Remembering Harper Lee Through a Visit to Her Alabama Hometown

Thousands of visitors, including many from abroad, beat a path each year to the tiny town of Monroeville in southwest Alabama. And in 2026 there’s an even more compelling reason to visit — It’s the 100th birth anniversary of its most acclaimed native, Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Known to her friends and family as “Nelle,” the beloved writer spent her formative years here, and although she spent many decades living in New York City, she made frequent trips home to visit her family. She spent her final days here as well, residing in an assisted living facility after she suffered a stroke in 2007. She died in 2016 just short of her 90th birthday and is buried in Monroeville’s town cemetery.

Few novels are as treasured by readers worldwide as To Kill a Mockingbird. Since its publication in 1960, it’s sold more than 40 million copies and continues to sell up to a million copies per year. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and has been translated into more than 40 languages. The 1962 film version scored Oscars for Gregory Peck as Best Actor as well as awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Art Direction for a black and white film. The Broadway version starring Jeff Daniels consistently sold out during its run from 2018 to 2022.

Trailer for To Kill a Mockingbird starring Gregory Peck (Uploaded to YouTube by Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers)

Lee claimed that the legal drama at the heart of the novel, set in the 1930s and concerning a Black man named Tom Robinson falsely accused of rape, was a composite of a number of Southern trials preceding the civil rights movement. But there’s no question that much of the rest of Mockingbird is strongly autobiographical. Lee modeled the sassy tomboy Scout after herself, and her older brother, Edwin, is presumably a stand-in for the character of Jem. The likely model for the oddly eloquent and imaginative Dill was writer Truman Capote, who, in one of literature’s greatest coincidences, spent much of his childhood living next door to the Lees. And her father, A.C. Lee — a Monroeville attorney who by all accounts was a man of great moral conscience — was surely the inspiration for the character of Atticus Finch.

Harper’s Hometown

And of course the novel’s fictional town of Maycomb bears a strong resemblance to Monroeville itself. Nowadays, however, literary pilgrims who come here expecting to be transported in time to the scene of Lee’s childhood will be disappointed to learn that only remnants of that town still stand. Her own childhood home on South Alabama Avenue was razed long ago and is now the site of Mel’s Dairy Dream, an ice cream stand. Capote’s home next door has also been demolished, although portions of a stone wall and the foundation still stand on the vacant lot.

But the one monumental structure that still stands — the old Monroe County Courthouse, now officially called the Monroe County Museum — is the true draw in Monroeville. Erected in 1903 with an iconic bell tower that still chimes the hour, the edifice is the most imposing structure in the town square, even though the much newer and larger courthouse stands next door. It’s also on the National Register of Historic Places, principally because of the breathtaking oval-shaped courtroom on the second floor. This space, furnished as it would have been in the 1930s with spittoons, potbelly stoves, and a flag with just 48 stars, also has a pressed tin ceiling and an elegant curving upstairs balcony.

The sign at the main door of the building reads “Home of the World’s Most Famous Courtroom,” and for good reason. It was in that upstairs balcony where Harper Lee sat as a child and listened to her father argue his cases. It was the space that fired her imagination in the unforgettable trial scene at the heart of her novel. And it’s an almost exact duplicate of the courtroom in the 1962 film — the designer for the set on the Hollywood sound stage made only minor changes from the original. Mockingbird pilgrims may well feel chills as they enter this room, perhaps picturing Gregory Peck delivering his final exhortation to the jury: “In the name of God, do your duty!”

Visitors will also want to linger in the rooms adjoining the courtroom where extensive exhibits on both Lee and Capote can be found. They’ll see there many historic photos of Lee — standing at the very spot in the balcony where she sat and watched her father, showing Gregory Peck around Monroeville, and receiving the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President George W. Bush in 2007.

Extensive quotes from interviews published after the novel’s release reveal fascinating tidbits, like the fact that she and Capote used to sit in the treehouse behind her home and “play” at being writers. Another tells of her initial reservations about Peck playing the Atticus role, which changed when she saw him in costume: “The minute I saw him I knew everything was going to be all right because he was Atticus.” She had no qualms at all, however, with the set design for the Finches’ home: “It looked so real that I wanted to sit down in a rocking chair and fan myself.”

The rooms with exhibits covering Truman Capote describe how Lee accompanied Capote to Kansas for research into the 1959 murder of the Clutter family in the town of Holcomb, which resulted in his bestselling true crime account In Cold Blood. Lee took her own notes, which she shared with Capote, and befriended the people he wanted to interview who initially balked at talking to the flamboyant writer. As Lee described it, “He was like someone coming off the moon — those people had never seen anyone like Truman.”

Outside the Courthouse

On the town square just outside the courthouse, there’s a bronze sculpture called A Celebration of Reading depicting three children centered around a bench reading a book, all unidentified, although many people might reasonably assume they represent Scout, Jem, and Dill. There’s another bronze marker honoring the fictional Atticus Finch erected by the very real Alabama Bar Association, calling Atticus “a lawyer-hero who knows how to see and to tell the truth, knowing the price the community, which Atticus loves, will pay for that truth.”

Lee would have known most of the buildings still standing on the town square, although different businesses now occupy them. Her father’s law office, where Lee wrote portions of Mockingbird, still stands at the corner of Claiborne Street and Mt. Pleasant Avenue. A brochure outlining a walking tour of “Monroeville in the 1930s,” available inside the old courthouse, will lead to a number of highlights, including the nearby sites of Lee’s and Capote’s childhood homes. According to the brochure, the tour will take about an hour “depending on who you run into. (If you get some good stories, come back and tell us).”

Dedicated fans of Lee’s novel may also want to visit the First United Methodist Church on Pineville Road, where Lee was a member for many years. Lee’s grave, with a simple marker strewn with coins, pencils, and pens, is in the adjoining cemetery. Members of her family are buried nearby. Even the gentleman who may have been the inspiration for Boo Radley, Alfred Boulware, is interred here, a man who, just like the fictional Boo, lived his life as a reclusive shut-in.

Mockingbird on the Stage

The most significant draw in Monroeville for literary tourists by far is the celebrated dramatic rendering of To Kill a Mockingbird presented each year since 1991 by a troupe of amateur actors from Monroe County and surrounding communities. The play, written by the late Christopher Sergel, is not the same version that appeared on Broadway but frequently sells out just like its New York counterpart did. Performances start in late March and run through April with a special performance taking place each year on the Saturday closest to Harper Lee’s birthday on April 28th. In 2026, that performance is scheduled for April 25th.

The first act introducing the characters and townspeople of Maycomb takes place in an outdoor amphitheater just outside the old courthouse. The set consists of the exteriors of three small houses — a dilapidated, overgrown one representing the Radley place; a prim and tidy one where the Finch family resides; and another with two doors representing the homes of town gossip Miss Stephanie, the narrator Miss Maudie, and the grouchy and morphine-addicted Mrs. Dubose. These structures stand year-round and are another draw for tourists who can’t make it to Monroeville in the spring. Highlights of the first act include the mob hoping to lynch Tom Robinson pulling up on the adjacent street in an old jalopy and Atticus’s shooting of a “mad dog,” which barks offstage.

The second act takes place in the historic courtroom where Lee might have imagined her fictional trial taking place as she wrote her novel. Since in 1930s Alabama only white men would have been allowed to sit on a jury, a jury of 12 men is selected from the audience to form the jury in the trial scene and sit on stage with the actors. On the other side of the room is a box for the grand jury, and anyone from the audience is also allowed to sit there if they like. Highlights of this act are outbursts on the witness stand both from Bob Ewell, the racist redneck who’s made the accusations against Tom Robinson, and his supposedly abused daughter, Mayella. And of course, Atticus’s soaring summation to the jury is another highlight long remembered by those in the audience.

Tonja Carter, Lee’s former lawyer and personal friend, is the president of the Mockingbird Company, which oversees the production of the play. She estimates that as many as 20 percent of the audience at any given performance comes from outside the U.S., testament as to why this play has been named one of the Top Ten Events for Alabama Tourism by the state tourism department. She also claims that many audience members are left in tears when the drama comes to a close, including herself. “No matter how many times I watch, it resonates with me every time,” she says.

In years past, the play and the Monroeville troupe of actors have taken their performances abroad to Israel, China, and the United Kingdom and to other places in the U.S. like the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Once, after a performance in Israel, Dott Bradley, a longtime cast member who plays Calpurnia, the Finches’ faithful housekeeper, was approached at the play’s end by an audience member who was crying and felt compelled to apologize for the injustices of the past. “I told him, ‘Sir, there’s no need to apologize for what happened then. We can’t do anything about the past. But we can do something about now and the future.’”

The Actors Speak

Nearly all the actors are amateurs with no acting experience in their past. Many return year after year, occasionally switching to other parts, sometimes by necessity when the child actors grow into adulthood. All of them, however, understand the importance of meeting the audience’s expectations. “The heart of this play speaks to both injustice and individual integrity and to the underlying joy of children who unfortunately have to learn about the harshness of life they’re going to face someday,” says Roger McCay, one of two actors playing Atticus Finch. “If we don’t bring all of that out, we haven’t done our job.”

For that reason, McCay tries to bring a certain gravitas to the character of Atticus, using “a number of Southern gentlemen” of his acquaintance, including his father and grandfather, as models. He says his portrayal of Atticus differs substantially from his counterpart, Will Ruzic, who has played Atticus for seven years. “His mannerisms, his cadence, his interaction with other characters, are all different from mine. We’re not clones of one another.” As for Ruzic, although he works hard to portray Atticus as a man of high character and morals, he’s mindful that he can’t just copy Gregory Peck’s Oscar-winning role. He works especially hard at creating a bond with the child actors playing Scout and Jem, bringing his own experiences as a father to the front. “If I get to know those children and who they are, it helps us all show the bond between the fictional father and his children,” said Ruzic.

Many of the actors find aspects of themselves in the characters they play. AnnieJean Norris, one of four girls playing Scout, says “She’s a sassy young country girl, just like me. She doesn’t really listen to Atticus. I listen to my parents but kind of reluctantly.” Other actors have to stretch to bring out elements in the character they don’t have inside themselves. Monica Booker, who plays the emotional Mayella Ewell, said she actually loves being loud and angry and “getting kind of growly.” She knows she’s done her job if she sees the audience or jury members getting apprehensive and fidgety. Steve Billy, who plays Mayella’s father,

Bob Ewell, is by all accounts an extremely gentlemanly person and yet manages to make his character so loathsome that audience members avoid him when the play is completed. “He told me he feels dirty after he leaves the stage,” said Tonja Carter. Ironically, Billy is the district attorney in a neighboring county.

Remembrances of Harper Lee

Several of the actors actually met Harper Lee in her frequent trips home to Monroeville. They were all aware of her dislike of being in the limelight and her wish not to discuss her fame.

Michael Tonder, who plays Judge Taylor, once assisted Lee in sending a UPS package without knowing who she was. They chatted pleasantly about the heat and other matters, and only afterward did Tonder’s manager identify whom he’d been assisting. “She was probably glad I didn’t bring up her book,” he says. Fred Kelley, who also plays Judge Taylor, told a story about Lee berating a gas station attendant who had identified her to an out-of-town customer. “She said ‘If you ever do something like that again, I’ll be getting my gas somewhere else!’” Tonja Carter was once with Lee in the town square when a tourist walked up and said, “You’re Harper Lee!” Knowing how much Lee hated being the center of attention, Carter quickly replied “No, she’s not. This is my aunt. But she gets that all the time.”

Even though Lee has been gone now for ten years, remembrances of her still run strong in Monroeville. “For this town, Harper Lee still lives. Both she and the play are part of this town’s identity,” says Roger McCay. Or as Tonja Carter put it: “Everyone in this town has a love affair with Harper Lee. We want to make her proud.”

For more information, visit www.monroecountymuseum.org, www.tokillamockingbird.com, or visitmonroevilleal.com.