The Wren’s Nest, Birth of the Laughing Place
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Front of The Wren’s Nest, home of Uncle Remus author Joel Chandler Harris

[Ed Note: See the end of this article for a complete pictorial tour of the property]
In suburban Atlanta, Harris rented a quaint Queen Anne style farm home. In the large suburban backyard, the previous owner enjoyed growing snap beans. The house was dubbed “Snap-Bean Farm�?. One afternoon, Harris’ children noticed something peculiar in the small wooden mailbox next to the front door. A family of wrens built a nest in the mailbox. Harris and the children were so intrigued by the new occupants he decided to change the name of his home to “The Wren’s Nest�?.

At the Wren’s Nest Harris began Harris’ journey from relative obscurity to interregional fame. On July 20, 1879, the Atlanta Constitution newspaper published the young copy editor's "Story of Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Fox as told by Uncle Remus." Within months, magazines across the country were reprinting his tales, and after more than 1,000 written requests for a collection, the first Uncle Remus book was published in November of 1880. At the time, Harris said his purpose was not ethnology, or folklore analysis, but simply documentation. He doubted that his stories and character sketches would have any lasting historical value. He was wrong. The eventual Uncle Remus Stories became some of the most popular stories and books ever published, worldwide. Influential black songwriter, author and statesman, James Weldon Johnson, said in 1921 "the Uncle Remus Tales constitute the greatest body of folklore that America has produced."

Thirty years later, Harris’ Uncle Remus stories became victim of early-age political correctness. His stories were pulled from many shelves at the discretion of civil rights advocates. They said that Harris’ depictions of Uncle Remus promoted negative stereotypes of Negro American culture. Later in the 1950’s, Walt Disney sought a bring new life to Harris’ animal characters, and bring ways to reintroduce and rejuvenate Uncle Remus Stories, while separating the stereotyping as much as possible and focus on the characters. Disney depicted his film Song of the South to emphasize the colorful antics of Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, Brer Fox and others. Today, the film is still considered taboo in the eyes of modern American civil rights advocates, and has inhibited the Disney Company from releasing DVD or VHS editions of Song of the South in the United States.

The Wren’s Nest home, now located on 1050 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., in SW Atlanta, was constructed in 1870 as a simple farmhouse by George Muse, founder of Muse's Clothing, a well-known and established Atlanta store that was in business for more than 100 years. Eleven years later, Harris rented the house and later purchased it in 1883 from his employer at the newspaper. He hired architect George P. Humphreys of the firm of Norrman and Humphreys to remodel the house into a rambling one and one-half story frame cottage in 1884. The residence embodies distinct characteristics of the Queen Anne style, which include an asymmetrical plan with a steeply pitched gable roof and a heavily latticed porch, surrounded by trees and gardens where Harris raised a variety of fruits and vegetables. Harris also built homes for three of his children on lots on the west side of his property facing Lawton Street. Today, two of these remain and are private residences.

Today it is the oldest house museum in Atlanta. President Theodore Roosevelt, a devout fan of Harris’ stories, teamed with steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie and the Atlanta Joel Chandler Harris Historical Society, and worked to convert the Wren’s Nest home into the museum that it is today. Largely unchanged since Harris's death, the historic home contains the original Harris furnishings as well as the original paint colors. It is an excellent and rare example of the early Victorian Queen Anne style in the Atlanta area. In 1948, Walt Disney filmed Song of the South here and enclosed a portion of the porch on the east side to create a set of a cabin interior. Disney also moved a c. 1950 one-room log cabin to the backyard. The Wren's Nest was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

The house offers daily public tours. Photographs [below] show features of the outside grounds of the property, and features of one room where photography is permitted. Photography is prohibited within most of the house in order to preserve the value and integrity. Upon entering the house, guests approach the foyer. During the era in which the Wrens Nest was built, Atlanta city ordinances levied taxes on the number of rooms within a house. There are no closets in the house as a result of this tax. In the foyer is an original antique called a ‘wall tree’ which takes the place of today’s modern closet. This piece of furniture allows one to hang hats, coats, umbrellas, canes, and provides a mirror and seat for outdoor dressing. To the left is a den. This room, one of several with its own fireplace, is currently used for museum filmstrip viewing. This room contains many Uncle Remus and Harris artifacts and is the only room in the house where photography is permitted. See photos [below].

To the right of the foyer is the parlor room. This room was used to occupy guests as they visited the house. Beside Harris’s original upholstered chair stands a cigar humidor on a pedestal. The hand-carved humidor was created in the images of Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox. The head of each character hinges backward to reveal the fine cigars within. The humidor sculptor to this day is unknown, and was donated anonymously to Harris. The antique is valued at more than half a million dollars. Attached to the south end of the parlor is the living room, with exposed original wood plank flooring. The wallpaper was reconstructed with the assistance of sophisticated computer technology, and the famous handyman Bob Villa. This room also contains many artifacts of Harris’ work, life and history. Much of the revealed information was provided by Harris’ wife.

In the hallway south of the foyer and east of the living room is the family piano with original candle brackets above the keyboard for playing after sunset. Across the hall from the piano stands a glass door bookcase containing all of the original works of Joel Chandler Harris. In a glass case is Harris’ original copy of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, value not declared. At the north end of the hallway sits Harris’s wife’s personal desk.

On the west side of the hallway are Harris’s daughters’ bedroom, Harris’ bedroom, and the dining room, where Walt Disney himself was once a dinner guest. Harris’s bedroom to this day has remained untouched since his death.

The south end of the hallway leads to what was once the back porch. Mrs. Harris had an ‘indoor’ plumbing bathroom installed. Mr. Harris demanded that the bathroom be built on the porch (enclosed), and not within the house due to its inherent ‘unsanitary’ nature. Mr. Harris never used the bathroom throughout his life; he preferred the normal everyday outhouse.

To the left of the bathroom is the original kitchen, with original fixtures including a wood burning stove and a natural gas refrigerator. Another entrance to the porch from the kitchen, Walt Disney built an addition used in the Song of the South movie. This area contains photographs and artifacts from the movie and Walt Disney’s cooperative efforts.

Every hanging ceiling light in the house is one-half electric bulb fixture, one-half natural gas lamp. When electricity was brought to Atlanta, Harris thought it would be nothing more than a passing fad. He stipulated that all his lights be equipped with optional gas lamps for when the electricity would have been phased out. Harris kept birdcages with canaries in each room to signal excessive carbon dioxide with all the gas lamps and fireplaces. The walls of each room are hard plaster; too hard for picture frame hooks. Wood trim was installed along the ceiling edges of each room. Every framed picture in the house is hung from wire attached to the wooden trim.

See the photographs below for more details of the Wren’s Nest, and the birth location of the original Laughing Place. For a more in-depth experience, please visit the Wren’s Nest during your next stay in Atlanta. The next Joel Chandler Harris Laughing Place experience will be of Turnwold Plantation in Eatonton, Georgia.