photo by gusto

Athens is famous for the rock bands REM and the B-52s. In northern Georgia, this small, attractive city amid green hills is 56 miles east of Atlanta. It is essentially a college town, and its 86,000 residents include the 30,000 students who attend the University of Georgia. In 1785, it became the first state-chartered university in the United States.

The streets of Athens are home to a number of classic antebellum mansions. The oldest building (1820) houses the town’s welcome center. It has information on self-guided tours of historic homes, the university, and downtown. It is also the departure point for a daily driving tour. Artsy downtown boasts plenty of bookstores, bars, restaurants, clubs, outdoor cafès, quaint shops, and a lively music scene.

In the university’s Performing and Visual Arts Complex is the excellent Georgia Museum of Art.

The Founders Memorial Garden is also at the university. This fine state botanical garden is located 4 miles south of the town center, by the Oconee River.

Athens has a few curiosities.

One, a failed Civil War invention, the double-barrel cannon, is in front of the city hall. There is “the Tree That Owns Itself,” so named because a professor was so fond of its shade that he ensured the tree ownership of its land. Morton Theater (1910) was the first in the country to be owned by African-Americans.

Athens has an airport and is connected by bus with Savannah, Atlanta, Augusta, and Charleston.