Advocacy and education to promote the preservation of Atlanta’s architecturally, historically and culturally significant buildings, neighborhoods and landscapes.

The Atlanta Preservation Center has over 30 years of investments in actions to preserve Atlanta's historic and culturally significant buildings, neighborhoods and landscapes:

1979-1990

• The Atlanta Preservation Center (APC) begins operation; opening its first office in the Healey Building, before moving to the Flatiron Building in 1985
• Holds preservation courses at Academy of Medicine, publishes Preservation Resource Guide, develops a Heritage Education program
• Assists in formation of Capitol Commission to protect State Capitol building, assists in survey of 600 buildings in Vine City
• Begins Fairlie-Poplar (Historic Downtown), Inman Park and Fox Theatre tours
• Assists in developing and obtaining funding for City’s Comprehensive Preservation Program signed into law in 1988
• Co-founds Easements Atlanta in 1984
• Works to stop Pershing Point apartment’s demolition, Seaboard Railroad rail/truck terminal in Cabbagetown, and Presidential Parkway
• Wins Atlanta Urban Design Commission award for increasing public awareness of historic preservation in Atlanta

 

  

1990-2000

  

• Advocates for Georgian Terrace, Biltmore, Olympia Building and Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill
• Facilitates City historic designation of West End, Citizens & Southern National Bank and Palmer/Phelan Apartments
• Begins Sweet Auburn/MLK, Druid Hills and Ansley Park tours
• Introduces Box City©, Sweet Auburn "Street of Dreams," Inman Park and Stories Worth Sharing – the Heritage of Atlanta’s African American Neighborhoods programs to metro area schools
• Begins "Live in a Landmark" workshop for homeowners and Bottom Line workshop for developers
• Develops Worst Losses and Endangered Properties list
• Works for tax abatement for designated historic properties
• Inventories outdoor sculpture – Save Our Sculpture (SOS) which receives Georgia Trust Preservation Award  in 1985
• Joins with STOP to preserve Piedmont Park
• Wins “Outstanding Nonprofit Management” award from Metropolitan Atlanta Community Foundation.
• Moves offices to The DeSoto in 1992 and Rufus Rose House in 1999
   

 

2000-2009

 

• Leads a seven-year effort to save Ivy Hall/Peters Mansion and its grounds, believed to be the earliest Queen Anne style house in the region and Atlanta’s oldest surviving domestic landscape. This results in an exemplary project, preserving historic resources and allowing a complimentary development
• 2001: Purchases 1856 Lemuel Pratt Grant Mansion, deemed “Atlanta’s most historic building” by Franklin Garrett, to prevent its destruction. Embarks on long-term restoration efforts including masonry stabilization, enclosure, reroofing, restoration of historic windows and woodwork and purchase of additional property to restore 1906 lot boundaries
• Develops architectural artifacts garden on Grant Mansion grounds
• Assists Historic Brookhaven Foundation’s efforts with local historic designation
• Conducts historic buildings survey of Peachtree Heights West, the only Carrere and Hastings designed suburban development, and works for its local historic designation
• Works to prevent demolition of Pascal’s Restaurant and a block of Auburn Avenue/M.L. King Jr. Historic District
• Fights demolition of Randolph Lucas House
• Works for preservation of D.A.R. building (Craigie House), Judge Wm. Wilson house, Ft. McPherson, The Castle, Pickrick Restaurant building and other buildings and sites on APC’s updated Endangered Buildings list
• Works for expansion of Midtown and Ft. McPherson Historic Districts
• Assists with historic district designation of Castleberry Hill and Atkins Park
• Leads fight to preserve Crum and Forster Building and develops its Landmark designation that is assigned in 2009
• Assists in AUDC Historic Resources Survey
• Establishes Historic Neighborhood Coalition
• Conducts damage survey of historic properties after March 2008 tornado
• Begins Grant Park, Historic Midtown, SoNo-Midtown Commercial District, and Rails to the Future tours; starts Twilight Tours of Druid Hills and Inman Park
• Initiates Camp Preservation series in 2004, including Mystery in the City and City Sleuths
• Partners with Museum of Design for teacher workshops
• Produces Preservation Exposition series which spotlights historic sites and neighborhoods
• Develops and presents Ancients and Moderns lecture series to examine 20th century architecture; advocates for preservation of Modernist architecture
• Develops preservation principles and action steps for the BeltLine
• Creates The Phoenix Flies preservation celebration in 2003
• Wins awards: 2002 Best of Atlanta, 2004 AUDC preservation service, AUDC Jennie Thurston to Executive Director Boyd Coons for outstanding preservation professional, and 2009 AUDC for saving Edward C. Peters House

2010-Present

•  Advocates to prevent demolition of Crum and Forster Building
•  Completes restoration of windows in Grant Mansion
•  Replaces front and back porches on Grant Mansion, adding handicap parking and access 
•  Advocates for keeping original street names in downtown Atlanta
•  Hosts book signings at Grant Mansion
• Advocates against demolition of historic Hirsch Hall and Feebeck Hall on Grady Hospital Campus
• Advocacy Committee introduces Sacred Spaces Tour
• Installs replica of original Sidney Lanier bust in Piedmont Park
• Hosts Conversations with Negro Baseball Legends
• Recognizes Beauchamp Carr for his decades of contributions to historic preservation
• Presents art exhibits in Grant Mansion’s Gallery Drawing Room
• Presents Decennial Phoenix Flies:  A City-Wide Celebration of Living Landmark

• Recognizes Harry L. Gilham for his years of leadership and financial support to APC

• Continues restoration of Lemuel Pratt Grant Mansion

• Hosts book lectures and signings

• Participates in Sesquicentennial of Civil War's Battle of Atlanta Commission

• Opens Lemuel Pratt Grant Mansion to Grant Park Neighborhood's Spring and Christmas home tours

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