Information
Landmark: Atlanta History CenterCity: Atlanta
Country: USA Georgia
Continent: North America
Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, USA Georgia, North America
Overview
The Atlanta History Center, a cornerstone of culture and learning in Atlanta’s Buckhead district, welcomes visitors with lush gardens and stories that span centuries.Spread across 33 acres, it draws you into Atlanta’s history with quiet gardens, creaking old houses, engaging museums, and a library stacked with worn archival volumes.People of all ages love it, and many see it as one of the city’s most important historical treasures, like a weathered stone archway still standing in the square.Top Highlights 1.The Swan House, built in 1928, is a graceful neoclassical mansion crafted by architect Philip Trammell Shutze, its white columns catching the afternoon light.It captures the lavish spirit of the years after World War I and once housed the Inman family, a well-known name in Atlanta society.Visitors can step inside the beautifully restored rooms-polished wood gleaming-and discover the cultural and political story of Atlanta in the early 1900s.The house even earned a bit of fame as the spot where scenes from *The Hunger Games: Catching Fire* were shot, including one in the sunlit front room.Number two.At the Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum, the star attraction is the restored Cyclorama painting, The Battle of Atlanta, its sweeping canvas alive with smoke and flashing bayonets.It was first painted in the 1880s, and today, it’s one of just two cycloramas in the entire United States.Stretching 42 feet high and 358 feet long, this enormous panorama wraps around you, telling the full story of a crucial Civil War battle-cannon smoke drifting in the painted sky.The exhibit features a short film alongside artifacts that bring the war to life, showing its deep and lasting mark on the region-like a dented helmet found in an old field.Three.At Tullie Smith Farm, you can step into an 1840s homestead, its weathered wood and creaking floors preserved to show exactly how rural Georgians lived in the 19th century.Dressed in period costumes, interpreters fire up forges, weave at wooden looms, and tend crops, giving visitors a vivid glimpse into the everyday life of working-class Georgians of the era.Number four.The Goizueta Gardens at The History Center feature nine unique spaces, each capturing a different era in Georgia’s past, from sweet tea–scented magnolia groves to native wildflower meadows.You’ll find gems like the Quarry Garden, the Asian Garden, and the Mary Howard Gilbert Memorial Quarry Garden, where native southeastern plants line quiet gravel paths.Number five.Though it sits apart in Midtown Atlanta, the Margaret Mitchell House is run by the History Center and once served as the home of *Gone with the Wind*’s author, where sunlight still spills across the old hardwood floors.Guests can step into her apartment, glance at the worn desk where she wrote, and explore exhibits about her life, the making of her celebrated novel, and the impact it left behind.In the Turning Point: The American Civil War galleries, you’ll find one of the nation’s largest collections of artifacts-rifles with worn wooden stocks, faded uniforms, sepia photographs, and personal keepsakes-displayed to reveal the war’s complexity from many viewpoints.*Shaping Traditions: Folk Arts in a Changing South* dives into the quilts, carvings, and hand‑painted signs of Southern communities, tracing how these traditions have grown and shifted through the years.Metropolitan Frontiers traces Atlanta’s journey from a dusty railroad stop to a vast, bustling city, spotlighting its expanding streets and the shifting lives of its people.Atlanta in 50 Objects offers a handpicked tour through fifty artifacts-like a worn streetcar ticket-that capture the city’s identity, culture, and history.The center hosts an array of educational programs, from hands-on workshops and lively author talks to field trips where kids crunch gravel underfoot, plus lectures and summer camps.Seasonal events and special exhibits dive into timely themes-civil rights, immigration, even the rich aroma of Southern foodways.You’ll find us at 130 West Paces Ferry Road NW in Atlanta, GA 30305, open Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the historic houses unlocking their doors at 11.Admission runs $27 for adults 13 and up, $24 for kids aged 4–12, and it’s free for children under 4 or for members.Military and AAA members enjoy discounts, and programs like Bank of America’s “Museums on Us” can get you in for less.Parking’s free, and you can pull right into the lot out front.Planning your visit?Set aside at least two to three hours to wander the grounds and explore the exhibits, though many people end up staying all day, lingering over the gardens and hidden corners.The café and museum shop make it easy to grab a coffee or a keepsake, and just outside, Buckhead’s streets brim with restaurants and boutiques.
