City officials say Mimosa Hall antebellum plantation will respect and honor its past.
5 hours ago
In a town just outside Atlanta, America’s antebellum-era castles are designed in Greek Revival architecture and stacked on tall pillars to emphasize grandiose presence. Wide porches appear welcoming, and long driveways leading up to them prepare visitors for a fantasy “of Southern hospitality.”
“A romantic antebellum idyll,” recalled Sally Hansell, former owner of one such castle, Mimosa Hall & Gardens in Roswell.
But at Mimosa Hall & Gardens, mounds of dirt blanket the plantation that once belonged to a Confederate general and enslaver, Hansell’s great-great-great-grandfather. Heaps of gravel have been placed where a parking lot and walkways are expected. Clusters of trees and gardens, once described as magical, no longer exist…