The legacy of Atlanta’s past is given its rightful due in Buckhead at the Atlanta History Center, just down West Paces Ferry Road from the Governor’s Mansion. In addition to its excellent museum, the history center maintains an expansive property of gardens and trails, complete with an authentically-restored working plantation.

Of course, no event played a more prominent role in the history of Atlanta than the Civil War. The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was perhaps the South’s most significant victory in the fighting for Atlanta in 1864, and this slice of history is immortalized at the 3,000-acre Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. For more on Atlanta’s role in the Civil War, visit the Cyclorama in Grant Park, a 365-degree mural that depicts the Battle of Atlanta. And no view of Atlanta history would be complete without a glance through the eyes of Margaret Mitchell. The Margaret Mitchell House and Museum in Midtown is where she wrote most of the legendary epic “Gone With the Wind.”

The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site is a U.S. National Historic Site consisting of several buildings surrounding Martin Luther King, Jr.’s boyhood home on Auburn Avenue in the Sweet Auburn district of Atlanta, Georgia. Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church where King and his father Martin Luther King, Sr. pastored, is also part of the National Historic Site, although it remains a place of worship for a congregation of the Baptist denomination of  Christianity.

The site became a National Historic Site on October 10, 1980 and is administered by the National Park Service. In total, the buildings included in the park make up 39 acres. The visitor’s center contains a museum that chronicles the American Civil Rights Movement and King’s role in the movement. Fire Station No. 6, a firehouse built in 1894, contains a gift shop and an exhibit on desegregation in the Atlanta Fire Department. Tours of King’s boyhood home at 501 Auburn Avenue are led by National Park employees and are available by reservation at the visitor’s center. The house, built in 1895, was King’s home for twelve years from his birth while his family was living with his maternal grandmother.

Just east of downtown, the Jimmy Carter Center occupies a 30- acre compound of gardens and pools, and commands an impressive view of the city. Just down the road, another of Atlanta’s favorite sons is honored at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site.

For an often-overlooked glance into Atlanta’s past, stop by Oakland Cemetery at 248 Oakland Avenue, a veritable Who’s Who of Atlanta history, literature, politics and society dating back to 1850.