12,000 Mansion and Estate Built for a Wealthy Atlanta Businessman

Glenridge Hall House, Atlanta Georgia

Date added: August 20, 2024

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Mansion

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At the time of the construction of Glenridge Hall, the West Paces Ferry Road was the location for many of the summer homes of wealthy Atlantans. Mr. Glenn had plans drawn for a house on West Paces Ferry by Robert Pringle and Francis Smith. For some reason, the plans were never realized, and the site near Sandy Springs was chosen. According to Mr. Glenn's grand-daughter, Mr. Glenn owned several tracts of land north of Atlanta. The building site for Glenridge Hall was due to his preference. The other houses on West Paces Ferry Road were smaller, though no less refined than Glenridge Hall. Several of those houses were close to the size of Glenridge (among them being Craigellachie and Broadlands), although it remains one of the largest houses in the metropolitan Atlanta area.

Glenridge Drive was known as Roswell Road when the Glenns built Glenridge Hall. The Roswell Road followed an old stagecoach route until the State decided to relocate and improve Roswell Road west of its original location. The old Roswell Road is what is now known as Glenridge Drive, named for the Glenns' mansion, Glenridge Hall.

Thomas Kearney Glenn (1868-1946) built Glenridge Hall after his 1927 marriage to his second wife, the former Elizabeth Ewing. Mr. Glenn was a quite wealthy and powerful man at the time of his death. At the age of thirty-seven, he was the vice president of the Georgia Power Company and was made president of the Atlantic Steel Company in 1908, having been chairman of the board at this time of his death. He served on the board of directors of the following: The Coca-Cola Company, the Continental Gin Company, and the Atlantic Company. He was a trustee of the L.H. Beck Company, Crawford W. Long Hospital, and Reinhardt College. He served on the Hospital Authority, which planned the construction of hospital facilities in Atlanta, namely Grady Hospital.

The architects of Glenridge Hall were two brothers, Joseph W. Cooper and Samuel Inman Cooper. The latter was the principal designer. The Cooper brothers were grandsons of a wealthy Atlanta cotton magnate, Samuel Inman. The Cooper brothers were reared in the Philadelphia area and both attended Princeton. Samuel Cooper received a degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1922. The brothers started their firm, Cooper and Cooper, in 1925. The firm designed many homes in the Atlanta area.

The estate was in continuous usage from its completion in 1929 until 1950 when the sons of T.K. Glenn moved out. One of the sons, Dr. Wadley Glenn, now lives in a more recent house on the property. Several highways and state road projects have splintered the original acreage of this estate. Glenridge Hall is still owned by the original family. The family allowed the Westminster Schools to use the house and servants' quarters for dormitory space in the mid-1960s. The Westminster School is a private, coeducational, Atlanta preparatory school. Mr. Glenn's granddaughter Frances currently resides in the main house and is undertaking its restoration. The family caretakers live in the servants' quarters.

Site Description

Glenridge Hall is a substantially intact country estate built by Thomas Kearney Glenn in 1928 and 1929. The north part of the estate includes several historic structures: a 12,000-square-foot manor house, a nearby servants' quarters that includes a five-car garage, and a pump house in the main cluster of buildings. On the estate are a number of historic outbuildings, also, among them two barns, a stable, and a farmworkers' house. The main (north) portion of the estate includes a carefully landscaped driveway that originally began on Glenridge Drive, leading to the main house and servants' quarters. The south portion of the estate includes the more recent dwelling house and stables.

The house is situated among the rolling hills of the Piedmont region of Georgia in what is now a suburban area of Atlanta called Sandy Springs. The house sits on the highest spot on the property. To the west, the land slopes gently, then drops off in a cliff towards Glenridge Drive. To the north, the land slopes gently down to Marsh Creek; an excellent view of Kennesaw Mountain is apparent from the rear terrace. To the east, the land slopes down to the encircling fire road; and to the south, where the land is nearly level, one finds the driveway.

The land at Glenridge Hall is heavily forested in hardwoods, oak, beech and hickory. There is extensive undergrowth in the form of Mountain Laurel and Dogwood. Additional plantings in wild flowers and bulbs were executed by Mrs. Glenn.

The main house is massive. It consists of a central block, two primary wings, and one secondary wing. The primary wings are thrust forward at a 45-degree angle from the central block. A large porte-cochere protrudes from this central block. The house is two stories in height with an attic and a partially finished basement. The house is constructed of brick arranged in irregular patterns. The brick construction is accentuated with timbers and stucco. The roof is slate and creates interesting patterns as the various planes intersect. The nature of these interstices reinforces the plasticity of the great, overhanging, and enfolding roof. The eyelid dormers add much to this feeling of plasticity.

Several chimneys with ornamental chimney pots rise from this enormous roof.

The fenestration on the first floor is all diamond-quarreled casements. Several doors leading onto porches or terraces, however, make use of square panes. Upstairs, the diamond- or square-paned windows are mostly double-hung.

The central block of the house contains the entrance vestibule, the long gallery, restrooms for ladies and gentlemen, the Great Hall or drawing room, the dining room, and the library. The wing to the right (east) contains the breakfast room and service functions of the house; the butler's pantry, the kitchen, servants' rooms, and upstairs, the children's bedrooms and a sleeping porch. The wing to the left (west) contains two bedrooms, one actually a suite; and upstairs, the suites built for Mr. and Mrs. Glenn. The secondary wing contains a solarium on the first floor and a "gymnasium" on the second floor.

The entrance vestibule is a low-ceilinged room paneled in oak up to within a foot of the ceiling. The remainder of the walls is plaster lathe. The long gallery which connects the wings of the house is paneled and plastered in the same fashion as the entrance vestibule. The long gallery has a beamed ceiling.

The Great Hall is centered off the entrance and the long gallery. Dominating the view from the entrance is the fireplace, set within a niche the size of a small room. The fireplace is five feet tall and eight feet in width. The Great Hall is forty-five feet long and thirty feet wide. The most spectacular aspect of this room is this soaring hammer beam roof. From two of the three trusses hang double-tiered chandeliers. At the west end of this room one enters the library. The library is at the same level as the gallery and entrance, the Great Hall being two steps lower than the rest of the first floor. The library is also paneled with oak. The ceiling is made of paneled plaster. The doorway into the library and the dining room which is opposite it across the Great Hall are in the form of a wide Ogee or Tudor arch. Above the library doorway, there is a large balcony overlooking the Great Hall. The west wall of the library has a fireplace with flanking built-in bookcases. The south wall is all built-in bookcases. Opposite this are large doors which lead into a screened porch. Doorways on either end of the fireplace wall lead to the solarium in the secondary wing.

The dining room is quite different from the library. The axis of this room runs perpendicular to that of the Great Hall and the library. The walls are of plaster lathe and the ceiling is of exposed wooden beams. The east wall of the dining room is a large bay window. The north wall contains a fireplace and doors leading onto a screened porch.

Connecting this central block with the east service wing is an octagonal breakfast room. The walls of this room were painted by the famous artist Athos Menaboni to recall an English landscape. The kitchen and butler's pantry were designed to serve a large house whose primary function was entertainment. Beyond the kitchen there is a servants' sitting room, a larder, and steps leading down to the service yard. Also in this section of the house, there is a walk-in vault lined with six inches of lead, a rear service stair, and stairs leading into the basement. The basement contains the furnace room, the coal storage room, the laundry, and two servants' bedrooms. There are also extensive foot trenches leading to plumbing fixtures in various locations beneath the house. All the utilities in the house are the original equipment. The coal-burning furnace is still used to heat the house in the winter. All the electrical wiring is operational, though some wall switches need rewiring. The plumbing fixtures are in good condition as they were of extremely heavy construction; some sinks appear to have been intended for institutional use.

The west wing of the house contains an oak-paneled bedroom and a larger suite of rooms, all of which are plaster lathe. This suite is at the end of the gallery. The main room has a fireplace with flanking double doors leading onto a screened porch, and a "boudoir," as it is called on the architect's plans. The "boudoir" is smaller than the main room and could also be called a bed alcove. Both the suite and the paneled bedroom have separate bathrooms.

The solarium is a large room with a tile floor which is painted green. Along the northeast side of this room, there is a cross-vaulted arcade that connects the library's screened porch to the solarium and its door to the outside. The room lacks ornamentation, save for the fleur-de-lis-inspired moldings.

The main stairway, which opens off the long gallery, is rather open. It is built of oak, as is most of the rest of the house and has a heavily carved newel post. The stairway is expressed on the exterior of the house by a large gable with a very tall, diamond-paned window corresponding with the landing. The stair ends at the second-floor gallery, that like the gallery on the first floor, connects the two principal wings of the mansion. This gallery affords an excellent view of the Great Hall.

The west wing contains Mr. and Mrs. Glenn's suites. Mrs. Glenn's suite consists of three rooms of plaster lathe and a sleeping porch. The bedroom, the first room off the gallery, is rather restrained, having a simple wainscoat and a Sheraton-inspired molding. Beyond Mrs. Glenn's bedroom is her sitting room. Beyond the sitting room is a sleeping porch which exhibits a vaulted and timbered ceiling. To the right of the sitting room is a room used as an office for Mrs. Glenn's personal secretary. This suite also contains a vast amount of built-in drawers and cedar-lined closets, and a large bathroom.

Mr. Glenn's suite connects with Mrs. Glenn's. His bedroom is rather spare, with the exception of a very handsome marble fireplace. The remainder of his suite contains a bathroom, dressing room, and a room above the solarium that he used as a "gym." This room contained a "sweatbox" and various apparatus, including a trapeze.

Above the entrance vestibule along the second-floor gallery, there is a room that was used for storage. From this room, one gained access to the attic. In the attic, one may see the care that was taken in the construction of this grand house. The beams supporting the roof were bolted together. The ceiling of the Great Hall is not the same as the roof of the house. The south portion of the Great Hall ceiling is merely a lining, the true roof being another four feet above the ceiling of the Great Hall.

The east wing of the house contains the rooms of the sons of Mr. Glenn. There are two large bedrooms, one above the dining room having its shape, the other bedroom above the kitchen. A room originally used for storage was the childhood room of the third generation of Glenns at Glenridge Hall. The boys' suite, as it was called, included two bathrooms, closets, and a sleeping porch. This sleeping porch has translucent windows, which were added because the boys slept in this room and desired more privacy.

The servants' quarters (or caretaker's cottage) was designed in the same Jacobethan style as the large house. There is one large room on the first floor and four on the second. Also on the first floor is the furnace room and coal storage room. This is insulated from the rest of the structure by a large fireproof door. This building, though of much smaller scale than the main house, is just as well appointed. The brick work and half-timbering are of the caliber and craftsmanship as the main house. It also houses the garage.

Next to the servants' quarters is a pump house. The pump house is a small, square, brick building with a slate roof and cupola.

Other buildings on the northern portion of the estate include a two-story board-and-batten cow barn (now used for equipment); a one-story, frame, equipment barn; another one-story, frame, equipment barn adjacent to the one-story board-and-batten horse stable and a one-story, frame, dairy barn. These are all clustered in the northeast quadrant of the intersection of Glenridge Drive and Abernathy Road.

On the southern portion of the estate beside the drive are found the tenant house and the residence and stable occupied by the owner.