In 1960 Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird, an entertaining novel with a deep social message. She used her hometown of Monroeville as a pattern for the setting, and fashioned characters after her childhood family and friends, which included Truman Capote.
Fame struck the small town when Lee received the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Several other awards and recognitions followed. Soon Monroeville was host to Hollywood. The movie cast and crew spent time touring the town, talking with people, and soaking up local color. In 1962 Gregory Peck won the Academy Award for best actor due to his performance as lawyer Atticus Finch.
Now, almost 40 years later, Monroeville retains its fame. In 1996 it was declared the Literary Capital of Alabama. The Monroe County Heritage Museum, located in the old courthouse, continues to stir the memories of To Kill a Mockingbird and the childhood Lee and Capote. Each year in May, approximately 2,000 tourists fill the city to see Monroeville thespians perform in the stage adaptation of the award-winning novel.
While visiting Monroeville, tourists are encouraged to take a walking tour of the city. With pamphlet in hand, let's run to the elementary school where Lee and Capote began formal lessons that turned them into popular authors. When we get to the school's parking lot you may be a little surprised. What in your mind should be a white clapboard school building is a red brick monument to modern education. However, you may find teachers wearing leis and small children holding colorful balloons filing out into the playground. A reassurance that a few things don't change.
Let's continue our game of chase and run across the street and down a couple of blocks-but look both ways and watch out for the cars! Along the way, you'll be hard pressed to find the hollow tree where Boo Radley hid toys. But use your imagination, and you can surely see it hiding under garlands of kudzu.
Let's stop and catch our breath at Mel's Dairy Dream. As we eat our ice cream cones, we can reminisce about the days when Lee, Capote, and their friends sat on Lee's front porch and used wooden spoons to dig vanilla ice cream from small paper cups. After all, we are sitting in what used to be the front lawn of Harper Lee's childhood home. Over there, behind the Dairy Dream now, the children sat in a treehouse and made up stories so many summers ago.
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