Placing Public Landmarks - Recessed Porticos in 3 I-Shaped Atlanta Buildings

These still "class up the joint." One now serves as a Y.W.C.A. after almost 70 years as a church. The other two are abandoned for now.



Architecture tourists can learn something from these. But as your know-nothing host, I can only ask questions.



Are there similar buildings in the Atlanta area? What are the precedents for buildings like these?

Where do public landmarks belong?

This quote from Jane Jacobs rings true to me, a partial explanation of why some of our streets are beloved while others are bores.

"Most landmarks and focal points in cities - of which we need more, not fewer - come from the contrast of use radically different from its surroundings, and therefore inherently special-looking, happily located to make some drama and contrast of the inherent difference ... noble buildings ... set within the matrix of the city, instead being sorted out and withdrawn into 'courts of honor'"- Page 228, ”The Death and Life of Great American Cities” - Jane Jacobs, Vintage Books Edition 1991

The 1930 Lizzie Chapel in Inman Park is the least detailed. Though abandoned and surrounded by many of Atlanta's best Victorians, I like it every time.


Broad shoulders, ionic columns in antis, pediment, attic story. I can imagine the life this added on Sundays, and Wednesdays, and for big Saturday weddings in it's heyday.


The arms if the "I" aren't pronounced but there they are. The pilasters suggest another recessed portico.

The 1924 First Associate Reformed Prebyterian Church was re-purposed as the Northeast Intown YWCA in 1991. It's active 7 days a week. (Re-purposed churches from SacredPlaces.org).


Columns in antis, massive entablature, a suggestion of a gable, fine steps for people watching. I think Highland Avenue strollers get a boost every time they pass. I do.


It may be stretching to call it an "I." It's a capital "T" or wobbly "H." Fine work by Surber & Barber Architects and Carter-DeGolian General Contractors kept this building vital and flexible. I wonder what those tall sanctuary windows were like when it was a church. You might be interested in the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for the Virginia-Highlands Historic District.

The 1926 Crum & Forster Building by Atlanta architects, Ed Ivey and Lewis Crook was an office building. It's abandoned, owned by Georgia Tech, and at risk.


The details are Italian rather than Greek but the portico and the "I" are there.


I think this is a fine building but I haven't fallen in love with it. How well does it serve as a public landmark?

Disappointing Before and After in Inman Park

Last week I blogged Lizzie Chapel in Inman Park, this week it suffered a tagging.

.

Inside Lizzie Chapel in Inman Park

I noticed the door was open. I knocked, poked my head inside, and they let me have a lo0k.

"Known affectionately and inexplicably to Inman Park residents as Lizzie Chapel, this vacant church on the eastern corner of where Druid Circle meets Euclid Avenue was built in 1930 for the Atlanta Gospel Tabernacle. The parking lot once held the Inman Park Presbyterian Church, where Inman Park founders such as the Kings, Hales, and the Hurts attended" - p 67, Inman Park (Images of America: Georgia) by Christine V. Marr and Sharon Foster Jones

I've been driving by the intersections of Euclid, Edgewood, Delta, and Druid Circle forever. I've been hoping to see inside.


Though it's in the midst of restored "grand dame" Victorian houses, Lizzie Chapel - even gone to seed - still holds its own.

It's welcoming in a way no private house can be.

And if it's raining, we can duck under the portico.


You can see this yellow dame from the parking lot. Makes me want to live in the parking lot


I talked with Carolyn at the Atlanta Preservation Center. She said a congregation met there as late as 2005. She thought it had burned twice, the windows aren't original nor were the insides.


There is a Lizzie Chapel in Macon: The Lizzie Chapel Baptist Church, and it's still going strong. And there was a Lizzie Denton:

"In 1892 a group of believers attending Bloomfield Baptist Church in Macon became interested in starting their own church. They began praying for God to show them where the church should be built. One of these believers, Mrs. Lizzie Denton, had a dream where God showed her that the church should be located at Bartlett and Berry Streets." Reflections Church History

I wonder if the Macon Lizzie Chapel is the mother church of ours in Inman Park.


Time to head inside.


The pews are gone. Original or not the windows are beautiful.

The space is in mid restoration. Why, I don't know. It won't be a church again. Too bad I think.


It's freshly painted waiting for finishing touches.


This is the view from the choir about noon.


Ample balcony, no hiding from the preacher up here.


The windows are minimal but big.


I wouldn't call this minimal, exactly.


The baptismal looks relatively new. Is this a fire repair?

"...parts of it burned, and Inman Park neighbors helped restore it. I can't remember when that was, but it was "modern" times - like the 1980s - my best guess." - Sharon Foster Jones

Sharon sent me this post card from between 1930 and 1945.


There is still a First Alliance Church in Atlanta. It's on Druid Hills Road, I pass it every week. So I called them.

It is the very same church. In fact they still have a member who attended in Inman Park. Maybe we can find out where Lizzie came from.

Their history in Atlanta dates back to 1899. They built their Inman Park church in 1930 as the Atlanta Baptist Tabernacle after the former Tabernacle on Capital Avenue burned.

They moved from Inman Park to their new Druid Hills church in 1964.

They know nothing about the Lizzie Chapel name. That must have come after they left the building.


I couldn't see the cornerstone very well. What I can see is confusing. It's discouraging that someone removed several names. I know the Pharaohs did that sort of thing.

The First Alliance Church folks told me they'd been contacted recently because developers were considering tearing Lizzie down.

But tearing it down will be tough for many reasons.


It's a contributing property "...any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant."


Developers are trying to re-purpose it to residential. It's certainly a challenging project.


I wanted to see inside and got more than I bargained for.

It's raised enough questions for many more blog posts.

Four Coats, Mural #1 by Tommy Taylor

"Four Coats" is an Atlanta project: 4 walls by 4 artists from 4 galleries. I toured all four for the opening on July 30.

Tommy Taylor's Four Coats mural is on Elizabeth St. in Inman Park.


Here is Tommy Taylor across the street from his work sponsored by whitespace. It's big, the side a a small building. The pink pops.

Here is an up close video of Tommy's.



And a drive-by starting on Highland in front of Soto Soto. You can see Tommy in the red shirt in front of the murl.


Coat #2 next.

Thanks to Nick Valencia (@CNNValencia), adviser to the Architecture Tourist media division.

Phoenix Flies Recap #7 - Inman Park United Methodist Church

It's looks it age. It's easy to imagine the very first gathering here, and the very latest. This was the walk-to church by and for the gentry of Atlanta's first suburb.I toured Inman Park United Methodist Church (1898 by Willis Franklin Denny, II) during the Atlanta Preservation Center's Phoenix Flies tour for 2011. As many times as I've driven by, as much as I've heard about it, this was my very first visit.


You see the shady north side from Edgewood. It's modest but dignified, very approachable, close to the the street and just a few steps up to the door. The two gables and little tower balance the big tower. Huge stained glass windows fill the north and west sides.


The west window at the rear of the sanctuary gets the full force afternoon sun. Towers and gables make a nice compact composition; I can imagine this as a Romanesque chapel in an ancient city.


There is nothing brand spanking new in here and who would want it? New babies and new brides, by all means.


Look up.


I'm a bit worried about the plaster but it's beautiful.


Bill Ogan showed us around. There is a veterans memorial in the hall.


The sacristy is a little library, museum, and archive.


If there is a big crowd, you can open these doors between the sanctuary and the fellowship hall.


The bridal room evokes memories from generations of weddings.

Are the windows Victorian? They aren't like others I've seen in Atlanta except maybe Central Presbyterian.


From the Martha Beale Candler window: "She did what she could." We all hope for that.


Spectacular.


"Though he slay me..."




The little windows charm.




Art Nuveau?




The Annie Winship window.


The May Louise Hanye window.

I hope you want wait as long as I did to visit.