TOURS
The Swan House Capitol Tours at the Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road N.W. 404-814-4000. Tours usually are offered at 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. On Saturday, tours will be offered every hour and half-hour from 1 to 4 p.m. Tickets for adults are $24.50 online or $26.50 at the gate; tickets for seniors and students are $21 online or $23 at the gate; tickets for youths are $19 online or $21 at the gate. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. atlantahistorycenter.com/swan-house-capitol-tours.
The Swan House at the Atlanta History Center, one of the area locations where "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1" filmed, is Capitol-izing on excitement surrounding the movie's opening weekend.
The stately, historic home has been offering “Capitol Tours” since the launch of “Catching Fire,” the second in “The Hunger Games” series. A number of scenes, including a festive party event with lots of computer-generated fireworks, were filmed there for that movie.
The Swan House is once again featured in “Mockingjay — Part 1,” in theaters now. To celebrate, the staff has expanded the tours and will offer them more frequently than usual on Saturday.
"It's huge for us to have that whole new audience excited about the house," said Swan House manager Jessica VanLanduyt. "We love the fact that people come to us now and see something a little bit different."
While “Catching Fire” featured the exterior of the house and the dining room, “Mockingjay — Part 1” offers a peek at the porch that opens onto the boxwood garden and the library. One of the rooms featured, on the main level of the house, got a gleaming new color scheme just before filming started and looks positively radiant.
"It's always gorgeous on film," VanLanduyt said. More than 5,000 people have gone on a "Capitol Tour" since the program's inception, including actress Julianne Moore, who plays Alma Coin in both "Mockingjays," and director Francis Lawrence.
“We were really happy that it seemed like the production crew seemed to like what we had done,” VanLanduyt said.
By the way, after "Catching Fire" filmed there, the house started getting fan mail for star Jennifer Lawrence. No mail for Katniss has arrived recently — but the staff is ready for anything.
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