No one ever said a house had to be a simple matter of four walls and a roof. Sometimes a house has a steeple. Or a gymnasium. Or a baptismal pool.
For a number of metro Atlantans, the very notion of what constitutes a “home” is decidedly unconventional. A number of idiosyncrasy-craving homeowners are laying their heads in repurposed storefronts, factories, in former schools like Roswell’s Liberty Lofts and Inman Schoolhouse Lofts and even in churches, as in the case of one Atlanta family.
Alan Robbins, an account manager at Knoll and several generations of his extended family became the proud owners a year and a half ago, of a 6,400-square-foot church in the Old Fourth Ward, the McGruder Street Church of God in Christ, which was built in 1940.
Over the next year or so, Robbins will convert the enormous, open two-story space into two separate three bedroom, two bath homes. Robbins plans to move into one half of the church with his girlfriend Jenai Taylor, who works in business development at Knoll, his 92-year-old mother Ann Robbins and his 14-year-old grandson Miles Davis Barreto.
Alan Robbins’ daughter, artist Shana Robbins and her photographer husband, Alex Martinez, will live in the other half of the space. Though the church’s baptismal will go, Robbins has held on to four 72-inch wooden church pews for use in a future kitchen or dining room.
For now, Alan Robbins said that working with the city to make the former church conform to residential parameters is his first hurdle.
“I’m not sure the city of Atlanta has appropriate things in place that support the repurposing of these buildings to allow people to convert them in a way that preserves the building and supports keeping a significant piece of architecture within the community,” Robbins said. “There ought to be some special-use permits available to people, on a case-by-case basis if the neighborhood supports it, and it seems like a reasonable proposition, if someone wanted to convert one of these buildings.”
Robbins is a veteran of church revivals. He renovated a 7,000-square-foot church in Lake Claire over 10 years ago.
The merits of living in such repurposed palaces are many, including a connection to the past, voluminous space and owning a home that is utterly idiosyncratic.
“I like the volume of the space,” said Robbins of what makes these historical conversions so appealing. “I like the fact that it’s a clean slate you start with. And they are usually in good locations. I think it’s the character of it more than anything.”
Interior designer Ashley Hill wrote her master’s thesis at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta on residential conversion of historic schools. She also lives in a converted candy factory in Reynoldstown.
From her research, Hill found that there are both advantages and disadvantages to these kinds of properties. On the plus side, she said, “older building types often have higher floor-to-ceiling heights and larger windows, offering spacious and airy living spaces and an abundance of natural light.” Hill added, “older buildings are often located in historic, developed areas of the city in close proximity to jobs, restaurants, transportation etc., location is also a huge selling point.”
There are economic pluses, too, Hill noted. “Many historic conversions offer tax incentives for residents and often retain higher re-sale values than typical high-rise units.”
There are downsides, too, including the upkeep involved in older spaces, and translating a large, open-floor plan into smaller, livable ones.
“From a resident's standpoint, leaking around windows, poor insulation and high heating/cooling costs are often noted as challenges,” Hill said.
The beautiful original double-tilt windows that distinguish John Gibson’s converted schoolhouse home are both one of his favorite features and a source of energy leakage and cold drafts.
“They’re part of what is listed and considered a historic feature, and therefore unalterable,” said Gibson, who clearly sees the advantages of his home outweighing anything as minor as drafty windows.
Gibson is an antiques dealer who last February moved, with his partner John Bluhm, who works in audio-visual system sales, into a 2,200 square foot two-level condo in the Inman Schoolhouse Lofts on Edgewood Avenue. The repurposed schoolhouse space features theatrical glamour galore, including polished concrete floors, 12-foot-high ceilings, exposed brick walls, maple floors upstairs and an artful mix of antiques from Gibson's shop inside the Paris on Ponce antiques complex.
“It is, for my money, the absolutely best situation in Atlanta,” declared Gibson.
The circa 1892 building -- Atlanta’s oldest existing schoolhouse -- is divided into eight condos and shelters a diverse array of residents including an attorney, a CNN employee and one 12-year-old, ironically the only child living in the former schoolhouse. Harkening back to its schoolhouse origins, the building’s public hallways feature vintage maps, trophies and school chairs. The Schoolhouse residents, said Gibson, are a tight-knit community who often entertain together and think nothing of a friendly knock on the door for some tonic water or peppercorns.
“We have Schoolhouse cookouts and we often gather in various groups on our front porch, which is the principle social space for the building,” Gibson said.
As with so many repurposed spaces, the location is a large part of the appeal.
“It’s beautifully situated. Edgewood is undergoing a real revival with a lot of nightlife and good quality restaurants. We can walk from our front door more conveniently than we can be valet parked at Rathbun’s,” said Gibson, of the popular neighborhood restaurant.
Access to a plethora of downtown Roswell restaurants and activities is just one of the reasons why Betsy Robinson has been an occupant since 2006 of one of the few repurposed loft properties outside the perimeter, the Liberty Lofts in downtown Roswell.
“It’s a neat, neat community,” said Robinson of the former Roswell High School that was converted in 1998 to 72 loft homes flanked by 105 town-home condominiums.
Robinson is planning a relocation to New York and is listing her 1,360-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bath home with Tim Sullivan at RE/MAX Center Dacula.
“You can walk to any of the parks, you can walk to the Chattahoochee River, great restaurants ... we never have to get in the car,” Robinson said. “If you’re looking for something completely unique that no one else has, your own story, your own space, the loft thing cannot be beat.”
