Owner to Donate Atlanta's Last Queen Anne to College for Renovation
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | Jan. 16, 2007
After more than five years of conflict over a condominium plan, Atlanta's last Queen Anne house will be restored by the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Built in 1883 by Edward Peters, whose father, Richard, was one of Atlanta's founding fathers, the two-and-a-half story brick house occupies a wooded 3.3-acre site in Midtown Atlanta. The house was open to the public as the Mansion Restaurant until it closed six years ago.
When the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) learned that a developer wanted to tear down the brick house to build condominiums, the school contacted S.D.H Development and negotiated a deal.
Next month, the developer will donate the house to the college, which will restore the house. The city council, which turned down S.D.H's plan last year, approved the new plan, allowing him to build condos 100 feet from the National Register-listed house.
"Everyone's happy," says Bob Dickensheets, SCAD preservation specialist. "Granted, there will be condos built, but following city guidelines, the mass and style will respectful of the mansion."
Designed by Swedish architect Gottfried Norrman (1846-1909), the Peters House is the oldest and only existing example of Queen Anne in the Atlanta area. Its slate roof is leaking, and a 2003 fire damaged other areas of the house. Both the Atlanta Preservation Center and the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation listed the Peters House as one of the city's most endangered places.
The Savannah College of Art and Design plans to turn the house into a cultural center for literature and the arts. Guest authors and artists will live at residence.
The $2.2 million restoration, which will begin next month, will take 18 months to two years to complete. Students will assist in the project, analyzing paint samples or doing research. So far, the college has restored 45 historic buildings.
As for the compromise that the school negotiated with S.D.H. Development, "Sometimes creative solutions are best," Dickensheets says. "It's one asset that preservationists have: Sometimes they can have a very creative solution to, business-wise, what appears to be a very complex problem."
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