As long as the Missus and I have lived in the Atlanta area, there are still plenty of secrets that we have yet to discover, plenty of Hidden Places that we have not, as yet, visited. We’re always finding out new things about this, our Adopted Home.
Yesterday, I had gone down to midtown Atlanta to discuss the restoration of a family heirloom with a local expert. At one point in the proceedings, she showed me an antique postcard that had been tucked away inadvertently in a package of vintage paper that she had purchased:
The Robert Burns Cottage.
It was not all that long ago that I wrote a post about the Bard of Ayrshire, the one, the only Robbie Burns - that selfsame Robbie Burns whose admirers recently celebrated his 250th birthday. And so it was no small surprise to learn that, in Atlanta, there exists a replica of Burns’s birthplace!
I asked whether the place was open to the public. Was it a museum?
No, it is not a public facility, I was told. But a little additional research led me to find out that the house had been built in 1910 by members of the Burns Club of Atlanta, a group that had been around informally since the 1870’s and that had begun its existence as an official organization in 1896.
The house - constructed to the precise measurements of the original - is not an exact replica, given that it incorporates a modern kitchen and restrooms and has an assembly room in lieu of the barn and byre. It is slightly curved, as is the original, which was built to accommodate the path of the road alongside which it was built.
The Burns Club uses the house for regular club functions, holding meetings on the first Wednesday of every month and celebrating Robert Burns’s birthday there as well. I am sure that those celebrations involve traditional Scottish dress, as well as plenty of haggis and an ocean’s worth of “wee drams.”
Alas, the house is “generally not open to the public.” But you never know... bloggers are a persistent lot, and I know at least one who would probably give the left cheek of his ass for a look inside that glorious old house.
Yesterday, I had gone down to midtown Atlanta to discuss the restoration of a family heirloom with a local expert. At one point in the proceedings, she showed me an antique postcard that had been tucked away inadvertently in a package of vintage paper that she had purchased:
The Robert Burns Cottage.
It was not all that long ago that I wrote a post about the Bard of Ayrshire, the one, the only Robbie Burns - that selfsame Robbie Burns whose admirers recently celebrated his 250th birthday. And so it was no small surprise to learn that, in Atlanta, there exists a replica of Burns’s birthplace!
I asked whether the place was open to the public. Was it a museum?
No, it is not a public facility, I was told. But a little additional research led me to find out that the house had been built in 1910 by members of the Burns Club of Atlanta, a group that had been around informally since the 1870’s and that had begun its existence as an official organization in 1896.
The house - constructed to the precise measurements of the original - is not an exact replica, given that it incorporates a modern kitchen and restrooms and has an assembly room in lieu of the barn and byre. It is slightly curved, as is the original, which was built to accommodate the path of the road alongside which it was built.
The Burns Club uses the house for regular club functions, holding meetings on the first Wednesday of every month and celebrating Robert Burns’s birthday there as well. I am sure that those celebrations involve traditional Scottish dress, as well as plenty of haggis and an ocean’s worth of “wee drams.”
Alas, the house is “generally not open to the public.” But you never know... bloggers are a persistent lot, and I know at least one who would probably give the left cheek of his ass for a look inside that glorious old house.
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