Visiting Stately Oaks: Inspiration Behind Gone with the Wind

Explore Stately Oaks Historic Site in Georgia and discover the real-life inspiration behind the Gone with the Wind and Scarlett O’Hara.

During our latest trip to Georgia, we followed the footsteps of the iconic movie deep in the American South. If you are a fan of Gone with the Wind, or otherwise interested in history, you should read about and consider visiting Stately Oaks Plantation.

Our actual trip was centered around Columbus, the birthplace of Coca-Cola. But before heading back home, we decided to explore a little more of Georgia. And since we are especially drawn to history and historic places, visiting an old plantation seemed interesting to us.

So we made our way to Stately Oaks Historic Site in Jonesboro, where the main attraction is its beautiful mansion. And even though the house itself was not directly featured in the movie, visiting it still feels like stepping into the world of Gone with the Wind and Scarlett O’Hara’s home.

Stately Oaks is said to have inspired the plantation house and surrounding setting seen in the movie.

Stately Oaks Historic Site

Stately Oaks is located in the small town of Jonesboro, which has a population of just over 4,000 people. The town was originally called Jonesborough, but the name was simplified in 1864 when the railroad arrived in the area. The nearest larger city is Geogia’s capital, Atlanta.

Georgia itself is the 24th largest state in the United States and is located just above Florida. Its neighboring states include Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

Stately Oaks Historic Site was established on the grounds of an old plantation. The mansion is a classic antebellum home, meaning it was built before the American Civil War, but it was originally located about four miles north from where it sits now. When the last private owner donated the house to the county in 1972, it was re-located here.

The house was originally built by Whitmill Allen in 1839, but after moving to Texas a couple decades later, he sold it to Robert McCord.

The mansion represents the Greek Revival architectural style, which was inspired by ancient temples in Greece. One of the most striking features of this style is the grand columns lining the porches of the house. The mansion has two large porches in total.

Inside, there are six rooms displaying antique furniture, porcelain dishes, and family heirlooms belonging to the McCord family. Visitors can explore the home on a guided tour but photographing inside was not allowed.

In addition to the mansion itself, visitors can also explore several other historic buildings around the grounds, including a cookhouse, the Old Bethel schoolhouse, a tenant farmer’s cabin, and other preserved community buildings that have been relocated to the site.

Plantations like Stately Oaks typically grew cotton and vegetables, and they were also worked by enslaved people. According to our guide, the house itself was also built by slaves. Historical records show that Robert McCord owned eight enslaved people at Stately Oaks.

Because of the painful history tied to slavery, the role of plantations as tourist attractions has become increasingly debated in recent years. Personally, I believe that since they are a part of our history, they should never be forgotten. Preserving them as museums is important, as during our visit we learned a great deal about this period of American history.

Stately Oaks and Gone with the Wind

In Gone with the Wind, Scarlett O’Hara’s home was called Tara Plantation. In reality, Tara is completely fictional and does not actually exist. The movie itself was filmed in California, far from Georgia, and the house used in the film was not preserved. Instead, it eventually deteriorated in a movie studio storage lot.

However, Stately Oaks is believed to have inspired Margaret Mitchell and the fictional Tara Plantation in her novel. Mitchell spent childhood summers in Jonesboro at relatives’ plantations, and many of the characters and settings in the story are thought to have been inspired by what she experienced there as a child.

For example, the life of Rebecca McCord, who once lived in Stately Oaks, is said to closely resemble Scarlett O’Hara’s story in Gone with the Wind.

In the yard of Stately Oaks Historic Site, visitors can also see the original fireplace from the home of Phillip Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was the grandfather of Margaret Mitchell and lived near Stately Oaks.

Because of these connections, Stately Oaks is often considered the “home place” of Gone with the Wind, and the surrounding grounds have been named Margaret Mitchell Memorial Park. It really is difficult to get much closer to the world of Gone with the Wind than this.

And while in Jonesboro, it is also worth stopping by the Road to Tara museum. And in Marietta, not too far from Jonesboro, there is also a Gone with the Wind museum. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit there, but we drove through Marietta and got to see their famous Big Chicken which is actually a KFC restaurant.

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This time, we did not stay nearby but instead drove Stately Oaks from our lovely bed and breakfast in Columbus. However, if you are visiting the area, I would recommend Drury Inn & Suites Atlanta Morrow, as it is a comfortable hotel located close to Stately Oaks.

Overall, I found this to be very interesting visit. I still remember watching Gone with the Wind on television as a child, and I could easily imagine Scarlett appearing around the corner here in one of her grand dresses.

Georgia itself has been a filming location for countless movies and television series over the years. Together with California and New Mexico, it is one of the most popular filming destinations in United States. Productions such as Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, The Vampire Diaries, and Forrest Gump were all filmed in Georgia.

There is truly a lot to see in this state.