A 125-year-old Atlanta mansion hits the market
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The historic Rufus M. Rose House qualifies for state and federal tax credits. Photos: Courtesy of Rachel Tobin/TobinInk
For 125 years, the historic Rufus M. Rose House on Peachtree Street has been a family home, an eclectic museum and antique store, and preservation offices.
- Now you can make it yours for $2.58 million.
Why it matters: The Victorian mansion — built in 1901 for Rose, an Atlanta physician and founder of the R.M. Rose Distillery in Vinings — has waited decades for a new chapter.
- The red-brick home is the last house standing from a pre-automobile era when Peachtree was Atlanta's Millionaires' Row.
Catch up quick: In 1945, antique collector J.H. Elliot Sr., bought the home and opened the Atlanta Museum to showcase esoterica both local (writer Margaret Mitchell's wing chair) and global (an Ethiopian emperor's throne chair).
- The Atlanta Preservation Center used the building as an office around 1999 after Elliott's son, who took over the museum, died. For the past 25 years, it's sat empty and passed from owner to owner.
Zoom in: Behind the boarded-up windows and chain-link fencing, the mansion still has original woodwork, mouldings and other features.
- The current owner has spent more than $250,000 replacing the house's wooden structure, according to the listing.
Context: The 0.164-acre property — there's not much of a backyard to speak of — sits between the Fox Theatre and the planned first phase of The Stitch, a proposal to cap the Downtown Connector with a park.
What they're saying: Rare buildings like the Rose House help anchor Atlanta to its past, David Y. Mitchell, executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center, told Axios.
- "Our love affair for real estate in this city should also be governed by the fact that if we know so much, and we can do so much, then a building like this should not be looked upon as a problem, but as an opportunity."
State of play: The property no longer fits into the owner's portfolio and they're willing to finance the deal, so you're dealing with a motivated seller, the listing says.
- The building has city landmark status and sits on the National Register of Historic Places and could qualify for state and federal tax credits.
What we're watching: Whether whoever buys the house has a vision to bring a piece of Atlanta history back to life, not just keep it standing.