Inside the Mansion that Inspired ‘Gone With the Wind’

"The Vampire Diaries," "In the Heat of the Night" and other Hollywood productions have also been filmed here.

“Gone With the Wind” features one of the grandest homes in all of classic cinema, and now is your chance to own it — or at least the home that inspired the Wilkes’ Southern plantation (the movie was mostly shot on specially built set pieces).

The antebellum plantation known as Twelve Oaks is located in Covington, Georgia, about 35 miles from central Atlanta. You could have bought it back in July 2019 when it was on the auction block at Target Auction, with a minimum reserve price of $1 million for the historic 10,000-plus-square-foot estate.

The mansion continues to operate as Twelve Oaks Bed and Breakfast with tours available that’ll take you back to the days of Scarlett O’Hara. But “Gone With the Wind” isn’t the only Hollywood history found within this home’s gables. Several other television shows and movies have been filmed here, including “The Vampire Diaries.” Take a look inside the home’s many rooms.

The History

Twelve Oaks / Facebook

A Georgia judge named John Harris built this home in 1836. One hundred years later, “Gone With the Wind” novelist Margaret Mitchell spotted the antebellum mansion from a photograph in the Atlanta Journal. She sent along a note to movie producers to use it as a model for Ashley Wilkes’ home in the feature film.

The mansion fell into disrepair over the years and at one point sat empty before Nicole Greer purchased it in 2011.

Speaking to Deep South Mag, Greer says she kept everything historically accurate, and she appears to have gone to great lengths to do so.

The Renovations Were Historically Accurate

Mansion that inspired Gone With the Wind

Twelve Oaks / Facebook

She replaced the broken windows’ old wavy glass and even had the gas coal sets in each fireplace built to resemble the original. “There was only one person in the United States that even did that, and we found him in Washington, Georgia,” she told the magazine.

It’s quite the feat. The 12-bedroom home has 12 fireplaces and has attracted numerous television shows and movies as a filming location.

And They Cost Over $2 Million

Twelve Oaks / Facebook

According to the press release, over $2 million of renovations went into this mansion, which has been christened Twelve Oaks in honor of the Wilkes mansion.

Greer operated the estate as an upscale bet and breakfast, event venue and shooting location for over six years. She has given many of the home’s en-suite bedrooms a name based on shows and movies that have either filmed here or are connected to the South.

It Was in ‘The Vampire Diaries’

Twelve Oaks / Facebook

As per Twelve Oaks’ Facebook page, this photo shows a scene from “The Vampire Diaries” featuring the mansion.

Twelve Oaks is used for the 1864 flashback scenes featuring the Lockwood Mansion. It can be seen in the fourth episode of the second season and other scenes throughout the series.

Connections to Hollywood

Twelve Oaks / Facebook

Other productions that have showcased the mansion include:

“Vacation”
“Step Up: High Water”
“Life of the Party”
“Tyler Perry’s The Family that Preys”
“Halloween 2”
“Southern Fried Homicide”
“In the Heat of the Night”
“Bessie”
“Scalpel”

According to the press release, the estate averages “one or two movie or TV show contracts per year and also provides accommodations for the cast.”

Notes from Margaret Mitchell

Margaret Mitchell's notes on Gone With the Wind

Twelve Oaks

Mitchell’s handwritten notes from the book “David O. Selznick’s Gone With the Wind” by Ronald Haver.

Mitchell spotted the mansion while visiting Covington and sent this newspaper clipping to the film’s producers. Although Mitchell had little else to do with the film’s production, it was used as a basis for the iconic mansion shown in the classic movie.