 Saturday, September 25th, 10am - 6pm
Sunday, September 26th, noon - 6pm
Join us for our '"History and Harvest Tour" - the 37th Grant Park Tour of Homes!
Order Tickets Online - And save $5 on each ticket! The tour begins at the park entrance at the intersection of Milledge and Cherokee Avenues.
You'll find nourishment for both body and soul on this year's Grant Park Tour of Homes, which will spotlight urban farmsteading and sustainability amid the beauty and grace of the neighborhood's historic homes.
The "History and Harvest" tour will give participants a first-hand look at some ways Grant Park homeowners are participating in the local food movement. You'll tour micro-vegetable gardens and urban chicken coops, and see how some urban pioneers are raising Nigerian dwarf goats. They'll also get the chance to attend beekeeping demonstrations, and to taste honey produced right in Grant Park.
If you'd like to learn more about growing your own food, you can attend planting demonstrations to learn about crop rotation and planting a fall vegetable garden. You can also hear a talk on how to raise chickens in your own backyard.
If history and architecture are what interest you, you can take part in a workshop that teaches you how to uncover the historic secrets of your own older home.
Some of the highlights of this 37th annual tour include:
*A 1,000-square-foot shotgun home that looks and lives much larger, thanks to the homeowners' clever fool-the-eye techniques.
*A quirky charmer whose doors and trim are duplicates of those seen in Dorothy’s Country Victorian house in The Wizard of Oz.
*An "extreme makeover" of a bungalow you'd be hard-pressed to recognize from the original, yet which manages to fit in perfectly with the surrounding homes.
*A totally "green" house that features salvaged wood, solar lighting, recycled water, and its own energy-producing wind turbine – and is so stunning that it is featured in the October issue of This Old House magazine.
The tour will feature 12 homes and three garden-only tours, along with special stops at the former Grant Park United Methodist Church, whose sanctuary now houses an aerial dance studio; and a unit at ENSO, the "green living" luxury apartments being constructed on Glenwood Avenue.
The tour will be held Saturday, Sept. 25 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 26 from noon-6 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance; $25 on the day of the tour. They're on sale now at www.gpna.org and at area businesses, including Dakota Blue, Grant Central Pizza, Six Feet Under, and Intown Healthy Hound and City Kitty. On the day of the tour, tickets will be available at a booth at the park entrance at the intersection of Cherokee and Milledge Avenues.
Proceeds benefit the Grant Park Neighborhood Association, which uses the funds to support local schools, civic groups, and neighborhood improvements. For more information, or to sponsor this year's Tour of Homes, email Chair Gigi Conner at tourofhomes@gpna.org
Contributed by By Sylvia Davis
 History of Grant Park
Grant Park’s namesake, Lemuel Pratt (L.P.) Grant, was actually a native of Maine who moved to Atlanta in the 1840’s. L.P. was instrumental in bringing rail to Atlanta, spawning one of Atlanta’s many growth spurts. During the Civil War, he was chief engineer for the Department of Militia, C.S.A. and planned the defensive lines that surrounded the city. After the war, L.P. continued his service to Atlanta with such ardor that in several historical accounts he was referred to as the “Father of Atlanta.” He balanced his public life with personal retreat – his family home was an Italianate mansion situated in the center of his 600 wooded acres. His solitude was disturbed by his own generosity. Col. Grant gifted or traded 100 acres for the establishment of Grant Park and 88 acres, which became Oakland Cemetery. The rest of L.P.’s land was subdivided between 1885 and 1905 during one of Atlanta’s many building booms.
Today, Grant Park, founded in 1881, is Atlanta’s oldest surviving city park. The park is home to Zoo Atlanta and the Cyclorama, and features picnic pavilions, walking trails, playgrounds, athletic facilities, and a one-acre pond. The park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Showcasing turn-of-the-century homes, the Grant Park area was deemed a Historical District by the City of Atlanta in 1999, and residents take an active role in preserving and enriching the park and neighborhood. For general Grant Park information, visit the Grant Park Neighborhood Association website.
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