Township." Its north-western boundary, washed by the heavy, copper waters of the Savannah River, curves slowly away to the north-west, meeting the western line at the Hermitage Plantation, historic home of the McAlpins. What is today Fahm Street marks the eastern boundary, while on the south the old Augusta Road leads westward from Savannah, now a narrow road of concrete. Within these boundaries lie 1,000 acres of land which consisted of such fertile soil that visions of green meadows and spreading fields influenced an early Georgian to call the tract the Royal Vale. [Savannah River plantations. Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1947] In 1762, the area now known as Frogtown was consolidated under a land grant for the Royal Vale Plantation for the purpose of growing rice.

In 1779, the site, along with neighboring Battlefield Park, was witness to one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution. At the end of the battle, over 800 men lay dead. [History of Frogtown] The Archibald Smith Plantation Home, or Oakwood Farm, is a plantation in Roswell, Georgia built in 1845. The home was built by Archibald Smith and housed three generations of his family. Arthur and Mary Smith restored the home in 1940. The City of Roswell purchased the plantation and all its existing artifacts from the Smith family for $125,000 and opened the facility for public display. In addition to the home, the grounds include a guest house, slave quarters, separate kitchen facility, carriage house, barn and water well. The plantation was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. The Stafford Plantation Was established on Cumberland Island, Camden County, Georgia, by Robert Stafford in the early 1800s.

Stafford acquired portions of lands belonging to General Nathaniel Greene through auction, and continued to assemble former Greene family lands so that by 1830 Stafford controlled 1360 acres with 148 slaves. In 1843 Stafford acquired 4,200 acres from P.M. Nightingale, a Greene descendant who retained Dungeness. The primary crop was Sea Island cotton. Robert Stafford died in 1877. His heirs sold the property to Thomas M. Carnegie and his wife Lucy, who had also acquired Dungeness. All that remains of Stafford's house is a ruin known as "The Chimneys," a series of 24 hearth and chimney structures representing the Stafford slave quarters, about one kilometer east of the main house. The Stafford Mansion was built for Lucy Carnegie in 1901. It was one of a series of Carnegie houses on the island, including Plum Orchard, Greyfield, and the main Carnegie place at Dungeness. The property is privately held under a life estate by a Carnegie descendant.. Stately Oaks Plantation is a Greek Revival antebellum mansion located in Margaret Mitchell Memorial Park in Jonesboro, Clayton County, Georgia.

Built in 1839, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It is also known as Orr House, The Oaks, and Robert McCord House and it is included in the Jonesboro Historic District. Stately Oaks is owned by Historical Jonesboro/Clayton County Inc., and features the period house, the home's separate log kitchen, a well house, a tenant house, a 1896 country store, and a one room schoolhouse. The house was believed to be the inspiration for Tara Plantation, the fictional home of Scarlet O'Hara and her family in Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind. [picture courtesy of GA County snapshots] The Tullie Smith House is a typical early Georgia plantation house, the form and details of which are known as the "plantation plain" style. The Smith House contains many characteristic architectural features of this type including weatherboard siding, simple gable roof, masonry chimney, and interior walls sheathed with matching boarding, simple window trim and doors. The house was built c.

1840 by Robert Smith, who migrated from Rutherford County, North Carolina, by 1830 and settled in DeKalb County, Georgia. Smith was a yeoman farmer who owned 11 slaves and cultivated approximately 200 of his 800 acres of land, while his cattle and hogs ranged freely nearby. Yeoman farms, such as the Smith's, were more common in Georgia than the large plantations many people associate with the Deep South. Smith's great-great-granddaughter, Tullie, was the last member of the family to occupy the property. The two-story house has an attached rear section with a shed roof. The front facade was altered on the first floor level around 1885 when the original front porch was replaced by a full-length shed porch and "traveler's room." The original first floor plan was altered c. 1875, but it has been restored. There are two front rooms with a steep stair that rises from the right front room, and two smaller rooms under a shed roof addition to the rear of the house. The second floor has two rooms.

There are three original mantels, two in the front rooms on the first floor, and one in the left room on the second floor. The original detached kitchen is directly behind the house--one large chimney composed of stone and brick is still used for cooking. By the late 1960s, Atlanta's highways and executive park developments mushroomed around this house, located on a hill, until it was isolated. Heirs offered to donate the house and kitchen outbuilding to the Atlanta Historical Society (now the Atlanta History Center), and an Atlanta banker provided the money needed for their relocation in 1969 and restoration in the early 1970s. The Tullie Smith House is a rare example of the plantation plain style that has been restored and operated for educational purposes Mulberry Grove.-Prior to the Revolution John Graham, lieutenant-governor of Georgia, owned a plantation by this name, located on the Savannah river, fourteen miles above the city of Savannah. By the fortunes of war the estate, valued at £50,000, was confiscated, and after the independence of the United States was established the plantation was presented by the state to Gen.

Nathaniel Greene, in recognition of his services in the South during the contest. General Greene died there on June 19, 1786, and it was on this plantation that Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. At the present time there is a village called Mulberry Grove in the central part of Harris county, about seven miles southwest of Hamilton. (Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, publ. 1906. Transcribed by Tammy Rudder) Whitehall Plantation One of the few historic Savannah River plantations that survive in more than name is Whitehall, six miles north of the city of Savannah. Originally noted as the southern estate of the great lawyer and statesman Thomas Gibbons, Whitehall retains, at least on its home site, much of that delightful atmosphere that un-doubtedly characterized its earlier years. The old Gibbons lodge, added to and remodeled into a charming modern house, still faces riverward in the spacious grove of live oaks cleared by Thomas Gibbons in the early nineteenth century. Several of the auxiliary ante-bellum buildings have also withstood time and today are used as servants' quarters and garages.

Only in the briar-locked fields and stretches of new trees flanking the long drive from the main road is it evident that the estate is no longer of economic importance as a plantation. Wray Plantation. A cotton plantation of 2700 acres, employing fifty tenant families in 1918 and seven tenant families in 1937 in Greene County, Georgia [picture courtesy of Library of Congress]

Question: Who owned the fictional plantation of Tara?
Answer: Scarlett O'Hara