A southwest Atlanta mansion, the Wilson house, has been demolished. Built just before the Civil War, the house on Fairburn Road had become so dilapidated that it was a hazard.
Judge William Asbury Wilson oversaw the construction of the house, completed in 1859. During the Battle of Utoy Creek, it provided housing for Union officers – their horses, too. It bore the imprint of that long-ago war: a bullet hole in its front door, hoofprints on the ground floor.
It was, said Dr. Thomas Guffin, a great place for a boy to visit. An Atlanta native, he visited the house 50 years ago, sliding down its banister and listening to stories of long ago. His family sold the house to a nearby hospital. When another hospital took over, the house slid into neglect.
The latest owner reluctantly got a demolition permit after engineers told him it could not be saved. Now, plans are afoot to turn the site into a garden.
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