Secluded estate to go public for charity

The area around Abernathy Road and Ga. 400 has grown into one of the metro area’s most congested corners, with high-rise office towers and shopping centers surrounded by lanes of traffic. But it wasn’t always that way. In the late 1920s, the area was farmland owned by Thomas Glenn, a partner of Ernest Woodruff and president of Trust Company of Georgia — known today as SunTrust Bank.

Glenn was a widower who remarried in 1927 and set about building an English Tudor home for his new wife. It took three years to finish and furnish Glenridge Hall, the 15,000-square-foot U-shaped mansion with 22 rooms, a slate roof and beveled windows.

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Phil Skinner/pskinner@ajc.com

Sections of Glenridge Hall, a 22-room mansion near Ga. 400 and Abernathy Road, will be opened to the public Dec. 5 for a gala benefiting Childkind. The great room is among the areas that the public can view.

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Phil Skinner/pskinner@ajc.com

Buckhead-based designer Dede Gilreath chose to decorate the library with angels and faux Fabergé eggs.

IF YOU GO
Childkind's 20th Anniversary Holiday House. Glenridge Hall, 600 Abernathy Road; 7 p.m. Dec. 5; tickets $125 per person; 404-248-1980, Ext. 229. www.childkind.org

GLENRIDGE HALL TRIVIA
• Built with five bedrooms and 10 baths, the house was meant to be a summer and weekend retreat.
• Most ceilings are at least 12 feet high.
• The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• The entrance to the men's room is lined with historic photos of Glenn, his colleagues and business ventures.
• Glenn's sister, Flora, married Asa Candler's eldest son. The couple built Callanwolde, the 1920 mansion that today is the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center on Briarcliff Road.

HOLIDAY GUIDE
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Through a spotty history that includes vacancy and vandalism, the grand house has been restored and survives as a private residence. Today, its gardens and grounds cover more than 45 acres.

Yet drivers clipping along Abernathy won’t get a glimpse of this residential relic. Its only street presence is a set of white-picket fences at the edge of the driveway.

The house itself sits secluded at the end of a stony, mile-long drive that winds through a dense forest. And unless you’re invited by the family, the chances of getting past the front door are slim.

“So many people who come here say, ‘We had no idea you were back here!’” house manager Mike Rabalais said. “In a way, being hidden has been the best security we have.”

On Dec. 5, the house won’t be incognito. A fund-raiser for the nonprofit Childkind will allow the public to wander through the mansion’s public spaces as part of Holiday House, an event that marks the 20th anniversary of the nonprofit that supports medically fragile children.

Some might recall that for 14 years, Childkind’s Holiday House was a major seasonal event that included a gala party and tours of the decorated Glenridge Hall. But the tours ended in 2004, and the group has not been back since then.

“This is still a private home, and the family decided having the public come through for several weeks before the holidays was too much,” said David Holcomb, an interior designer who heads the event’s host committee. “This may be our last hurrah, the last chance for people to see this magnificent house.”

Having hordes of people traipse through the historic home was a challenge, Rabalais said.

“It was a huge wear and tear on the house,” he said. “So the owners decided to allow just one gala event. We chose the seven rooms we’d let the designers decorate, keeping in mind that it is a private home.”

That’s the appeal of having a gala at Glenridge Hall, Childkind President Karl Lehman said.

“This is not a museum,” he said. “It is not a place you can typically go on your own. And it has the added benefit of being a home where someone still lives. The detail work of each room is amazing. I’ve been there many times, yet each time I go back, I see something I didn’t see before.”

Holcomb has enlisted the expertise of several area designers to transform the house into a holiday wonderland. Here’s a glimpse at some of the rooms that will be open for the evening affair.

The Empire suite

This first-floor guest suite has a bedroom and sitting room with a fireplace flanked by sets of French doors leading to a patio. The walls are a pale pink and the picture molding a soft green. The bath, done in green and white tile, features a soaking tub, pedestal sink and the original fixtures dating from 1929.

The morning room

Also called the sunroom or garden room, this corner of the house may be the cheeriest. Two sets of French doors and a wall of windows welcome natural light. The far end of the room is an arched gallery with a groined ceiling and a chapel door to the garden, a design that hints of a great manor home’s chapel area.

“The most unusual piece in the room is the chandelier made with a Japanese parasol,” said designer Josh Borden of the Borden Design Group in Midtown. “There are other Asian elements in the room as well, so I’m using dragonflies and butterflies with sequins in a 10-foot tree. I want to keep the feel that this is part of a very stately mansion.”

The library

A portrait of Glenn hangs over the massive fireplace in this very masculine room. The walls are lined with books; the ceiling is an intricately carved design made of plaster. Three sets of French doors open to the terrace. Buckhead-based designer Dede Gilreath is dressing the space for the party.

“I’m doing a tabletop tree with faux Fabergé eggs and angels,” Gilreath said. “The fireplace will be clad with a collection of nutcrackers, and there will be a miniature tree of grapevines in the corner. I’m leaving in all the furniture — the very traditional rug and the 18th-century pieces make it a very English library that shows off the family heritage.”

The great room

With a soaring, beamed ceiling, this main gathering space is filled with furniture groupings, wall tapestries and a giant walk-in fireplace of carved stone. Around the top of the room is the gallery of the second floor and a minstrel’s gallery, where musicians perform for guests.

The dining room

Step up from the great room to this long dining room with a rectangular table and tall-backed chairs. An oversize window reveals views of the surrounding woods.

Santa’s room

This upstairs bedroom with a four-poster and red velvet hangings will be transformed into Santa’s office for the party. An oversize armchair beside the dark marble fireplace will hold the Head Elf as he hears guests’ requests.

The breakfast room

This small round room with a vaulted ceiling was recently restored. The most difficult part of the project was restoring the wall mural, a vast garden scene that sweeps around the room. The original design was created by Athos Menaboni, whose work was in demand by Atlanta’s elite for their mansions.