Margaret Mitchell House

The first-floor apartment of this turn-of-the-century Tudor Revival mansion has been converted into a museum and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was referred to by author Margaret Mitchell (aka Peggy Marsh) as “the Dump,” but it now serves as a must-see spot for literature enthusiasts.

Mitchell moved into Apartment 1 at the Crescent Apartments in Atlanta with her second husband, John Robert Marsh, who had been the best man at her first wedding to Berrien “Red” Kinnard Upshaw. Here she began writing, chapter by chapter, what would become one of the seminal works of southern literature.

She began writing the book in 1926 while recovering from the injuries she sustained in a car crash. Rather than rush to publish her work, however, she tucked each chapter into separate envelopes and hid them around the house. The final product, Gone with the Wind, is still read and studied today for its idealized depiction of the antebellum South, as well as for its complex main character Scarlett O’Hara, who is arguably the first fully developed “modern female protagonist” in American literature.

Among other items celebrating both the book and movie, Gone with the Wind, visitors at the Margaret Mitchell House can see Mitchell’s original Underwood typewriter and also wander through a “please touch” recreation of her home as it would likely have appeared during her time there (complete with references to her interest in erotica).

Update: The Margaret Mitchell House Museum is temporarily closed for renovations. It is expected to re-open in 2023.