Must See
Choose a community below to learn more.
Athens
Classic City Tours
Take a guided tour of historic Athens, offered daily, or set off on a self-guided tour with a printed map, audio tour, or podTour. Classic City Tours operates from the Athens Welcome Center, 280 E. Dougherty Street.
Ware-Lyndon House and Lyndon House Arts Center
One of four historic house museums in Athens, the 1856 Ware-Lyndon House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of the few antebellum homes with Italianate elements remaining in the Athens area. A heritage room includes a wide selection of artifacts from Athens history. This house museum is located alongside the Lyndon House Arts Center, a modern art gallery.
State Botanical Garden of Georgia
This 313-acre preserve features five miles of trails, a stunning tropical conservatory, and themed gardens showcasing native and international flora. Georgia’s official state garden has also been named an Important Birding Area by the Georgia Audubon Society.
Watkinsville
Elder Mill Covered Bridge
Built in 1897, this 99-foot-long bridge originally carried the Watkinsville-Athens Road over Calls Creek. It was moved in 1924 and relocated to its present site. Constructed in the Town lattice design, the bridge’s web of planks crisscrossing at 45- to 60-degree angles are fastened with wooden pegs, or trunnels, at each intersection. It is one of the few covered bridges in Georgia continuing to carry traffic without underlying steel beams. The bridge is located 5.5 miles south of Watkinsville, GA right off GA Hwy 15.
The Eagle Tavern Museum
The Eagle Tavern is one of the earliest surviving structures in Oconee County. The Eagle Tavern was built in circa 1801 when Watkinsville was a frontier town on the edge of Creek Indian Territories and served as a popular stagecoach stop. Tours of the Eagle Tavern Museum are available Monday through Friday 10:00am-4:00pm. Start your tour at the Oconee County Welcome Center (21 N. Main Street) across the street. Groups welcome. 26 N. Main Street, Watkinsville, GA 30677 (706) 769-5197.
Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation (OCAF)
As an all-volunteer and nonprofit arts center in Oconee County, OCAF develops programs and classes in the performing, visual and literary arts. Annual cultural arts festivals, ongoing art exhibits, classes for children and adults, and musical and theatrical performances highlight OCAF’s schedule of events. Groups welcome. Office & Gallery hours: 10am – 4pm Tuesday through Saturday. 34 School Street, Watkinsville, GA 30677 (706) 769-4565
Madison
Heritage Hall
This Greek Revival home was built in 1811 and purchased in 1830 by Dr. Elijah Evans Jones, a prominent physician in Madison. Dr. Jones was also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Female College in Madison and a major shareholder in the Georgia Railroad. Open Daily Monday through Saturday 11:00 to 4:00 and Sunday 1:30 to 4:30. Located at 277 South Main Street, Madison, GA 30650 706-342-9627.
Madison-Morgan Cultural Center
The Romanesque Revival building that houses the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center was constructed in 1895 as one of the first graded public schools in the South. It functioned as a public school until 1957. Since 1976, the red brick building has been home to the Cultural Center, a thriving arts organization and a venue for the performing and visual arts. It is also a history museum rich with local and regional history exhibits as well as a restored 1893 classroom. 434 South Main Street, Madison, GA 30650. 706-342-4743. Open Tuesday through Saturday 10:00 to 5:00, Sunday 2:00 to 5:00, Closed Mondays. Groups Welcome.
Rogers House/Rose Cottage/African American Museum
Tour the Rogers House, built by Reuben Rogers in 1809-1810, this house is a fine example of Piedmont Plain style architecture seen throughout the rural southern United States. For more info, contact 706.343.0190.
Tour the Rose Cottage, built by Adeline Rose in 1891. Born into slavery, she made her living taking in laundry and built this house for $100. For more info, contact 706.343.0190.
Tour the Morgan County African American Museum, a house museum that was built with pine trees in 1890 by John Wesley Moore who was a freed slave. For info, contact 706.342.9191.
Eatonton
Uncle Remus Museum
Joel Chandler Harris, born in Eatonton in 1848, published his first collection of folk stories in 1881 entitled Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings. In 1946 Walt Disney released the movie The Song of the South to honor Harris and the Uncle Remus stories. The Uncle Remus museum displays memorabilia of Harris’ life and his famous critters. (706) 485-6856 Mon-Sat 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Rock Eagle Effigy
The Rock Eagle Effigy and sister Rock Hawk are located on two of the highest points in Putnam County and they are believed to be the only structures of their kind east of the Mississippi River. The rock monuments are made up of milky quartz rocks and are in the shapes of birds. The Effigy mounds measure over 100 feet from wing tip to wing tip and from head to tail. It has been speculated that the mounds were probably built about 2,000 years ago by Native Americans. Access to the effigy is permitted through-out the year and is free. (706) 484-2899
The Plaza Arts Center’s Old School Museum and Historic Walking Tour
The Plaza Arts Center is home to an old school museum, a 500 seat auditorium, reception hall, exhibit space, and the Eatonton-Putnam Chamber of Commerce and Welcome Center. A Historic Walking Guide, available at the welcome center in the Plaza, points out some of the most beautiful and unusual houses among the over 100 Greek Revival and Antebellum homes Eatonton has to offer. (706) 923-1655Old School Museum hours of operation: Mon – Fri 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sun 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Milledgeville
Georgia’s Old Governor’s Mansion
Built as the Executive Mansion, it was home to the governors of Georgia from 1838 to 1868. It was occupied by General Sherman during his March to the Sea. It now serves as an historic house museum and named an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. The Mansion is one of the most perfect examples of Greek Revival architecture in Georgia. The Mansion is open for public tours Tuesday thru Saturday, 10-4 and Sunday, 2-4 with tours every hour. For more info, please call 478-445-4545.
Andalusia Farm
Southern writer Flannery O’Connor returned to her family home, Andalusia, after her untimely diagnosis with lupus. For thirteen years her creativity thrived at this farm, where she wrote and raised her peafowl until her death in 1964. O’Connor wrote two novels and many short stories during her time at Andalusia. Andalusia Farm is open for public tours Tuesday thru Saturday, 10-4 and Sunday, 2-4 with tours every hour. Tours are of the inside of the house only and last approximately 30 minutes, you are welcome to tour the grounds at your leisure during our hours of operation. For more info, please call 478-445-8722.
Historic Trolley Tours
Experience a guided trolley tour aboard ‘Milly’ around Georgia’s Antebellum Capital! Including rotating visits to the Old State Capitol, St. Stephens Episcopal Church, Lockerly Hall, and the Brown-Stetson-Sanford House. Tours are available Monday-Friday at 10 am and on Saturday at 11 am. For more info, please call 800-653-1804.
Gray/Old Clinton
Old Clinton Historical District
The Old Clinton Historic District, located directly on the Antebellum Trail and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is recognized for both its architecturally significant collection of early 19th century homes and public buildings and for the surviving original town layout with embedded open green spaces, allowing one to visualize what once was there. Clinton, “The Town Time Forgot,” was once the fourth largest town in Georgia in 1820 but was overrun with Union troops in 1864 enroute to Griswoldville. One third of the town was burned; however, luckily the rest has been lovingly preserved. Clinton, the original county seat of Jones County, is a site of historical significance featuring 12 homes built between 1808 and 1830, its original antebellum Methodist Church, and the surrounding cemetery in which are buried many notable Georgians. Driving the narrow streets is like stepping back in time. Special events include Old Clinton War Days the first weekend in May.
Griswoldville
Griswoldville is located approximately 10 miles east of Macon and 15 miles south of Clinton. Griswoldville is named for Samuel Griswold, who moved his iron foundries and cotton gin to this location from Clinton [near Gray, Jones County] to be on the railroad. Griswoldville was the site of the only major battle fought between Union and Confederate forces during Union Major General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea. On November 15, 1864, Sherman turned his back on a burning Atlanta and set out with an army of some 60,000 soldiers on his famous “March to the Sea,” a campaign which has been both condemned and lauded by historians over the years. Some five weeks later, on December 22, 1864, Sherman offered the city of Savannah to President Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas present.
Jarrell Plantation
The Jarrell 1920 House was part of the original Jarrell family farm, now known as Jarrell Plantation State Historic Site and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 5,000 square-foot house has been preserved in its original condition with interior walls and ceilings of beautiful heart pine — from trees felled on Jarrell land, sawn to size on the Jarrell sawmill, and assembled by Jarrell hands. Most of the 19th and early 20th century furniture is still preserved in its original state. Please call ahead as hours of operation vary.
Macon
Hay House
The Italian Renaissance Revival style home was built from 1855 to 1859 and was featured on CSPAN’s “Cities Tour.” Hay House is one of the most sophisticated and technologically advanced Antebellum structures, spanning over 18,000-square-feet with seven floors. The museum is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with tours beginning at the top of every hour. Last tour begins at 3:00 pm. Closed on Sundays. 934 Georgia Avenue. For more information, please call (478) 742-8155.
Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park
Scale a great temple mound, explore Civil War battlefields, see the Antebellum era Dunlap House and step into North America’s only reconstructed earth lodge at Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, where 17,000 years of history greet you. 1207 Emery Highway. The park is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily. The park is closed on Christmas Day December 25th and New Year’s Day January 1st. For more information, please call (478) 752-8257.
Tubman Museum
Named for Harriet Tubman, the well-known American abolitionist who led hundreds of slaves to freedom, the Tubman Museum is the Southeast’s largest museum devoted to African American art, history, and culture. Here you will find exhibits on Harriet Tubman, an Inventors Gallery and other African American luminaries. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Closed Sundays and Mondays. 310 Cherry Street. For more information, please call (478) 743-8544.