Wednesday, July 14, 2010

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.


The house was built in 1884, for Robert H. Richards, a native of London whose parents had crossed the ocean when he was thirteen. Richards amassed his fortune by running a chain of bookstores in Georgia and Tennessee before the war and then investing in railroad stocks, after the war. The latter enterprise alone brought him a quarter of a million dollars. In 1865, he became vice-president of the Atlanta National Bank, of which he was co-founder, along with Gen. Alfred Austell. 

He, of course, settled in Atlanta with his wife, Josephine, and built himself a house. A house meant to be impressive as befitted such a distinguished citizen. And then he died and she remarried, in 1895, to yet another distinguished citizen--Benjamin F. Abbott, veteran and prominent attorney.  (Parenthetically, the Richards mausoleum in Oakland Cemetery, where both Richards and his wife rest, is also an imposing construction.) 

You can find variations on the image we used for the Richards mansion here and here, but I think the only picture from which you can get the right idea about both its dimensions and its ornate front is this aerial shot of the Leyden house. The building to your left is the Richards-Abbott residence. The building to your right and partially obscured by the Leyden house is the Governor's mansion.

Image from ATLhistory.com

In my opinion. the Richards residence shares some of its advantages with the Governor's mansion featured yesterday, since they are about the same size, both have ornate exteriors and are neighbors to the Leyden house, like the Butler mansion was. I personally appreciate this house's gable over the Governor's mansion cupola. The colors are obviously wrong, but perhaps the shape of this house, that could allow for a spacious ballroom on the third floor  and that could more easily permit for a wrap-around veranda makes up for that? What do you think?

In any case, thanks for reading and don't forget to cast your vote tomorrow!

14 comments:

  1. Hmm. I think elements from all three houses might have been in MM's mind when she concoted the Butler mansion, although none of these homes had a wrap-around veranda.

    Also, IIRC, the house was up from the ground a bit because you had to walk up some stairs to get to the veranda. That would have made it seem even more imposing.

    I'll need to do some thinking before the poll opens! What a fun series this has been.

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  2. Very interesting... I still say that the Governor's mansion is probably the closet to what I would have thought their house would have looked like. But I agree with you in the last paragraph. It's also interesting that this sort of house was next to the governor's mansion in real life. MM knew what she was doing and what she was talking about, I guess :)

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  3. @ bluesneak I agree. I think that MM was definitely inspired by more than one house. And Scarlett's mansion probably had enough styles to suit half dozen houses, anyway :P

    Glad you enjoyed the series!

    @ Kelly Oh, so we know already what your vote will be. And yes, since it was on Peachtree and near the Leyden house, Scarlett's mansion could be just on the spot the Richards mansion was.

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  4. I think the Butler mansion was much larger than this house, both vertically and horizontally. I think I envision it having the Second Empire-style cupola more than the gabled roof, too. Although, it is interesting to see where the mansion would actually have been located physically.

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  5. @Andrew So you envision the Butler mansion as being of Leyden house's dimensions, horizontally? Because the Governor's mansion and this house are about the same size (the James slightly taller, of course). They do seem kind of small/unimpressive to me, but then I can't really say I have an eye for proportions.

    I do think that if a house was as wide as the Leyden one, it wouldn't have to be much taller than these two houses are. It would look huge. Especially when you add towers and cupolas and whatnot.

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  6. @Bugsie The book says it more or less dwarfs all the other houses on the street, and it is on a large lot, so obviously it would have to be much "bigger" than any of the three featured, or the Leyden house.

    Do you think this house is too far fetched?

    http://windsweptsoftware.com/myhouse/ArtHomes/HopkinsMansionFront.jpg

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  7. Hands down, that's a jaw-dropping house. And I could agree that the style could be close, but Scarlett's house must have been smaller.

    For one thing, the lots were not sufficiently big for this house. The lot for the Governor's mansion was considered a big one, and to my mind this house occupies much more than that. It would easily take up at least half a block. And then I think this house would have dwarfed cathedrals, not just the poor residences nearby.

    Scaled down a bit and yes, I think I can agree. Slightly less tall, and cut to like half or 2/3 its dimensions in depth (and probably width too, I can't tell from this angle). Nice choice, nonetheless.

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  8. I know this post is a little dated, but I just wanted to share my thoughts. It seems that the Richards mansion is exactly where Scarlett's house would've been, but the lot strikes me as being too small. It was described as being quite large. The Capital City Club and The Richards mansion were both built in 1884, so perhaps Margaret Mitchell intended it to occupy both lots. And here's a thought - with the amount of research she did, she surely would've known these houses were built in 1884. Maybe Scarlett and Rhett's house wasn't still standing by that stage. Could it be a clue?

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  9. @MM-Are you hinting that McCaig might have been on to something in RBP, that the mansion burned down? LOL

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  10. @ MM Yeah, the lot is kind of small but that seemed to be the rule in that block. I am not sure that Margaret Mitchell wanted the house to be too closely associated with any historic houses in particular, b/c she was so preoccupied with the fact ppl might not realize it's fiction.

    @ Iris LOL.

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  11. Oh yes, Rhett Butler's People was a literary jewel. I really feel he was on exactly the same wavelength as Margaret Mitchell. I'm sure MM's Scarlett would've been happy to invite Belle Watling across the sacred threshold of Tara! And my favourite part was Melanie's long letter to Rhett's sister describing her longings for carnal relations with Ashley. Yes, just like the great lady she was described as by MM!
    Sorry if there are any RBP fans out there!

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  12. There are RPB fans out there? I never heard of anyone who was a fan, though I've heard of a few people that were fans of the other sequel, Scarlett. Unlike RBP, it at least has the cheap romance element working in its favor, I guess.

    My absolute favorite part in RBP is one where Rhett and Rosemary are at the river (don't ask me why, details kind of fuzzy in my mind) and he tells her that he and Scarlett are star crossed lovers. And then they see a dog fox courting a vixen and they make comments that make the metaphor oh so clear (like "he wants to be her husband, but she doesn't like him" etc.) The animals jump onto a log in the river and drift off into the sunset and McCaig calls them "star-crossed lovers" too. I laughed till I cried.

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  13. @Andrew So you envision the Butler mansion as being of Leyden house's dimensions, horizontally? Because the Governor's mansion and this house are about the same size (the James slightly taller, of course). They do seem kind of small/unimpressive to me, but then I can't really say I have an eye for proportions.

    I do think that if a house was as wide as the Leyden one, it wouldn't have to be much taller than these two houses are. It would look huge. Especially when you add towers and cupolas and whatnot.

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