The Margaret Mitchell House:
Its Historical Significance

1899

Built by Cornelius J. Sheehan as a two-story, single-family home with a fashionable Peachtree Street address: #806. The neighborhood was known as the "tight squeeze," referring to the turn-of-the-century when Peachtree looped around a 30-foot ravine.

1919

The house was converted into a 10-unit apartment building - Crescent Apartments. During this time, families were selling their homes to make way for commercial development. The owner pushed the house back 40 feet toward Crescent Avenue, propped it up, added a ground floor, tore off the front porches, added porches to the back of the house and turned it into a three-story apartment building. The new address became 17 Crescent Avenue. In 1926, the address changed to 979 Crescent Avenue.

1925-1932

Margaret Mitchell and her husband, John Marsh, lived in Apartment #1, where she wrote the majority of her classic novel, Gone With The Wind.

1920's & 1930's

Margaret Mitchell's apartment became an a literary salon for bohemian Atlanta and a central meeting place for aspiring writers and journalists.

1936

Gone With The Wind published on June 10.

1989

Margaret Mitchell House declared a city landmark under the administration of Mayor Andrew Young. The house was the first building in the city to achieve this status.

1994

In September 1994, an arsonist set fire to the house and caused serious damage to the property. No one was arrested, and no motive was established.

1995

Daimler-Benz, the German industrial group, committed $5 million to purchase the property and to restore the house and the apartment.

1996

In May 1996, an arsonist struck again just 40 days before the house would open for the Olympic Games.

1997

Dedicated on May 16 and opens to the public as a historic site.

Margaret Mitchell House listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C.