Birth Home of Martin Luther King, Jr
Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in this two-story Queen Anne-style house on January 15, 1929, the oldest son of a Baptist minister and an elementary school music teacher. His childhood was a normal one. He preferred playing baseball to piano lessons, liked to play board games, and got a kick out of tearing the heads off his older sister's dolls (nonviolence came later). To quote his sister, Christine King Farris, "My brother was no saint ordained at birth, instead he was an average and ordinary man, called by . . . God . . . to perform extraordinary deeds."King lived here through the age of 12, then moved with his family to a house a few blocks away. A visit provides many insights into the formative influences on one of the greatest leaders of our time. The Rev. A. D. Williams, King's maternal grandfather and pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, bought the house in 1909. Reverend Williams was active not only in the church, but also in the community and in early manifestations of the civil rights movement. He was a charter member of Atlanta's NAACP and led a series of black registration and voting drives as far back as 1917. He was instrumental in getting black officers onto the Atlanta police force. Martin Luther King, Sr., moved in on Thanksgiving Day, 1926, when he married Williams's daughter Alberta. When Reverend Williams died in 1931, King became head of the household and took over Williams's pulpit at Ebenezer Church.The King family retained ownership of the house at 501 Auburn even after they moved away. King's younger brother, Alfred Daniel, lived here with his family from 1954 to 1963. In 1971, King's mother deeded the home to The King Center. It has since been restored to its appearance during the years of King's boyhood. The furnishings are all originals or period reproductions, and some personal items belonging to the family are on display. Christine was actively involved in the restoration, providing a wealth of detail about the former appearance of the house, as well as anecdotal material about life in the King family.Tours of the house, conducted by National Park rangers, begin in the downstairs parlor, where you'll see family photographs showing Martin Luther as a child. The parlor was used for choir practice, for the dreaded piano lessons, and as a rec room where the family gathered around the radio to listen to shows like "The Shadow." In the dining room, world events were regularly discussed over meals, and every Sunday, before dinner, each child was required to recite a newly learned Bible verse from memory. You'll also see the coal cellar (stoking coal was one of King's childhood chores); the children's play area; the upstairs bedroom of King's parents in which Christine, King, and Alfred Daniel were born; Reverend Williams's den, where the family gathered for nightly Bible study; the bedroom King shared with his brother ("always in disarray," says Christine); and Christine's bedroom.Note: In summer, especially, tickets often run out early; for your best chance at touring the home, arrive at 9am.

Atlanta College of Art Gallery
The Atlanta College of Art, housed in the Woodruff Arts Center complex, features an ongoing series of fine art shows. A recent example: Light Over Ancient Angkor, a photo exhibition of the ruins of the Cambodian city of Angkor. In addition to visiting shows, there are faculty exhibitions, juried student shows, lectures, and concerts here. Call to see what's on when you're in town.

Georgia's Stone Mountain Park
A monolithic gray granite outcropping (the world's largest) carved with a massive monument to the Confederacy, Stone Mountain is a distinctive landmark on Atlanta's horizon and the focal point of its major recreation area, which includes 3,200 acres of lakes and beautiful wooded parkland. It's Georgia's number-one tourist attraction, and one of the ten most-visited paid attractions in the United States.Stone Mountain itself was formed about 300 million years ago, when intense heat and pressure caused molten material just below the earth's surface to push upward. That material cooled slowly (it took 100 million years) and formed compact, uniform crystals. Initially, a 2-mile-thick overlay of the earth's surface covered the hardened granite, but over the next 200 million years, that layer eroded, exposing the mountain we see today. The dome-shaped rock rises 1,683 feet above sea level and covers 583 acres. Half of Georgia and part of North Carolina rest on the mountain's base.Although the best view of the mountain is from below, the vistas from the top are spectacular. Visitors who are part mountain goat can take the walking trail up and down its moss-covered slopes, especially lovely in spring when they're blanketed in wildflowers. The trial is 1.3 miles each way. Or you can ride the Skylift cable car to the top, where you'll find an incredible view of Atlanta and the Appalachian Mountains. The best approach is to take the cable car up, and then walk back down. For a different perspective, check out the park from onboard a World War II amphibious vehicle-the park's new Ride the Ducks Adventure is a 40-minute tour that moves from the land into the waters of Stone Mountain Lake. Tours run from 11am daily. Tickets are $9 ages 3 and up for individual tickets, and $6 ages 3 and up when added to the One-Day All-Attraction Pass. Duck Tours are included on the One-Day Pass on "Limited Attraction Days" (Mon-Thurs in the fall) at no additional charge.A highlight at Stone Mountain is the Lasershow Spectacular, an astonishing display of laser lights and fireworks with animation and music. The brilliant laser beams are projected on the mountain's north face, a natural one million-square-foot screen. Shows are presented Saturdays at 8:30pm from March 1 to Memorial Day and from the day after Labor Day through October. From Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day, shows takes place each night at 9:30pm. Bring a picnic supper and arrive early to get a good spot on the lawn at the base of the mountain. Shows are free with park admission.It's a good idea to make your first stop the Discovering Stone Mountain Museum to get some perspective on the mountain's history. Exhibits take you through an intriguing chronological journey from the area's past into its present.Other major park attractions include the Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad, an open-air train that chugs around the 5-mile base of Stone Mountain. The ride takes 40 minutes and includes a live "train robbery" skit. Trains depart from Railroad Depot, an old-fashioned train station, where there's a restaurant with all the fixings for a fried chicken picnic, just in case you forgot to bring your own.The Scarlett O'Hara, a paddlewheel riverboat, cruises the 363-acre Stone Mountain Lake.The Antique Car and Treasure Museum is a jumble of old radios, jukeboxes, working nickelodeons, pianos, Lionel trains, carousel horses, and clocks, along with classic cars.Visitors can now travel back in time thanks to a new $30 million attraction at the park called Crossroads. At Crossroads, you can explore an 1870s rural Southern town, complete with a cast of authentically costumed characters who sing, play instruments, tell stories, and demonstrate crafts such as glass blowing, candle-making and blacksmithing. In addition to the town's quirky and talented characters, other special treats include a gristmill and bakery, and a general store with candy and ice cream production facilities. A boarding-house restaurant offers up tasty Southern cuisine, from chicken and dumplings to fried catfish. If you plan to eat, you might want to stop by and add your name to the list before you explore the town, as there is often a wait.Another part of the Crossroads attraction is The Great Barn, a hit with children and adults. Join in the fun as you help "harvest" fruits and vegetables throughout this multi-level foam factory to rack up points for your team. Just added to Crossroads is the Treehouse Challenge, a one-of-a-kind outdoor adventure that pits boys against girls to control balls on a large track that links the two treehouses (sort of a life-size pinball game). The town's centerpiece is the Tall Tales of the South theater, where visitors use special glasses to view a 3-D film with 4-D (yes, 4) special effects. The frog's tongue, which stretches into the movie audience from its perch on a swamp log, is just one of the surprises the experience offers. Small children might not enjoy the film, as some of the effects are a bit unnerving.The 19-building Antebellum Plantation offers self-guided tours assisted by hosts in period dress at each structure. Highlights include an authentic 1830s country store; the 1845 Kingston House (it represents a typical overseer's house); the clapboard slave cabins; the 1790s Thornton House, elegant home of a large landowner; the smokehouse and well; a doctor's office; a barn, a coach house, and crop-storage cribs; a privy; a cook house; and the 1850 neoclassical Tara-like Dickey House. The grounds also contain formal gardens and a kitchen garden. It takes at least an hour to tour the entire complex. Often (especially in summer), there are Civil War re-enactments, craft and cooking demonstrations, storytellers, and balladeers on the premises. Children will enjoy getting up close and personal with the critters at Grandpa's Farm at The Plantation, featuring domesticated farm animals including pigs and goats.Additional activities: golf (on top-rated courses designed by Robert Trent Jones and John LaFoy), miniature golf, 15 tennis courts, a sizable stretch of sandy lakefront beach with 4 water slides, carillon concerts, rowboats and paddleboats, bicycle rental, fishing, hiking, picnicking, and more.Stone Mountain is one of the most beautiful parks in the nation. Consider spending a few days of your trip here; it's a great place for a romantic getaway or a family vacation. On-site accommodations are detailed in chapter 5. If you can only spare a day, it's an easy drive (about 30 min.) from downtown.The Face of a Mountain--Over half a century in the making, Stone Mountain's neoclassic carving -- 90 feet high and 190 feet wide -- is the world's largest bas-relief sculpture. Originally conceived by Gutzon Borglum, it depicts Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson galloping on horseback throughout eternity. Borglum started work on the mountain sculpture in 1923 but abandoned it after 10 years due to insurmountable technical problems and rifts with its sponsors. (He went on to South Dakota, where he gained fame carving Mount Rushmore.) No sign of his work remains at Stone Mountain, but it was his vision that inspired the project. Augustus Lukeman took over in 1925, but 3 years later, the work still far from complete, the family that owned the mountain lost patience and reclaimed the property. It wasn't until 1963, after the state purchased the mountain and surrounding property for a park, that work resumed under Walter Kirtland Hancock and Roy Faulkner. It was completed in 1970.

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