Tyler Perry Studios at Fort McPherson

Lyrics

[Intro]
Alright, everyone, right this way. Mind the curb.
Breathe it in. That's three hundred and thirty acres of history under your feet.
Two histories, really.
Layered one on top of the other.

[Verse 1]
This was Fort McPherson. U.S. Army. Founded 1889.
Named for General James Birdseye McPherson, a Union man who fell in the Battle of Atlanta, 1864. Just over the rise.
For over a century, this was a place of departure. A place of orders.
This parade ground we're standing on... it felt the boots of soldiers heading to five different wars.
A different kind of production entirely.

[Chorus]
But the drills are done. The bugle calls are quiet now.
Where soldiers drilled, now actors find their light.
Tyler Perry saw the bones of this place in 2015.
He saw the soundstages sleeping inside the barracks.
From marching orders to movie scripts.
From a fort defending a city to a studio projecting its dreams.

[Verse 2]
See those brick buildings with the wide porches? The ones under the old oaks?
Officers' quarters. Now they're writers' rooms, production offices.
We have twelve dedicated soundstages, each one humming. 
Named for the legends. Poitier, Winfrey, Goldberg, Washington.
A new set of founding heroes for this ground.
The old mission is decommissioned. The new one is rolling.

[Chorus]
Because the drills are done. The bugle calls are quiet now.
Where soldiers drilled, now actors find their light.
Tyler Perry saw the bones of this place in 2015.
He saw the soundstages sleeping inside the barracks.
From marching orders to movie scripts.
From a fort defending a city to a studio projecting its dreams.

[Bridge]
Now, over here... this is my favorite part. Follow me.
See that low concrete mound, half-hidden by the Georgia pines?
A World War Two ammunition bunker. Built to hold things that could level a city block.
We keep the prop weapons in there now.
The swords, the sci-fi blasters, the fake blood packs.
From real power to the power of story.

[Outro]
So this is the new anchor of the Westside.
This is Atlanta's dream factory.
Listen close...
That's the sound of stories being shipped to the world.
Still a place of departure.
Just a different destination.