|
|
This museum, which opened on December 15, 1999 - the 60th anniversary of the movie premiere in Atlanta - illuminates the making of the movie, the premiere and legacy with memorabilia from the Herb Bridges collection and the doorway of Tara from the movie set. Your experience at our historic site ends with an opportunity to enjoy the Museum Shop, complete with unique gifts, souvenirs, and Gone With The Wind collectibles and memorabilia.
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 the ticket counter, a small theater and a visual arts exhibit gallery.
After the second fire in May 1996, Daimler-Benz offered a challenge grant to renovate the Visitors Center and provide a facility to temporarily house exhibits for visitors during the Olympic Games and before the completion of the house.
With additional support from the business and hospitality community, the Visitors Center opened temporarily in July 1996. The docent-led tour is a one to one and a half-hour experience with exclusive photographs and archival exhibits that begin to tell the story of Margaret Mitchell beyond Gone With The Wind.
The tour starts in our Visitors' Center with "Before Scarlett: The Writings of Margaret Mitchell". The tour continues into the house, through her apartment where she wrote Gone With The Wind and finally to the NEW Gone With The Wind Movie Museum.
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.
When Margaret Mitchell and her husband, John Marsh, moved into the house in 1925, the building was known as the Crescent Apartments. Apartment #1 is the only interior space of the restored house that is preserved as an apartment.
Architectural features include the famous leaded glass window out of which Margaret looked while writing the book, and tile in the foyer of her apartment. All furnishings are of the period.
Gone With The Wind Museum opened on December 15, 1999, the 60th anniversary of the movie premiere in Atlanta. Major attractions include the front door of the legendary Tara plantation from the movie set and the portrait of Scarlett from the Butler house that made movie history. The portrait still bears a liquor stain from a drink Clark Gable's Rhett Butler threw at it.
Other artifacts include selections from the world's largest collection of Gone With The Wind memorabilia, including, posters, dolls, games, plates and jewelry, and costumes owned by Herb Bridges. Film footage from the premiere, movie scripts and original movie set design sketches also fill this unique museum, which is a renovated bank building.
|
|