Georgia Cotton Kingdom

Smith Plantation Home:

Owned by one of the City of Roswell’s founders Archibald Smith, the Smith Plantation home, built in 1845, sat on over 300 acres of prime cotton real estate.  As was typical of most homes in the era, the smith plantation was built by slave hands, with help from the family’s 30 slaves.

While most of the land was parceled off to support the surrounding city of Alpharetta, the home and many of the surrounding structures such as the smokehouse, servants quarters, well, carriage house, and barn remain in tact because the Smith family maintained ownership of the home  until 2006 when the plantation was added to the National Historic Registry and opened as a museum to the public. 

Callaway Plantation:

The Callaway Plantation is a restored version of the original estate which broke ground in 1785 with a single log cabin built by family patriarch and namesake Job Callaway. The plantation grew to over 3,000 acres, and is located in modern Wilkes County along the border with Florida. A brick Mansion, serving as the main house for the Callaway family through 1910, was completed in 1869. The house retains all original features and includes no modern amenities such as electricity and plumbing, making the structure a rare example of true Antebellum planter life.

            Guided tours, given on a daily basis, take visitors through the still-standing school house, general store, various residences of the Callaway family, and slave cabins located on the property, as well as still growing crops on the plantation grounds. 

Stately Oaks:

The inspiration for the most famous, and fictional, plantation Tara, from “Gone With The Wind,” is Stately Oaks, located in Jonesboro. The home was the summer retreat of Margaret Mitchell. Elements such as large columns, green shutters, a sweeping, two-story front porch, and all white exterior are original to Stately Oaks and appear on the fictional Tara, representing the Greek Revival style in keeping with the time of construction of Stately Oaks in 1839. Robert McCord was the estate’s last owner, purchased Stately Oaks from the original owner, Whitmill Allen in 1858.