POWERGRAMS

31 There are also the tourists who not only believe the Monroe County Courthouse was used in the film, but that "To Kill A Mockingbird" and its famous cast are fact rather than fiction. They search the building and town for a glimpse of Scout or Jem Finch, Dill Harris, or Bob and Mayella Ewell. Peck knew better, but he, too, searched for them, in a fashion, visiting the courtroom and walking the town square to talk to one shop owner after another. Henry Bumstead took exact measurements of the courtroom and sketched scenes of Monroeville that helped him win the first of his two Academy Awards for Best Art Direction. "That was a pretty good representation," Carter says of the movie courtroom and town scenes. "It is really amazing how well Bumstead captured the character of 1930s Monroeville." A dedicated volunteer staff assists Executive Director Wanda Green, Carter and two part-time employees in managing the Bird Nest gift shop, courthouse exhibits and building. It is a county museum with large segments dedicated to the work and life of Truman Capote and Lee. Staff members are happy to answer questions but generally send visitors up one of the dual staircases to tour the building on their own. The museum maintains the Faulk property two blocks away and, outside Monroeville, the Old Bethany Baptist Church at Burnt Corn and Rikards Mill Historical Park in Beatrice. A decade after the publication of Mockingbird, the city and county fathers, chamber of commerce and most townspeople wanted to demolish the courthouse because more parking was needed downtown. Were it not for the efforts of retired teacher Lois Bowden and the local historical society, demolition would have begun in the early 1970s. The courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, saving what is today the city's most valuable structure. A $2.5 million, 10-year restoration was completed in 2002. "That is what really got the building back into a stable position," Carter says. "The county had been doing no maintenance on it. Fortunately, there were enough people here who banded together to save it. Oddly enough, Harper Lee and Truman Capote had nothing to do with saving it." But the authors are what bring thousands of visitors to the town and courthouse each year. Before Capote and Lee, the biggest moment in the building's history was in 1918 when William Jennings Bryan debated prohibition in the courtroom. Now tourists marvel at "an actual remnant of the schoolyard tree" from Mockingbird displayed in a tall, clear acrylic case. Throughout the museum are panels created by Tom Mason of Mobile – also the museum webmaster – that tell the stories of each exhibit. "We have visitors who just walk through each room," says Carter, "and there are others who read every single word on every panel. Some people will come in at 10 a.m. and walk out when we close." Much of the Harper Lee Exhibit panels are in her words, taken from early interviews before she stopped talking to most reporters. A 55-minute video, "Mockingbird Summers: Visits With the Citizens Historic courtroom was copied for famous 1962 movie; courthouse special exhibits honor authors Lee and Capote (inset).

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