3105 Cascade Rd SW
Atlanta, GA, USA

National Register of Historic Places - homas H. Pitts Estate (Casa Loma;Pitts Dairy Farm)

Statement of Significance:

The Thomas H. Pitts Estate ("Casa Loma") is significant for its architectural qualities and landscaping, and historically significant for the role it played in dairying.

The estate's current sixteen acres contain the visible remains of an early-twentieth-century, self-contained private dairy that Thomas H. Pitts, a native of Thomas County, Georgia, built about 1919 after he decided to move from his home in town to this country estate. Pitts had moved to Atlanta and about 1894 opened one of the first soda fountains in the city. He remained in business continuously for over thirty years at Five Points, the hub of the business district of the city. There, he sold cigars, magazines, cameras, candy, Coca-Cola, as well as dairy-based products such as sodas. He began the dairy about 1910 largely to supply the needs of his soda fountain, as he never marketed the products to the general public. Indicative of the popularity of his soda fountain is that a familiar saying of the times was "Meet me at Tom Pitts'." After his retirement from the business in 1926, Pitts devoted full attention to the dairy as well as to his real estate interests. The dairy products were used to supply other fountains as well as the Georgia Baptist Orphans' Home, of which he was a major benefactor and trustee.

After his arrival in Atlanta, Pitt had married a local woman, the former Miss D. Wilson Lowe. As active as was her husband in charitable and religious affairs, Mrs. Pitts organized a committee to beautify Cascade Road. The Cas- cade Beautification Club, as it was known, had as their original goal the planting of dogwoods, magnolias and azaleas along Cascade Road to the Chattahoochee River. Although the goal was never reached, they did beautify a large part of the road. The group, as well as Mrs. Pitts' other clubs, often met at her home, "Casa Loma" (meaning "house on the hill), where many of the landscaping plans were drawn. The landscaping of the estate was also coordinated by Mrs. Pitts. Today, only scattered plantings remain of the efforts of Mrs. Pitts and her club. A bronze plaque was placed at the corner of Cascade Road and De Lowe Drive by the group to honor Mrs. Pitts, in 1936.

The first structure that was later to consist of the Pitts Dairy complex was a cottage built in 1910, where the Pitts family lived until the main house was finished in 1919. The main house, "Casa Loma," said to have been designed by a Mr. McGoukin, and most of the other buildings were finished by 1919. For several decades, the farm was virtually self-sufficient. Mr. Pitts farmed part of the land in order to grow grain needed by the cows. Three silos existed then in which it was stored.

The Pitts both died in 1938, he in February and she in December. They had no children, and after their deaths (under the terms of his will), Casa Loma became a life estate for Mrs. Pitts niece, Faye (Spinks) Bardin, who, with her husband and children, moved onto the property permanently in 1939. She still lives in the main house. All dairying activities have long since ceased, and the herd was given away. The house retains its imposing position along Cascade Road, and an uninformed passerby would hardly know of the existence of a once-thriving dairy on the property.
The architectural significance of the Thomas H. Pitts Estate lies not in the architectural excellence of any individual building, nor in the quality of landscaping per se, but rather in the overall character of the complex as a whole. In general, the estate retains the aspect of an early-twentieth-century dairy. All original buildings and structures necessary to the operation of the dairy remain in nearly unaltered condition. Furthermore, the land- scaped setting retains evidences of both the original formal landscaping in the immediate vicinity of the main house and the more utilitarian landscaping around the outbuildings behind the house. The only missing elements are the fields, pastures, woodlots, and open countryside around the dairy farm, and in a sense, the extent of these can still be seen in the suburban subdivisions that surround the property. The Thomas H. Pitts Estate serves as a reminder of the rural and agricultural history of an area which has undergone recent and thorough suburban development.

The Pitts Dairy is significant in the history of private dairying in Georgia because it is an intact, small dairy farm surviving within the metropolitan limits of Atlanta. The estate has remained intact under the terms of Mr. Pitts' will. Certainly, there were many larger and more productive dairies both in the Atlanta area and throughout the state. This is the only known one in the Atlanta area that remains in this condition and is unusual for that fact. It is also of note that despite his prominence and wealth, Thomas H. Pitts built this dairy on the same location as he built his home to supply milk products for his business rather than purchasing the base product from an outside producer or building his dairy and his home at separate locations, as would many people of his standing.