280:
perhaps) but sees her labor rendered useless when a small detachment of Union troops finds the cotton in a slave cabin and sets it ablaze. When one of the soldiers is prevented, by his commanding officer, from taking a gilded sword that once belonged to
Scarlett's long-dead father-in-law and intended for her little boy Wade Hamilton (the officer is himself a veteran of the same campaigns as the sword's former owner), the thwarted Yankee soldier expresses his indignation by secretly setting a wing of the house on fire as the Yankees are leaving. The family (which at this point, includes the convalescent Melanie Wilkes, Scarlett's sister-in-law by her marriage to her first husband--Melanie's dead brother Charles Hamilton) extinguishes the flames before they can spread, but the mansion is further damaged.
308:). By the end of the novel, Tara has come to resemble, as closely as it can, the beautiful red-earthed plantation it was before the war. Scarlett, however, is unable to find peace or happiness. Though she has come back from defeat and starvation to become one of the wealthiest women in the South and is even far richer and more spoiled than she ever expected to be, she feels miserable and empty. Most of this is due to, first, her hopeless love for Ashley Wilkes, and later her loss of Rhett's love (unfortunately, after realizing Rhett is the one she loves), and the death of their daughter Bonnie (and perhaps her loss of Melanie's friendship through her death, as well). After Rhett leaves Scarlett, she returns to Tara, declaring that she will win back his love one day.
272:
slave cemeteries to search for valuables buried under false headstones. The most expensive blow comes when the troops torch more than $ 158,331 worth of baled cotton (in 2014 currency ). (The O'Haras had been unable to sell the cotton to
English merchants, owing to the blockade, and thus it was still awaiting transport.) Upon the army's withdrawal, the family and their loyal remaining slaves are left with a looted and dilapidated house, a ruined farm with no stock, work animals, or farm equipment, no food and no means to produce food. They are indigent and soon starving.
229:, once the capital of the High King of ancient Ireland. He borrowed money from his brothers and bankers to buy slaves and turned the farm into a very successful cotton plantation. Gerald realized that the manor house needed a feminine touch and domestic servants. Consulting with his valet, Pork, whom he had won in a card game, he was told, "whut you needs is a wife, and a wife whut has got plen'y of house niggers." So Gerald set off to Savannah to look for a wife meeting this qualification.
288:
Atlanta where her fortunes rise as she takes over and expands her second husband Frank's business interests, she shares her new wealth with Tara. Tara never achieves anything like its antebellum grandeur, but it does become self-supporting as a "two horse" farm. While far from rich, the O'Haras are at least in better condition than most of their neighbors. While
Scarlett is in Atlanta, Suellen, the sister whom Scarlett's husband truly loved, conspires with the hated
32:
304:, a wealthy playboy. Rhett has Tara restored the way it was before the war, but the couple also have a house built in Atlanta. Though Scarlett resides in Atlanta, she considers Tara her true home. The house is restored and refurnished, the outbuildings are rebuilt, the fields are again stocked with cattle, turkeys, and horses, and the land is again planted with cotton (raised now by poor white and free black
354:
as is necessary. It is a clumsy sprawling building of whitewashed brick and timber "built according to no architectural plan whatever, with extra rooms added where and when it seemed convenient". Its charm comes from Ellen's grace and sophistication. According to the description in the novel, the house has at least two hallways, a cellar, front and back stairs, and an attic.
190:(1844–1934), the daughter of Irish immigrant Philip Fitzgerald (1798–1880) and his American wife, Eleanor Avaline "Ellen" McGhan (1818–1893), was born and raised. However, the original Rural Home, a two-story wooden structure, was not as palatial and glamorous as the one described in the novel and/or depicted in the 1939 movie
268:. The officer commandeers the house for use as a Union field headquarters, but as a courtesy, it is spared. However, movable items of value (including Ellen's rosary, pictures, and china) are confiscated (or stolen), and larger items are vandalized by the withdrawing Union troops. Mammy hides the family silver in the well.
260:. The life-threatening illness, from typhoid, of Ellen O'Hara and her younger daughters, Suellen and Carreen, causes Gerald to stand firm in the doorway of his house, "as if he had an army behind him rather than before him", and earns the sympathy of a Union officer who orders his surgeon to treat the O'Hara women with
353:
When Gerald first takes possession of the property, he and his slave valet Pork (also acquired by Gerald in a poker game) inhabit the four-room overseer's house that remained standing after the former mansion burned down. The enslaved population builds Tara on the site of the old house and add to it
296:
to defraud the victorious United States government of $ 150,000 by having her senile father swear an oath that his family was pro-Union during the war; therefore, the cotton burned and the damages done to the place were not justified. The plan backfires and leads to the accidental death of Gerald. It
232:
At 43, Gerald married the 15-year-old Ellen
Robillard, a wealthy Savannah-born girl of French descent, receiving as dowry twenty slaves (including Mammy, Ellen's nurse, who became nurse to Ellen's daughters and grandchildren as well). His young bride took a very real interest in the management of the
473:
chronicled the demolition of the mansion and relied on the false information given by the tour guides. This news report only furthered the confusion over the true whereabouts of the actual Tara set. Now the Tara facade is still located at
Talmadge Farms in Lovejoy, Georgia and is being resurrected.
311:
Many critics state that Tara ultimately symbolizes
Scarlett's spirit or character. Initially, it is a thing of pompous but shallow beauty, then a place of desolation but nevertheless still standing when the neighboring homes are not, and finally as beautiful as ever but bereft of life and happiness.
275:
Ellen O'Hara dies soon after the Union evacuation, and her widowed oldest daughter
Scarlett returns a day later, initial delight at finding the house still standing soon turning to despair at its ruination. The loss of his wife, combined with hopelessness, poverty, age, and an increasing reliance on
271:
The army also chops down the trees surrounding the home, destroys the outbuildings, uses much of the fencing for firewood, slaughters the livestock, and pillages the vegetable gardens and fruit orchards for its own use. Soldiers even destroy what is not yet ripe and unearth graves in the family and
252:
and the
Confederate requisitioning of supplies and slaves have turned the home from a house of plenty to one of mere subsistence, while the inability to sell their cotton to England has also greatly diminished the family's once-lavish income and lifestyle. The arrival of Sherman's troops in Clayton
287:
Peace returns after the war, but not prosperity. Scarlett manages to save Tara from being seized and the family from dispossession only by deceitfully marrying her sister
Suellen's fiancé, Frank Kennedy, and using his savings to pay the $ 300 in taxes levied on the place. Though Scarlett returns to
279:
Scarlett, however, leads her complaining sister
Suellen, and semi-stunned and emotionally numb sister Carreen, and the house slaves (all unaccustomed to hard manual labor), in harvesting the remaining cotton plants. She manages to salvage a few hundred pounds of the crop (enough to trade for food,
283:
When a Union deserter attempts to rob and rape Scarlett, she kills him in self-defense and vengeance. With the tiny windfall of money he was carrying, and with his horse and the aid of Will Benteen, a Confederate private and amputee nursed through a near-fatal fever by the O'Haras, the land is
276:
whiskey (when it is available) is destroying Gerald O'Hara's sanity, leaving him a demented echo of his former self. The plantation and house continue to be visited by both rebel and Union troops throughout the war, both sides taking any remnants of food and items of value left to the family.
455:, she believed that the movie set, which she characterized as "plywood and papier-mâché," was so deteriorated that it could never be resurrected again. Her vision was to cut up the set and sell 1-by-3-inch (25 mm × 76 mm) rectangular sections along with a picture of Tara and a
462:
For years the set was also thought to have existed on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's backlot #2 in Culver City, CA. This urban myth was the result of former MGM tour guides who had been instructed to mislead tourists into thinking that a southern mansion set on backlot #2 was the famed
221:, Tara was founded by Irish immigrant Gerald O'Hara after he won 640 acres (2.6 km) or one square mile of land from its absentee owner during an all-night poker game. An Irish peasant farmer rather than the merchant his elder brothers (whose emigrations to
451:, agreed to purchase the set from Mrs. Talmadge and actually took possession of a window and shutter from the set. Bassham set up her inn as a period piece and decorated it with reproduction mementos from the film. In spite of the restored front door and
297:
also leads to the social ostracism of Suellen by her neighbors and even some of her relatives, though ironically it increases her worth (slightly) in the eyes of her pragmatic sister Scarlett, who privately believes the plan was brilliant.
413:
However, the Margaret Mitchell estate refused to license anything that sought to capitalize on the novel's fame and popularity, including the movie set, citing Mitchell's dismay at how little it resembled her description in her novel.
233:
plantation, being in some ways a more hands-on manager than her husband. With the injection of her dowry money and the rise of cotton prices, Tara grew to a plantation of more than 1,000 acres (4.0 km) and more than 100
240:
In the first quarter of the novel, the O'Haras are enthusiastically partisan in support of the Confederacy. Nevertheless, even before the tide has turned irreversibly against the Confederacy following
225:
had brought him to Georgia) wanted him to be, Gerald relished the thought of becoming a landed gentleman and gave his mostly wilderness and uncultivated new lands the grandiose name of Tara after the
248:, the plantation (along with the other great land-holdings in the county) has already suffered major deprivation because of the war and has descended into disrepair. Shortages caused by the Union
409:
Nothing in Hollywood is permanent. Once photographed, life here is ended. It is almost symbolic of Hollywood. Tara had no rooms inside. It was just a façade. So much of Hollywood is a façade.
253:
County terrifies those slaves who have not already departed or been conscripted into the labor force by the Confederacy. By the time Union troops arrive at Tara, only the house slaves remain.
417:
In 1979, what remained of the set—doorway, windows, shutters, cornice, steps and breezeway to the kitchen, and elements of the kitchen itself—was purchased for $ 5,000 (~$ 20,990 in 2023) by
401:. In 1959, Southern Attractions, Inc. purchased the Tara façade, which was dismantled and shipped to Georgia with plans to relocate it to the Atlanta area as a tourist attraction. Producer
1010:
615:
284:
planted once again, on a subsistence scale. The family is able to eke out a very meager living, leaving them constantly hungry but at least not homeless or starving.
1005:
179:
135:
504:
1015:
769:
610:
918:
511:
airport (located in Henry but once operated by Clayton) was also named for it. It has since been changed to Atlanta Speedway Airport .
936:
96:
958:
68:
952:
577:
437:
75:
49:
115:
990:
762:
459:. Talmadge eventually decided to keep the Tara set, and it remained in storage at the time of her death in 2005.
82:
202:, a neighboring plantation in the novel, is now the name of many businesses and a high school stadium in nearby
995:
53:
64:
853:
664:
985:
755:
747:
742:
704:
456:
904:
783:
345:, the crazed Isaiah Watling sets fire to the main staircase of the mansion, which burns to the ground.
147:
693:
1000:
847:
830:
507:, in honor of the book and movie, and the placement of the fictitious plantation near the town. The
192:
187:
980:
897:
488:
484:
329:
877:
492:
397:
164:
42:
256:
Unlike the homes of most of the O'Haras' neighbors, Tara is spared the torch during the Union's
540:
433:
645:
882:
737:
168:
89:
20:
395:. That set was built in 1947 on the Republic Studios lot in Encino for the John Wayne movie
241:
139:
8:
911:
245:
890:
838:
799:
496:
382:
160:
152:
612:"A Tough Little Patch of History": Atlanta's Marketplace for Gone With the Wind Memory
778:
469:
402:
338:
222:
156:
814:
536:
500:
448:
386:
203:
143:
680:
Jennifer W. Dickey, "A Tough Little Patch of History": Atlanta's Marketplace for
668:
619:
441:
429:
374:
432:. She had the front door of the Tara set restored. After a 1989 exhibit at the
418:
391:
257:
974:
809:
324:
305:
289:
724:
804:
743:"Saving Tara Video Diaries": Videos About Restoration of the Tara Movie Set
526:
515:
426:
378:
366:
363:
301:
226:
777:
947:
199:
684:
Memory, Ph.D. dissertation, Georgia State University, 2007, pp. 120–121.
732:
508:
183:
719:
519:
293:
31:
452:
422:
261:
249:
186:, the Clayton County plantation on which her maternal grandmother,
530:
265:
172:
132:
661:
622:, Ph.D. dissertation, Georgia State University, 2007, pp. 85–89.
370:
234:
1011:
Fictional buildings and structures originating in literature
337:
However, at the end of this novel, which was the authorized
385:. The Tara house façade looks very similar to the home of
362:
For the 1939 motion picture, the home was constructed by
159:. In the story, Tara is located 5 miles (8 km) from
646:
Betty Talmadge, Ex-Wife of Georgia Senator, Dies at 81
738:
Tara Restoration Project Facebook Page: "Saving Tara"
631:
Murray Schumach, "Hollywood Gives Tara to Atlanta,"
447:A short time later, K. C. Bassham, an inn owner in
56:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
178:Mitchell modeled Tara after local plantations and
972:
389:'s character Victoria Barkley in the ABC series
1006:Slave cabins and quarters in the United States
763:
546:The Tara ceiling fan by Southern Fan Company
467:set. In fact, years later an article in the
436:, she lent it for permanent display at the
315:
919:The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
770:
756:
116:Learn how and when to remove this message
209:
671:, Margaret Mitchell House & Museum.
973:
333:, Tara stays virtually the same as in
163:(originally spelled Jonesborough), in
1016:Fictional elements introduced in 1936
959:Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co.
937:Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn
751:
171:about 20 miles (32 km) south of
54:adding citations to reliable sources
25:
13:
953:Margaret Mitchell House and Museum
438:Margaret Mitchell House and Museum
14:
1027:
713:
529:, an art house movie theater in
30:
706:The Case of the Missing Mansion
698:
495:south through Jonesboro to the
369:. After filming concluded, the
41:needs additional citations for
687:
674:
655:
638:
625:
603:
591:
570:
557:
533:, memorializes the plantation.
237:by the dawn of the Civil War.
1:
550:
182:establishments, particularly
477:
421:, the former wife of former
357:
348:
7:
695:Bulldozing Southern mansion
457:certificate of authenticity
10:
1032:
578:"CPI Inflation Calculator"
300:In 1868, Scarlett marries
167:, on the east side of the
18:
928:
865:
848:Autant en emporte le vent
823:
792:
188:Annie Fitzgerald Stephens
991:Clayton County, Georgia
905:The Scarlett O'Hara War
600:, May 17, 1959, p. G10.
514:Country singing legend
398:The Fighting Kentuckian
720:Jonesboro History Site
635:, May 25, 1959, p. 33.
541:Baton Rouge, Louisiana
503:county line is called
434:Atlanta History Center
411:
405:commented at the time,
65:"Tara" plantation
996:Henry County, Georgia
898:Rhett Butler's People
407:
330:Rhett Butler's People
323:In the 2007 novel by
318:Rhett Butler's People
258:Scorched Earth Policy
609:Jennifer W. Dickey,
50:improve this article
19:For other uses, see
16:Fictional plantation
912:Went with the Wind!
563:Margaret Mitchell,
373:of Tara sat on the
335:Gone With the Wind.
986:Gone with the Wind
891:The Wind Done Gone
855:Gone with the Wind
832:Gone with the Wind
784:Gone with the Wind
726:Gone with the Wind
682:Gone With the Wind
667:2007-09-22 at the
618:2007-10-25 at the
565:Gone With The Wind
465:Gone with the Wind
383:Desilu Productions
343:Gone With the Wind
219:Gone with the Wind
212:Gone with the Wind
193:Gone with the Wind
148:Gone with the Wind
968:
967:
779:Margaret Mitchell
598:Los Angeles Times
470:Los Angeles Times
403:David O. Selznick
377:backlot owned by
341:estate sequel to
339:Margaret Mitchell
157:Margaret Mitchell
131:is the name of a
126:
125:
118:
100:
1023:
1001:Fictional houses
815:Melanie Hamilton
772:
765:
758:
749:
748:
733:Tara Set History
707:
702:
696:
691:
685:
678:
672:
662:Tour Information
659:
653:
642:
636:
629:
623:
607:
601:
595:
589:
588:
586:
585:
574:
568:
561:
537:Tara High School
449:Concord, Georgia
387:Barbara Stanwyck
204:Lovejoy, Georgia
144:historical novel
140:state of Georgia
121:
114:
110:
107:
101:
99:
58:
34:
26:
1031:
1030:
1026:
1025:
1024:
1022:
1021:
1020:
981:Fictional farms
971:
970:
969:
964:
943:Tara plantation
924:
861:
819:
800:Scarlett O'Hara
788:
776:
716:
711:
710:
703:
699:
692:
688:
679:
675:
669:Wayback Machine
660:
656:
652:, May 12, 2005.
644:Margalit Fox, "
643:
639:
630:
626:
620:Wayback Machine
608:
604:
596:
592:
583:
581:
576:
575:
571:
562:
558:
553:
483:The section of
480:
442:Midtown Atlanta
430:Herman Talmadge
360:
351:
321:
215:
122:
111:
105:
102:
59:
57:
47:
35:
24:
17:
12:
11:
5:
1029:
1019:
1018:
1013:
1008:
1003:
998:
993:
988:
983:
966:
965:
963:
962:
955:
950:
945:
940:
932:
930:
929:Related topics
926:
925:
923:
922:
915:
908:
901:
894:
887:
886:
885:
880:
869:
867:
863:
862:
860:
859:
851:
844:
836:
827:
825:
821:
820:
818:
817:
812:
807:
802:
796:
794:
790:
789:
775:
774:
767:
760:
752:
746:
745:
740:
735:
730:
722:
715:
714:External links
712:
709:
708:
697:
686:
673:
654:
650:New York Times
637:
633:New York Times
624:
602:
590:
580:. Data.bls.gov
569:
555:
554:
552:
549:
548:
547:
544:
534:
523:
512:
505:Tara Boulevard
479:
476:
419:Betty Talmadge
392:The Big Valley
359:
356:
350:
347:
320:
314:
214:
208:
165:Clayton County
124:
123:
38:
36:
29:
15:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
1028:
1017:
1014:
1012:
1009:
1007:
1004:
1002:
999:
997:
994:
992:
989:
987:
984:
982:
979:
978:
976:
961:
960:
956:
954:
951:
949:
946:
944:
941:
938:
934:
933:
931:
927:
921:
920:
916:
913:
909:
907:
906:
902:
900:
899:
895:
893:
892:
888:
884:
881:
879:
876:
875:
874:
871:
870:
868:
866:Related works
864:
857:
856:
852:
850:
849:
845:
842:
841:
837:
834:
833:
829:
828:
826:
822:
816:
813:
811:
810:Ashley Wilkes
808:
806:
803:
801:
798:
797:
795:
791:
786:
785:
780:
773:
768:
766:
761:
759:
754:
753:
750:
744:
741:
739:
736:
734:
731:
729:
727:
723:
721:
718:
717:
705:
701:
694:
690:
683:
677:
670:
666:
663:
658:
651:
647:
641:
634:
628:
621:
617:
614:
613:
606:
599:
594:
579:
573:
566:
560:
556:
545:
542:
538:
535:
532:
528:
524:
522:mansion Tara.
521:
517:
513:
510:
506:
502:
498:
494:
493:Interstate 75
490:
486:
482:
481:
475:
472:
471:
466:
460:
458:
454:
450:
445:
443:
439:
435:
431:
428:
424:
420:
415:
410:
406:
404:
400:
399:
394:
393:
388:
384:
380:
376:
372:
368:
365:
355:
346:
344:
340:
336:
332:
331:
326:
325:Donald McCaig
319:
313:
309:
307:
306:sharecroppers
303:
298:
295:
291:
290:carpetbaggers
285:
281:
277:
273:
269:
267:
263:
259:
254:
251:
247:
243:
238:
236:
230:
228:
224:
220:
213:
207:
205:
201:
197:
195:
194:
189:
185:
181:
176:
174:
170:
166:
162:
158:
154:
150:
149:
145:
141:
137:
134:
130:
120:
117:
109:
106:February 2017
98:
95:
91:
88:
84:
81:
77:
74:
70:
67: –
66:
62:
61:Find sources:
55:
51:
45:
44:
39:This article
37:
33:
28:
27:
22:
957:
942:
917:
903:
896:
889:
872:
854:
846:
839:
831:
805:Rhett Butler
782:
725:
700:
689:
681:
676:
657:
649:
640:
632:
627:
611:
605:
597:
593:
582:. Retrieved
572:
564:
559:
527:Tara Theatre
516:Dolly Parton
468:
464:
461:
446:
427:U.S. Senator
416:
412:
408:
396:
390:
379:RKO Pictures
367:Lyle Wheeler
364:art director
361:
352:
342:
334:
328:
322:
317:
310:
302:Rhett Butler
299:
286:
282:
278:
274:
270:
255:
239:
231:
227:Hill of Tara
218:
216:
211:
198:
191:
177:
146:
128:
127:
112:
103:
93:
86:
79:
72:
60:
48:Please help
43:verification
40:
948:Twelve Oaks
824:Adaptations
728:Set history
444:, Georgia.
375:Forty Acres
200:Twelve Oaks
169:Flint River
975:Categories
883:miniseries
793:Characters
584:2017-02-06
551:References
518:named her
509:Tara Field
242:Gettysburg
184:Rural Home
180:antebellum
136:plantation
76:newspapers
858:(musical)
843:(musical)
520:Nashville
478:Namesakes
381:and then
358:Movie set
349:The house
294:scalawags
246:Vicksburg
161:Jonesboro
142:, in the
133:fictional
873:Scarlett
840:Scarlett
665:Archived
616:Archived
453:fanlight
423:governor
262:laudanum
250:blockade
223:Savannah
531:Atlanta
497:Clayton
266:quinine
173:Atlanta
138:in the
90:scholar
835:(film)
787:(1936)
567:(1936)
371:façade
235:slaves
92:
85:
78:
71:
63:
878:novel
501:Henry
491:from
489:US 19
485:US 41
155:) by
97:JSTOR
83:books
525:The
487:and
425:and
292:and
264:and
244:and
153:1936
129:Tara
69:news
21:Tara
781:'s
648:,"
539:in
440:in
316:In
217:In
210:In
52:by
977::
327:,
206:.
196:.
175:.
939:"
935:"
914:"
910:"
771:e
764:t
757:v
587:.
543:.
499:/
151:(
119:)
113:(
108:)
104:(
94:·
87:·
80:·
73:·
46:.
23:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
