Glenridge Hall Named to 2015 Places of Peril List

Photo credit: Georgia Department of Economic Development

The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation has released its 2015 Places of Peril list, and a Sandy Springs site is among the most threatened locations across the state.

Glenridge Hall is one of 10 places on the 2015 list, which was released on Wednesday.

Mark McDonald, president and CEO of the Trust, said he hopes this 10th annual list will ”continue to bring preservation solutions to Georgia’s imperiled historic resources by highlighting ten representative sites.”

Other places throughout the state on the list include: Ware’s Folly, Augusta; the Dart House, Brunswick; Mandeville Homestead/Maple Street Mansion, Carrollton; East Point Historic Civic Block, East Point; Haistens Hospital, Griffin; Portal Drugstore, Portal; Sandersville School, Sandersville; Hancock County Courthouse, Sparta; and the Federal Road/Lower Creek Trading Path which stretches through 14 Georgia counties.

According to the organization, Thomas K. Glenn built the Glenridge estate in 1929 on 400 acres of farmland north of Atlanta.

Designed by Samuel Inman Cooper, the Tudor Revival mansion required 60 men and a year to complete. The property also included stables, barns, smith and carpentry shops and housing for workers. Thomas and his wife, Elizabeth lived at Glenridge until his death in 1946.

Beginning in the 1980s, Glenn’s granddaughter and her husband fought to preserve the house and its setting. Glenridge Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and the couple thoroughly restored the home “with the dream that it be available for the public to enjoy,” Georgia Trust said.

The home has been the site for many charitable events and retreats over the years and has also been used in films such as Driving Miss Daisy and The Vampire Diaries.

Of the original 400 acres, about 80 acres remain as part of the Glenridge property and in the summer, that portion of the property was placed on the market. Georgia Trust notes the land — which sits just west of Georgia 400 along Abernathy Road — is threatened by “large-scale commercial development.”

“At this time, there are no protections for Glenridge Hall that would keep the home from being significantly altered, or even demolished, and its surrounding property inappropriately developed,” the organization writes. “Conservation easements and other tax incentives could help preserve this beautiful home and grounds.”

The list is designed to ”raise awareness about Georgia’s significant historic, archaeological and cultural resources, including buildings, structures, districts, archaeological sites and cultural landscapes that are threatened by demolition, neglect, lack of maintenance, inappropriate development or insensitive public policy,” Georgia Trust said in its news release.

Georgia Trust utilizes Places in Peril to encourage owners and residents, organizations and communities to incorporate preservation tools, financial resources and partnerships to ”reclaim, restore and revitalize” threatened historic properties.