4 Artists, 4 Artists' Collections in 4 Grant Park Bungalows

How do Atlanta artists "do" their homes? Who do they collect? Is collecting just for the elite? Are artists good designers? This was an architecture tourist 3-fer: Artists and their collections in century old bungalows.

It was the Burnaway.org Grant Park Artists Collection Tour, featuring the homes and collections of four Atlanta artists: Mark Leibert, Terri Dilling, Jonathan Bouknight and Katherine Taylor.

In this Atlanta season we have high profile tours: the Atlanta Symphony Show House, the Inman Park and Driud Hills tours. I do love them. But the Burnaway tour was under the radar. The houses weren't freshly renovated, redecorated, or staged, folks just lived there.


Here are two Burnaway "bigs" Susannah Darrow and Rachel Reese selling tickets at the season opening Grant Park Farmers Market on April 21. It was fine day for home grown food, Hula Hoops and home tours.

House 1: "I realized it could hold a lot more art."
The artist was a print-maker among other things and print-makers trade and collect their friends. Paintings, sculpture, folk art, ceramics, sense of humor. Art everywhere low and high. Cozy, comfortable warm yet plenty of challenge. The house's color pallet obviously curated by a color-wise artist. Public rooms on an enfilade on the west side of the house. First class design of master, family room, kitchen on the back. Narrow deep lot that bordered the SE Atlanta BeltLine. One of the most charming front-porch streets in Grant Park or anywhere.


House 1 had this black bird print by my neighbor Gena Spivey VanderKloot.


Irises in the pediment.

House 2: Child and Parent Raising
A corner house, a "must see inside." They were cooking up a late lunch. A bit sparser with a sense of big bungalow volumes. Art, prints, books, photos, maps, furniture with plenty of space left. An historic theme perhaps. Child's presence everywhere. Bright child art. Warm indestructible feel. The corner kitchen held furniture, not just kitchen cabinets. The 100 year old house had all the space necessary and the flexibility for several more generations of maturing families.


This wasn't in House 2 but...

House 3: Older, Quirkier Bungalow Goodness.
You don't see this floor-plan in the magazines. Early-mid career couple curated. Probably much more detailed than average when built. Shady. Evidence of glory then decline, then pioneer quirk, and much appreciation. Previous come-back owners clearly loved it. Every room a curiosity. Amazing furniture pieces. Some challanging art, a comfortable nude. Each hearth held a different gravel, I presume the originals were destroyed long ago. On an alley. There was a totem pole and mega-giant oaks in the back yard. My mind can't hold on the the floor plan: not odd but not everyday either.


House 3 window transom.

House 4: Young Artists with Space.
Focused on art, and making art and thinking about art and living in art. Hadn't yet accumulated room-loads of furniture so you could feel all the volume. The public rooms done as livable galleries. I got a personal tour of  the pieces. There was the most startling self-portrait of a friend done when she was 17 right inside the front door. A borrowed Shara Hughes set everything in spinning color. The stair hall had work hung knee-high, you had to look down. It also two red-spotted rectangles joined in a diagonal echoing the stair. Lace on yummy green background in the bathroom. Nearly everything stimulated.


House 4 window transom.

I think that this was my favorite home tour.
I was overwhelmed in the very first room.


Thanks Burnaway.org and Mark Leibert, Terri Dilling, Jonathan Bouknight and Katherine Taylor.

3 of 3: Bungalow Loved and Lost: Interiors in Ruin

I walked through this bungalow during its last days. If the property tax records are correct, it was 99 years old.

It went up for sale in the fall of 2011. It sold on May 17, 2012 for $400K according to public records, demolished starting March 20, 2013.

It was a very fine house in it's day.

See 1 of 3: Bungalow Loved and Lost: Was it by Leila Ross Wilburn? 
See 2 of 3: Bungalow Loved and Lost: The Exterior and Windows.


This was the dining with a fine south facing bay, butlers pantry to the right, living room through double pocket doors to the left.


This was close, Plan 521 in "Southern Homes and Bungalows" (1914) by Leila Ross Wilburn.


Living room beams and bay window.


They added a master bath, a fireplace in each bedroom, and beams in the living room and den.

I don't know when it became a duplex. They closed up the doors on the south side of the hall to make a party wall. Unit A to the left, Unit B to the right.



I'll show you around:


The back steps into Unit A. This was the southwest corner of the house.


Looking in from Unit A's back door, through the enclosed porch, kitchen, butlers pantry, dining room, and living room, it's an enfilade.


From the back doorway of Unit A's kitchen looking through the enclosed porch out through the back door. This was a nice laundry room. The door to the bedroom was to the right.


The Unit A bedroom was off the enclosed porch. They've salvaged the mantels. The bathroom door was to the left. The fireplace shared a chimney with the fireplace in the Unit B kitchen.


The Unit A bath, the master bath in it's day. They were salvaging the old tubs and fixtures.

I not sure that you can tell but this was a very comfortable bathroom, not so big but it had plenty of elbow room.


The enclosed porch ceiling was rough but the trim details were nice.


The original kitchen was retained as the Unit A kitchen. The doorway to the left was closed and became the party wall, the next door is to the pantry. The door to the right led through the butlers pantry into the dining room to the living room. They salvaged the paneled doors.


Looking from the central hall, this was closed off while it was a duplex.


Butlers pantry, kitchen to the left, dining room to the right.


Looking from the living room through the dining room into the butlers pantry and kitchen. They salvaged the door and baseboard trim.


There were pocket door between the living and dining rooms. They closed the door to the right and made it the party wall.


The Unit A living room. The dining room was through the doorway on the right.


The bay window to the front porch.


I showed you back to front in Unit A. Now I'll go front to back in Unit B.


The Unit B front door from the Unit B living room. There was one window facing the porch.


The Unit B living room had a triple window facing north.


They salvaged the brackets, they might have saved the beam lumber too.


This was the Unit B bedroom.


It had a fireplace. All the original bedrooms had a fireplace. The Unit B living room is through the door on the right but I suspect that was closed off so that you entered the bedroom from the central hall.


The Unit B bathroom was next toward the back.


This is from the central hall looking from the back towards the front door. The wall to the right was the party wall. On the left was the bathroom door, then the bedroom door. The door to the right led to the original dining room.


Looking from the central hall into the Unit A kitchen. This was closed off.


The back room of Unit B was originally a bedroom with a corner fireplace. They re-purposed it as the Unit B kitchen.You can just the see the rear foyer on the right. This fireplace shared a chimney with the Unit A bedroom fireplace.


The back door of Unit B. The double casement windows were to the Unit B kitchen, the single window to the bath.

There are a few more last look pictures if you'd like to see them.

That's it.





See 1 of 3: Bungalow Loved and Lost: Was it by Leila Ross Wilburn? 
See 2 of 3: Bungalow Loved and Lost: The Exterior and Windows.

2 of 3: Bungalow Loved and Lost: The Exterior and Windows

It's hard to believe this was standing in Virginia Highland less than a month ago, perhaps in rural Georgia but not here. It was a 1914 bungalow converted to a duplex.

1 of 3: Bungalow Loved and Lost: Was it by Leila Ross Wilburn?
3 of 3: Bungalow Loved and Lost: Interiors in Ruin

I'll start out back and walk around clockwise.

 
This is the back, the west side.

 
The back and back stair to Unit A.


This is the north side. I'd guess they added the door and steps when the made it a duplex. The Unit B foyer was probably a bedroom closet.


From right to left: Bedroom casement (now Unit B kitchen), bathroom single double-hung, Bedroom T-shaped.


Painting the triangle glass probably saved a lot of painting time.


They painted all the side window triangles like this.


I don't recall seeing another T-shaped window like this. This was the Unit B bedroom window.


This was the north window to the original den, now the Unit B living room on the northeast corner.


Looking toward the west along the north wall.


The front faces east, Unit A to the left, Unit B to the right.


The single window facing east of the Unit B living room. They didn't paint the triangles on the front windows.


The bay window belonged to Unit A.


Sturdy craftsman detailing.


Straightforward and impressive.


This is the view from the front doors looking east across North Highland toward Grace Lutheran Church.


This is the overgrown south side.


The south side had a bay window on the dining room. It had a blue tarp for years.

It's shame. Even in ruin this was a great facade and nobody could see it.


To the back again.


I'm not enjoying this but I'm glad to have a few pictures.

1 of 3: Bungalow Loved and Lost: Was it by Leila Ross Wilburn?
3 of 3: Bungalow Loved and Lost: Interiors in Ruin