Monroeville Mockingbird

After some sweet rolls and coffee, we headed to Monroeville, the hometown of Nelle Harper Lee and Truman Capote.

We arrived a month too early for the annual tradition of the local performance of To Kill a Mockingbird, where members of the audience are chosen as the jury and all the actors are from the community. However, we were able to visit the famous courthouse-turned-museum. The camellia and azalea bushes were in bloom adding to the charm of this southern Alabama town.The historic courthouse with its clock marking perfect time and the iconic courtroom were replicated in Hollywood for the movie starring Gregory Peck. There are exhibits and photographs of Harper Lee and Truman Capote throughout the museum. There are also examples of the workings of this courthouse from the early 1900’s. As an added bonus, there was a quilt show in the courtroom. The exhibit included hand-quilted antiques to very modern machine-sewn quilts. The quilts were displayed over the court benches and hung from the balcony.Monroeville’s downtown area around the courthouse square has a few custom-designed birdhouses and murals. The wooden birdhouses as well as the murals were completed by area residents and many of them depict scenes from the book.Monroeville declares itself the literary capital of Alabama and boasts of many well-known authors from the area. We declare it a great first edition to our adventure.