Our neighborhood is old. Not 200 plus years, but it dates from 1854 when folk walked in the evening by lantern light to a church on Desoto.
A couple of years ago, our Capitol View neighborhood was designated as Historic. What level escapes me. The man who was supposed to ride on this disappeared with the papers and reappeared years later sans dossiers. So either the interest or the energy was dissipated.
There are a number of old historic houses here, including ours
(1880). They all seem to be tied into mayors, ( Ragsdale, who was mayor in 1930) plantations without slaves, (the Deckner House) Uncle John Shannon (a name in the Capitol View Manor neighborhood across Stewart Avenue (named for another farmer here during the turn of the century…) These houses are Victorian with some southern features. Ours in not. Our house was built by the Ragsdales after they came from Leistershire , England in the 1860. They founded “West End Horse and Mule” there.
There is so much history here, but Atlanta is well known for their anti-historic attitude and behavior. Tear down, destroy and put up buildings that look like Soviet era blocks. Ugh. Mostly, it’s a resentment of the Civil War , and anything white associated with it. The present fear of Civil War monuments creates a ‘trend’ in many blacks and white liberals. Not being from the south, I can’t really relate to their argument, but they should collectively take the Grand Tour of Europe and I think they….with some work, will see that their ‘issue’ here at home is …well, sort of silly, Just my opinion. Of course it’s not yours….
My concern is the new rash of contractors, investors, realestate agents. My God! Thirty years ago, we had to deal with the AHA who heavily larded this area with Section 8. That was a torment for many residents because these folk came from the torn down projects in Atlanta. They had never lived in a neighborhood besides those in the projects. Trouble brewed, mainly in the thievery of homeowner’s properties. We all went through it.
Now? Things are definitely changing.
Someone give these folk (contractors, etc.) a course in Historic Restoration. They tear out much of the original fittings, the windows, the trim, the ‘things’ that made these pre WWI houses, mostly Arts and Crafts….well, they make them very modern and their ‘charm’ is lost. They look too damn new. Especially the slumlords wantabees. They live far away and these houses are stripped of what makes their charm. They are just second or third rate investors/contractors. They could give a damn about period restoration.
Now, this isn’t every contractor…but many of them. So many of them here buy these houses just to use them as cash cows. They won’t come from Swanne, Ga., or Blue Ridge, or other parts north of Atlanta to live here, (and they lie and say: ”We are your neighbors” (but they aren’t…ever). They want these old and historic houses as ‘cash cows’. They do terrible renovations, nothing akin to restorations. Nothing Historic at all. There is no pre-thought by these slumlords, investors, etc. about the desire by many new buyers who are interested in the historic character of these houses…
I don’t know if this is just ignorance or greed. Some do make at least some attempt to ‘restore’ the houses, or failing that, they go ‘whole hog’ and produce basically new houses, but with quality work.
These are the rare contractors, but they do exist. Unfortunately, some of them, a few in particular, use the back lots of their newly purchased properties to stock with rubble, broken concrete and bricks (and the occasional toilet bowl) and board up windows. They don’t seem to ever get to renovations. This is not good for the neighborhood. It’s greed in a fuller sense. And they usually have a string of houses that they have done the same t. How are these ‘gentrifiers’ any different than the slumlords who proceeded them?
I remember my dear father, restoring a 1760’s house in New Jersey where I was raised. That house ultimately killed him. It was the year before his death, when two of his brothers and he were on the roofs of our house in the middle of August, stripping off the heavy slate and replacing them with metal and copper. They were all tinsmiths. Professionally.
That weekend there were over 230 years combined of Kohut men on that roof.
I remember the winter nights when my father was working on his car til 2am, his knuckles bleeding and frozen. I remember him plastering and whittling wood pegs to sink in the pine floors of his making. You could look from the old Attic (very large with a central chimney stack that was 20 feet around (three large fireplaces below that he restored and repointed.) and look straight through the three floors to the basement. Old license plates overed many holes in the flooring….dating from the 1920’s, etc.
I remember the river reeds he collected and dried in the attic to weave into rush bottom chairs. I remember how he made his own stains from the black walnuts and some mystery oils to stain the floors and the beautiful front staircase. I remember how much he cared about the character of the house and how he gloried (quietly) in those notes behind the mantels, and the piece of sandpaper with the name : Archie Skillman, 1764, hidden behind the mantel in the diningroom. Obviously a workman of the Wykoff-Cortelyous, the original residents of our house built somewhere in the 17??. The kitchen area with the huge fireplace and brick dutch oven was probably built in 1750. The rest of the house in the 1770’s to 1803. He devoted his life to that house.
I remember all this because I remember the dedication he had to making it right…to preserving the historic nature of the house. He did all this before there were power tools, like cordless drills, even table saws. He made his own by turning a skill saw upside down and sinking it into a work table he made for this. I remember that skill saw, or one like it . Pure steel and very heavy.
He was not much of a reader, not having the time and having three children to feed….plus our horses and the house….but he went and asked questions of brick layers, of cabinet builders, of historians in the houses (state mostly) that he visited. He educated himself on Historic Renovation. He believed that what was good should be preserved not ripped out. it was part of the character of the house.
I made some big mistakes at my house here in Atlanta. I got rid of the (rather plain) central ceiling light, the phone stand in the middle of the wall going up the stairs, (used by the neighborhood in the 1920’s on and we found dimes pushed in the pierced wood piece that held the bell for the phone.)and numerous other renovations. I am sorry , especially about our front porch. It was big and could have been easily restored but I went to Europe and when I came back I realized that front porch was put on in the 1930’s not 1880) So I had it ripped off. Now I miss it.
Sometimes you can’t save a house, but watch out who tells you so. There are investors, slumlords, etc. who want to buy your property, rip down that old Arts and Crafts house and build a rental. Or a house that will bring the 300-400,000.00 that seems to be the going price as we are in front of the Beltline. Amazing.
You just have to live long enough to see everything.
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2018
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