Happy Spooky Day, Y'all!
Some of the greatest things are hidden right under your own feet....
Being a notorious advocate of playing tourist in your own town and rarely practicing it, it took us several years to actually get around to doing, what ended up, one of the coolest things around my immediate vicinity.
I absolutely adore where we live. Roswell, Georgia, for those who don't know, lies north of the city of Atlanta, remains a quaint and relatively quiet community with enormous historical value. Roswell was, in large part, spared the fires lit by Sherman on his famous march to the sea, so we have retained a large quantity of antebellum homes, the most of them restored and turned from private residence to local museums. We have a town square, including requisite gazebo and fountain, main street filled with charming antique stores, cafes, art galleries, etc, regular street and art fairs and just a heap of small town charm that the locals simply refuse to let go of no matter how grown up the surrounding area becomes. Best of all, I can walk to all of it from my front door. I can't tell you how much I love Roswell. Everyone should visit. Seriously, I'll change your perspective on the south forever.
But last night, we saw a side of Roswell we had never witnessed. We finally took the Roswell Ghost Tour [http://www.roswellghosttour.com/], which runs year round a few times a week. My only regret is that we waited this long to do this. We knew it existed but we have never seen any walking tour around our area EVER, so we sort of figured it was a hokey little nothing and ignored it until we say advertised that the tour would be co-hosted by Court TV's Haunting Evidence host Patrick Burns [http://ghosthounds.com/content-4.html] and it sounded like a fun seasonal thing to do. So we booked it. About 30 of us, including some friends and our son, explored homes and locales we pass every day on our drive to work and to the gas station and grocery store; places we have always sort of peripherally wondered about. Why is that house still there? How long has it been empty? And now we know, even though my familiarity with the area tells me we barely scratched the surface and that a full tour of the haunting evidence of Roswell would take many days to touch on. And I now am bent on learning as much as possible on the subject.
How can you not fall into wonder when there are the eroded remains of a turn of the century hydro-powered mill, known for it's horrific conditions, arm-ripping, fire causing and child working right down the street. People hear the sounds of machinery and screaming through the night. Or what of the neighborhoods built on the very sacred ground of the Founder's Cemetary with complete disregard decades ago? And why is that restaurant, unexpectedly abandoned by it's lessees 5 years ago, still set up for full course dinner to this day?
I'm anxious to pour over the photos we took....
Being a notorious advocate of playing tourist in your own town and rarely practicing it, it took us several years to actually get around to doing, what ended up, one of the coolest things around my immediate vicinity.
I absolutely adore where we live. Roswell, Georgia, for those who don't know, lies north of the city of Atlanta, remains a quaint and relatively quiet community with enormous historical value. Roswell was, in large part, spared the fires lit by Sherman on his famous march to the sea, so we have retained a large quantity of antebellum homes, the most of them restored and turned from private residence to local museums. We have a town square, including requisite gazebo and fountain, main street filled with charming antique stores, cafes, art galleries, etc, regular street and art fairs and just a heap of small town charm that the locals simply refuse to let go of no matter how grown up the surrounding area becomes. Best of all, I can walk to all of it from my front door. I can't tell you how much I love Roswell. Everyone should visit. Seriously, I'll change your perspective on the south forever.
But last night, we saw a side of Roswell we had never witnessed. We finally took the Roswell Ghost Tour [http://www.roswellghosttour.com/], which runs year round a few times a week. My only regret is that we waited this long to do this. We knew it existed but we have never seen any walking tour around our area EVER, so we sort of figured it was a hokey little nothing and ignored it until we say advertised that the tour would be co-hosted by Court TV's Haunting Evidence host Patrick Burns [http://ghosthounds.com/content-4.html] and it sounded like a fun seasonal thing to do. So we booked it. About 30 of us, including some friends and our son, explored homes and locales we pass every day on our drive to work and to the gas station and grocery store; places we have always sort of peripherally wondered about. Why is that house still there? How long has it been empty? And now we know, even though my familiarity with the area tells me we barely scratched the surface and that a full tour of the haunting evidence of Roswell would take many days to touch on. And I now am bent on learning as much as possible on the subject.
How can you not fall into wonder when there are the eroded remains of a turn of the century hydro-powered mill, known for it's horrific conditions, arm-ripping, fire causing and child working right down the street. People hear the sounds of machinery and screaming through the night. Or what of the neighborhoods built on the very sacred ground of the Founder's Cemetary with complete disregard decades ago? And why is that restaurant, unexpectedly abandoned by it's lessees 5 years ago, still set up for full course dinner to this day?
I'm anxious to pour over the photos we took....