160 Free Events in March

One of the charming houses in Whittier Mill Village

Sometimes the best things in life are free. This month  the Atlanta Preservation Center is offering 160 free events that are not only fun, but a great way to learn more about your city.

The event is called Phoenix Flies, a Citywide Celebration of Living Landmarks. This is its 7th year, but I didn’t know anything about it until my friend Melissa asked me if I wanted to join her for a tour of Harmony Grove cemetery on Saturday. You have probably driven by it hundreds of times and never knew it. It’s right at the corner of West Paces Ferry and Chatham roads.

We showed up and received a short tour and history lesson from Wright Mitchell, the president of the Buckhead Heritage Society. This group was founded in 2006 to protect Buckhead’s historic resources, and they were able to take this small one-acre cemetery from an overgrown tangle of kudzu and weeds to a charming, landscaped green space where you’d be happy to have your ancestors resting in peace. Fun fact: Julia Roberts great-grandparents are buried there.

The next day Melissa and I, our friend Elizabeth and her daughter Maysie, went on the walking and home tour of Whittier Mill Village. This small community of 125 homes is so charming we may have talked Melissa to eventually moving there. We toured the former cotton mill village, checked out the park and the tower and toured four homes, some of which dated back to the late 1800s. We also took a peak at the space that once served as the company store for the workers, and is now available as a rental.

All three of us are native Atlantans but none of us had ever been to this neighborhood before. We’re all planning on taking several more of the tours to learn more about our hometown. The tours go through March 22. Some of them require advance registration, but for most of them you can just show up. Check them out for yourself at the Phoenix Flies website.