Southern Reverie

05/21/2025

The Cherokee name for Ellijay, Georgia, is Elatseyi, which means “new ground” or “green place”. Some sources also interpret it as “place of green things” or “many waters.”

This area was long settled by cultures of indigenous peoples and is known as part of the historic homeland of the Cherokee people until they were forcibly displaced to Oklahoma in 1838. They had a large village here, at the confluence of the Ellijay and Cartecay Rivers, which together form the Coosawattee River. An estimated 4,000 Cherokees died in the ensuing trek to Oklahoma.

Built in the late 1800s, the Tabor House is the oldest surviving home in Ellijay, donated to the Gilmer County Historical Society in 2008. Step back in time at this Victorian-era home filled with artifacts of North Georgia’s history of the Cherokee Nation, early settlers, local history, and the Civil War.

05/20/2025

“Let my name perish, — the poetry is good poetry and the music is good music, and beauty dieth not, and the heart that needs it will find it.”



Sidney Clopton Lanier (1842 – 1881) was born in Macon, Georgia. He was an American musician, poet and author. Sidney was a teacher, worked at a hotel where he gave musical performances, was a church organist, and worked as a lawyer. He became a flautist and sold poems to publications. He eventually became a professor of literature at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and is known for his adaptation of musical meter to poetry. Many schools, other structures and two lakes are named for him. A 1972 US postage stamp honored him as an “American poet”.

01/02/2025

Beloved New Orleans — you are in our hearts and minds. 💔🙏🏻 Sending love and peace to those impacted and to this beautiful Southern city.

Acts of violence like this hurt us all — they are senseless, cruel, and rip at our souls fracturing our trust of the world and each other. We cannot let cruelty win. Joy will come again to Bourbon Street.

Today we mourn for the victims, their families, and all who love them. Most of them were so young, their lives cut short on a day of celebration.

St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Louisiana is about 1.5 blocks from Bourbon Street. We took this photo during one of our very first trips for Southern Reverie, because where better to start a Southern adventure than NOLA, founded in 1718. The first church on this site was built that same year and finished in 1720. The current structure was completed in the 1850s and is a New Orleans landmark and must when visiting the city.

12/31/2024

This goodbye is hard - for the Carter family, Plains, GA, the South, the Nation, and the World. When we visited Plains, GA, everyone had a Jimmy Carter story. It wasn’t just the stories, but the love felt in their telling - from people of all walks of life and beliefs. Jimmy Carter was a good, authentic person, devoted to the health and happiness of other people. He quietly went about doing good - a lot of good - the rarity of which makes his loss heart wrenching. Goodbye James Earl Carter Jr. - your life was well lived, you were loved and respected, and you left a legacy we can all learn from.

James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct 1, 1924, at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains, GA to James Earl Carter Sr. and Bessie Lillian Carter - the first President to be born in a hospital. President Jimmy Carter died on Dec 29, 2024, in Plains, GA at 100 years old - the longest living President.

His roots in America date to the 1630s, and Georgia since the Revolutionary War. They owned a farm, warehouse, and general store - his father a hardworking businessman, his mother a nurse known for crossing segregation lines to provide health care to African American women. Their home had no electricity or plumbing in 1924. The whole family worked at the farm and store. At 10, Jimmy started taking produce in the family wagon to town to sell. At 13, he bought five houses at low Great Depression prices, renting them to local families. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, serving as a submariner from 1946-1953. Prior to graduating, he met and fell in love with Rosalynn Smith. They were married for 77 years, the longest-married presidential couple.

In 1953, his father died of cancer leaving the farm and his mother devastated. Jimmy resigned from the Navy and returned to Plains. James Earl Carter Jr. went on to serve in the GA State Senate, as the Governor of GA, and as the 39th U.S. President. After leaving the presidency, he established the Carter Center to promote and expand human rights, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He championed numerous peace and humanitarian causes and is a key figure in Habitat for Humanity which has built over 1 million homes since 1976.

12/29/2024

The Scottish Rite Building (Savannah Masonic Center) was built between 1913 and 1923 and designed by Hyman Witcover, the architect of Savannah City Hall. Today it is known as Gryphon, and is part of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

12/27/2024

The Andrew Low House in Savannah, Georgia was built in 1849 in Lafayette Square and is now the oldest building in this beautiful square. It is part of two historic districts, the Savannah Historic District and the Juliette Gordon Low Historic District.

Juliette Magill Kinzie Gordon (nicknamed Daisy) was born in 1860 at 10 East Oglethorpe Avenue in Savannah, Georgia and inherited the Low House after her estranged husband (William Mackay Low) died and she contested his will, which had left almost everything to his mistress. Although for much of her life she lived in Scotland and England, she always considered Savannah, Georgia her home and would eventually die in the Low House at age 66 after losing her battle with breast cancer.

Juliette’s funeral was a bit unusual because an honor guard of Girl Scouts escorted her casket from the Low House to Christ Church and 250 Girl Scouts left school early that day to attend her funeral and burial at Laurel Grove Cemetery. Juliette spent much of her life in the pursuit of formally establishing the American Girl Scouts (originally called Girl Guides) to help girls learn practical skills and build character. She used her connections with prominent people, such as President William Taft, Mina Miller Edison (Thomas Edison’s wife), Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (President Woodrow Wilson’s wife), and others. The carriage house behind the Andrew Low House was used as the first American Girl Scout Headquarters.

Low will be honored on a U.S. quarter in 2025 as part of the final year of the American Women quarters program. You can tour the Andrew Low House, the Carriage House Girl Scout Headquarters, and Juliette’s birthplace at 10 Oglethorpe Avenue.

12/26/2024