Atlanta History Center (02/26/22)

The Atlanta History Center is 33 acres of awesome: 33 acres of awesome: historic houses, educational exhibits, and glorious gardens.

Funny enough, I didn’t realize that it was so extensive. There was one historic house (with its gardens) on the property that I had heard about and really wanted to see (The Swan House) but somehow I missed the fact that there was an entire complex of historical-ness.

So that was a delightful surprise. But also, it was a very good thing that Jonathan remembered to grab snacks and that I had already had snacks in my backpack. Even so, we probably cut it a little close in terms of what the kids could handle without proper preparation.

Once we arrived, we decided to go right to the Swan House. But, as is so often the case with little people, it took us a while to get into things. And by that, I mean that someone had to go to the bathroom after we had already walked halfway to the Swan house. And someone else had a poopy diaper. And someone else was the thirstiest they’ve ever been in their whole life. I’m not even exaggerating. It was kinda ridiculous.

We came across a kid-sized house and some spring riders (I just learned that is their name) and we let them play for a few minutes. Partially so we could get everyone sorted out.

And then at that point Jonathan (very wisely) insisted that he would take the younger kids to go explore outside somewhere while Clara and I went and toured the Swan house. This turned out to be a very good call. Because, while the house was lovely, it wouldn’t have been very enjoyable for the young’uns. I guess looking at architectural detail and antiques isn’t really their thing. #weird

(Fun fact time: the Swan House was used as a set piece in the Hunger Games movies. It was featured as President Snow’s mansion. And one of the interior rooms was used as President Snow’s office. Pictures to come later, when we see the exterior.)

They weren’t doing organized guided tours at the time, so Clara and I did a self guided tour. It was a lovely house. When we’d finished walking through, we wandered over to find Jonathan and company.

It turned out that they had ended up at the Smith Farm, which was a pretty dang cool spot. The Smith farm is meant to accurately represent a slaveholding farm of the 19th century, all centered around Atlanta’s oldest surviving Farmhouse.

The farmhouse had a bunch of cool things in it: a spinning wheel and loom, and some old toys (which visitors are encouraged to play with)

Aside from the farmhouse, the farm also has several historic out buildings which were actually moved to the spot for preservation. So you can walk through an old cabin used for slave quarters, a smokehouse, a workshop/forge, a barn, a summer kitchen and also several gardens as they probably looked at the time. To the children’s delight, the farm also has live animals: goats, chickens and turkeys.

Upon arriving at the Smith farm, Jonathan and his crew were taken under the wing of a docent named Adrienne and she basically gave them a personalized tour of everything, introduced them to the animals and taught the kids how to play the games.

When Clara and I joined, the boys were very excited to tell us about all the things they had learned and to point out all the cool things they had seen.

After the farm, we all walked back over to the Swan house to check out the outdoor area and gardens. Clara and I hadn’t walked around outside at all, because we knew the rest of the fam would want to check out the gardens and grounds too.

The real star of the Swan house is the front entrance. The house and cascading fountains together create a beautiful tableau. Unfortunately, we could only go to the bottom of the stairs. Sad. (This part of the house is where the Hunger games scenes were filmed.). It was still pretty magical. And of course, the children were inexorably drawn to the water. As usual.

We then wandered the gardens around the house which led to the Swan Woods trail.

We came upon some fun things as we walked down to get a view of the house from the bottom of the hill.

We saw an old log cabin. And a boardwalk (I love a good boardwalk).

And a Tiny Door, installed in a tree. This Tiny Door is part of an ongoing art project in Atlanta, in which the artist installs little sculpted resin doors in places all over the city. The doors always represent the site, area, or neighborhood that they are located in. So this tiny door is a replica of the Swan House door. This is the first one that we have seen, though we’re excited to tract down more of them. Here’s the website if’n you’re interested.

We then came to the bottom of the hill. And the view of the house really was lovely. Again, a lot of it was blocked off, so we weren’t able to get as close as we wanted to. But it was still beautiful, as you can see.

While we enjoyed the view of the house, we also decided to enjoy some much needed snack-age. It was lunch time. And all the children were starting to get a little hangry.

Before we started, Jonathan had all the children solemnly swear that they wouldn’t complain or cry about the snacks we brought or didn’t bring. (Let’s be honest. we always try to bring snacks that everyone will like. But someone always complains anyway.)

We then decided to go and walk through the main building and see some of the exhibits that were in there. Jonathan took the twins on a little detour walk, hoping that they would fall asleep (spoiler: they didn’t fall asleep. The little turkeys) On our way up, C,J, and L rode on the spring riders for another moment or too.

Once we were back in the main building, we walked through an exhibit about the Native Americans who inhabited the area prior to the coming of white people. Then there was an exhibit about Bobby Jones, a famous golfer. These exhibits were ok. But honestly, nothing to write home about. We walked through them pretty quickly. And Jonathan joined us while we were in the golfing exhibit. We then walked through an exhibit about the Black experience in Atlanta. It was under construction, so there wasn’t a ton to see in that one either.

And then we walked into the “Folk arts in a Changing South” section and we spent a LONG time in there. It was seriously the coolest. There were exhibits about making all kinds of things: cloth, baskets, pottery, quilts, clothing, music, whiskey (with a small-scale replica of a moonshine still), lace, musical instruments, etc.

All of us were quite fascinated. They also had some interesting videos and interactive displays. After the first couple of exhibits that weren’t as interesting, this was a delight to walk through.

After that, we walked through the Civil War exhibit. And man, that one really blew us away. It was incredible.

It was organized by year, starting with the most important events leading up to the beginning of the Civil war. Then for each year of the war, there were plaques showing the intended tactics of both the North and the South and then another showing how they actually played out. It ended with reconstruction years following the Civil War and a small section about how the Civil War continues to shape America today. All along the way there were tons of artifacts illustrating every aspect of the war you could think of: uniforms, flags, weapons, medical kits, tents, etc.

There were a lot of videos and interactive displays that the kids really enjoyed. This exhibit was huge. And we spent a long time there. Honestly, I was concerned that the twins would be bored. But they were engaged the whole time we were there. #win.

This exhibit was actually the favorite part of the day for most of us. It was fascinating.

We were basically there until the museum made their closing time announcement.

We walked through the gift shop real quick and that was that. We headed home to get some much needed chow. Unsurprisingly, the twins fell asleep in no time on our drive back to the house.

It was a long, but awesome day.