My visit to Monroeville, AL was part of my spring break “Quintessential Southern Road Trip.” We were driving back home to Nashville, TN from our final overnight stop in Gulf Shores, AL.
Monroeville is a cute little town about 120 miles north of Gulf Shores. It so happens to be the original hometown of Harper Lee, which is why we wanted to stop and poke around.
The town does have a small museum, but we didn’t want to stay too long because we were on our way home after a long week of travel and adventure.
Instead of visiting the museum, we walked around on our own, following this awesome travel guide.
I was most excited about the “mailbox trail” that the guide talks about. The town is supposed to have these mailboxes all down the main strip that are painted to depict scenes from To Kill A Mockingbird. The guide is a little outdated, so I was disappointed that most of the mailboxes were weathered down or completely gone. Still, it was nice for this New Yorker to catch a glimpse of life in small-town Alabama.
The other disappointing factor was that Radley’s Fountain Grill has been permanently closed. The travel guide I used wanted me to try their sandwich named after Boo Radley, but we drove around for awhile before figuring out that it was no longer an establishment.
Thankfully, when we walked down towards Mel’s Dairy Dream, we discovered that building to be still standing and functioning as an ice cream parlor. Supposedly, that building stands where Harper Lee’s house once stood. So that was actually really cool to see.
My favorite part, though, was a wall which features the characters from To Kill A Mockingbird.
Monroeville is the perfect place to stop if you’re driving through Alabama. It’s cute and historic and everything I wanted it to be.
