Touring the Randolph-Lucas House with Roger Smith

We join Roger Smith for a tour of the historic Randolph-Lucas House.  Roger gives details of how the 100 year old structure was dismantled and relocated from 2500 Peachtree Rd in Buckhead to its current location in 78 Peachtree Circle in the Ansley Park neighborhood.  Designed by P. Thornton Mayre in 1924, this Georgian Revival style home was built for Hollins Nicholas Randolph, an Atlanta attorney and businessman, and the great-great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson.  Smith along with his partner, Christopher Jones, saved the house from demolition and gave new life to this historically significant masterpiece.

Transcript

 Okay, Jon, I think we have one of the most interesting interviews that we have had to date. This is about a grand dame who has been in Buckhead for generations. She's now been relocated to Ansley Park, celebrating her 100th birthday, and she also has a facelift she wants to show off. Grand Dame we're talking about is our friend Roger Smith's home here in Ansley Park. It's some incredible stories that he's gonna share with us, so let's go check him out. So, the the the the Here we go. Welcome. How are you guys doing? Great. Awesome. This is incredible. Amazing, right? Well, it's good to see both of you. Thank you. Thank you for coming over. Thank you for having us. And so tell me a little bit about yourself. So I'm a professional. I'm a professional. I'm a professional. I'm a professional. I'm a professional. I'm a professional. I'm a professional. Amazing, right? Well, it's good to see both of you. Thank you. Thank you for coming out. Thank you for having us. And so tell us a little bit of history about the house and how you got involved. So we are celebrating 100 years for the house. The house was built in 1924 for Hollis Nicholas Randolph. Mr. Randolph was the great, great grandson of Thomas Jefferson. He was also a very prominent attorney in Atlanta at the turn of the last century, was a delegate to the Democratic Convention. Wow. So very prominent in his own right. And the Randolphs had been in Atlanta a few years before they built this house, and ironically enough, they lived right up here at 16th and Peachtree. So it's a little bit of a kismet going on. Just a block away. Yeah, yeah. Most of Atlanta's elite were moving out Peachtree at that period of time. And so this house is actually copied after his childhood home, which was originally out from Charlottesville, Virginia. And P. Thornton Murray was the architect for the home. There are four other of Mr. Murray's homes in Ansley Park. So when this one got here, it made five. And so you were giving us a little background on this architect that he was sort of the reigning czar of architecture before Neil Reed and Schutze came onto the scene. He was a little bit before both of those men that I believe everybody hears of and we associate Mr. Reed and Mr. Schutze as prominent Atlanta architects or Georgia architects. Mr. Marie was a little before them. He had worked on the Fox Theater and St. Luke's. He also drew the plans for the old train terminal, which is, it was located where the Richard Russell building is now. It's very unfortunate that we lost that building along with many others, unfortunately. And sort of this house was in the same situation. Yes, yes. It was about to meet the wrecking ball. And we were approached about the possibility of our taking it on as a project. A good friend knew that we were looking for another house. My mother was living with us, and we had a smaller house on the other side of the neighborhood, and we needed some more space. And so. Did you have competition? No. No. No. Just add another element of complexity to this. Yes, no. There was not a line. Okay. We didn't have to beat anybody out or make the best offer. Or, no, it was a cry, a historic preservation cry, I would say. Awesome. Okay. So anyway. And you have some really great people I know within the city helping you make that happen too. Yes, yes. We worked with the city for about a year going through permitting and it took about the same amount of time to deconstruct the house. All the brick had to come off, the chimneys had to come down. arrangements to travel down Peachtree. And that takes just a little bit of doing. That's not something you just do. Is that – is it 2.6 miles? Is that what it is? Yes. Yes. It took us 7-1⁄2 hours. From midnight – from midnight to, what, 7 a.m.? Is that what I read? Yes. Yes. OK. Insane. Did you follow it, like, in a golf cart the whole time? No, we – we were afraid. I know. I would have been too nervous to maybe watch it. We were like two kids. It was sort of a combination of the night Santa Claus comes and being way strung out on too much sugar, which ours was, we had not slept in about 48 hours. But there was a little bit of an excitement. There was a lot of intrepidation, a lot of fear of the unknown. Because it's happening. It's happening. It's happening, and we had a clear path, we had a clear plan, but there are a lot of variables getting it from point A to point B in this case. And one of the things that we ran into was figuring out the logistics. The house could not take the turn, it would not make the turn up there coming off of Peachtree at Peachtree Circle, where the Georgia Trust is. So, we reached out to Mr. Whelan and he gave us permission to bring the house across his lot before he built one museum. Wow, I didn't realize that. Now, we bought, there was a house here that he had taken down and so he left the landscaping in the front, which helped us immensely because that's part of what gives the house the look that it's always been here as a mature landscaping and So he was a tremendous help to us very early in the project. We would not have been able to move forward It's a great guy without his help. Yeah Okay, so lots of questions about the logistics getting to and from but maybe you could which we can pick up on later Could you tell us a little bit about any stories about this room, the staircase that we should, that you can tell us about? Nothing, nothing in particular. I can tell you I never get tired of coming through the front door. When I come into the house, I usually come through the front door. And you know, I believe you guys say in the real estate business, this is your million dollar shot right here. And I never get tired of looking at this when I come through the front door. So the windows right here on the landing match and are directly across from the windows on the front of the house, which on the front, obviously, they're above the front porch. We cut the house right above the baseboard on the second floor and lifted the second floor off. There is a full third floor in this house. We cut the roof on all four corners and folded the roof in to the second floor. So the third floor basically went away and that became one piece. So that the third floor traveled with the second floor. If that makes sense. So the top, the slate came off, the rafters came down and then it was wrapped up and then shipped on the little, on the dollies, I guess you could call it. That's a very, very Reader's Digest. A lot of fast food. A lot of sleepless nights. But yeah, that's what happened in a nutshell. Okay, awesome. Now, I'm sure the room in the house that everybody loves here, the dining room, because that's probably the most formal room in the house? Yes, I would say so. That is the original fireplace in the room. And I think it's a beautiful room. And the chandelier was my grandmother's chandelier that hung in her house and later in my mother's house. So it's a beautiful Waterford crystal. Who deserves it more than this house? And to have your grandmother's story about that, that's pretty amazing. And you've got an urn in here that has another story too. Yes, that urn is one of a pair and I don't know exactly when in time the pair got split, but it's made as in the Metropolitan. So I'm pretty proud of that piece. It's an awesome story. I've read that both rooms are architecturally equal in size and perfection. It was called Golden Means. Golden Means, yes. My friend Mary Norwood talks about that very eloquently. I think she celebrated her 40th birthday in this house and there were a lot of events. The house was used for an event space at a period of time after Mrs. Lucas passed away. But to And Mr. Randolph wanted a house, I think Mr. and Mrs. Randolph wanted a house to entertain in and these two rooms certainly lend themselves well to having company. Having guests. Golden means, does that mean it's equally length or deep as the ceilings are tall? Yes, you are correct. Okay, so it's a 14 foot room by 14 foot ceilings with, well, you can see this later too, but the plaster work, you had to assume recreate this plaster work. No, no, the plaster stayed in place. We did not really have an issue with that as well as the medallions. And I believe the medallion in the living room is the oldest of the three medallions of that one and the one here, and then there's one in the dining room as well. Wow. And I think that one in the living room is the oldest. And then so on the other side of the dining room is a kitchen. Yes. Which still has this very simplistic approach. It's not your modern, it's modernized, but it's very European feeling kitchen, I think. And then the other corner behind me is your family room. That's your, I guess, formal... Study. Study, okay. Library. Small family, I don't know where the cat went, but small family room. But that's the room I live in. That's my favorite room. It's the smaller room. And then this, the other, the front room here, what would you call that one? The dining room. The living room, okay. I'll get all these words down eventually. We're going to the parlor? Your parlor, parlor. Well, we can call it parlor if you like. And so that room is much simpler. It doesn't have this really intricate fireplace mantle. It's really interesting because I thought it would have echoed somehow or reflected, but they're totally different rooms. That mantle was taken out of the house. Oh, okay. And at some point... Let's go find that thing. And so... Wow. I just, I have it replaced. Oh, is that what it is? Okay, I thought it was a very intentional thing. No, and actually the size is a little prohibitive. It's difficult to find the height and to get all the measurements right. And I have tried several there that have not worked. So the search continues. So the hardwoods are original. You've replaced a couple pieces here and there from what I understand. Now the engineering behind this house in terms of the shutters, that's probably one of the coolest things I thought of. But you have the hand crank, so the shutters from the outside can close from the inside. What I love. Yes, a bit of a mastermind genius behind that. We had a guy that came in during while we were under renovation and that was all he did. He just he took the cranks out and cleaned them, reworked them, and put them back in. And you said it took him like six months? Yeah. Wow. So tell us about the shutters and the design work that's in them. So there are three different styles of shutters on the house. The shutters on this first floor have what is an exclamation point, looks like an exclamation point. The floor to Lee are on the second floor, and then we have just regular smaller shutters on a few of the windows on the back. But any that were within public view, meaning the front and the two sides, have design work on them. Let's talk a little bit more about like how it got here. Okay, for that, I think we're gonna have to come in and have a seat in the parlor for that. So y'all please come in and we'll sit down. So Roger, I think this is one of the most fascinating houses in the city. I mean, not only is it gorgeous, but you said it was a five-year adventure from getting it from its original spot to here. Can you tell us, what was the condition of the house at that point? It was actually in good shape. More than anything, it needed paint. It needed a good coat of paint inside and out. And so instead you chopped it in half and pulled it to the other side. Exactly. We took it apart and moved it to another location in the city. But yeah, I mean, it was, you know, I think the media played it out to be unsafe structurally and some other things that I remember reading and hearing at the time, but structurally, our house mover told us we could have taken it to California. So I think most of the wood is probably petrified by this point, but at any rate. So yeah, when we first came on to my actually moving in the house was almost right at five years. Yeah. And just to go back a little bit, obviously the house was at Peachtree and Lindbergh. And then there was a very large development built behind the house, is that correct? Correct. 2500 Peachtree. Yeah, so there was no need for the house. It was sitting in front. So they moved it, right, to the back part of the property? They moved it across the property. So it moved from, it was almost center with Lindbergh, as you come up Lindbergh to Peachtree. And it was moved to the left corner of that lot. And it sit there for a few years prior to that? It did, it did. I'm not sure exactly how long it was in that location, but it was a few years, definitely. And the HOA was owner of the house and they obviously wanted it off the property. Yes, that is correct. So they were generous in helping you have the house, right? Yes. I believe the transaction was $5. And then comes the big money. A lot of people will say, gosh, I don't know if that was a deal or not. I'm teasing. Now Christopher, your husband at the time, he had moved, he had renovated and moved homes before? Yes, he moved a house in Jacksonville that belonged to the hospital authority that they were going to tear down to expand a parking lot. Was it nearly this scale? No, it was nothing like this. It was a smaller cottage. And he did not have to take it down the busiest street in Jacksonville. So those were two factors that changed. Okay, so they came in, they chopped the house in half. We talked about how they sort of folded it up. What, I assume it was the nerves, everything, you're feeling all sorts of things to watch it come go down the road at three in the morning. How many spectators were there? Oh, I don't know. I don't know, we kept a crowd all night. I know that. So the interest was high. If you could only charge admission. Yeah, I wish we could have. It would have helped to flake costs down the line, but at any rate. And it's funny because I think I mentioned this earlier. I'd heard a stat for the rumor mill that it cost a million dollars, but in fact it was just less than $400? It was a little under $400. That sounds like a deal now. Well, I don't know about that. You can hear all sorts of things, all sorts of things. And so how did they assume they they cut the house in half, they probably put some steel underneath it, came with a crane, lifted it, and then put it on the rollers. The house moved on each section, both sections had two steel beams. And then those were on hydraulic lifts. So the house never really moved in position. I mean, it stayed at the same height and everything all the way down, the entire move. Hey, hello, Olivia. So, okay, but the two sections were cut off and then repositioned? On the beams to move. And then putting it back together, how long was that? So we moved on a Friday night. I believe we put it back together the following Tuesday. So it stayed in two sections. And Mr. Wieland had a fence that went across the front up here on Peachtree, and that did not get put back. And so that Saturday early we got a phone call telling us we needed to do something about that because people were coming off the street and walking up. And by the time we got over here, it was like you were waiting in line for one of the rides at Six Flags. So we were like, no, this isn't gonna work. So we had to put the fence back up and ask people to leave. Because it really was not safe at that point. And that was our biggest concern, was the liability for that. And we were very, very fortunate. There were no accidents, no mishaps. We did not have a single broken pane. That's amazing. So it moved very well. Making your way down Peachtree, this was an interesting stat you mentioned. How many utility companies were involved with this process? There were 21. 21 entities involved. Yes. And you said Georgia Power though was really helpful in helping manage. They were. Georgia Power took the lead for us and we actually worked very closely with a gentleman that works for Georgia Power. And so, all of these entities reported to him. And that was a tremendous help to us because I think that turned into a full-time job for him at that point. So that was a lot. Now, was he on payroll with someone else? No, he is a Georgia Power employee. Oh, that's even better. And I understand got a very nice promotion after that. So we wrote a very glowing letter and yes, he was an outstanding help to us. Good man. That's wonderful. Yeah. It's, your house is unsecured. You have all the windows on, but you're in the middle. It's just in flux. You have your Tyvek on the property, and then Snowageddon happens, and then your shutters disappear, that you eventually found. Tell, maybe tell us about that. We did. During this project, we had to wear many hats, but not the least of which was a detective's hat, and we traced it to someone that lived nearby that had come over and taken some of the shutters. So the story is that you were able, with your detective hat on, you were able to track the footprints in the snow to an adjacent condo building in the basement where your shutters were stored. That is correct. And you had to, and then in the snow you went and picked them up and brought them back yourself. We did, we did. We tracked them down and brought them back. We possessed. So yes, we had called the police on that. And I remember the police officer was standing there just doing like this. And the person that had taken them was standing there and the policeman asked if we wanted to press charges and we said no. And so the policeman then said, did it not make sense? These guys had moved the house. You could see it had just been moved. Why would you think it would be okay to come and take the shutters that clearly belong on the house that they had just moved? So anyway, it was an interesting situation. Then if I could even draw a weird connection to that one, then you ended up moving into that building while you were wrapping up this house. Yes, yes. And living next door to the person that had taken them. It wasn't getting better. Well, you know, talk about full circle. So I have learned to always be careful. Right. What you say and to whom you say it. Right, well, no better place than being videotaped and we could walk through the entire session. Yes, exactly. Okay. And a lot of the dangers a live mic can do. Yes, I learned that one too. Okay, so you have four brand new fireplaces. You have steel underneath the house. What other major, I mean, oh, and then also too, tell us about the brick. You had to reclad the house in brick. Yes. So all of the brick on the front of the house and on this side of the house, which is the most visible side from the street, are the original brick. And then it is a mix on the rest of the house. So that's the story there. That's a lot of hours. That is a lot of hours. And it's not inexpensive to repurpose brick. That's a very time consuming and costly. But it's interesting in this room where, you know, on top of the antique brick, but the house just sort of slid into place amongst these, what, 80 year old trees in the front yard. It did. And again, that is, I think, what gives the appearance that the house has always been here. The magnolia in the front, I believe, is a little over 100 years old. And did you tell a story one day when your husband was just sort of fed up, he'd climb to the top of that tree? Yes, he did. Christopher used to go, and I asked him if he was going to set up a satellite office at the top of that magnolia tree, because he would go up, he would climb up to the top of the tree just to get away from everything, I think, and everybody. And then I learned that that was his hiding spot, so I knew where he was. It wasn't so much the secret after that. No, the secret was out. Where was your secret place? I didn't have one. I think everybody knew where I was 24-7, so I still do, I think. But anyway. Okay, there's so many great spots in the house. What is your favorite? My favorite room is the room right there, and the library study. It's very comfortable. That room is a little smaller scale, and it's just a fun room to be in. It gets great light during the day and it's very interesting. My mother was with us the first day, the first time we ever came to look at the house and unscripted, unplanned, she and Christopher and I each wound up back in that room and my mother was standing there and she said, this is the room that I spend a lot of time in. That's lovely. And you have four bedrooms upstairs? Four bedrooms and three baths. And then we redesigned the third floor as a primary suite. So we have another bedroom and bath up there and a TV room and great storage. Because of the time period this house was built in, there really is no storage space to speak of. There are a couple of closets, but they were taken up for other things. And so to be able to redesign and have some storage space is nice. The house has won multiple awards or, you know, acknowledgments for restoration. It has. It started our first award came from Atlanta Preservation and we, while Christopher was alive, were very proud of that award. The DAR gave us an award. The Georgia Trust has given us an award and that is always very meaningful to have it validated in that way. Right. I've read that Mary Norwood has said this is one of the most significant restorations of homes in many years of this city. I would say so, and I read an article at one point that compared it on the scale of what we did, definitely in a different way, in a different situation, to the Fox Theater, which again, is sort of that kismet playing through because of the architect's relationship to the Fox and to this house. So, but yes, there was a definite need and the cry went out to save both and fortunately both have been saved. Right, in a city that's been so well known to tear everything down. Yes, yes, and that was the way if I'm asked when I'm asked you know what the number one reason was for historic preservation is always what what I come back to because we wanted to show that in Atlanta it is possible even under the most adverse situations and this was pretty adverse. Did you have opposition? No. No, okay. No. It was just really the legal red tape to get through it all. Okay. It's a lot of work and everything moves very slowly, very slowly. Do you have any regrets? No. No. No. And the other question, would you do it again? Absolutely I would. Absolutely I would. I know, I know where the pitfalls are. I know where the trouble is. But no, I think when you come in this house and you, you experience this house, that sort of answers itself. I can't, I can't imagine not having done it. Well, I loved how you said when you come home, you usually use the front door because you have the same experience I have when I walk through that front door. It's just looking up at that window up the stairs. I'm sure it gives you just, well, the pleasure of having. It also probably feels much different for you because of how hard you worked to get it to this. I say that on a regular basis too because there was nothing about this project that was easy or fast. It was a lot of hard work and it was not just a little bit for a few months. It went on for years. And I think I had shared in a previous conversation, we had a lot of personal things going on behind the scenes, some of which had nothing to do with this house. And that was very taxing emotionally as well. So the combination really was just the perfect ingredients for a firestorm and it felt like that's what we were living in sometimes. So we work with couples going through various stages of construction, renovation, or just a purchase. What advice do you have for couples getting into a situation like this? Or yeah, I would leave it to this. What advice would you have for a couple? I think you both need to be on the same page. I think you both need to be of the exact same understanding. I believe looking back, Christopher Jones made up his mind the night he found out about this house, because we went to look at it that first time I mentioned a minute ago, the next day. And I think after that, that was a done deal. What I did not know was that at some point in this time period, he had gotten my mother on board and convinced her this was the thing to do. So there was no backing down? Well, there was no Roger getting out of it. It was a done deal without my approval. But I was a little late to that party, but I can tell you I got on board very quickly. So it worked out well. But when your mom and your husband are coming at it. Yeah, they were both very persuasive individuals. So, yes. An introspection question. What did you learn about yourself in this project? That I'm stronger than I thought I was, emotionally, physically, mentally, any way you can mention. I mean, it was coming at you from all sides. Boy, it was. There was no refuge, and it was a challenge, but I think that anybody that I've ever talked to that is self-made, that has made sacrifices, that has worked hard to achieve whatever their goal or their dream was, that's always the interesting part of the story to me. It's like, what did you have to give up to achieve that? Because I had never, I can't say that I had ever had that feeling, and I have it now. But with that also comes a tremendous amount of accomplishment because I don't really have anything to prove to anybody anymore, you know, I feel like. And not that I did before but it's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot that we expected and some that we didn't expect. Of course. I've always been fascinated with the house. I can say I'm just around the corner here, a neighbor of yours. Yes. I kind of thought I knew the house, but I have so much more respect for you and for Christopher, what you did. It's amazing work here in bringing this together. It's incredible. Thank you. We were debunking rumors, getting to know the truth. There you go. There you go. Thank you very much for having us in your home. Thank you both. Thank you too. It's my pleasure. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Fortune with Butch and Jon. See you next time.