Historic landmarks and stunning vistas
Alexander Lake
Part of Panola Mountain State Park, Alexander Lake offers a different way to experience our sibling monadnock environment. Totaling 35 acres and separated by a spillway into Upper and Lower Alexander, this beautiful lake and its environs has fishing, paddling, archery, hiking and fascinating local history!
Arabia Mountain
Once part of a quarry, Arabia Mountain is now protected as part of the Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve. This otherworldly rock outcrop is a monadnock, a geologic formation that has the seen the ground around it erode away, leaving the mountain we know and love today.
Bruce Street School
Built through a grassroots community effort, the Bruce Street School was the first African American public school in DeKalb County. The old school building ruins that remain today stand as a legacy of African American education in DeKalb County and the power of community.
City of Lithonia National Register Historic District
Wander through Lithonia, which arose as a bustling quarry town and today retains its historic character with a bevy of buildings and significant structures dating back to the 19th and early 20th centuries.
DeCastro Nature Pavilion
Admire nature, take a restroom break, or learn about a unique local family at the DeCastro Nature Pavilion along the DeCastro Trailhead in South Rockdale Community Park. Built using the foundation and chimney of the original DeCastro home, this new pavilion is an idyllic pedestrian rest stop.
Klondike National Register Historic District
Located in formerly-rural DeKalb County, the community of Klondike contains some of the oldest buildings in the National Heritage Area.
Lithonia Woman’s Club
The Lithonia Woman’s Club, founded in 1924, gave women the ability to impact their community at a time when they were excluded from elected government and business; the club also housed DeKalb County’s first public library.
Lyon Farm
Located in the shadow of Panola Mountain, the Lyon Homestead offers insight into the lives of Georgia’s early white farmers as well as the enslaved people who created resilient communities following emancipation.
Monastery of the Holy Spirit Abbey Church
Described as “Georgia’s most remarkable concrete building,” the Abbey Church was built by hand by the monks of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit.
Panola Mountain
A pristine monadnock ecosystem filled with beautiful and rare plant species, Panola Mountain is one of the natural wonders of the National Heritage Area and is recognized as a National Natural Landmark, due to its rarity and ecological significance.
The Parker House
The oldest home in Rockdale County is an important part of the tapestry of human history found in the National Heritage Area. Built around 1822, the Parker House is a relic of white settlement along what was at that time the Georgia frontier.
T. A. Bryant, Sr. Homestead
This unassuming homestead was the home of one of the historic Flat Rock community’s leaders: T. A. Bryant, Sr. Built in 1917, this house and the surrounding homestead (including a barn and various other outbuildings) are a central part of the history of Flat Rock.
Vaughters’ Barn
DeKalb County was at one point the dairy capital of Georgia. As the county rapidly urbanized throughout the 20th century, dairyman S. B. Vaughters sought a different future for his land. Today, we can all enjoy the meadow and historic barn he left behind.