The Swan House, Pt. 3

Many windows give a great view of the gorgeous grounds and landscaping of Swan House. Because of my first post, I learned from a reader that in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” (2013), Swan House was used as President Snow’s Mansion. Filming lasted for about three weeks, which used both the grounds and the interiors.



Fortunately for me, the property did not have very many guests wandering around that day; I was able to go at a leisurely pace and enjoy the solitude and take my photos without having “the unaware” step into the frame.



I love all the nooks and crannies on the property.



If the large mansion does nothing for you, maybe the Victorian Playhouse is more your style. From the nearby signage:

The Victorian Playhouse was built ca. 1890 in downtown Atlanta. The playhouse has resided in Inman Park, Ansley Park, Brookwood Hills, and Buckhead, reflecting Atlanta’s residential growth northward. In 1980, the William D. Ellis family donated it to the Atlanta Historical Society. The playhouse is typical folk Victorian building - a simple house type with applied Victorian decoration common in Georgia from 1890 to 1920. The house provides an architectural link between 1840s Tullie Smith Farm and 1928 Swan House.



The interior was adorable; I can only imagine being a kid and having something like this for playtime! Wow!



More shots of the surrounding property: 



Ambrose the elephant once sat in front of the White Elephant Saloon on Alabama Street; when the saloon was sold in the early 1900s, the sculpture moved around a few times (including to Charlottesville, Virginia), and eventually was gifted to the Atlanta History Center in 1971 by the sister of its previous owner, Hunter Perry (thus, the plaque).



Also on the property is Wood Cabin:



Edited from the Atlanta History Center website:

Originally located about one mile to the south of the Chattahoochee River and approximately two miles from the site of the Creek Indian settlement of Standing Peachtree, Wood Cabin is noteworthy as an example of a log structure constructed during the time this area of North Georgia was the frontier. The cabin currently stands in a meadow in Swan Woods. Elias Wood purchased Land Lot 251 in District 17 in 1847, but the cabin might date to decades before that. Carl Hartrampf Jr. and his son Carl III located the cabin in 1996 concealed inside the Victorian home on Hollywood Road in Northwest Atlanta. Carl purchased the rights to remove the cabin from the house. The logs were disassembled and relocated to Winfield Farm at Scaly Mountain, North Carolina. In 2014, the cabin was relocated from North Carolina to the Atlanta History Center’s campus. Wood Cabin is used to tell the story of Native Americans, white settlers, and folk traditions of the rural South.



The interior:



Me attempting to be artsy-fartsy with lighting and angles:



I cannot say enough good things about the grounds of the Atlanta History Center. Being able to wander the expansive property and “stumble” upon all these treasures is magical.



Next to the museum itself are Olguita's Gardens, which celebrate the life of honoree Olga “Olguita” C. de Goizueta.





One more post to go on The Atlanta History Center! See more Swan House photos at my main website.