Neighbors fear school expansion may replace house

As DeKalb County finalizes plans to renovate Druid Hills High School, nearby Emory Grove residents are concerned about what they say could signal a makeover of their historic neighborhood.

That’s because the school system is under contract to buy a house in their neck of the woods, which is part of Druid Hills near Emory University. The house’s backyard abuts the track and field at the back end of the Druid Hills High campus.

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JOEY IVANSCO / jivansco@ajc.com

Residents of Emory Grove fear this house and the neighborhood’s character will be swept away during school’s renovation.

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Neighbors fear the house — which is vacant and sits a tenth of a mile from the nearest main road — may be razed for a new driveway or tennis courts as part of the school’s renovation. A spokesman for the DeKalb County school system said only that use of the property is “under evaluation.”

“Lacking any real communication from anyone in the school system, all we can do is speculate,” said neighbor Ron Foust, a 17-year resident. “You’re changing the character of the neighborhood.”

Emory Grove boasts about 100 cottages built in the late 1930s and the 1940s to house university faculty and staff; the neighborhood sits only blocks from campus. Cozy and covered with a canopy of trees, it comprises two streets — Edinburgh Terrace and Westminster Way — and a short strip of North Decatur Road.

It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, along with Emory Presbyterian Church — which sits at the corner of Westminster Way and North Decatur Road — and Druid Hills High, which itself dates to 1927 and sits by the church on the next street over, Haygood Drive.

The school is due a $21 million renovation, including a new wing, with the work expected to begin this school year. Among other improvements, the campus is expected to expand a cramped parking situation.

Here’s where neighbors’ concerns lie: there is limited space available within the campus’ existing footprint except — at least to a layman’s eye — toward the back end near the field.

The property under contract would provide direct access to the school’s campus. It is the second lot in on Westminster Way, and is bordered on either side by other houses. In addition to removing the lot’s house, the school system also would have to clear several tall trees and possibly fill in a swale in the backyard.

Although residential owners in the neighborhood are governed by historic preservation guidelines, Foust and other neighbors said they believe the school system would be exempt as far as razing the house.

They said they have asked for a meeting with system officials to start what they hope is a dialogue that influences how the property is used. Otherwise, they said, they fear the erosion of their neighborhood one house at a time.