Blueprints for the Butler Mansion: The Winner

Well, it's Monday somewhere on the globe.  Due to the fact Bugsie was so clumsy as to accidentally close the poll earlier than she was supposed to, and since one house was far, far ahead of the other two contestants anyway, we think we can declare a winner. 

Here it is in all its glory, the house that has the dubious honor of best resembling the Butler Mansion: the James residence, aka the Governor's mansion, with 13 of our 16 votes. 

 Image from ATLhistory.com

 

As a bonus, an image of the Butler mansion as depicted in Gone with the Wind, the movie, where you can see the similarities between it and our winner.

Well, this has been a very fun series for us to write and we hope you enjoyed it as well. Thanks for voting!

Blueprints for the Butler Mansion: The Richards House

We must start this post with an apology. As hard as we tried, we couldn't find a picture in which our last contestant figures as the main focus. It appears that it was usually photographed when people were trying to get shots of its neighbors--the Capital City Club to the right and the Leyden residence to the left. Below you have a cropped picture with a decent lateral view of the house, but it's better if you follow our links to all the images available, to get a clearer idea. From some angles, this mansion looks like your typical (and, I must say, almost pretty) Victorian house. From others, you can get a glimpse at the building that was considered among the most ornate (read: gaudiest) in Atlanta before the Dougherty-Hopkins residence was built, outrunning even our previous contestant, the Governor's mansion. 

                                                                                                                       Image from Peachtree Street, Atlanta

                                                  Name: the Richards-Abbott residence 

                                                  Built: 1884 

                                                  Demolished: around 1915

                                                  Location: intersection of Peachtree and Ellis streets

Our house above was a three-story affair of orange brick and terra cota, occupying a 59 by 275-foot lot on the block between Cain and Ellis streets. (You can see its original color in this picture.) It was "elaborately embellished with turrets, gargoyles, dormer windows, and porches," according to our good and reliable friend, the Peachtree Street, Atlanta book. This contestant's history, and more images, after the jump.

Blueprints for the Butler Mansion: The Governor's Mansion

Today brings our second historical house to compete for the honor of most closely resembling the Butler Mansion.  Candidate number two, come on down! 

 Image from ATLhistory.com

                               Name: John H. James residence
                               Built: 1869
                               Demolished: 1923
                               Location: intersection of Peachtree and Cain streets

Better known for its role as the governor's mansion, the James residence is likely the most familiar contestant of the three to windies, as it's mentioned in direct relation to Scarlett's architectural horror fanciful abode in Chapter XLIX of Gone with the Wind: 

"...when finished, it would be larger and finer looking than any other house in town.  It would be even more imposing than the near-by James residence which had just been purchased for the official mansion of Governor Bullock."

But enough GWTW quoting (yes, we love our quotes here). Follow me over the jump to find the history of the James house and its unique qualifications in the Butler Mansion resemblance sweepstakes.

Blueprints for the Butler Mansion: The House of a Thousand Candles

So here’s what we figured. We have material on three historical houses that resemble the Butler mansion, and, instead of distributing the posts over the course of the following weeks, as was our initial plan, we decided to post one each day, starting with today. On Thursday, when you’ll all have seen the three houses in question, we’ll have a poll and you can vote the house you find closer to Scarlett’s Peachtree mansion as described by Margaret Mitchell. And now, let's meet our first mansion:

                                                       Image scanned from Peachtree Street, Atlanta

                            Name: Dougherty-Hopkins residence

                            Built: 1890

                            Demolished: 1931

                            Location: intersection of Peachtree and Baker streets

Our first candidate enters the competition with one major drawback: as you can see, it was built in 1890, which puts some solid 22 years between it and the fictional Butler mansion and also makes it the "youngest" house in our lot. However, we think that this alone is no reason to discard it, especially since it does have a couple of elements working in its favor as well. But first let's hear the story behind it-->after the jump.