Friday, May 29, 2009

Goodbye to the 555


This month of May, my Mom sold the old family home in Tennessee so that she can move to Atlanta to be closer to family. 555 Springhill Drive was a special house because it was built using materials from an even older family house! 100+ year old bricks, slate and stone were used to create the tri-level cottage w/ greenhouse.

I took my first steps as a baby in this house- and amazingly, so did my nephew Brodie this month as we finished up the packing!

As a child, the house was the centerpiece of many great memories such as Holiday family get-togethers, Sunday dinners, cranking homemade ice cream out on the brick patio, looking through the red glass of the giant walnut front door and, especially, climbing through the cherry and ash railing of the beautiful staircase!

The large city lot was populated by some interesting landscape trees, such as a huge pin oak, gingko, magnolias, dogwoods, birch and tupelo.
The gardens were filled with my grandmother's and Mom's lifetime of collecting unusual and beautiful flora. Heirloom daffodils, iris, peonies, columbine, trillium, lilies, hydrangeas, camelias and azaleas dotted the multitude of carefully bordered gardens. A water garden, complete with a babbling brook, provided safe haven for water lilies and coi.

My Dad used to have a large vegetable garden there. My sister and I remember the toil of constant rock-picking whenever the garden was tilled! In later years, the vegetable garden became more of an orchard with the addition of cherry, apple and fig trees.

A great house with many great memories. Now let's start creating the next great family homes!

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