Anne Moore Colgin is not the sort of woman who settles for anything but what she really wants.

And when she found the classically untraditional ranch home at 3340 Chatham Road, one of five houses that will be featured April 6 during the Buckhead in Bloom Tour of Homes, she didn't let the fact that it wasn't for sale dampen her enthusiasm for it.

Sara Hopkins / Special/SPECIAL (ENLARGE)

Robbie and Anne Colgin stand in front of their Buckhead home known as Tusquitee. Lewis 'Buck' Crook of Ivey and Crook designed the Southern Classical Revival style house in 1952.

Sara Hopkins/Special (ENLARGE)

A pair of antique gilded mirrors flanks the doorway between the living and dining rooms.

Sara Hopkins / Special (ENLARGE)

The highlight of this guest bedroom is this mid-19th century brass bed that once stood in the Governor's Mansion.

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She had looked at other homes in the same neighborhood, but the Lewis "Buck" Crook design, incorporating the style of Jeffersonian Southern Classical Revival into a 1952 split level, captured her heart the instant she laid eyes on it in 1986.

Although most midcentury moderns adhered to a Bauhaus-inspired minimalism, the Crook design folded the architectural grace of Flemish bond brick patterns, Greek Key motifs and triple-hung windows into the pragmatic floor plan of compact living.

"I looked at every single house in the neighborhood and this was my favorite," Colgin said.

So she waited.

When the call came after many months that the house had become available, Colgin was out of town. She flew back to Atlanta with one thing in mind.

"I got off the plane and came over here. I gave them a contract that evening," Colgin said.

Now the house christened Tusquitee by its original owners incorporates the historic charm of Colgin's family heirlooms, accented with her collection of French, English and American antiques and sparkling with her trademark touch of whimsy.

Boyd Coons, executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center, said the house was selected for the center's eighth annual Buckhead in Bloom tour because it provides the final link in a series of homes in the revivalist tradition from a group of Atlanta's most revered residential architects of the last century. The five homes, including a Tudor Revival and ones in Georgian and Colonial motifs, were built between 1910 and 1952.

"You're seeing the sequence of historic revivalist architecture," Coons said. "Anne's house is one of the last period of the continuum of that movement."

Coons praises the house for its "sense of proportion," efficiently exhibiting some of the finest revivalist traditions such as the front portico with Ionic columns and a sunburst window arching over the entrance.

Working with interior designer Lynn Starling, Colgin organized the home's clearly defined spaces into themed displays.

The guest bedroom, dubbed the Governor's Room, is anchored by the sturdy mid-19th century brass bed that once stood in the Governor's Mansion when it was inhabited by James Milton Smith from 1872 to 1877.

Colgin included a number of personal effects in her decorations for the Textile Room in the other wing of the house. A framed lace panel taken from her 1963 debutante ball gown hangs next to the lace-and-pearl tunic from her wedding to Robbie Colgin three years ago.

The ball gown "was in the attic and the squirrels got into it, so what else can you do but cut out the front panel?" Colgin said.

Colgin pays homage to her husband's passion for polo with an equestrian theme in the blond-paneled downstairs den. A chandelier fashioned from riding whips illuminates the anteroom, and the tartan accents throughout the space complement the framed hunting prints on the walls.

But unquestionably their favorite spot is the cheery Garden Room with abundant windows looking into the American boxwood-lined patio with a pair of double-blossom dogwood trees and Colgin's cherished rose garden just beyond.

Painted floor to ceiling by artists Catherine Arnett and Jim Chadwick with hydrangeas, roses, vines and garden fauna against a brightly colored backdrop, the garden room includes a discreet bar in the corner for al fresco-style entertaining with protection from adverse elements and pests.

When the Colgin rose garden is in bloom, the Garden Room offers a relaxed vantage point for a glimpse of 40 rose varieties. Colgin confesses a particular fondness for the big, peach-colored 'Just Joey' variety. But, "really, whatever's blooming is what I like," she said.

IF YOU GO:

Buckhead in Bloom: The eighth annual tour of homes, benefitting the Atlanta Preservation Center, is noon to 5 p.m. April 6. Reserved tickets, $40 ($30 for Preservation Center members), available via the Atlanta Preservation Center: 404-688-3353, Ext. 11. They can also be purchased at the Cathedral of St. Phillip Bookstore (2744 Peachtree St., Atlanta), four select offices of tour sponsor Harry Norman Realtors, Smith & Hawken (2395 Peachtree St., Atlanta), and Boxwoods Gardens and Gifts (100 Andrews Drive, Atlanta). From noon to 4 p.m. on tour day, tickets will be sold at House #1, 330 Argonne Drive, Atlanta.