Local Color: Souvenir Birdhouses Flock to Southern Homes

If you've ever traveled anywhere within a few hundred miles of Chattanooga, Tennessee, you've been bombarded with charming barn roofs and billboards telling you to "See Rock City." What is Rock City? It's an awesome attraction on Lookout Mountain where it's claimed you can view seven states: Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama. There are gorgeous rock formations, 140-foot falls, a suspension bridge and the Enchanted Trail. The painted barns are part of the charm of the country landscape and help make a long, boring drive down I-75 much more interesting.

Throughout those seven states and more, many folks have picked up a charming souvenir — the See Rock City birdhouse — and placed it somewhere with pride. They are more common in the South than bottle trees. Here are a few I found around my Atlanta neighborhood this weekend.

This birdhouse was hung with pride in this lovely urban garden in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward.

A few blocks away in the Studioplex (a former cotton warehouse), another birdhouse fits right in at a photographer's art-filled modern loft.

At a bungalow bed-and-breakfast in the Virginia-Highland neighborhood, a See Rock City birdhouse sets the tone for a fun and relaxing stay.

One of my neighbors has this great fence with posts that are topped off with an eclectic collection of birdhouses. Of course, a See Rock City one is included!

After my brother and his family visited Rock City, I told him he'd better have brought me home a birdhouse. I'd never mentioned wanting one to him before, but sure enough, my sibling and my sister-in-law know me well – there it was, all put together for me on my birthday.

I haven't found the perfect spot for it yet, so I've been moving it around and checking out what my neighbors are doing with them.

Tell us: What kind of items add regional or local color to your hometown?

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