Some historic homes are preserved by restoring their walls, replacing their old roofs, and repairing the damage. But the Randolph-Lucas-Jones House in Atlanta required something else. It needed a police escort, utility crews to lift power lines out of its path, and a roof hinged down so each half could clear the route. Built in 1924, the 8,000-square-foot mansion was moved about 2 miles in 2013 after its new owners stepped in to save it from demolition, according to the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation.
Built for a Jefferson descendant
The Georgian Revival-style home was built in 1924 for Hollins Nicholas Randolph, an Atlanta attorney and businessman and the great-great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson. The house was designed by architect P. Thornton Mayre, who also helped build the Fox Theatre. The home’s design was based on the plan of Randolph’s ancestral home near Charlottesville, Virginia. The Randolphs lived there for about a decade before selling it to Margaret Lucas in 1935. Her husband, Arthur, operated several cinemas around the city, according to Rough Draft Atlanta. She stayed until her death in 1987. The house later became a fixture of fiction, too. A painting of it appeared on the cover of Anne Rivers Siddons’s 1988 bestselling novel Peachtree Road.
The sale and trouble
In 1998, the Lucas family sold the property to the 2500 Peachtree Condo Association. During this time, the house was shifted forward on its lot, with plans to use it as a clubhouse and an event space. Maintenance bills quickly ended that idea, and the house fell into disrepair. By the autumn of 2012, the association held a city demolition permit and was offering the house free to anyone who could move it.Roger Smith and his husband, the late preservation advocate Christopher M. Jones, got the news while they were at a function at the Atlanta History Center. City Council member Mary Norwood pulled Jones into a corner for a private conversation. “Mary came up to us and pulled Christopher away into a corner for a private conversation. She told him the house was going to be demolished, and I think he decided that night we had to save it,” Smith told the outlet. Their firm, NewTown Partners, focused on distressed historic properties. Smith and Jones were chosen as project partners in January 2013. They closed on the empty lot at 78 Peachtree Circle in Ansley Park on May 30, which became the house’s new location. They also agreed to donate a preservation façade easement to the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, so the exterior could never be torn down. The project reportedly had a $1.5 million budget.