After the first exciting leg of our roadtrip, we spent two weeks in Atlanta this summer. The majority of our time was spent hanging out with David's family and helping his parents move into a new house in Powder Springs (a suburb of Atlanta). The moving took quite a bit of our time so we didn't get to visit a lot of Atlanta's attractions, but we did make it out to a few different ones.
Our first stop was the
Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in the
Sweet Auburn district of Atlanta. We visited the site the first time I visited Atlanta (for David's sister's wedding in 2007) but we hadn't gotten to explore much of Sweet Auburn or the accompanying sites so I wanted to re-visit it.
After a stop at the NPS museum, we headed across the street to the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change which continues the work that MLK started. The center houses a large reflecting pool; in the center is the tomb for MLK and his wife, Coretta.
They also have an eternal flame lighted.
Right next to the King Center is the Ebenezer Baptist Church where both MLK Jr. and his father preached.
On the other side of the King Center, into the Sweet Auburn neighborhood where MLK was born and raised is Fire Station No. 6, which was built in 1894 and was one of the first integrated fire houses in the city. It served the community until 1991 when it became a museum.
They have a fire engine from the 20s (if I remember correctly) and a lot of old gear.
I love old contraptions.
Down the street, across from a row of shotgun houses (which people still live in) is the MLK home. We didn't get a chance to take a tour of the home (since all their tours had filled up for the day) but we visited the gift shop and looked at photographs of the interior of the house.
After our visit to the MLK site, I wanted to check out
Oakland Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Atlanta (and one of the oldest historic sites in Atlanta, since it wasn't burned during the Civil War). I knew it was close to Sweet Auburn so we attempted to walk there, but the neighborhood quickly became a bit sketchy and there were train tracks impeding our progress. We hopped back in our car and drove over which was a much better idea since the cemetery is quite large and you can drive through it. It made seeing the graves and tombs much easier.
I've got a thing for old cemeteries, especially Victorian garden cemeteries which really focused on the peace and beauty of nature as a final resting place for those interred there. There are many notable people buried there, including 25 Atlanta mayors, 6 Georgia governors, several prominent Georgia politicians, businessmen, and cultural icons, including Bobby Jones (famous golfer) and Margaret Mitchell (author of
Gone With the Wind).
There's also a large section of Confederate tombs as well. There are around 6,900 soldiers buried there, about 3,000 of whom are unknown.
There's also a large Jewish section, black section, and a Potter's field, which was intended for poor people who couldn't afford a burial site.
But my favorite parts of the cemetery were the lavish mausoleums built for important Atlantan families.
I particularly liked this one built for the Austell family.
Both sites are well worth the visit if you happen to be in the Atlanta area. And you know, the more and more blog posts I do about our road trip, the more and more I think I start to sound like a tour book. Oh well.
Our first stop was the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in the Sweet Auburn district of Atlanta. We visited the site the first time I visited Atlanta (for David's sister's wedding in 2007) but we hadn't gotten to explore much of Sweet Auburn or the accompanying sites so I wanted to re-visit it.
After a stop at the NPS museum, we headed across the street to the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change which continues the work that MLK started. The center houses a large reflecting pool; in the center is the tomb for MLK and his wife, Coretta.
They also have an eternal flame lighted.
Right next to the King Center is the Ebenezer Baptist Church where both MLK Jr. and his father preached.
On the other side of the King Center, into the Sweet Auburn neighborhood where MLK was born and raised is Fire Station No. 6, which was built in 1894 and was one of the first integrated fire houses in the city. It served the community until 1991 when it became a museum.
They have a fire engine from the 20s (if I remember correctly) and a lot of old gear.
I love old contraptions.
Down the street, across from a row of shotgun houses (which people still live in) is the MLK home. We didn't get a chance to take a tour of the home (since all their tours had filled up for the day) but we visited the gift shop and looked at photographs of the interior of the house.
After our visit to the MLK site, I wanted to check out Oakland Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Atlanta (and one of the oldest historic sites in Atlanta, since it wasn't burned during the Civil War). I knew it was close to Sweet Auburn so we attempted to walk there, but the neighborhood quickly became a bit sketchy and there were train tracks impeding our progress. We hopped back in our car and drove over which was a much better idea since the cemetery is quite large and you can drive through it. It made seeing the graves and tombs much easier.
I've got a thing for old cemeteries, especially Victorian garden cemeteries which really focused on the peace and beauty of nature as a final resting place for those interred there. There are many notable people buried there, including 25 Atlanta mayors, 6 Georgia governors, several prominent Georgia politicians, businessmen, and cultural icons, including Bobby Jones (famous golfer) and Margaret Mitchell (author of Gone With the Wind).
There's also a large section of Confederate tombs as well. There are around 6,900 soldiers buried there, about 3,000 of whom are unknown.
There's also a large Jewish section, black section, and a Potter's field, which was intended for poor people who couldn't afford a burial site.
But my favorite parts of the cemetery were the lavish mausoleums built for important Atlantan families.
I particularly liked this one built for the Austell family.
Both sites are well worth the visit if you happen to be in the Atlanta area. And you know, the more and more blog posts I do about our road trip, the more and more I think I start to sound like a tour book. Oh well.
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