Fall in Love With the Alabama Town That Inspired Harper Lee

Fall in Love With the Alabama Town That Inspired Harper Lee

The courthouse that was recreated for the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.” (Photo: Andrea Wright/Flickr)

Tucked between Selma and Mobile, Alabama, you’ll find a small town of about 6,000 residents called Monroeville. It’s a deep-south city with a main square, a courthouse, a hardware store, and sticky, humid summers. Monroeville was thrust into the spotlight more than a half century ago when Harper Lee first published her 1960 classic To Kill A Mockingbird, set in the fictional town of Maycomb, but based and modeled on Monroeville.  Now Lee's latest Go Set a Watchman highlights the town, too.

It’s not a particularly quaint town, not brimming with charm, but alive with the spirit of the book that made it famous, and an enduring home to two literary icons — Harper Lee and Truman Capote — who grew up on these small, fence-lined streets.

Mary Badham and Gregory Peck working on their lines for “To Kill a Mockingbird.” (Photo: James Vaughn/Flickr)

Every year, more than 30,000 people flock to this otherwise nondescript town to celebrate Lee’s iconic story of Scout, a young girl whose father Atticus defends a black Alabama man accused of raping a white woman.

And now, after 55 years and 40 million copies sold, Monroeville is back in the spotlight, after the literary world came unglued when news recently hit of a To Kill A Mockingbird sequel. After more than half a century of waiting, the world will finally get a chance to read the long-awaited sequel (or prequel, depending how you look at it) to Lee’s 1960 literary classic.

A restored Ford Model A automobile parked on the grass in Monroeville, Alabama. (Photo: Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

The equally iconic, Oscar-wining film was shot on location in Monroeville, so fans of the film will notice certain now-famous landmarks. At the Old Monroe County Courthouse and Museum, you’ll find displays dedicated to Lee and Capote, who were close friends growing up. But the real reason to come is to see the legendary courthouse floor itself which was used as the inspiration for the courthouse scenes in To Kill A Mockingbird. Selfies are welcomed, so don’t be shy.

Farmer sits on donkey cart outside the courthouse in Monroeville, Alabama. (Photo: Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

On April 10, the courthouse will transform into a playhouse and the Mockingbird Players — the towns local theater troupe — will but on their 26th annual production of To Kill A Mockingbird.

Rikard’s Mill Historical Park near Beatrice, about a half-hour from Monroeville, is another recognizable spot: a restored water-powered grist mill that’s on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage. The park includes a mule driven-syrup mill and a barn exhibit, among other fascinating workshops about life in this rural town.

Mural depicting a scene from the Harper Lee novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” in Monroeville, Alabama. (Photo: Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

Next door to the courthouse, on the side of Johnson Jewelers building, you’ll find a fictional scene of the book depicted in graffiti: Atticus and Scout and members of the mob on Maycomb Street. And not far from here, another beautiful mural on a building at the intersection of Claiborne and Mt. Pleasant.

There are small gems all throughout the city only locals would know about, The Russell-Harper house among them, a quaint southern Victorian with a wrap-around porch and tons of homespun charm. It may be the perfect Alabama bungalow, great for snapping photos.

The Prop and Gavel staff, with a view of the Courthouse beyond (Photo: Prop and Gavel/Facebook)

By now you should start to see how the book’s themes and motifs have inspired nearly every facet of life in Monroeville. Case in point: Prop and Gavel, the best restaurant in town, homey and intimate, and serving up some delicious deep-south cuisine with an upscale spin. We love Prop and Gavel for a late-afternoon lunch or a wine-soaked dinner. (Monroe is a dry county, but lucky for travelers, Monroeville is one of two wet towns among the bunch.)

For the “confection-ally” challenged, hit up our favorite after-dinner sugar rush spot, Sweet Tooth, for delicious desserts and some coffee to end a perfect evening.

The courthouse in Monroeville. (Photo: Andrea Wright/Flickr)

If the sun’s still up, the Monroe County Heritage Museum is a fun and interesting way to spend an hour, exploring the museum’s history and discovering the area’s great literary past.

Rest your head at Mockingbird Inn & Suites, a solid and standard, if mostly forgettable hotel with spacious, clean rooms and southern hospitality at its finest. It’s also affordable, and like everything else in this town, contains the name of the Mockingbird that made it famous.