One of my favorite getaways is Callaway Gardens. People sometimes laugh when they hear this as it’s only 90 minutes from Atlanta. However, in the mid-1970’s and early 80’s my parents took me there (over 600 miles from my hometown of Shreveport, LA) for a one-week vacation every summer for many years. I loved it because they offered a day-camp for kids led by Florida State University (FSU) students. The students also participated in the FSU Flying High Circus which performed during the summers. My parents joined planned activities for adults including water skiing, sailing, a trip to near-by Warm Springs, fishing, tennis and golf. We stayed in cottages, rode bikes everywhere, made new friends and ate delicious food. It was the southern (and mostly non-Jewish) version of the Catskills resorts in New York. Because it holds many fond memories, I often return for a respite from city life.
I needed such a respite last May so I booked a solo overnight trip. However, I didn’t realize how long it had been since I’d visited until I noticed half of the Mountain Creek Inn disappeared.
Mountain Creek Inn
I remember when this was a Holiday Inn back in 1976. Callaway Gardens remodeled and renamed it around 1980. My family always stayed in the large “garden view” rooms that faced a large grassy area and the Mountain Creek Lake. The rooms had both a front door to a patio and a back door to the parking lot. Twice, we had room 367. Now, this wing was gone, as well as the rooms that faced the swimming pool – both part of the original inn built in the 1950’s.
The hotel staff explained the demolition occurred the previous year and took away 115 hotel rooms. This was mostly so Callaway Gardens could focus on the newer Lodge & Spa which they purchased in 2017. I understood the business decisions, but I wanted “my room” in the garden section.
Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel
After a few moments of longing for the old motel buildings, I took my bike and rode on the 10-mile Discovery Bike Trail. I headed to the Chapel nestled in the woods on Lower Falls Creek Lake. Sometimes organ concerts occur on the weekends and I always enjoy hearing the music from the organ before seeing the picturesque stone chapel.
Inside, the chapel boasts four stained glass windows on one wall that represent winter, spring, summer and fall. Larger stained glass windows bookend the front and back of the space.
Although nobody played the organ on this particular day, I still enjoyed sitting on a wooden pew for a few minutes. Afterward, I went to the small rock waterfall behind the chapel. I fondly remember climbing these rocks as a kid, while my father read his newspaper.
Azalea Bowl
Back on the bicycle, I rode through the Callaway Brothers Azalea Bowl. Truly a showpiece in the spring, his 40-acre area is home to over 3,000 azaleas. Opened in 1999, I still consider this part of the gardens “new.” However, the hilly trails produce stunning views even after the azalea season.
Another surprise awaited me when I rode over to the Sibley Horticultural Center. It was closed – not for the day, but closed permanently. I later found out that Callaway Gardens shuttered both the building and Mr. Cason’s Vegetable Garden in 2015 due to financial reasons. I guess it really had been three years since I’d visited last.
Lodging
While vacationing here as a child, many activities revolved around the Holiday Inn/Mountain Creek Inn: daily breakfast and dinner (included in the package), movies, game nights and theater productions from the La Grange College drama students.
In the 1980s those activities slowly moved over to the cottages, which were overhauled from rustic A-frame cabins with bunk beds to one-level roommate style accommodations with screened-in porches, grills. A stylish community pool, pizza restaurant and teen center were also built. Because the cottages were a good two miles from the Inn, my parents had to drive me to and from the nightly activities.
I begged them to book our next year’s stay in the cottages, but my parents resisted for several years. Designed for large families, it really was too much space for just the three of us. Also, meals weren’t included anymore since the cottages offered a full kitchen. I recall we finally did start staying in the cottages the last few years we went there for the summer recreation program.
The Lodge & Spa
In keeping with the times, Callaway Gardens built a conference area and full-service restaurant near the cottages in the early 2000s. A few years later, they added luxury hotel rooms and a spa and it became the Lodge & Spa run by Marriott. Now that Callaway Gardens bought the hotel, they cut down pine trees making Robin Lake visible from the Lodge.
The day was ending so I decided on dinner at the Country Kitchen. The next morning, I ate breakfast in the Plant Room at the Inn.
I’m probably one of the few people who remember that the inn had two swimming pools. The smaller pool sat right outside what was then called the Plantation Room Restaurant. One year, we returned and they had covered the pool with a stone=paved courtyard featuring a koi pond and tables. As a kid, I asked the waitress what had happened. She responded, “I think some of the older ladies didn’t appreciate their husbands ogling over bathing beauties during their meals.”
Day Butterfly Center
A huge attraction for tourists is the Cecil B. Day (Days Inn founder) Butterfly Center. Inside, visitors watch a film about butterflies and then explore the greenhouse-type atrium. Butterflies of all shapes, sizes and colors land on guests.
The landscaped areas surrounding the butterfly house reminded me of parts of the Sibley Horticultural Center. I was slowly getting used to some of the changes I witnessed over the weekend.
Many of my favorite walking trails are near this area – the Rhododendron Trail, which overlooks Hummingbird Lake and the Holly Trail, which abuts the Pioneer Log Cabin.
Gardens Restaurant
The original golf clubhouse became the Gardens Restaurant well before we vacationed here. Overlooking Mountain Creek Lake and one of the golf courses, it is a popular spot for dinner.
Just up the hill from the restaurant lies the Overlook Pavilion and the original azalea gardens. As I leisurely strolled among the shrubs, an automatic sprinkler began watering the ground – and me. I ran to the other side before getting too wet.
Robin Lake Beach
I quickly rode around Robin Lake Beach. In the summers growing up, the man-made lake featured a daily water ski show modeled after Cypress Gardens in Florida. This is where both my mother and I learned how to slalom water ski. I looked up to the instructors and aspired to try out for the water ski team when I reached college age. During one lesson, I fell and hit my forehead on my ski instructor’s ski resulting in three stitches at the La Grange Hospital.
Discovery Center
Lastly, I stopped by the Virginia Hand Callaway Discovery Center. Part of the newer Callaway Gardens, the center opened in 2000 with the new gardens entrance on Hwy 18 instead of Hwy 27 near the Inn. Visitors can watch a movie about the gardens and it’s founder, Cason Callaway, rent bikes, or watch the daily Birds of Prey show. I just wanted one last view of Mountain Creek Lake before heading back to Atlanta.
For more information about Callaway Gardens, click here.
My sister and I happened upon this as we were Googling for old Callaway Gardens pictures. We too spent several summers there when we were kids in the 70’s, the last time around 1978 or so. We went back as adults with our own children a few times between 2001 and 2006, and so much had changed. The cabins we stayed in were no longer there, not the Aframes or the regular cabins. The cabins were larger, and there were no A frames. The big circus tent was gone, replaced by a much smaller tent that was more canvas dome than a tent, though the FSU students still did the day camp and did the circus in the late afternoon/evening. The ski-show was no-more. The vegetable garden was still there at that time. As was the Pioneer cabin if I remember correctly. I remember when the Mountain Creek Inn was a Holiday Inn, and I remember seeing a live production of Charlie Brown put on by the LaGrange students at the Holiday Inn. Of course, when we went back as adults, it was the Mountain Creek Inn (and I”m not sure if the last time we went in 1978 it was Mountain Creek then). But I remember watching fireworks on the large grassy area in front of the part of the hotel that faced it, and playing in the pool there. So many good times then, we’re so nostalgic for it!
I grew up in Columbus Ga. My parents would take me to Callaway Gardens frequently. We would spend the entire day at Robin Lake. I remember the paddle boats and the canoes. There was a miniature train that ran around the boating area. I bought memberships annually and would go during the summer on a weekday for a getaway. The Christmas light show was great. Especially the nativity scene on the beach with the lighting effects and music.
I moved away in 2000, I passed the Callaway Gardens exit a few days ago. Many found memories from there as a child. My Mother passed and I was headed to her funeral. This was the end of my family, but I will always have the memories of Callaway Gardens.