The push to have Ansley Park’s Peachtree Circle designated as a city historic district took on a more urgent note this week after the demolition of one of the street’s oldest homes.
The new owners of 205 Peachtree Circle razed the American Craftsman-style home, which has stood in Ansley Park for more than a century, to build a larger house on the acre-plus residential lot.
The city approved the demolition permit before a moratorium was instated to prevent further teardowns in Ansley Park. The moratorium is another chapter in a long, fraught effort by homeowners to gain a historic landmark designation for the entire neighborhood.
While Ansley Park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, that designation does not prevent the demolition or alteration of the facades of homes. Only a city-granted historic landmark designation can do that. And that’s been a sticking point for decades.
The last movement to get historic district protection for the neighborhood fell apart in 2022 after residents became bitterly divided over the issue. Some residents didn’t want the burden of historic preservation requirements, championing the rights of individual property owners. A lawsuit filed by one of the property rights advocates ended the movement.
However, residents along Peachtree Circle, the neighborhood’s main thoroughfare, lined with historic homes, submitted paperwork with the city last June in an effort to have the street designated a city historic landmark.
Preservationists were bolstered by the Randolph-Lucas-Jones House receiving city landmark designation in July after it was saved from demolition and moved to Peachtree Circle by new owners Roger Smith and the late Christopher M. Jones.
More than six months later, some residents claim the City of Atlanta is slow-walking the application for historic status due to pressure from developers and the same homeowners who balked in 2022. The residents Rough Draft spoke to did not want to go on the record for fear of retaliation or being named in a lawsuit.
Atlanta City Councilman Alex Wan, whose district includes Ansley Park, said the historic designation was submitted to the Office of Design’s Historic Preservation Studio by 11 of the 60-plus property owners affected by potential landmark status.
“The Department has initiated a process to engage with all property owners within the proposed boundary to ascertain the future of the application,” Wan said in a statement to Rough Draft. “The process is ongoing.”
Doug Young, director of the Office of Design, also denied that the process was stalled in his office. Young said the Historic Preservation Studio staff participated in an open community forum on Dec. 9 hosted by Wan.
The meeting, according to Young, was to discuss the basics of the City’s historic designation process, what it means to be in a historic district, and to answer the community’s questions. We are currently reviewing the application package and encouraging the proponents of the proposed Historic District to continue to gather input on the proposal from the property owners who would be affected by the proposed Historic District.”
Young said the Office of Design will send a package of materials called a “Notice of Intent to Nominate” to begin the formal City of Atlanta nomination/designation process and will notify property owners of the city’s public hearings and actions.
One resident who spoke to Rough Draft on condition of anonymity said the nominators pressed Wan and the Office of Design for months to have the December meeting. The resident said Peachtree Circle residents were afraid of making any public statement out of fear of being sued or targeted by opposing neighbors until the city had “officially” begun the formal designation process.
Atlanta Preservation Center Executive Director David Y. Mitchell said the demolition of 205 Peachtree Circle should be a “rallying cry” for the city.
“Due to a lack of traditional protections and oversight, there was nothing to prohibit the demolition of 205,” Mitchell said. “I hope this serves to remind people that these historic homes make neighborhoods what they are.”
“At some point, historic preservation has to be not just the desire of a certain few, but a collective community that is proud of their neighborhood and its places. The loss of 205 Peachtree Circle should be a rallying cry to do just that. Don’t shrug your shoulders and say, ‘maybe next time.’”
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