Atlanta: From Railroads to Renaissance

Join us as we explore Atlanta’s remarkable transformation from railroad terminus to cultural capital. Rising from the ashes of the Civil War, Atlanta became a beacon of the so-called New South, where early-20th-century architects like Philip Trammell Shutze created stunning estates and visionaries assembled collections that rival the nation’s finest. From the splendor of Swan House to the intimate elegance of private estates, from the folk art traditions of Georgia’s countryside to the sophisticated European porcelain housed in Athens, this Symposium reveals the layered history of a city and region that have always looked forward while honoring their past. As we engage with scholars, curators, and collectors who steward Atlanta’s artistic legacy, we discover how ambition, resilience, and distinctive regional character shaped an impressive decorative arts tradition and created the cradle of the civil rights movement.

There is availability for the Main Symposium, Emerging Scholars Fundraiser, and Post-Symposium Optional Tour, but the Pre-Symposium Optional Tour is full. Please contact Keely Edgington at thetrust@decorativeartstrust.org with questions. 

Thursday, April 23, 6:30 pm–9:00 pm

Welcoming Remarks and Opening Program at The Cherokee Town and Country Club

The Jonathan L. Fairbanks Lecture
Collecting Georgia: Early Decorative Arts and Craft from Hearth to Parlor
Dale Couch, retired, Curator of Decorative Arts at the Georgia Museum of Art

Following our opening lecture in Atlanta’s premier private country club, join us for a welcome reception that sets the tone for our exploration of the city’s refined taste and gracious hospitality.

Sponsored by 
 

Friday, April 24, 8:30 am–5:00 pm 

Morning Lecture at The Tess Hotel/Cresthaven Ballroom
Something to Last the Years: The Architecture of Philip Trammell Shutze in the South
Barbara Hyde, Shutze Scholar and Keeper of the Goodrum House

Our day begins with an introduction to Philip Trammell Shutze, the Georgia-born architect whose designs define Atlanta’s most distinguished early-20th-century residences. We then take to the city for immersive visits to some of the region’s premier collections of decorative and fine arts. Our morning is devoted to the Atlanta History Center, a museum and research center dedicated to stewarding the multifaceted story of Atlanta’s material culture. Its sprawling campus dotted with historic buildings includes the magnificent Swan House. Designed by Shutze in 1928, this confection of Renaissance and Classical styles represents the pinnacle of Atlanta’s Country House Era. The Palladian façade, Italian Renaissance gardens, and lavish collection of porcelain, silver, furniture, and paintings reflect the cultivated aesthetic of Atlanta’s most affluent families. Our visit also includes special behind-the-scenes access to the Center’s storage facilities where we examine rarely displayed treasures. Guided walks through the gardens showcase the arboreal artistry of Southern landscape design. The Center’s permanent exhibitions provide essential context for Atlanta’s evolution from railroad hub to modern metropolis as we deepen our understanding of the city.

Following lunch, we visit the High Museum of Art, the Southeast’s largest art museum and a gem of 20th-century Modernist architecture, which celebrates its centennial in 2026. We enjoy special access to the American decorative art galleries, closed for renovation but opened exclusively for our group. Expert guides treat us to an investigation of the museum’s significant holdings of material culture from the Virginia Carroll Crawford Collection, including important works by the Herter Brothers, Tiffany & Co., and Frank Lloyd Wright. Nearby is the First Presbyterian Church, built in 1914 in the Late Gothic Revival style by Walter T. Downing and A. Ten Eyck Brown, prolific architects in early-20th-century Atlanta. The church’s exceptional collection of stained-glass windows include examples by three renowned sources: Louis C. Tiffany, Nicola D’Ascenzo, and the Willet Studio.

Saturday, April 25, 9:00 am–5:00 pm

We spend the day among Atlanta’s architectural treasures, enjoying intimate guided tours of the city’s significant private estates and historic landmarks. Exclusive access to the 1929 Goodrum House, another of Shutze’s fine achievements and one of his personal favorites, allows us to appreciate the architect’s mastery of proportion, detail, and the integration of interior and exterior spaces. His unique interpretation of the English Regency style and the ornate mural decoration are not to be missed. We also visit the privately owned 1924 Randolph Lucas Jones House, designed by  P. Thornton Marye, the architect of Atlanta’s iconic Fox Theater. This Georgian Revival mansion’s stately symmetry and elegant detail reveals Marye’s versatility and the refined taste of Atlanta’s patrons. The current owner assisted in the home’s relocation and rehabilitation, and shares insights into his approach to preservation and connoisseurship.

After a casual lunch we step back in time to the mid-19th century. Built in 1858 by Lemuel Pratt Grant, the civil engineer who designed Atlanta’s wartime fortifications, the L.P. Grant Mansion is a charming Italianate villa and fortuitous survivor of Sherman’s 1864 March to the Sea. David Mitchell, Executive Director of the Atlanta Preservation Center, guides us through the mansion’s carefully restored interiors, sharing the vibrant history of Atlanta’s oldest house museum. Established in 1850, Oakland Cemetery is Atlanta’s most significant historic landscape, where elaborate Victorian monuments and mausoleums tell the stories of the city’s founders, soldiers, and notable citizens. Our guided tour reveals the artistry of funerary sculpture and the social history inscribed in stone, from Confederate generals to Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind.

Sunday, April 26, 8:45 am–11:00 am in the Cresthaven Ballroom

We conclude our Symposium with four presentations from emerging and established scholars which showcase the breadth and depth of the state’s contributions to American decorative arts.

The John A.H. Sweeney Emerging Scholar Lecture
Feminine Arts | Fraternal Orders: Masonic Materiality in 19th-Century Georgia
Kelsey Seigert, Curatorial Fellow, Georgia Museum of Art

From Play Mountain to Playscapes: Isamu Noguchi’s Playground for Atlanta
Monica Obniski, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, High Museum of Art

The James A. Sanders Lecture
Georgia Quilts at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts
Lea C. Lane, Curator, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts

Georgia (Folk Pottery) On My Mind
Dr. John A. Burrison, Regents Professor of English and Director of the Folklore Curriculum, Georgia State University

The Pre-Symposium Optional Tour is sold out. 

Athens and Madison: Classicism in the Piedmont

Wednesday, April 22, 8:30 am–7:45 pm

We begin our journey in Athens, Georgia’s celebrated college town, where Antebellum architecture and Classical Revival residences create one of the South’s most beautiful historic districts. Our morning is devoted to rotating tours of two exceptional house museums that reveal the sophistication of Athens’s 19th-century elite.

The T.R.R. Cobb House, built in 1834 and given as a wedding gift in 1844, showcases Greek Revival architecture at its finest. Cobb, a prominent attorney and architect of Georgia’s secession, and his wife, Marion, filled their home with elegant furnishings that reflect both his professional success and their refined taste. The house’s distinctive features and enticing collections transport us to the intellectual and social world of Antebellum Athens. The c. 1820 Church-Waddel-Brumby House, the city’s earliest extant residence, provides a complementary view of local architecture through its collection of decorative arts, offering insights into domestic life in early-19th-century Georgia. The house narrowly escaped demolition in 1967 when concerned citizens rallied to save and relocate it, ultimately founding the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation in the process.

Following our morning rotations, we enjoy lunch at the 1844 Taylor-Grady House, a stunning Greek Revival mansion surrounded by massive Doric columns, once the home of Henry W. Grady, the voice of the New South. Our afternoon takes us to an unexpected treasure: the Porcelain and Decorative Arts Museum, home to an extraordinary collection of European ceramics. Curator-led tours allow us to examine rare examples of Meissen, Sèvres, and other Continental porcelain in intimate gallery settings, followed by a guided walk through the museum’s gardens.

As the day wanes, we journey to the countryside for a memorable reception at an elegant and expansive private house and horsefarm. We are welcomed by the current owners, who are as passionate about Georgia decorative arts as they are equestrian pursuits. This gracious gathering amid rolling pastures and elegant stables offers a fitting close to our day exploring Athens and its environs before continuing to our overnight accommodations in Athens.

Thursday, April 23, 8:30 am–5:00 pm

After breakfast, we depart for Madison, a jewel miraculously spared from destruction during Sherman’s March to the Sea. This enchanting town stands as one of Georgia’s most remarkable survivals, filled with pristine Antebellum architecture. Our morning tours feature privileged access to exceptional houses that remain in private hands along elegant oak-lined avenues, where we gain an appreciation for the city’s enduring preservation efforts and local collections.

Following our tours, we gather for lunch at Heritage Hall, an 1811 Greek Revival residence with a distinguished history. The home was acquired in 1830 by Dr. Elijah Evans Jones, a prominent physician, railroad investor, and chairman of the Georgia Female College. It now serves as headquarters for the Morgan County Historical Society, which maintains the building’s period furnishings and preserves the rich tapestry of regional history.

After lunch, guests are invited to explore Heritage Hall at their leisure before we depart for Atlanta and the Symposium’s official opening lecture and reception at The Cherokee Town and Country Club.

Roswell: Grand Houses Along the Chattahoochee
Sunday, April 26, 12:00 pm–7:00 pm

Following our morning lectures, we journey north to historic Roswell, where three Antebellum plantations offer a compelling window into Georgia’s complex past. After lunch in a converted textile mill along Vickery Creek, we rotate through tours of Roswell’s most significant estates.

The Archibald Smith Plantation, built in 1845, preserves not only the main house but also the outbuildings, gardens, and landscape that sustained a working plantation. The site’s interpretation addresses both the material culture of the planter class and the enslaved workers whose labor made such affluence possible. 

Bulloch Hall, birthplace of President Theodore Roosevelt’s mother, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, combines architectural distinction with fascinating personal history. This Greek Revival mansion, completed around 1840, hosted Martha’s wedding to Theodore Roosevelt Sr., connecting Roswell to the broader sweep of American history.

Barrington Hall, the most architecturally ambitious of the three residences in Roswell, showcases the Greek Revival style at its most elaborate. Built in 1842 for Barrington King, whose family established Roswell’s textile mills, the house features Doric columns, elegant interiors, and period furnishings that reflect the wealth generated by cotton and manufacturing.

We close our time together with a farewell reception at the historic William Root House in nearby Marietta. Built in 1845 for William Root, one of Marietta’s earliest merchants and its first druggist, this gracious residence stands as one of the city’s oldest surviving structures. Carefully restored to its Antebellum appearance and furnished with period antiques, the home now tells the story of daily life for both the Root family and the enslaved people who lived and worked on the property. As we gather amid the period gardens and beneath the welcoming portico, we celebrate the discoveries and friendships forged during our exploration of Atlanta’s artistic and architectural legacy, reflecting on a journey that has taken us from railroads to renaissance.