Virginia-Highland Book to Debut at Decatur Book Fest

It’s high time Virginia-Highland had its own handsome volume in the popular “Images of America” series, and that time has arrived.

Karri Hobson-Pape and Lola Carlisle, Virginia-Highland residents and history enthusiasts who both work in the marketing field,

They also conducted interviews with more than 150 people and tracked down — from Florida to New Hampshire — dozens of descendants of neighborhood’s “pioneers.”

Carlisle scanned about 2,500 photographs and other items and said the book would not have been possible without the help of resident Judy Potter, who dove in and did countless hours of research to track down family members.

The result: “Images of America: Virginia-Highland”, which will soon be available in shops throughout the neighborhood.

The official publication date is Monday, but the book will have its debut at this weekend’s Decatur Book Festival. The authors will talk about the trials and tribulations of compiling this photographic history at 4:15 p.m. on Saturday at the festival’s City Hall Stage.

In their book fest appearance, the authors will discuss how they got the book rolling to begin with. They aim to cover everything from their expectations to the realities of the publication process — “and the many lessons we learned along this journey,” Carlisle said.

About 240 photographs made it into the finished book, Carlisle said. 

The book is $21.99 on the Arcadia Publishing website.

“This was a project that I jumped into due to my inherited passion for history and storytelling,” Carlisle said. “It has been an intensive labor of love and now we are looking forward to sharing it with everyone.”

Today, people head to the north Georgia hills to beat the heat.Would you believe that long ago, they escaped the city to the higher elevations and cooler breezes of Virginia-Highland?

Like other intown neighborhoods, Virginia-Highland was farmland in the mid-19^th century, then a lovely residential area that fell into decline by the mid-20^th century. Renovation and restoration enthusiasts began reclaiming the community in the 1970s.

Carlisle calls Virginia-Highland “the kind of neighborhood that draws you in so that you want to learn more about its colorful past. It’s such an eclectic mix of architecture, landscape and people. To me, it has always been intriguing.”

But co-author Hobson-Pape, she said, is “the true visionary who got me into this. She was really the one who was most inspired to take this on.”

To Hobson-Pape, Virginia-Highland is a place “where we are constantly trying to find a balance between being a hip and chic destination, and a peaceful, residential community.”

To the authors, “this is only the beginning, we hope,” said Carlisle, who is also chair of the neighborhood preservation committee for the Virginia-Highland Civic Association. She and Hobson-Pape have no plans to pack away the heaps of archival treasures they compiled for the book project.

The goal: to bring together more interested neighbors and descendants of Virginia-Highland settlers to continue the dialogue and the gathering of historical evidence.

The dream: a permanent exhibit space in the community where folks can stop in and lose themselves, if only for a little while, in the neighborhood’s past.

 “Images of America: Virginia-Highland” is one of some 7,500 titles to date in Arcadia Publishing’s “Images” series. A Druid Hills version . Launched in 1995, the series includes a number of subjects rooted to intown and metro Atlanta. Among many others, the series includes titles on historic Oakland Cemetery; Ebenezer Baptist Church; Inman Park; the Atlanta Exposition; Buckhead; and Avondale Estates. An interactive map on the publisher’s website helps you find titles in any region.

If you go:  Karri Hobson-Pape and Lola Carlisle discuss “Images of America: Virginia-Highland,” 4:15-5pm Saturday, Decatur Book Festival.