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Walk any block in Virginia-Highland and you are reading a streetscape composed over more than a century. The first homes rose in the 1890s, when the Nine-Mile Trolley opened this countryside to families leaving the crowded city, and many still display the vocabulary of the late Victorian era: asymmetrical massing, steep gables, turned porch posts, and decorative spindlework. The 1900s and 1910s introduced the American Foursquare, with its cubic form, hipped roof, and central dormer, alongside early Craftsman bungalows defined by low-pitched gables, deep overhanging eaves, exposed rafter tails, and tapered columns set on brick piers. The building boom of the 1920s layered in Tudor Revival cottages, with their steeply pitched cross gables, half-timbering, and arched entries, and Colonial Revival homes, with symmetrical facades, multi-pane double-hung windows, and pedimented doorways. Many of these designs came from the pattern books of Leila Ross Wilburn, one of Georgia's first women architects, and from the mail-order plans made popular by Sears. Together, these forms document how culture, the economy, and domestic life were evolving: smaller households, fewer servants, the arrival of the automobile, and a shift toward open, efficient floor plans built for comfort and simplicity.

On Thursday, November 12, architects Pam Bullock and Mark Arnold will guide us through that story. Both live in Virginia-Highland and have designed many of the neighborhood's most thoughtful renovations, so they know these homes from the foundation and framing to the roofline: how they were constructed, how their materials have weathered, and how to preserve their scale, proportion, and original detailing while adapting them for the way families live today.

Bring your questions, and perhaps a photograph of your own home!

Event Details
What: Architecture of Virginia-Highland, part of the Virginia-Highland History Meetings series
Speakers: Pam Bullock and Mark Arnold, architects and Virginia-Highland residents
When: Thursday, November 12, 2026. Arrive and order dinner or drinks at 6:30 p.m. or earlier; the talk begins at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Atkins Park Restaurant, 794 North Highland Avenue Northeast, Atlanta
Cost: Free and open to all
Questions: history@vahi.org

Meet at the beginning of each workday at the picnic tables at the playground. We will continue to work on removing invasive species in the park and replacing them with new native plantings.

To receive information in advance of each workday, please email us at friendsoformepark@gmail.com.