Axios Atlanta

July 31, 2026
It's Friday, Atlanta! We made it!
- Seriously, we're here!
🌤️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny, with a high of 93 and a low of 73.
Situational awareness: Gov. Brian Kemp is advising state agency heads to halt spending as revenues flatten and federal funding cuts loom, the AJC reports.
- The move comes several months after Kemp signed a budget that included $1.3 billion in income tax cuts.
🎂 Happy birthday to our Axios Atlanta members Paris Campeau, Alston Watt, and Amy Arogeti!
Today's newsletter is 942 words — a 3.5-minute read.
1 big thing: Downtown's last Victorian mansion
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.
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 building has city landmark status and sits on the National Register of Historic Places and could qualify for state and federal tax credits, the listing says.
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.
2. Apalachee mass shooter's dad gets 15 years in prison
The father of a Georgia teen who killed four people and wounded nine others in a 2024 mass shooting at Apalachee High School will spend 15 years in prison in connection with his child's crimes.
The latest: Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm on Thursday sentenced Colin Gray, 55, several months after a trial jury convicted him on more than two dozen charges including second-degree murder.
- The sentence came two days after Gray's 16-year-old son, Colt, was ordered by Primm to serve life in prison without parole for the killings of students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and math teachers Christina Irimie, 53, and Richard Aspinwall, 39.
What they're saying: Primm said Colin Gray was criminally negligent because he saw the warning signs that his son was obsessed with mass shooters.
- Gray also did not seek mental help for his son, get him involved in age-appropriate activities or monitor his computer use, according to Primm, nor did he secure the guns or remove them from his home.
- "You were convicted because the warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter, and you didn't get him help, and you didn't remove his access to the guns," Primm said.
The big picture: Gray's conviction and sentence is the first known case in Georgia, and second in the country, where a parent has been held criminally responsible for a mass shooting committed by their child.
What we're watching: Friday is the first day of school for students in Barrow County, and the Apalachee community is focused on healing.
3. Jovita Moore mural returns to Grant Park
Months after community backlash, Bellwood Coffee has replaced the mural of the late TV news anchor Jovita Moore it painted over ahead of the opening of its Grant Park location.
- The company said yesterday on Instagram the new mural by Tommy Bronx "celebrates Jovita the way so many remember her: radiant, full of warmth, and wearing the smile that made Atlanta feel a little more like home."
- It will also permanently include the JoMo drink, which is named in her honor, on its menu.
- Through the month of August, Bellwood said it will donate $2 from every JoMo purchased at the coffee shop to the National Brain Tumor Society.
Moore, who died in October 2021 after battling brain cancer, joined WSB-TV in 1998 and was named the evening newscast anchor in July 2012.
4. Five-ish Points: Karaoke bar's design feels out of tune, residents say
🧱 The South Downtown development team is slowing down and cutting staff post-World Cup to gauge how the neighborhood takes shape and decide future phases. (Saporta Report, AJC)
🎤 Reynoldstown residents and preservationists are opposing a proposed karaoke bar's plan to change the exterior of the Atlanta Dairies complex and darken the windows. (Saporta Report)
⚖️ Environmental groups plan to sue City Hall and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport over chronic pollution issues in the waterway. (WABE)
💵 A company linked to developer John Dewberry has paid off a loan tied to his hollowed-out, 20-story tower in Midtown, a move which could ease some pressure to redevelop or sell the controversial building. (Bisnow)
😋 Kristal can't wait to try As Ever's new blackberry spread.
👋 Thomas and his wife are hosting friends from out of town this weekend! Welcome back, Caitlin and Nathaniel!
This newsletter was edited by Crystal Hill.
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