Historic Markers in Georgia

Atlanta, GA

In 1910 the Burns Club of Atlanta built a faithful replica of the humble cottage near Alloway in Ayrshire, Scotland, where the poet Robert Burns was born in 1759. Scottish immigrants and admirers of Burns across America formed clubs to celebrate his poetry and heritage, and Atlanta's cottage became a distinctive gathering place devoted to his memory. It reflects the deep affection Americans held for the beloved 'Bard of Scotland' and the cultural ties immigrants kept with the old country.

Marietta, GA

Marietta's Confederate Cemetery holds thousands of Southern soldiers who died during the 1864 campaigns for Atlanta and in the region's crowded military hospitals. Many fell far from home and could never be identified, and this memorial marks the resting place of those unknown dead. Cemeteries like this one were commonly organized and tended by local memorial associations in the years after the war.

Cobb County, GA

This memorial marks the resting place or remembrance of an unknown United States soldier. Markers to unknown soldiers stand for those who fell in service but could not be identified, a practice that grew as American communities sought to honor every casualty of war. In this part of Georgia, such graves and memorials are often tied to the region's role as a major theater of the Civil War.

Avondale Estates, GA

On Labor Day 1955, Avondale Estates neighbors Joe Rogers, Sr., and Tom Forkner opened the first Waffle House here, naming it for the most popular item on their menu. Built for fast service around the clock, the diner rode the postwar wave of suburbs, interstates, and automobile culture to grow into a chain of more than 1,600 locations. The company reacquired the original building and reopened it as a museum in 2008.

Tallapoosa, GA

This memorial recalls the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, the soaring New York landmarks destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people died that day, and communities far from Manhattan — including small towns across the South — raised markers and monuments to hold the memory. It stands as one of countless local expressions of a national grief and resolve.

Savannah, GA

Georgia was the last of Britain's thirteen American colonies, and it began right here. On February 12, 1733, James Oglethorpe and a little over a hundred settlers climbed this high sandy bluff above the Savannah River and laid out the town of Savannah on Oglethorpe's famous grid of open squares. The bluff already had a name and a people: it was home to the Yamacraw, a Creek band whose leader Tomochichi welcomed the newcomers and made the peaceful founding possible. Generations later the Georgia Daughters of the American Revolution set this monument to mark what they called 'the most historic spot in Georgia.'