On a late summer’s day in 2007 -- and before ever setting foot inside 318 Georgia Avenue -- two long-time residents of Grant Park, Ryan Deal and Ryan Lepicier, made a decision to end nearly four decades of neglect and abandonment at the house they passed by each day.

What today stands as a grand, restored Folk Victorian had once been a neighborhood eyesore and nuisance. “There were plants – weeds – literally growing up from the windows on the inside of the house when I first walked inside,” Lepicier emphatically remembers. “It was quite sad, and yet quite breathtaking. We knew our work was cut out for us.”

Unoccupied for years, the house had fallen into such disrepair that the walls were adorned with water damage & graffiti, a toilet had fallen through the floor and the porches had collapsed. And yet the years of paint somehow helped to preserve what lied beneath the punishing rains and overt disregard of a truly unique home. “The house was literally crumbling into history and needed to be saved,” Deal said.

And so it began.

Built in 1897, the home was first occupied by Charles Glessner, who, according to historical documents, was a “lawyer and stenographer for the Supreme Court of Georgia.” Other records indicate the home was then occupied by the families of a company president, a patternmaker and a retail manager throughout the 1930s. 

In more recent times, the home served as an escape from the cold for squatters and the homeless.  The last known tenants were a popular rock band who likely utilized the single working electrical outlet for their equipment. “In layer after layer of paint on the walls and on the floors, these occupants helped protect the structure,” Deal says.  “It’s as though they knew they were only visiting. I feel the same way. We’re merely visiting.”

Finished to its current state in summer 2008, the nearly yearlong restoration was guided by one principal – to preserve the original footprint of the home. Working with Atlanta’s Urban Design Commission, the owners removed years of architectural modifications. Four unique coal-burning fireplaces, complete with original tile, were saved in the restoration along with the home’s original trim, heart pine floors, transoms and claw-foot tub. Twelve-foot ceilings still greet guests who ring a mechanical bell reminiscent of days gone by.

“History suggests 318 Georgia was a modest build back in 1897,” Lepicier says. “I’m honored to have played a role in its preservation.”