The Margaret Mitchell House: Renovated and Reenvisioned
One hundred years ago, in 1925, Margaret “Peggy” Mitchell and her husband, John Marsh, moved into a first-floor apartment in a home on Peachtree Street. Mitchell had recently quit her job as an Atlanta Journal reporter due to a recurring foot injury and kept herself entertained with books from the nearby library. According to folklore, after Margaret read through the library’s entire collection of fiction, her husband suggested she start working on her own book. The little apartment, which Margaret nicknamed “The Dump,” would be where she penned the Pulitzer Award-winning Gone With the Wind.
The Margaret Mitchell House, now part of the Atlanta History Center, has long been home to exhibits about Margaret Mitchell and Gone With the Wind – both the book and the film. But like any historic house, over time, the structure and its contents were due for some updates and upgrades. When the coronavirus forced the museum to close in March 2020, the Atlanta History Center realized they had the opportunity to create new, contextualized exhibits focused on Mitchell’s life and legacy.
The Margaret Mitchell House reopened in July 2024 with a new exhibit, “Telling Stories: Gone With the Wind and American Memory,” which examines how Gone With the Wind has influenced our collective memory and impacted our understanding of the Civil War and U.S. History. “Telling Stories” explores Mitchell’s life in Atlanta and how her upbringing and family shaped her view of history. It also examines how the book and film impacted culture and furthered the Lost Cause Ideology (romanticized views that slavery was benevolent and that states’ rights led to the Civil War).
Visitors to The Margaret Mitchell House can see Mitchell’s original desk and chair, as well as the suitcase used to carry her original manuscript to MacMillan Publishers in New York City. There are also images, newspaper clippings, and other artifacts on display. Videos explore the cultural and historical context of Gone With the Wind and the novel’s lasting legacy.
Many of Margaret Mitchell’s personal items are now housed at the Fulton County Library’s Special Collections Department. Mitchell wanted the collection donated to the library; her husband, John, memorialized those wishes in his will. While writing Gone With the Wind, she spent many hours at what was then known as the Carnegie Library, checking historical facts related to fashion, terminology, and the Civil War.
In August 1949, immediately following Margaret Mitchell’s death, the staff of the Atlanta Public Library created a small memorial collection in her honor. The Margaret Mitchell Collection and Exhibit, established shortly thereafter in the 1950s, includes photos, library cards, her personal collection of books, various editions of Gone With the Wind, the typewriter used to write Gone With the Wind, Margaret’s Pulitzer Prize and American Book Awards, ephemera from the Gone With the Wind film, and other items. The collection is static, meaning that nothing can be removed or added. According to Margaret’s brother [Alexander] Stephens, “The estate feels it is very important to keep these materials together for the public to see.”
While many of the items require an appointment and prior permission to view, there are several pieces of memorabilia on display in glass cases outside the Special Collections Department. Library guests can see Mitchell’s typewriter, Gone with the Wind scripts, film production photos, and different editions of the Gone With the Wind book.
Central Library, the headquarters of the Fulton County Library System, is aptly located at One Margaret Mitchell Square in Downtown Atlanta. (There is a sculpture dedicated to Mitchell in the small park across from the library). The library is open Monday-Tuesday 10:00 am to 8:00 pm, and Wednesday-Saturday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.
Margaret Mitchell and John Marsh are laid to rest at Oakland Cemetery in Downtown Atlanta. Margaret’s parents, Eugene Muse Mitchell and Mary Isabel “Maybelle” Stephens Mitchell, along with her brothers, Russell and Alexander Stephens Mitchell, are nearby.