2017 Rotary Convention: Old-School Atlanta

Posted by Steve Lettau on Oct 27, 2016

The great city of Atlanta suffered extensive damage during the Civil War, and many of its prewar structures were lost. However, stories of Georgia’s nearly 300-year history abound – you just have to know where to find them.

Only a short ride from the site of the 2017 Rotary International Convention, 10-14 June, lies Oakland Cemetery, where you’ll find monuments dedicated to Confederate soldiers and the graves of famous locals, including golf great Bobby Jones and “Gone with the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell. Tours of the 48-acre space are available.

Speaking of Mitchell, her former home – where she wrote her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel – still stands in midtown Atlanta. Across town at the Atlanta History Center, you’ll find more historic homes to tour, including a Civil War-era farmhouse and a cabin that dates to Atlanta’s earliest days.

An hour and a half away, in Macon, Ocmulgee National Monument offers the chance to journey even further into Georgia’s past: The prehistoric American Indian site is said to represent 17,000 years of continuous human habitation.

If Rotary history is what interests you, you won’t have to go far. The 1917 Rotary Convention was held in the Baptist Tabernacle, today a concert venue known simply as the Tabernacle, a short distance from the Fountain of Rings in Centennial Olympic Park.