Margaret Mitchell House, Atlanta

I've been to the Margaret Mitchell House a couple of times and while it's interesting if you're a fan of literature because, well, Gone with the Wind is kind of the great Southern novel . . . you really have to be careful who your tourguide is. Visiting the giftshop is free, but to tour the actual house, you must pay $10 student rate (I think $12 or 15 for general adult) to take a guided tour. Some tour guides are a well of knowledge and really leave you wanting more . . . others are a bit lacking.

This museum highlights Margaret Mitchell and her famous book, of course, but has other literary functions as well.
You are taken on a tour lasting about an hour. The building was originally a 10 unit apartment house and Mitchel lived in Apt. #1. which has been preserved and outfitted with period furniture. There is also a separate area dealing with the movie version as well.

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For ‘Gone With The Wind’ fans, this is a must-see. Tours of the house show you where Margaret Mitchell lived while writing GWTW and bits about her life then. Not too much of the original furnishings are left as the house has suffered two fires since her death. The grand looking old house is somewhat deceptive because Mitchell and her husband lived in a small apartment as they could not afford such a large home. From photographs it appears that Mitchell was a lovely young woman so it is no wonder that she had numerous suitors. Her first fiance was killed in WWI. She soon married a man named Red Upshaw who turned out to be an abusive bootlegger and alcoholic. A few years later she married John Marsh who remained her husband until her death. Most of her adult life was spent within a small area around the house (where she referred to their apartment as ‘the dump’). And she died in 1949 at age 49 due to a taxi hitting her as she was crossing Peachtree Street just a few blocks from here.

Tours of the house are given continuously from 9:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Cost is $12 for adults, $9 for seniors & students 13 and older and $5 for children age 4-12. Tours take you through Mitchell’s home, then the obligatory gift shop stop and end at the GWTW Museum which has a lot of displays concerning the movie (which is running by the way in both the gift shop and the museum.

We took two Japanese gentlemen who were staying with us to see the place and they loved it! One said he has the movie on DVD in Japanese and his wife has watched it 5 times! I wish I had thought to ask him to do Clark Gable saying, 'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" in Japanese.

The Margaret Mitchell House and Museum offers a one and a half hour tour that I would only recommend for a real fan of the author's most famous work, Gone With the Wind. Great book, great movie, but I'm not that into it, so it wasn't that exciting for me.

$12/ adults
9:30 am - 5 pm, 7 days a week

A great tour that includes interesting tidbits about the city's history as well as the life of the author of Gone With the Wind. Take the time to visit the museum behind the house that details the making of the famous film based on the book.

If you have read her famous novel 'Gone with the Wind', or not, if saw the movie based on the novel, you would know who Margaret Mitchell is. This is the house where she and her husband rented one of the apartments and lived there for some time.

Her now apartment is in the Oakland Cemetery, surrounded by her favorite flower: roses.

Margaret Mitchell was the author of Gone With The Wind which told the story of Scarlet O'Hara, Rhett Butler, and featured the burning of Atlanta at its center point. Atlanta has a love affair with Margaret Mitchell and her home has become part of a museum and a tour. If you are a fan of the movie or the novel then this is a must see while you are in Atlanta.

Margaret Mitchell House & Museum
For all you fans of the movie Gone with the Wind, you can get a guided tour of the authors appartment. The tour includes lots of information about her life and gives quite a few insights into where she got her ideas for the movie. You can also pick up movie paraphanelia at the museum.