Spotlight on… Morningside

The homeowner: Teya Ryan, president and executive director of Georgia Public Broadcasting and a former CNN executive, lives in Morningside with her family in what she describes as a “fairly modern,” four-story home featuring their folk art collection. Ryan’s four-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath residence offers space to display the art of Southerners Jimmy Lee Sudduth and Roger Lee Ivens (known as “Ab the Flagman”) and artists from around the world, along with room for entertaining. The kitchen is big enough for a long dining table where people congregate. “We have dinner parties all the time and it’s all about the food. It’s all about the cooking and it’s all about the joy of sharing that with our friends,” she said. Ryan shares the home with her husband, Henry Oat, 9-year-old daughter Alexa and Ryan’s mother, playwright Sandra Heyward. “The whole point is that it’s a house where every ounce of space is used. It’s all about sort of real living,” she said. Part of the home’s appeal was its location. Before the 1920s, the area was part of a small farm community known as Easton, but in 1923, developers James R. Smith and M.S. Rankin bought the land that became Morningside. Ryan’s home backs up to the 23-acre Daniel Johnson Nature Preserve, one of a dozen parks and nature preserves in the community. “We’ve got coyotes, we’ve got hawks. We have owls. We have beautiful birds. We’ve got fish in the creek. We’ve got a place to run all our dogs,” she said.

About the Community

Morningside

County: Fulton

Price range: $300,000s to $2.95 million

Information: mlpa.org (Morningside-Lenox Park Neighborhood Association)

Homes: 3,383 (Figure provided by Morningside-Lenox Park Neighborhood Association)

Taxes: Estimates at 1.65 percent of the sales price for city of Atlanta and Fulton County taxes

Styles: Craftsman bungalows, ranch, Tudor, European, Mediterranean, traditional, contemporary

Amenities: Parks and playgrounds; close to shopping and dining in Virginia-Highland

Homeowners fees: None (Homeowners can join the Morningside-Lenox Park Neighborhood Association)

Schools: Morningside Elementary, Inman Middle, Grady High

More on schools: schools.ajchomefinder.com

Getting there

Take I-75/I-85 to the 14th Street exit and travel east to Piedmont Road. Turn left onto Piedmont Road. Turn right onto East Morningside, which is the first light after Monroe Avenue.

For sale right now

$2.95 million: 1750 Merton Road N.E., Atlanta 30306. A Mediterranean-style five-bedroom, six-full and two-half bath home built in 2005 with a front courtyard, a sports court, pool and hot tub, and a terrace level with a wine cellar, tasting room, media room, gym and bar.

$314,900: 1845 Windemere Drive, Atlanta 30324. A two-bedroom, one-bath brick bungalow built in 1940 with a new roof, one-car garage and a vaulted sunroom.

Community information provided by Donna Boynton with Harry Norman, Realtors.

Housing trends in ZIP code 30306

Sales of new homes: 11, down 50 percent

Sales of existing homes: 225, down 15 percent

Median price of new homes: $158,000, down 5 percent

Median price of existing homes: $425,000, down 3 percent

Source: AJC’s Metro Home Sales Report, 2009 data