DEL.ICIO.USOrmewood Park rich in tolerance and diversity
Neighborhood home tour will highlight celebration of differences
For The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, October 12, 2008
On a busy street that divides the intown neighborhoods of Ormewood Park and Woodland Hills, two houses sit side by side. One, a two-story clapboard home, was built in the 1920s but gutted and rebuilt in the ’90s. The other, a one-story 1925 brick Tudor bungalow, stands pretty much as it was first constructed.
Here in this south Atlanta neighborhood, residents celebrate their differences and appreciate their neighbors’ diversity.
Mikki K. Harris / AJC
Neighbors from bottom left: Peter Bolognese and partner Francois McCord, Matt Sanders, son Everett, 8 months, Shannon Sanders and daughter Willow, 4, sit on the steps of Bolognese and McCord’s Ormewood Park home. The families get together often for food and drinks.
Mikki K. Harris / AJC
A stained glass trolley, representing the South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development (SAND) hangs in the front of Peter Bolognese and Francois McCord’s home in Ormewood Park.
Mikki K. Harris / AJC
The Sanders house looks much as it did when it was built in 1925, but their street is a mix of old and new, with houses spanning 100 years.
The two-story clapboard, with its wide front porch and bright yellow and green exterior — the colors of the Jamaican flag — is owned by Peter Bolognese and Francois McCord. They laughingly refer to it as the “Jamaican embassy” and cheerfully talk about a paint job that went awry.
In 2004, Bolognese and McCord decided to move from their home in Kennesaw. Bolognese says, “We bought in Kennesaw because it was the most house we could buy for our dollar.” But after four years of commuting into town, McCord says he was dying a slow death. “If I had to sit in traffic one more year, that would have been it,” he laughs. Their 21-mile commute was taking an hour and a half and when they got home, they were too tired to do anything else.
They found an area of Atlanta where the homes seemed to be a good value, and moved in. “I love our block,” says McCord. “The night we moved in, the mover got the last thing off the truck around midnight. The truck had this squeaky lift and I thought, ‘Man, the neighbors are going to kills us.’ The movers drove off and [instead of being angry] the neighbors showed up with drinks. [At the end of the evening] we realized we had talked to our new neighbors more in one night than we talked to our old neighbors in five years in Kennesaw.”
Within the week, they met Matt and Shannon Sanders who live next door in the 1925 Tudor bungalow with their children, Willow and Everett. McCord says, “They had been on vacation in the North Georgia mountains and came over with a bag of apples they had picked. It gave us an almost instant sense of belonging.”
The Sanderses have been in their house for seven years. They had been renting in nearby Candler Park and enjoyed the area for its housing styles and proximity to their work. “We like the mix of old and new in our neighborhood. Not every lot was developed at the same time,” says Shannon. The mix of housing stock on the street includes houses built over a 100-year span, including large two-story American four-squares and small stucco-clad Mediterranean bungalows.
“From our experience, the sense of community is very strong here,” adds Matt. “I think a lot of it is that the neighborhood is pretty stable. We have a lot of residents who’ve lived here all their lives, others who’ve lived here longer than we have, and like any neighborhood, there’s been turnover as well.”
Both sets of neighbors refer to the great mix of ages and backgrounds. “It’s easier to name our differences than our similarities,” says Matt as he lists neighbors who are single professionals, young couples, older couples, people who rent and people who own. “I think there’s a good socioeconomic mix as a result of the mix of ownership,” he says. “And a mix of sexual orientation and races, too. We didn’t understand that when we purchased the home, but we’ve really come to appreciate it.”
Shannon feels that the diversity of housing stock attracts a variety of residents. “It’s refreshing that we’ve gotten to meet so many different types of people who have different jobs, different lifestyles, different income ranges. We have a lot of gay families here, as well as heterosexual families; some have children, some don’t. It’s a nice mix, I think, and it’s great for our kids to grow up around this diversity of people and races.”
Matt adds a last thought about the strong work ethic that cuts across the differences in neighbors. “We see this all the time as people do their own renovations or help out their neighbors on weekend projects, as well as hands-on participation on neighborhood projects,” he says.
Woodland Hills and Ormewood Park are part of SAND (South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development), an organization of seven contiguous neighborhoods. The association is active in neighborhood governance and in improving the quality of life there. Recently SAND welcomed the Albert T. Mills Enrichment Center when it had to leave its location on Glenwood Avenue. SAND helped the preschool settle into the Ormewood Presbyterian Church and raised funds for the preschool.
One major fund-raiser is the Tour of Homes, now in its 20th anniversary year.
Shannon says their home isn’t on the tour.
“Maybe when the children are older,” he says, “and we’ve done some renovations inside, but definitely not now.”
Matt explains they’ve spent most of their energy building a barn and carport, which provide space for a workshop and storage and built a screened back porch which the family enjoys year-round.
“We have a list of things to do on the inside of the house,” he laughs.
But Bolognese and McCord welcomed visitors to their home on last year’s tour.
“We were on the tour because we’re house proud,” says Bolognese, “and it’s a great opportunity to show off the diversity of homes [in our neighborhoods]. For the right people, this is a great location. People should know what it’s like to live here.”
South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development Tour of Homes
Oct. 18 and 19, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Ten homes are on tour in the Glenwood Park, Ormewood Park, North Ormewood Park, Boulevard Heights, Woodland Hills, McDonough-Guice and Benteen Park neighborhoods. Also included are a charter school and the UFO (Urban Farm in Ormewood). Tickets: $12 in advance, $15 on tour days. For more information, log on to www.sandtourofhomes.org.