<P> In the more recent novel not written by Margaret Mitchell, Rhett Butler's People, Tara stays virtually the same as in Gone With the Wind . However, at the end of this novel, the crazed Isaiah Watling sets fire to the main staircase of the mansion, which burns to the ground . </P> <P> When Gerald first takes possession of the property, he and his slave valet Pork (also acquired by Gerald in a poker game) inhabit the small, four - room wooden house built when the land was settled . As Gerald's wealth grows, he builds minor additions to the structure, but after his marriage, and as his family grows, the house undergoes major enlargements and renovations . Nevertheless, it is not a pretty building but rather a large, rambling affair of whitewashed brick and timber "built according to no architectural plan whatever, with extra rooms added where and when it seemed convenient". Its charm comes from Ellen's grace and sophistication . According to the description in the novel, the house has at least two hallways, a full basement, front and back stairs, and an attic . </P> <P> For the 1939 motion picture, the home was constructed by art director Lyle Wheeler . After filming concluded, the façade of Tara sat on the Forty Acres backlot owned by RKO Pictures and then Desilu Productions . The Tara house façade looks very similar to the home of Barbara Stanwyck's character Victoria Barkey in the CBS series The Big Valley . That set was built on the Republic studio lot in Encino for the John Wayne movie, "The Fighting Kentuckian ." In 1959, Southern Attractions, Inc. purchased the façade, which was dismantled and shipped to Georgia with plans to relocate it to the Atlanta area as a tourist attraction . Producer David O. Selznick commented at the time, </P> <P> Nothing in Hollywood is permanent . Once photographed, life here is ended . It is almost symbolic of Hollywood . Tara had no rooms inside . It was just a façade . So much of Hollywood is a façade . </P>

Where was tara in gone with the wind filmed