Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau's

Tour Guide Extraordinaire

 

 

           

            Roman Anne Culpepper loves sharing her knowledge of Rome's history. She does so on tours of the historic Between the Rivers district and Myrtle Hill Cemetery which she leads as a volunteer for the Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau.

            Her audiences range in age from school children to senior citizens. They may be local people or visitors to Rome.

            "Usually when I have a group it's a motor coach," Mrs. Culpepper said. "The historic district tour, I do not consider a walking tour. Once we had a group from Oregon, for instance, and they all said, 'Oh, we walk all the time.' Well, they hadn't walked these hills when there was a heat index of 108.

            "The Between the Rivers tour begins here on Jackson hill and there are no sidewalks until you get over to the library on Riverside Parkway so it's not a safe walk," she added. "Also, you actually would be walking on four of Rome's seven hills so it's not an easy walk."  

            The tour of Myrtle Hill Cemetery is a different story, however. "At Myrtle Hill, I walk them all over the hill," said Mrs. Culpepper, who often packs a lunch and visits this historic site alone to do additional research.

            "Every now and then, I'll get a call from someone telling me I left a certain grave  out of the tour," she said. "Everybody in Myrtle Hill is special to somebody but realize that that cemetery covers 25 acres. It's built on six terraces and there are over 20,000 people buried in it. It's hard to get in some places. The steps, the weather and erosion have been Myrtle Hill's worst enemy."

            Her love of Rome's history began early. "I grew up with it," Mrs. Culpepper said. "I didn't realize it but I was very fortunate. My grandfather lost his sight just before I was born and he continued to work. He had a driver who drove him around and if I was a very good girl I got to go with them. They told me wonderful stories about Rome.

            "Also, I count among my friends Forrest Shropshire and C.J. Wyatt and they've taught me and helped me so much," she said. "George Magruder Battey's book has been a valuable tool and so has Roger Aycock's book."

            Majoring in history in college and a self-described "history nut," Mrs. Culpepper said she realized several years ago that children in Rome were growing up not knowing what a rich history the city has.

            "Maybe they had heard about Charles Graves or Von Gammon or knew a first lady was buried at Myrtle Hill, but they didn't know Rome history," she said. "They didn't know, for instance, that the Union troops came here in the Civil War, that part of Rome was burned and that it was an occupied territory."

            Armed with good intentions, Mrs. Culpepper said there were some "butterflies" she had to conquer when she began leading the historic tours.

            "The first time that I ever did a tour for adult Romans I was terrified," she said. "I was so afraid that if I said, for instance, that the Masonic Temple building was built in 1878 or 1876, someone was going to stand up and say, 'Anne Culpepper, you are the dumbest human being that ever lived. You know good and well that was built in 1877.' But they didn't know. When they got off the bus, they said, 'How'd you learn all this?'

            "One of my friends even walked up to me and said that her son had taken my tour," Mrs. Culpepper said. "He came home and told her some of the things I'd told him and my friend said, 'She doesn't know all that. She made it up.' I hope she was teasing."

 

Our thanks to Mary Deese, Roman Life, Staff writer, Rome News-Tribune