John C. Portman, Jr. of Edwards & Portman. Antoine Graves Homes (1966-2009). Sweet Auburn, Atlanta.1234 Photograph by Edmund W. Hughes of Bell & Stanton Inc, dated February 28, 1967.
References
Coleman, George M. “Mayor Allen, Others Break Ground For New Antoine Graves Homes”. Atlanta Daily World, April 28, 1964, p. 1. ↩︎
“Homes for Elderly Fill Up Quickly”. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, May 8, 1966, p. 37. ↩︎
“City Architects Honored”. The Atlanta Journal, October 28, 1966, p. 14. ↩︎
Sensitive to the changing climate and highly vulnerable to disease, dogwoods are now rapidly becoming extinct in the forests of the Southeastern United States.
They’re also increasingly difficult to grow in even optimal conditions, and apart from the few weeks when they bloom each spring, I think they’re homely little trees.
I do, however, mourn for the birds, pollinators, and other animals that subsist on them, and I hope they can adapt more successfully than the trees have.
Many things will go extinct in my lifetime — the dogwood is likely one of them.
G.L. Norrman. William J. Speer Residence (1890-1911). Atlanta.1
The Background
The following excerpt is from an article published in The Atlanta Constitution in April 1891, and describes the William J. Speer Residence in Atlanta, built in 1890 and designed byG.L. Norrman.
The Speer residence was located on the northwest corner of Peachtree Street and North Avenue, at 544 Peachtree Street23 (later 620 Peachtree Street NE) in what is now Midtown Atlanta.
Location of William J. Speer Residence
About William J. Speer
In 1890, William J. Speer (1846-19314, pictured here5) served as assistant treasurer for the State of Georgia, first appointed in 1880 by his brother, Daniel Speer, who was the state treasurer.67 No nepotism there.
William J. Speer was elected state treasurer in 18968 and resigned from the position in 1900, citing unspecified health issues.9 He was re-elected in 1911 and served in the position until two weeks before his death at the age of 85, making him “the oldest state official in point of service.”10
G.L. Norrman was likely well acquainted with the Speer family: one of his earliest projects in Atlanta was for the Peachtree Street residence of Daniel Speer,1112 and Norrman and William J. Speer were both members of the Capital City Club.13
Design and Construction
If there’s a surviving photograph of the Speer residence, I’ve never seen it. However, based on the accompanying illustration shown above, it appears the home was a duplicate of Norrman’s plan for theSamuel McGowan Residence (1889, pictured below) in Abbeville, South Carolina, which still exists.
G.L. Norrman. Samuel McGowan Residence (1889). Abbeville, South Carolina.14
In 1889 and 1890, Norrman’s output rapidly increased, and with several large-scale commissions, his office was clearly swamped with work.
While he was never above reusing plans to save time and money, Norrman was usually savvy about concealing the practice, altering a home’s porches or roof line, for instance, or maybe adding a turret or other stylistic flourishes to differentiate its appearance from a design predecessor.
In this case, however, he didn’t even bother, only swapping out the McGowan house’s Queen Anne and Palladian elements for a nebulous Chateauesque skin on the Speer residence.
The materials were also substantially different: the McGowan house was built with cheaper wood siding and shingles, while Speer’s “palatial mansion”15 was faced with brick, stone, and terra cotta. Otherwise, besides a few altered windows, the two homes’ facades appear interchangeable.
For an architect whose “designs were noted for originality,”16 Norrman’s copy of his own work posed some reputational risk, yet with 150 miles between Atlanta and Abbeville, the chances were slim to none that anyone from either place would see both homes.
The Speer residence was first announced in March 1889 with an estimated cost of $40,000 to $50,000.1718 While the home was under construction in December 1889, it was said to be “one of the most magnificent and costly on Peachtree.”19 As completion neared in January 1890, the project’s cost was reported as both $20,0002021 and $30,000.22
About the Interior
In October 1890, the Speers hosted their first formal event in the new residence, described as the “first elaborate reception given this season.”23 The party ostensibly celebrated the Speers’ daughter, Annie, who made her formal social debut the previous year.24
Managing the state treasury was obviously lucrative, and the Speers used the event to show off their home’s lavishly-appointed interiors, which the Constitution predictably gushed over in exacting detail:
“The guests entered a splendid hallway, with a massive mantel opposite the front portal. On either side the mirrors were superb candelabras of beaten silver, with candles of pale pink and blue. The woodwork is of English oak. The wide hearth has brown tiling, and is finished with beaten bronze. The back of the great fireplace has a superb bronze basrelief [sic]. A carved oak arch on the left and an arched passageway gives a view of the winding, carved oaken stairway, with its wide landing and its rich opaline glass windows. The carpet is in … browns and tans, so is the wall, and the chandeliers are of colored bronze.
The interior of the house was planned by Mrs. Speer, but Mr. Speer furnished the library, one of the most tasteful and elegant apartments. The window and book case curtains are of yellow Indian silk. The carpet is an Axminster in rich, dull tones, the walls are pale chocolate, the wood work carved English oak and the furniture deliciously comfortable and easy, is of carved oak upholstered in plain and stamped leather.
Two oak chairs with odd, richly carved backs and seats of handsomely stamped leather are particularly beautiful and unique; the ornaments of bronze and terracotta on the mantel are superb.
The … drawing room is all in the daintiest tones. The walls and rich carpet are pale blue and cream; the hangings white lace and pale blue India silk, sprinkled with flowers; the chandeliers silver, with white tapers encircling the large center globe light. The superb Louis X furniture was made to order and is upholostered in tapestry stuffs of richest brocade, with center pieces in quaint … designs. The drawing room opens into the dining room, whose carpet and walls are of delicate gray-blue. The furniture and wood work is cherry, the chandeliers silver. The chandeliers are as unique as handsome.”25
An Unhappy Home
Despite the opulence of their home, the Speers’ domestic life wasn’t a charmed one.
In September 1903, Speer’s wife, Geraldine, filed for divorce, alleging that her husband was “an habitual drunkard, having been continually drunk for over a year,”26 and that the couple had been effectively separated for three years. Mrs. Speer further claimed that her husband had recently come home in a drunken rage and assaulted their son, John, leaving her fearing for her life.2728
“A handsome residence on Peachtree street is not always enough to make a woman satisfied,” one newspaper quipped.29
And that wasn’t the first violent incident in the home.
The Wood Affair
On the morning of December 20, 1902, Mrs. W.J. Wood entered the parlor of the Speer residence and fired a gun at Mary Ballinger, a seamstress who worked for the family.3031
“You know that you have come between my husband and myself and caused him to abuse me,”32 Wood reportedly screamed at Ballinger as she whipped out a .32 caliber pistol, shooting four times but missing her target.3334
Wood’s husband was a “well known bartender”35 at the Globe Saloon on North Broad Street,36 and she suspected that Ballinger was “responsible for the alienation of her husband’s affections.”37
Wood turned herself in to the authorities shortly after the shooting, declaring, “I have killed her! I have killed her!” Upon learning that Ballinger was unharmed, it was said that Wood’s “only regret is that she did not succeed.”38
An attempt to declare Wood insane failed,3940 and she was released from jail within days.4142 It was hardly surprising when she tried to murder her husband seven months later at his apartment on Marietta Street, shooting him five times, once successfully in the abdomen4344 — apparently her aim improved.
When she was found hiding in a house on Hill Street and subsequently arrested, Wood reportedly said, “Is he dead? I hope he is. He has ruined my life; he has wrecked my hopes. I had to do it. I was forced to do it. I hope he will die; oh! I hope he will die!”45 Atlanta’s hysterical narcissism is exhausting.
A Quiet Demise
Needless to say, a shooting inside a Peachtree Street home “caused a sensation in that neighborhood,”46 and the Speers’ divorce soon afterward must have inflicted irreparable damage on the family’s social standing.
Always objective, the local press reported Geraldine’s claims with a tone of heavy skepticism. “None of his friends here believe the charges…that he has been guilty of drunkenness and cruelty,” one article stated.47 Typical.
Geraldine Speer dropped an alimony suit against her husband when he paid her a lump-sum settlement in September 1903,4849 and the divorce was finalized in 1906.50
After 14 years in the home, in May 1904, Geraldine and her four children moved south of Atlanta to the nearby town of College Park, Georgia,51 a far cry from the tony trappings of Peachtree Street. Her death in January 1909 was barely noted in the Atlanta newspapers.5253
Later biographies of William J. Speer were thoroughly revisionist, omitting any mention of the divorce and falsely claiming he married his second wife following Geraldine’s death.5455 Such are the lies history is built on.
Quiet Passing
The former Speer residence was quietly sold in summer 1904 to Mr. and Mrs. J. Wylie Pope,56 who made $1,500 worth of unspecified “repairs and additions” to the structure in 1905.57 When the Popes occupied the property, it was described as “one of the few homes in Atlanta that has a large and beautiful rose garden attached.”58 So there’s that.
In 1908, the Popes moved into an apartment in Atlanta’s Majestic Hotel, selling the home to J.C. Cooper of Athens, Georgia,59 who, in turn, sold the property to a pair of developers sometime after late 1910.6061
By 1911, Peachtree Street was rapidly transforming into a primarily commercial corridor, and the fussy grand homes built just a decade or two earlier had already become outmoded as Atlanta’s wealthiest citizens either moved out to the suburban developments of Ansley Park, Druid Hills, and Buckhead or began occupying luxury apartments in the city.
With the towering Georgian Terrace Hotel rising one block north of the 21-year-old Speer house, there was barely a peep when the home was demolished in May 1911,6263replaced by a one-story building with four retail stores.6465
Article Excerpt
The residence of Mr. Speer, built on the corner of North avenue and Peachtree street, is in the early French renaissance style, more commonly known as Chateau. The exterior is composed of brick, stone and terra-cotta. A wide veranda runs the whole front and terminates on each side near the middle elevation. The front entrance is a stone and terra-cotta archway, openings with a wide vestibule with tile floors and archesleading out on verandas on each side. The hall and stairway are finished in oak, and has at one end an octagon bay window with seats, and at the other a large fireplace, with seats and at the other a large fireplace with seats under the arch which runs up to the first landing on the stairs, and from which you can look down into the hall. Sliding doors connect the hall, sitting room, parlor and dining room, so that, when thrown open, the whole front of the first floor is utilized. The parlor is finished in maple with elaborate carvings on mantel and in panels. The dining room is finished in oak, and contains a magnificent sideboard, and aisles so connected as to make all the details of the room correspond and harmonize.
The house is a perfect harmony throughout, and reflects great credit upon Mr. G.L. Norrman, the architect.66
References
Illustration credit: “New Homes On The Peachtrees.” The Atlanta Constitution, April 19, 1891, p. 10. ↩︎
Francis P. Smith of Pringle & Smith. Capitol View Masonic Temple (1923). Capitol View, Atlanta.1234Windows on the east facade of the Capitol View Masonic TempleSouth facade of the Capitol View Masonic TempleLimestone facing and pediment on the southeast entrance of the Capitol View Masonic TempleDentilled cornice on the east facade of the Capitol View Masonic TempleCornice on the south facade of the Capitol View Masonic TempleCornice, frieze, and architrave on the east facade of the Capitol View Masonic TemplePilasters with Corinthian capitals on the east facade of the Capitol View Masonic TempleLimestone facing on the southeast entrance of the Capitol View Masonic TempleGround-floor store window on the south facade of the Capitol View Masonic TempleArch window on the south facade of the Capitol View Masonic Temple
References
“Masons To Begin Work On Temple”. The Atlanta Journal, August 27, 1922, p. 8F ↩︎
“New Temple Of The Capitol View Masonic Lodge”. The Atlanta Journal, November 4, 1923, p. 8F. ↩︎
“Development Work In Capitol View Near Completion”. The Atlanta Journal, September 30, 1923, p. 8C. ↩︎
Craig, Robert M.The Architecture of Francis Pringle Smith: Atlanta’s Scholar-Architect. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press (2012). ↩︎
I remember the time we were alone in some remote canyon, and I watched, mesmerized, as he scaled the wall in front of me. The veins in his arms and legs were bulging, and every muscle in his sinewy body seized as he skillfully placed his hands and feet in all the right crevices, his naked flesh glowing with sweat.
I was awestruck by the grace and swiftness of his movements, his near-superhuman strength and endurance. Tears began pouring down my cheeks as I realized he was the most strikingly beautiful human being I had ever seen — still is.
No one on the street would give him a second glance: his initial presence is quiet and unobtrusive, and while reasonably handsome, his face is not unlike that of a million other men.
I still remember the first time I saw him walking in the door, though — I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I’d never experienced a moment so rapturous, and nothing has matched it since. My heart leapt inside me as if I had rediscovered a long-lost companion, although, to my knowledge, I’d never even seen him before.
Our connection wasn’t immediate at all: the first time we were alone together, we barely spoke a word. I was too busy trying to figure him out, trying to make sense of what my gut was screaming at me. Back then, I lacked the courage to trust my inner guidance.
In truth, he also irritated me a little — he was so distant and aloof, so maddeningly lost in his own thoughts until something triggered him to speak. Honestly, he was a lot like me. So this is how other people perceive me, I thought.
When the flame finally lit between us, though, the fire became all-consuming. He was the only person I’ve ever met whose mind seemed to operate on the same wavelength as mine. Our conversations were deep, absorbing, and intoxicating, often lasting for hours.
He made me feel rejuvenated and alive: his presence was warming, comfortable, and familiar. I quickly felt I knew everything about him, somehow — not his biographical details, necessarily, but every line written on his soul.
The act of discourse with him elevated me: having been stuck in an emotional and spiritual abyss for years, I witnessed new sparks of light and hope descending on me in the darkness.
I admired him for his honesty and directness, his gentleness and humility. I judged him to be a deeply honorable man, perhaps the only one I’ve ever met. For the first time in my life, I studied another person’s character and found my own lacking.
His integrity and sincerity were refreshing, and I recognized that the deception and hypocrisy I had long turned to for survival no longer served me. His essence inspired me to change my behavior, to honor my own quiet nature.
The way out of my malaise was still unclear, but my senses were quickened and my imagination aroused. Long fatigued and embittered by a succession of frustrations and defeats, I finally found the strength to make the first steps toward a higher path again — to dare believe such a path even existed.
His arrival signaled the start of a time when the fragile form of an existence that I had constructed for myself began to disintegrate. I can neatly divide my life between the period before I knew him and the many years since.
I knew his presence in my life would be brief: he was only stopping for a little while, on his way to the far-off desert.
When he eventually left, I dreamed that his old home had burned, and as I walked among the charred remains, I spotted a single chair, untouched by the flames. I sat in the chair, alone, and began to contemplate.
His memory still inhabits my mind at least once a day, and when it does, I say a prayer of grace for him.
I believe grace is transmitted to any person when it’s petitioned on their behalf by another. When I pray for him, however, I suspect the effect is especially potent, guided by a powerful but invisible line of connection that somehow links us — and always will.
Wherever he may be, wandering in that desert, a part of my soul is still with him. One day, perhaps, we’ll meet again.
Historical research often yields few clear-cut answers, particularly when it involves small towns or rural areas with scant documentation. Such is the case with the Bartow M. Blount Residence in East Point, Georgia, designed byG.L. Norrman — a structure that likely never existed.
Bartow M. Blount (1859-1942,1 pictured here2) was the president of Blount & Bell (later the White Hickory Wagon Company34), a buggy manufacturing company he established in Atlanta in 1878.56
In 1885, Blount relocated the factory to nearby East Point,78 and in 1891, at the age of 35, he managed 150 employees, with the facility cranking out 6,000 wagons per year.9
East Point is a small suburb of Atlanta that sits on the doorstep of the city, only five miles southwest of West End — don’t even try to figure that one out. In 1890, the town had a population of just 738,10 and Blount was unquestionably its leading citizen, later becoming its first mayor.1112
In August 1889, The Atlanta Constitution reported that Blount bought two acres of “the D’Alvigny property at East Point,” with plans to “erect a handsome residence” on the land.13
Several months later, in January 1890, the Constitution listed a “residence for Mr. Blount, East Point, $5,000” in a description of G.L. Norrman’s planned or ongoing projects.1415
Norrman and Blount were both founding members of the Capital City Club1617 and were undoubtedly on familiar terms, so Norrman would have been a natural choice as the home’s designer. However, there’s no evidence it was actually built.
The East Point Riot
East Point has always had a reputation for being one of Atlanta’s more rough-and-tumble neighbors, and local newspapers at the time were particularly keen on stories of the town’s criminal activity following the “East Point Riot” of September 1889, spurred by the attempted rape of a young White girl by a 14-year-old Black boy, who was subsequently lynched by a masked mob.18
Amid unsubstantiated rumors the next evening that the “negroes were congregating for the avowed purpose of avenging the death of the negro boy,” a group of ten or more White men rode through the streets of East Point and whipped fourteen Black men,19 an act that was harshly rebuked by the state’s governor20 and was lambasted in the pages of the Constitution.212223
One state senator seized the opportunity, pushing for a bill to allow emigration agents to operate in Georgia, saying that he wished “to provide that if any of the northern or western states should see fit to send here for our surplus negroes they may be able to do so…”, citing “the assault of a pure white girl by a negro at East Point, a rendezvous for mean negroes.”24 Doesn’t sound too different from a 21st-century politician.
Ten men were ultimately arrested for the whippings, but their cases were all dismissed by the court because there was — here’s a running theme — “no evidence.”2526 Good ol’ Southern justice.
Back to Blount
Needless to say, you’d have been unlikely to find much of Atlanta’s rich White social set in East Point circa 1890, so the city newspapers didn’t print many stories about elegant dinner parties or tasteful residences in East Point — probably because there weren’t any. With that being said, there aren’t any news items about Blount moving into a new home that year.
Later reports stated that Blount planned to build a residence at East Point in the fall of 1894,2728 although I can’t find any evidence that it was constructed at that time either. Was the home planned in 1894 the same one Norrman had on the boards in 1890, or entirely different? We’ll never know.
City directories are often helpful in determining a property’s existence, but in this case, they’re useless. By the late 1890s, East Point residents were included in Atlanta’s directories, but the town apparently lacked numeric addresses, so Blount’s residence was listed as simply “East Point”.293031
A convoluted entry from a manuscript titled Early History of East Point, Georgia, provides the following information about land along East Point Street:
Dr. C. D’Alvigny, Sr. was the next purchaser and builder. He bought the property that belongs to Mr. B.M. Blount, at the time, had it cleared up and built a home, part of which is the Blount home, Mr. Blount having added several other rooms, and improvements.32
Based on that description, it appears Blount never built the homes planned in 1890 and 1894, but instead expanded and renovated an existing dwelling built by D’Alvigny.
Blount and his family moved to Atlanta circa 1900,33 and in 1901, he bought the Milton Dargan Residence on Piedmont Avenue34 — also designed by Norrman — becoming the home’s third owner in just four years. The Atlanta rich changed homes like their underwear back then.
The Dargan house should really be called the Blount Residence, because the Blounts lived in it far longer than the Dargans — by about 30 years — ultimately selling it in 1932,35 when they returned to East Point.
The White Hickory Wagon Company fell into receivership in April 1929 after defaulting on a $70,000 loan3637 — who the hell was still buying wagons at that point? — and with the failure of his company just months before the Depression started, I suspect Blount’s final years were bleak.
When he died at East Point in 1942, Blount’s residence was listed as 303 East Point Street3839 (later 2861 East Point Street), an ugly little 19th-century cottage that still survives. The structure has a plain vernacular design with a few clumsy embellishments and piecemeal additions, and I assume it’s the same home Blount occupied throughout the 1890s.
References
Bartow Blount Funeral To Be At 11:30 Tuesday”. The Atlanta Journal, April 6, 1942, p. 7. ↩︎
Illustration credit: “The Delegation Which Will Represent Fulton County At The State Convention.” The Atlanta Journal, June 2, 1896, p. 1. ↩︎
“Increasing Capital.” The Atlanta Constitution, April 21, 1893, p. 5. ↩︎
“The Delegation Which Will Represent Fulton County At The State Convention.” The Atlanta Journal, June 2, 1896, p. 1. ↩︎
“Notice of Dissolution.” The Atlanta Constitution, December 21, 1878, p. 2. ↩︎
“A Lovely Suburb.” The Atlanta Constitution, April 26, 1891, p. 7. ↩︎
“Wait For The Wagon.” The Atlanta Constitution, September 26, 1886, p. 2. ↩︎
“A Lovely Suburb.” The Atlanta Constitution, April 26, 1891, p. 7. ↩︎
Thompson, Sam N.Early History of East Point, Georgia, or, “A Historical Sketch of Pioneer Days”. East Point, Georgia: East Point Historical Society (1984). ↩︎
E. Fogette. Sacred Heart Catholic Church (1885). Abbeville, South Carolina.12Transept on the southeast elevation of Sacred Heart Catholic ChurchSteeple on Sacred Heart Catholic ChurchRose window on the southwest facade of Sacred Heart Catholic Church
