Built in 1924, the 8,000-square-foot mansion was moved about 2 miles in 2013 after its new owners stepped in to save it from demolition, according to the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. Some historic homes are preserved by restoring their walls, replacing their old roofs, and repairing the damage. But the Randolph-Lucas-Jones House in Atlanta required something else. It needed a police escort, utility crews to lift power lines out of its path, and a roof hinged down so each half could clear the route.
The Georgian Revival-style home was built in 1924 for Hollins Nicholas Randolph, an Atlanta attorney and businessman and the great-great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson. The Randolphs lived there for about a decade before selling it to Margaret Lucas in 1935. She stayed until her death in 1987. A painting of it appeared on the cover of Anne Rivers Siddons’s 1988 bestselling novel Peachtree Road .
Her husband, Arthur, operated several cinemas around the city, according to Rough Draft Atlanta. The house was designed by architect P. Thornton Mayre, who also helped build the Fox Theatre. The home’s design was based on the plan of Randolph’s ancestral home near Charlottesville, Virginia. The house later became a fixture of fiction, too.
In 1998, the Lucas family sold the property to the 2500 Peachtree Condo Association. By the autumn of 2012, the association held a city demolition permit and was offering the house free to anyone who could move it. During this time, the house was shifted forward on its lot, with plans to use it as a clubhouse and an event space. Maintenance bills quickly ended that idea, and the house fell into disrepair.