The Wandering Adventurers: Atlanta History Center

March 21

I have really been suffering from allergies. There is a yellow layer of pollen everywhere. Mom said the news was saying Atlanta is the worst place in the WORLD right now for pollen. They even had pictures on the yellow pollen on TV! I finally got some meds that seem to be helping.

We went to the Atlanta History Center today. It came with our tour of Margaret Mitchell’s house or we probably would have missed it. The Swan House sat in the middle of 22 acres when it was built in the 1930’s. The property now also holds the Atlanta History Museum and the Smith family farm from 1850 that was moved here. We took the tours of the homes with the farm house and the out buildings first. Our guide put us back to 1862 during the Civil War. One of their sons had gone off to fight a fast and easy conflict with the north a year ago but now it was obvious that the war was going to be devastating to both sides in loss of lives. She read a letter written home and talked about the effects of the war on the families at home and the part they played as the war worsened. The Swan house was built in 1929. Our guide put us in the year 1933 but was not as good at time travel as the previous guide. The home is beautiful and one of the finest in Atlanta at the time. The grounds are lovely.

The museum was one of the best I have seen and was broken up into areas on the Civil War, Southern Folk Art, and Golf with Bobby Jones as the main player. They had another area on the Olympics centering on the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta that we didn’t see. The exhibits were so well done. My hat goes off to the staff.